Shall we then leave the world
we know, leaving it with great wonder? All right, so now let's open
our Bible to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6, I can read. Again,
in verse 10, I laid my bread He's strong in the Lord and in
the power of his mind. Put on a bold partner a good
job, and you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And we're studying about the
believers' warfare, that is, the struggle that all believers
have with sin, with Satan, and with this world that we live
in full of sin. Now, the armor of God, this chapter
in the last part, is about the armor of God which is our help,
which He tells us to put on, put on the whole armor of God. Verse 11 says, this is what we're
up against, put on the whole armor of God that you may be
able to stand against the vials of death, that you may be able
to stand. That is, not fall prey to, not
fall into the nets, or nets, which are many that are laid
for our feet, not fall into pits and snares, which he has many
of his armor and his craft. The wilds of the desert. the
vials of the devil for why they want him, meaning that he's tricky,
he's crafty, he schemes his methods, that he uses to tempt and entice
and to attempt to overthrow God's people. This could not get any
more lethal than that. In verse 12, we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness or wicked spirit in high or heavenly places. We're not ready when we're ready
and love right now, as I see it, our forces at work in New
Pomerania. Keep you and me from worshiping
God. Keep you and me from hearing
the truth which sets us free from this fire. Keep us from
hearing the word by which faith comes, faith comes by hearing. What we're doing here is a return
process. and our forces at work right
now to prevent us from hearing the words of Adam and Eve. He says in verse 13, verse 4,
take unto you the bold armor of God. that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand
in the evil day for a day of death." Now, you want to turn
to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3 is an accurate description
of three days in which we live. day of the last days of time."
2 Timothy 3, verse 1, he says, perilous times, dangerous times. For men to be lovers of their
own sex, covetous, boastful, crafty, blasphemous, this will
be in character, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection. And on and on it describes the
days in which we live in like that. So he said, back in our
text, they come to you. We have at our disposal the old
armor of hell. who shall have right, and he
says, Take them unto you, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day." She's withstanding. Well, that is, by whatever means
it's possible to say it, if I might by any means, I think it comes
to the resurrection of Jesus. And Paul was very serious about
this. He didn't take it to practice.
He went way out of his spiritual spectrum. Having done all the
same, God has given us amazing, amazing grace. Yet, we've been taught, we've
been instructed by our God, our Father, He instructs His children,
and these are instructions that we must put in practice. If we
are only ear-read and not good-read, we deceive ourselves, and there
is no profit to it. God has decided over the years,
and will continue to do so, for me to prepare for worship. Prepare to hear the word of the
Lord. Anything of any value requires
forethought and preparation and diligence. Anything of any real
value It requires much forethought and preparation and diligence,
and something important to give diligence to it. We reap what
we sow. Our Lord said that. We sow the
flesh, we reap the flesh. People in this world give their
all to their jobs and so forth, and so they reap great bounties
of the flesh. Well, you and I, we need to reap
spirit. We need to go to the spirit. And if you plow real hard, and
this is a fact, this is what our Lord is teaching us, if you
plow hard, you'll reap manifold. He says, if you seek me, when
you search for me with all your heart, I will be found. And so if it was us, we prepare
ourselves to hear God's Word at every opportunity. And as I've said so many times
in this space, It behooves us to prepare ourselves to hear
God's Word, and in preparation to hear God's Word, everything
plays a part. We are such fickle creatures
that every slightest little thing can alter our thinking and our
attitudes and so forth. And so everything plays a part
in what we're doing. He moves us to prayer to do this
in every way, from the way we dress and approaching this place
and approaching our holy God, to the things we do on the way
here. That is, thank you for listening
to us, thank you for discussing what we do when we get here.
