All right, brethren, we're going
to begin, and this week we're going to be in Ephesians chapter
6. It's been a while since we've
been in Ephesians, and so this is that passage where Paul is
speaking of armor. And we're gonna, I'm gonna start
in verse 11 just to catch us up and bring us up to verse 14
through 18. And Paul says there in verse
11, put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. Now let me just say that this
whole armor of God is the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the unspeakable gift. He's the indescribable gift that
we've been given by the Lord. and have an understanding of
our God and a knowledge and a fellowship with our God because of Christ
our Savior who came and willingly died on the cross, was buried
and rose again to reconcile us unto the Father. And so this
whole armor of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's good
news because Christ is impenetrable. Christ can't be defeated. Christ has already won the victory. He's already overcome all our
enemies. And so nothing's going to get
through. There's no weakness in this armor.
There's no point at which the enemy can slip through a spear
or a sword or anything like that to to destroy the child of God. He's not going to defeat you
and destroy your life spiritually because we have the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so this, Paul says, put on
the whole armor of God. And I just said, Christ is the
whole armor of God. And you might think, well, how
do we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? That sounds odd. But in Romans
13, verse 14, that's exactly what Paul said. But put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he follows that up saying,
and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. How do we put on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Does that mean that we could
forget to put on the Lord Jesus Christ? The truth is we are saved
by grace. We're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ, by the grace of God. And what he's saying there is,
remember, remember that we're the Lord's. Remember that Christ
has saved us. He's put away our sin. Remember
whose you are. Remember that the Lord Jesus
Christ has saved his people. And we stand in Christ and in
his righteousness. He is our salvation. Now he says
in verse 12, remember, for we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. So he's saying, remember, remember,
we're in this war zone. if you will, here in the earth. Remember that you're Christ's.
Remember what he's accomplished for you. Go in the knowledge
of what your Savior has done for you. And so we have this
reminder, and it's good because even the Lord himself said when
he was sending out his disciples in Matthew 10, verse 16, he said,
behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye
therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Harmless
as doves. And so it's not that we are anything,
it's not that we think anything of ourselves or as of ourselves,
but it's a reminder of our complete dependence on our God, to keep
looking to Christ, to keep looking to our salvation whom God has
provided in our help and our hope and our comfort in time
of need. And so then with this understanding,
Paul now says in verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor
of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day having
done all, to stand. And at this point, this is where
Paul begins to give us this picture, this analogy of armor. He breaks them down into pieces
of armor and each one describes what we've been given in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The hope, the life, the comfort
in Christ himself. And so this armor is a picture. It's a picture. It's not that
we ourselves are overcoming our enemies by ourselves. Christ
is how we overcome. Christ himself has overcome all
our enemies. And so all our enemies and our
trials are overcome by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how we overcome them. So I've titled this message,
The Armor of Christ. And so let's pick up in verse
14 now. Now, we looked at verse 14 the
last time we were here about standing in Christ. But this time, what I want you
to see is that Paul is showing us that that it's the Lord Jesus
Christ in whom we stand, that he's our righteousness. This is our foundation. We're
delivered from the way of death and brought into the way of life
by Christ himself. We are saved, brethren. We have been delivered from death
in Christ. And so he says in verse 14, stand
therefore. Stand in that liberty. Stand
in that salvation. Stand in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember that you have been saved. Your sin has been put away. The
spirit has come by which the mist of darkness and confusion
of this flesh has been brushed away, has been pushed away by
the wind of the spirit, by the spirit himself coming and giving
you life and light and liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand,
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, with this
truth, that you are Christ's, that he has delivered you, and
having on the breastplate of righteousness, that he is your
righteousness. And so that's what Paul's doing.
He's reminding us, he's showing us this basic glorious truth
that we are covered with the blood of Christ, that we are
saved by our Lord, that we have salvation even now, and our Savior
triumphs over all our enemies. So trust His righteousness. Trust that you are His. We're
going through a warfare of trust. We have been given the hope and
the confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. By nature, the truth
is, we were in the way of death. We were going about everything
wrong in trying to please our God, to come unto the Father,
to worship him right. We went about everything wrong,
but now He's provided everything for us in grace, in the grace
of Christ. And so we rejoice that our Savior
has put away the mountain of sin. By His death, He paid the
debt of sin so that that mountain of debt that we owe to God has
been put away, it's removed, brethren. And we are reconciled
to God in that Christ has put away our sin. And then we know
that we've been reconciled to God because he's given us his
spirit, whereby we look to Christ, not our works, but we look to
the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in what he's done for us. And so by grace, We were put
into the way of salvation. As our Lord said himself, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. That's how we come to the fathers
by Christ. He says in Isaiah 55 verse 7,
let the wicked forsake his way. That's the way that we were in.