And I do appreciate the solemnity that is present here in the study
and in here, because this is a solemn thing, a very serious
matter. And what we do when we get here,
and what we do actually, to prevent the fowls of the air from coming
and stealing the word of the Lord and raising the things of
this world upon the children of Adam. Everything goes on. It behooves us to prepare. We
don't know whether we are about to casually or carelessly. God
will not bless us. He will not harm us. Religion, this religion is not
at our convenience. God is not convenient, but in
worship. Contemporary worship is not the
way we worship God. Anything less than our all, God
will not accept. He does bless those that are
close. He does not sacrifice. He does. This is not any old meeting that
we're having. This is not any old gathering.
to come before Christ, holy God, and hear from Him, to worship
Him, to glorify Him, to find help against our adversaries.
One of His wives used to make those things. She was one of
His wives. You know that? One of His wives, just another
woman. All right? He says, take the whole armor
of God. Take unto you the whole armor
of God. God's armor. Now, armory, this
is what they wore back then in those days, you'd say these suits
of armor that And he said, "'God has provided us with an armor,
the armor of God.'" Take it. It's there. That's your exposure. Take it. that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. Verse thirteen, "'Hold on, O
God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having
none at all to stand.'" We are creatures called to follow. We are very much in and of ourselves
without ourselves, without this form. All right, verse fourteen
is our text. He says, stand therefore. All
right, stop right there. They're creeping in here to serve
in the armed forces. And from the moment they enlisted
or were drafted, I don't know if we can watch the music again,
but from the moment you enlisted or were drafted, you were told
to stand. I think you just didn't sit around
and talk to people on the desk in the street like you would
casually. You find that real quick within you. Because you're
in the army now. You're not here at your own convenience. You're here for your own comfort. Because we're going to face a
real enemy. And it's very private, but you
are going to have to stand. You're going to have to stand
there. standing at an attention. Soldiers constantly standing
at attention. You know, every animal is a prey. There are prey animals out there
in the world. Most of the animals out there
in the world are prey animals. Very few. Most animals of prey stand for
most hours a day. It's very rare to see them like
that. It's very rare to find that spot
where they're the closest of that. Because they're praying,
they're so subject to anything and everything that's going on
in the planet. They're always standing where
they are. And if you look up to the saints,
they're creatures of Christ. We're animals of Christ. And
I hope that when you stand in His Spirit, you will be standing
in His attention right now as you hear this message. You need to be standing in His
attention. I hope I got your attention. I hope something got
your attention on this passage. If you could see this right now,
you would still stand in His Spirit. But not without asking. You can't expand and you can't
do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking
the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this
without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you.
You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot
do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you.
You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this
without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot
do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking
the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord
to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking
the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking
the Lord to help you. You cannot do this without asking the Lord to Peter said to this, in 1 Peter
1 verse 8, he said, "'Burden up the lungs of your mind.'"
Right now, you've got to look. Burden up the lungs of your mind.
Be sober and close to the end. Burden up. This is what I want
to deal with here. He calls it the burden of truth. Now, this is the first part of
this armor of power, the underlying armor, if you will. The first
element of this, the melons, are of very different truth. Melons. The melons be the midsection,
lower part of the body. That's where all the vital organs
are at. God will be merciful to us. That's where it all is. If you
get a severe injury in this area, you're in bad shape. So now,
don't say, I'm in bad shape. I'm in good shape. And so the
volumes, the innermost man, the mind, heart, soul, he said, "'Bird
up, the volumes of your mind,' he says. He works with the truth."
The bird, in that sense, the bird is something that was born
back in those days. You can lay out a wall or whatever,
but most of the time you lay out metal, a very strong material,
something which rounds up your shoulder section, rounds it up
tightly, and it warms up your feet, and it double-serves you,
and it helps you do everything tightly together as it is. If you notice the, I don't know
whether you've seen these weightlifters, these powerlifters called T-bears. In fact, some of you have done
that. But they, none of them lift any
weights or any magnitude. And it's a good thing now that
the toasters remain, and the toasts need to get it. And he
tells us now, the spirit of the law, that in the law there is
a path, and in it there is the truth. The truth. The truth is the first Finally,
don't deny God in your city life. That is it. The truth is what holds us up. Our world, as I said to you then,
is truth and solid and serious. The world is not really interesting. It's the same. That's what Jefferson said in
the fall, truth and solid and serious. Any truth and serious.