We were in our way. We were doing what we thought
made sense to this flesh. We thought we knew God. We thought
we understood God and how we are to come unto God. But the
Lord says, forsake that way. Don't trust in your flesh. Don't trust in your works. Don't
trust in your wisdom. I've provided the way in my son
Jesus Christ. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Because our God has reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. and he has brought us into the
way of truth and the way of righteousness. We're not out there trying to
find righteousness or work up a righteousness. We are righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Romans 3, verse 21
and 22, But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, is brought to our understanding,
brought to our mind, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, unto all and upon
all them that believe. And so Paul is reminding us here
in verse 14, your sins have been put away. Stand in that truth. You are righteous before your
Father even now. You are righteous as Christ is
righteous because he is our righteousness and we have access to the Father
through the way of salvation that he's provided for us. Who were lost and wandering and
out of the way, he's brought us into the way by his grace. So that's the first part there.
Stand in that truth, brethren. Stand in that truth. That's a
great defense. That's something that can't be
overcome by the enemy. What Christ has done for you,
his sheep. And so standing firm in this
glorious truth. Now Paul moves on to verse 15
and 16. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." And
so we stand in Christ, we're not going back any further as
though we were Israel with the Red Sea behind us and and and
the Egyptian army on the other side and so before us is this
this Red Sea which the Lord opens up and We see wait a minute. I can't go in there. There's
danger. What if that water comes crashing down? But like Israel
who stepped into that dry land between those waters backed up
by by the wind of the Lord every step they took they took in faith,
believing that God would not destroy them. that God was their
God and he was delivering them, bringing them through to the
other side. And that's how we walk. This is a picture of our
walking by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're firmly anchored
in Christ. We have an anchor of the soul.
We stand firm in him. We stand upon the rock. We're
confident that which we stand upon is not gonna slip out from
underneath us. We're not gonna fall. We stand
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now standing in him, we walk
not by sight, but by faith in the truth of the gospel, which
our God has given to us by his grace. We believe him by faith. And so our Lord is teaching us
here. He's showing us that as Christ
has saved us, so he has brought salvation unto us by his spirit. by whom we are led. We are now
led by the Spirit of God. Now, this flesh is still corrupt. We see the sin in our members. We're not as we want to be. We still see, I'm weak, I'm unbelieving. I do things that I don't want
to do. I say things I don't want to say. I think things that I
don't want to think that are contrary to the truth of God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we don't lean on the flesh. We see the flesh is corrupt.
We see the flesh cannot save. That's why God provided us with
Christ and why he's given us the spirit by whom we are led
and in whom we walk by faith. Now turn over to Romans 8. Let's
go to Romans 8. And let's pick up in verse 1.
where we see this truth that we stand in the Lord Jesus Christ
first. Romans 8.1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. So there's that anchor
of the soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's reconciled his people unto
the Father. And the Spirit of God, therefore,
is sent unto his people in the day of grace. That enmity of
sin hath been removed. And as delivered from that, the
Spirit of grace comes and removes the enmity that is in our mind
toward the Lord. He removes that enmity whereby
now we know our God and rejoice in him. Let's drop down to verses
nine and 10. So this is after regeneration,
after we're born of the spirit. Paul has already laid out there
that in the flesh we cannot please God. That's Romans 8a, we don't
please God in the flesh. But he says, verse nine, you're
not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that the spirit
of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. So we see sin in our members,
but we've been delivered from the way of the flesh so that
we don't go at our sin and trying to put it away the way we did
when we were in the way of flesh, when we were dead to the things
of our God. We don't try to stamp them out
with a little extra religion, and trying to do good works in
order to earn some favor or merit some grace from God to help us. No, we have salvation. We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We cry out to the Lord for his
grace to defeat this flesh and to defeat the will of the flesh. We cry out to our Lord for grace.