And it's all about the unfinished writing down from the very start
of the 19th century. This is the time to look up and
learn how to do the sound, the painting, the commentary, the
response, the truth, and shape yourself. Shape yourself. Shape yourself. Shape yourself. This is the first time in my
life that I've been faced with trauma. This is the first time in my life that I've
been confronted with something that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I
shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't
have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I
shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't
have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have,
that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't
have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I
shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't
have, that I shouldn't have, that I shouldn't have, that Truth is what binds everything
together. Truth is what strengthens us.
So it's not that the mind or heart or soul is bound. The mind
works with the soul. That is the truth. That is the
truth. That is the truth. That is the truth. That is the truth. That is the truth. That is the
truth. That is the truth. That is the
truth. That is the truth. What is so
wonderful about this is, in the mind center, all of that is filled
with the truth of God. The truth of true God. We've lived in a living and true
God. We can have the notion that God's
called me. They could, uh, they could have
a song, they could say something about people. One of the docs
told me, and I was interested, so I proceeded to do so. They
could pick their docs, their honors, and that's what they
did. And so, uh, they could trick
the new docs into thinking about me. We need to go back to knowing
that a man has the truth about himself. So I want to be certain,
I want to be sure, I want to satisfy that we need to go back
to knowing that a man has the truth about himself. Thank you. And that's the truth of God. That's the truth. It will never
let you get it, and you can get it up, but not off the bottom
of your hands. The truth of this biology is
it can eat us from time to time, and enable us to bear it up to
the most difficult times. The way is soft, just like the
surface of the earth. The words of God are on the surface
of the earth. Every tribe is coming to believe. And there's one thing that's
holding them up when they get there. The truth that is God.
That God is soft. That our God is living, and moving,
and controlling, and changing all things. And nothing happens
without the God of Almighty standing behind us. So it's not love,
it's not truth, it's not the devil, it's not anybody's life.
Really, it's the one God that's coming. It's like Enoch, when
it's a game of go and vote for Trump, you can't escape. It is
the law. or Joseph, and he could give
you a thousand different positions, and everybody would understand
you, there's people in so many languages, and I don't think
anybody would understand you. The truth, this is what most
people don't get to believe, that God's working all the time,
that He absolutely is in control of everything. God's a real power. By the Lord, we know we sinned,
because I killed, and I tried, and I moved, and I healed, and
I raised up. Let peace be on you. By the Lord,
we know we sinned, because we have a great sin, that we received,
with the hands of the Lord's government, received equal services
to Him. And to the very person that sinned,
It's very much my father's way to pay the price. The truth. This is the truth. Our God's
way. The truth of this, of our God,
of our God, is a mercy. He delights to show mercy. He
delights to show mercy. He's more merciful than you are. He's more merciful that any human
being, sometimes we think ourselves human, I don't know what's going
on with me, but we do, you know, we still think we're human, that's
the way I feel. I've got, you know, I've got
a new relationship with man. The basis of, the basis of what
I've got, what I've got to say, it starts with what I've got.
You think that God actually taught me about God's words? is that
man is not merciful. Man is not merciful in some sense. Man is after himself, but not
God. God is merciful. He's more merciful
than you or I, than me or my own children. Yes, God is merciful. Our God is gracious. He's the
God of all grace. Which truth will sustain you? Which truth will build you up?
Will bear you up even closer to your faith and encourage you?
That our God is gracious. He is. He is. And He is, my friends. We make
grace for everyone. And He belongs to you. He has
grace for us today. He cares for us today. He cares for us. He upgrades
us when He loves us, when He gives us His grace. He is gracious. This is the truth that I want
to regret for too many days because I have wasted my substance in
this manner. I will get it back to you. And
you'll appreciate it. He's gracious. Our God is love. In spite of
the way the world views us, in spite of the way the world keeps
the love of God, He needs to build up the love of the American
children of the most high God, with the fact that the truth
of God is unchanged. More than He could possibly have. He needs more than that. More
than that. The greater love that the Lord
has for us. God said, you've only forgotten
some, so that means there's not just a few left. But he that spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for his own, how shall he not with
that free him? That's the greatest gift we could
possibly give. The greatest show of His love
we could possibly show. And where is it? God, He loves. He loves His people. He's loved Him from the beginning.
He will love us with an everlasting love. Love? First Corinthians
13 is the description the Lord gives of true love. And this
is the love our God has for us. Such good love. The love my God
has such a good love for all of us. Love is kind. How kind is our God to us? Hmm. No. Love seeketh not alone. I know. Love is not easily provoked. It's got to be easily provoked. You've been there with me 25
years ago. Seeketh no evil. Seeketh only
the good and the bad. That's in Christ. Rejoice at
not iniquity, but rejoice in the truth. Know God's name, believe
His name, and you will know. That's the love of God. It's
sublime. God is love. Most of your minds
are bad, and your God loves you, believe Him. God is all wise. Dirt up the lungs of your mind
with this truth. Don't fall apart, but build up
the lungs of your mind with this truth that God is all-rise, that
everything he does is the only way he can be done. There's not another. There's
not another way. That's the only way. And it's
absolutely important. He's all-rise. He's too-rise
to fail. Our earthly fathers do what they
do according to their finite wisdom and they make respect.
Not God. He does not make any respect. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? Yes, in every instance and in
every circumstance, no matter how we treat it, it's right.
And we're going to see some day it is only right. And we must
praise our all-wise God for doing it in spite of our objections. Our God is all-wise, great at
the minds of humanity. He cannot lie. Our God is true. He cannot lie. Whatever God says
in this book, he can take it to the bank. He can act on it,
live on it, touch his soul, his family, everybody and everything
with 100% all prayers upon every word that God says in his name.
It is true. Now, blow that in the mouth of
your mind, in your heart. Y'all are gonna go out of here,
I got a feeling my people need me. End of the world. The truth of
God, who God is. I will hold you together when
all around my soul gives way. Keep me as all my hope and stay. The truth, gird up the minds
of your men with the truth about man. We need to be absolutely
convinced of it. We need to be absolutely persuaded
of this, that every man at his best state is altogether perfect. We need to understand that. At
all times, in every situation, we need to understand that. We
don't—never should we lean upon the arm of the flesh. It will
give way. Never should we lean upon—put
not your trust even in princess fantasy. rulers had no confidence
in the flesh. Why? Because that which is flesh
is flesh. We need to absolutely get this
firmly rooted in our thinking that man is finite in his understanding. He's wicked in his character.
He's totally selfish, he's greedy, he's covetous, skin for skin,
Job said. to protect himself. So don't
be surprised when anything or everything happens. Don't be surprised. Don't let
it make you fall apart. Let it have no bearing upon your
God. When the finest man or woman
you know falls, let that have no bearing upon the truth. Because we need to know this
truth. Man is a pirate. He's liable to fail, and he will,
the best man, including ourselves. Don't trust yourself. Don't be
so terribly, terribly disappointed in yourself. If you wouldn't
put any confidence in yourself, you wouldn't be disappointed
in yourself. Don't be surprised if you don't
do just the very thing. They're unreasonable, terrible,
because they're flesh. Now, believers, let me qualify
by that. Believers are trustworthy. Believers are. Paul said this
over and over again. We're going to look at it some
more. Paul said, I'm persuaded that you're full of goodness.