When we think things that we know are evil, we cry out, Lord,
Have mercy on me. Save me, Lord. Deliver me from
this foolishness. Deliver me from worrying. Deliver me from sinning. Deliver
me from doing this or that or thinking this or saying that.
Deliver me, Lord, and cleanse me of my sin and unrighteousness. So we cry out to the Lord for
help in time of need. And that's seen in verse 12 through
15. So drop down to Romans 8, verse 12. Therefore, brethren,
we're debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. So we
don't live with reckless abandon, just doing sin just because it
doesn't matter now. That's not how we live. But we
also don't live by the flesh. to try and put away sin by the
flesh, by studying the Ten Commandments and disciplining ourselves by
the Ten Commandments. That's not how we live. 4 Paul
says, verse 13, if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live. Okay, how is that to be done?
Verse 14, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear. All right, if you're worried
that, oh, I, I did another foolish thing, and now I've got to work
that off. I've got to turn things around
by my actions and show myself to be worthy of forgiveness. Well, you're laboring in fear.
You're laboring in worry. You're laboring by the flesh. You're serving sin through fear
of death, that you've got to do something now to put it away.
whether it's a religious work, some ceremony, or the law to
put it away. Not anymore for the child of
God, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. We cry out to the Lord, save
me, Lord. Have mercy. Keep my wandering
heart. Keep me, Lord, ever looking to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we walk by faith, we
cry out to our God. We cry out in the name of Christ,
Lord, have mercy on me. Deliver me from the sin. Deliver
me from the foolishness. Keep my heart, Lord. So we cry
out to him, we ask him for forgiveness, and we ask him to deliver us.
We ask him for that help. We ask him for mercy. We seek
him and we walk by faith, trusting him, not trying to do things
our old way, coming at the Lord in dead letter religion. That's not gonna save us. and
didn't help us, never helped us once. And so it's not gonna
help us now either. We need Christ at the first hour,
we need Christ every hour, brethren. And we're kept by Christ every
hour. And so our sin is only going to be overcome in Christ,
just as we preach this gospel. And Paul adds this, and this
is a comfort. This affirms what I've just said
to you. Look down at verse 23 now. Romans 8 23 and we're going
to go to verse 27 he says but we ourselves also which have
the first fruits of the spirit which have the earnest or the
down payment that we are the Lord's whereby we call upon his
salvation in Christ even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting
for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies We are groaning
because we see the infirmity of this flesh. We see the weakness
of this flesh. Verse 24 For we are saved by
hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope, for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit,
by whom we're led, also helpeth our infirmities, for we know
not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. And so, that's a comfort to us. who see sin in our members, who
see the weakness of this flesh, the slowness of this flesh to
believe all that our God has said to us, and we groan, crying
out to the Lord, have mercy on me, knowing that the Spirit intercedes
for us, and that Christ our Savior, our husband, our friend, is interceding
for us also, by whom we cannot fail. We shall not fail. He shall
have that which he seeks. in the salvation of his people.
And so, that was a lengthy passage to see this, but it defines that
gospel in which we walk, by which our feet are shod with. We stand
in the foundation of Christ. and we go in the peace of our
God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our peace by faith. And so all the accusations of
the evil one that come against us and point out to us what failures
we are, what a comfort we have in the Lord Jesus Christ who's
keeping us. who's keeping us. And so with
patience, we wait for it. We wait for the return of our
Lord. And so I mourn for my sin. I mourn for my weakness over
what I am, how weak I am in this flesh. But it doesn't drive me
back to the law. It drives me to Christ. Crisis
is how we overcome. If I gotta go back to the law
and fight in the strength of this flesh, I'm done for. That's not an armor that's gonna
withstand the fiery attacks, the fiery darts of the evil one,
because there's always something, there's always a weakness, there's
always something I missed, there's always something I forget, there's
always something I've done that destroys me, that brings me down.