He said, I have confidence in you. to the Hebrews, he said,
I'm persuading better things of you, things of the company
salvation, and so on and so forth. Well, for the most part, believers
are trustworthy. They're Christ-like. They have
a new creature in them. And they can be trusted. But if they still got an old man
that's loud, and every now and then, even the best believer
like an Abraham, no problem. So you can't picture it. Total
trust in people. You can't wrap up the truth in
people. Right? I've known preachers,
and I was a young preacher, a young believer, you know, easily impressed
by preachers. And there's several that I can
think of who just, I was so impressed with. I thought they were some
of the greatest preachers ever named. just following terribly
and feeding the ministry and so forth, that has no bearing
upon the truth. And what we need to do is to
let that be firmly rooted in our own minds and heart, build
up the lines of our mind with the truth that the truth of the
matter is that man at his best state is all together. So he
won't fall apart if whatever somebody does, Man is a fickle, finite, fallible
creature, liable to anything and everything. So whatever he
does, if you realize and understand this truth about man, you won't
lose it. You won't lose it. Build up the
lungs of your mind that the burden of truth is the truth about Christ
and salvation. The truth about Christ and salvation
will hold you up, will build you up, will bolster your faith. It is faith. This is a faithful
saint. Now listen to it. You've heard
this quote so many times. But now listen. This is a faithful
saint. It's faithful because God said
he cannot lie. It's absolutely true. that Christ
Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief
pastor, the chief of sinners. Jesus Christ came for the express
purpose of saving the worst, guttered, filthy sinner on this
planet. That's my thing. And that's what
He did. God made him, God made with Christ
before the world began, a covenant. A covenant of redemption to save
the likes of us. And God gave him a people to
save, to redeem. And God who cannot lie, God who
the gifts of God are without repentance. He doesn't take them
back. God gave Christ his people to
save, and they're the worst of the worst. the Republican sinners. Christ came down here and he
laid down his life. He shed his precious blood for
the worse, like a thief on the cross, a thief and a murderer. And Christ did everything necessary
to secure and procure their salvation. and went back to glory, and he
sends the Holy Spirit to care for, to keep, to make sure that
everyone he died for will, in the end, be with him where he
is. Now, you can count on that. That's
true. Who are they? Who do they do
this for? They're called sinners. They're
called poor and needy. They're called weak and wounded,
sick and so, the blind, half-blind, the married Magdalenes, the thieves
on the cross, the amphibious chefs of this world. Why not
you? Bury it at the lungs of your
mind. When you think God's done with you, when you think God's
had all He can stand of you, stand before Him. But this truth, the bells for
you, Christ died for you. Christ died for the ungodly. And since salvation is one hundred
percent in Christ, let not your hearts be troubled.
Let not your minds be troubled. Our Lord said, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Him. May your heart, mind, and soul be bound up with the
truth." Truth. Of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So he said, in closing, stand
therefore, stand by having your loins girt about with truth. the truth of Christ and his salvation. When that woman was caught in
the act of adultery and they brought her in and cast her at
the feet of the Lord, that's where she should have been. That's
where she should have been. Patrick read of the woman bathing
at our Lord's feet with her tears and wiping his feet with the
hair of her head. She stayed at his feet the whole
time. That's where she should have been. But when the Lord
detached out all her accusers, he received a communion. God
cast it out. He made the charge of God's election. God justified it. After he detached
out all of her accusers, and he raised her up. Stand up. Stand up. You stand with me.
You stand with me. So stand, therefore, having your
loins girt with the truth, that all the promises of God in him
are yea and amen, true to the glory of God the Father. All
right, stand with me. Now, Heavenly Father, thank you for
your truth. at our Christian prayer in thanking
you for the truth. He said, sanctify them with our
truth, our word is true. And that is our prayer, that
is my prayer, that you would indeed guard us with the truth,
set us apart with the truth. May it be the truth that sets
us apart, the truth that keeps us and encourages us. Lord, thank you. that thou art
God, and beside thee is none else, that we understand something
of ourselves, and above all, we understand something of Christ,
who is the truth. Thank you, Lord. Flesh and blood
didn't reveal this to us, but you are Father. And it's in Christ's
name, who is the truth, that we pray. Amen. You're dismissed.