And so we mourn for our sin, but we look to Christ. Paul said
this in 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 8 and 9. Let us who are of the
day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love,
and for an helmet the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed
us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good hope. We're not
appointed to wrath. We're not going to fall away. Our God is
the one keeping us. Now that brings us to verse 17
in our text. Ephesians 6 verse 17. There Paul says, take the helmet
of salvation. and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God. Now, this helmet of salvation,
it affirms what we've been saying, that the hope that our God has
given to us. You know, nowadays they come
out with a lot of documentaries on World War II. They're always
finding some new films, some never-before-seen films, and
they They dress them up in color, and they refurbish them, and
they put it out there. And so there's lots of documentaries.
And within a fraction of a second, I can tell which army I'm looking
at in that image that's put on the screen. Just flashes across
it, and I know which army I'm looking at. You know how? I just
look at their helmet. Their helmets are so distinct.
They have the German helmets with that little That little
swoop out there, you know, that they have. And then you have
the GI, American GI helmets. They're very different looking.
And so it is, brethren, that we've been given a helmet of
salvation, and you know right what a man believes in as soon
as he begins talking, as soon as he says what his hope is.
Either he's boasting himself and what he's doing for the Lord,
and why he's so confident that he's the Lord's, or you hear
the person boast of and declare Christ, and how they're so confident
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We either speak of self and this
flesh and the law and how we're whipping and beating ourselves
to keep ourselves in line, or we're rejoicing in the Lord Jesus
Christ and boasting of Him and speaking of what He's done for
us and how confident we are in Christ our Savior. So we, brethren,
are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He's
our joy. He's our Savior. He's our comfort. Isn't that a whole lot more comforting
looking to Christ and speaking of what He's done than looking
to what you've done with your hands? It's filthy, these hands. These hands are bloody and filthy
and vile and disgusting. Now we come in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul adds in that text,
take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, because
the spirit isn't gonna contradict this word. And this word speaks
of Christ. It speaks of what Christ has
done to redeem us. It speaks of what Christ has
done to reconcile us. It speaks of what our God has
done to reconcile his people through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ whom he sent. because we can't save ourselves,
we can't reconcile ourselves. And so we speak of him. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3. Go to 2 Corinthians 3 and let's
look at verse four. And here Paul. boasts of and
brags on the Lord Jesus Christ, saying in verse four, such trust
have we through Christ to God were, or we have such confidence
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ toward God. We know that we're
accepted of our God because of Christ. Through Christ, the way
of salvation that he's given, we preach Christ and you gather
here to hear Christ because we're so confident in him. that He is salvation. We're so
sure of it, that He is our salvation, that we rejoice in and boast
in what He's done for us. Not, verse 5, that we are sufficient
of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God. That's a fruit of the Spirit.
You who boast in your sufficiency is Christ. That's a fruit of
the Spirit. Stand right there in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Walk in faith. Trust Him. Boast of Him to others. That's
the helmet of your salvation. Boast of Him. Speak of Him. Rejoice
in Him. be glad in him, who also hath
made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life. And so some might hear that and
say, well, that sounds very antinomian. No, I'm not looking for any license
to sin. I'm ashamed of my sin, but I'm
not looking to this flesh to try and work a sanctification
for myself. Christ is the sanctification
of his people. He's the justification of his
people. He's the keeper of his people. He's the cleanser of
his people. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're ministers of the New Testament. We're ministers of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how our sin was put away
at the first. That's how our sin is put away
every time, in the blood of Christ. By the washing of his spirit
and his word, he teaches us. And so being led by his spirit,
we walk in faith, and that's where we're to stay, right there
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life. The spirit heals. Christ heals. Christ comforts. Not the law. That hardens. That weakens. That
destroys. It kills. But Christ heals. He is the life giver. And so
to that point, Paul says back in our text, and then we'll close,
verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance, and supplication
for all saints. And so brethren, we lean upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. We cry out to him, we groan because
he is our salvation and we wait for his return. When this body
shall be made like unto him, for we shall see him as he is,
amen. Let's close in prayer and then
we'll be dismissed for 15 minute break and that clock's a little
slow over there too. Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for
your grace and mercy. We thank you for the salvation
you've abundantly and freely provided in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for your testimony
by your Spirit and the words of your Son, Jesus Christ, by
whom we stand, by whom we are comforted, by whom we are strengthened,
Lord, you're everything. Lord, keep us ever in that way,
knowing that you are all and that you are the salvation of
your people. Keep us boasting of him. That's in the name of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray this, amen.