Well, good morning. Good to see
you all this morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord and seek His blessing. Our Father, how thankful we are to be able to call the God of
heaven and earth our Father. It's only because of your mercy
and grace and love and pity for sinners. But Father, we're thankful. And how we beg this morning that
you would send your spirit upon us. As you would enable us to
worship you this morning in spirit and in truth. Father, if you
don't meet with us, we've met here in vain. And we beg of you
that you would Fulfill your promise that where two or three are gathered
together in your name, there you'd be in their midst. Father, I pray you'd be with
us this morning and Father, that you would enable us to hear the
gospel as it's preached and to be able to see with the eye of
faith our Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on him, not just hear
about him, but Father, enable us to believe on him. Enable
us to rest in him. Draw us ever nearer. to Christ
our Savior and how we thank you for him. How we thank you for
a Savior who would so willingly sacrifice himself for the wretched,
vile sin of his people. Father, we're so thankful. Thankful
for his blood that cleanses us from all of our sin. Thankful
for his obedience that makes us righteous in your sight. Father,
we're thankful. Thankful for this opportunity
that you've given us to worship. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people, wherever they are meeting together
this morning, those that we know of and those that we don't. Father,
be with your people. Cause your word to run well this
morning, to bring much glory to your name. And all these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
Christ our Savior. Now, I've titled the lesson this
morning, Put on the Whole Armor of God. And our text begins in
verse 10 of Ephesians chapter six. Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now, why
does Paul tell us here to stand strong in the Lord? Well, it's
because of everything he said before this, particularly in
chapter five. Paul talked to husbands and wives.
Well, we can't be wives that submit to our husbands and we
can't be husbands who love our wives self-sacrificially unless
the Lord enables us to do it. He's got to give us the strength
to do that. We can't be obedient children and we can't be good
parents unless the Lord gives us the strength to do it. We
can't be good employees or good bosses unless the Lord gives
us the strength to do it. None of these things come naturally
to our sinful nature. The only way we can do them is
to stand strong in the Lord's might, not in ours, but in His. Now, how exactly do we stand
strong in the Lord, in the power of His might? Paul tells us to
do it. How do I do that? Well, it's very simple. It's
by not trying to do things ourselves. It's by not trying to use our
own power and our own might and our own wisdom and our own ideas
to get things done. We stand strong in the Lord by
depending on Him. That's how we stand strong in
the Lord. The best way for a believer to be strong is by acknowledging
our weakness. That's the best way for us to
be strong because when we acknowledge our weakness, what will we automatically
do? Depend on the Lord for everything. That's how we'd be strong. And
a believer is stronger the weaker he knows himself to be. And the
weaker we know ourselves to be, the more we'll depend on the
Lord, so the stronger we'll stand. Now Paul goes on, verse 11. There's a good reason for us
to stand strong on the Lord. We're in a war. We're in a war. He says in verse 11, put on the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. 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. Paul tells believers to put on
this armor because we're in a battle. We're in the middle of a war.
The world around us is not the friend of God. It's not the friend
of God's grace. It's not a friend of the gospel
of God's grace. There's a war without, but there's
a war within too. You're the biggest enemy that
a believer has to contend with. is ourselves, our flesh, our
nature of flesh, that sin nature that's in us. And we need to
be armed against it. We need to be armed against that
old man because he's constantly on the attack. You know, the
false religion of this world is so dangerous to us because
it appeals to the flesh. It appeals to everything that
old man loves. So we need to take on spiritual
armor to protect ourselves from what he might do. And it's spiritual
armor. It's not an outward thing. It's spiritual armor, because
we're fighting a spiritual enemy. Satan and his minions, they deal
in lies, in deceit, in pride, in idolatry, in lust, in covetousness,
in self-righteousness, all those things that the flesh loves,
and they do it in religion. They do it in religion. We're fighting a spiritual, a
religious war. The war that Paul's talking about
here, it's not being fought in bars, in brothels, in dens of
iniquity. It's being fought in pulpits.
It's being fought in buildings called churches. It's being fought
in the hearts of people for the souls of people. It's serious,
serious business. Paul tells us we're fighting
spiritual wickedness in high places. Now that's not just evil
spirits flying around in the atmosphere. It's not even wicked
and corrupt political leaders in positions of power. It's spiritual
wickedness in high places. Places of respect. It's in the
pulpits. It's in positions of religious
authority. That's where Satan has always
done battle against God. So Paul tells us, put this armor
on. Put it on. Don't just sit and
passively listen to the preacher and then go on your merry way.
I've done my religious thing for this week. I've heard what
he said. I agree with him and go on my merry way. Paul says,
put these things on. Put them on, take them to yourself.
Put them on by seeking Christ. Put them on by hearing him preached
as much as possible, by seeking him, seeking to know him, seeking
him. And make use of the whole armor
of God so no part of you is exposed to the enemy. Paul calls it the
whole armor because it's complete. It's perfect and it protects
every part of the believer. So Paul says in verse 13, wherefore,
because we're in this war, take unto you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, disdained. Now put on this armor, it'll
enable you to stand in the wicked day. I thought about that, the wicked
day. What day is that talking about? It's a lot of days. There's
a lot of wicked, evil days, isn't it? How about the day of trial? That's a wicked, evil day. Tough
day for the flesh. It'll enable us to stand in every
trial. It'll enable us to resist evil
by standing in Christ. And I tell you, this is how I
go back to what I said a minute ago. The way we'll stand strong
is by remaining dependent on Christ. and label us to stand
in the evil day, the day of trial. How about this evil religious
day in which we live? This is an evil day. How are you not gonna be deceived
by the false religion all around us? I know you're more than likely
not gonna get pulled off into this group, more than likely,
will not get pulled off into what we call open sin and all
the, But how are you not going to get deceived by the wicked
religion of the day? It's by having this armor protect
you. How about the day of judgment? When the Lord tells many, depart
from me, I never knew you. How will you stand in that day?
Only by being enclosed, covered with this armor. And Paul describes
it beginning in verse 14. He says, stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, and having your loins girt with the truth.
Paul's talking about the first thing a Roman soldier would put
on was a long robe. You know, if they're going to
go to battle, the first thing they'd do is take that long robe
up, keep it, you know, away from their feet, and they held it
up with a belt so that their feet, you know, wouldn't get
tangled up and they could move around. That's the girdle that
Paul's talking about. It's like it's a belt that holds
everything together. He says, now wrap yourself tightly
in this. Wrap yourself tightly in the truth of Christ and the
truth of the gospel. I mean, wrap yourself in it so
tight that no error can get in there. And this belt, this girdle
is mentioned first. The belt, the girdle of truth
is mentioned first because the truth is the foundation of everything
in it. This garment that Paul is talking
about is the foundation of all rest of the armor. Well, this
truth is the foundation of everything we believe. Everything that protects
us all begins with the truth of God. The gospel tells the
truth. It tells the truth about God,
who God is. It tells the truth about men. And more specifically,
it tells the truth about me. You know, I've told you this
so many times. I've been a Calvinist my whole life. I mean, I've been
a Calvinist my whole life. I always, always believed in
the total depravity of man. Now, to me, that meant I believed
you all were totally depraved. I believed everybody else was.
Here's what the gospel tells me, the truth about me. What about you about me? That
I'm totally depraved. I'm lost in sin, that I deserve
for God to send me to hell. That's the truth of the gospel,
what it says about me. The gospel tells the truth about
Christ the Savior. It tells the truth about salvation
in Christ. And if I'm wrapped up in that
truth, then I'm going to be kept dependent on Christ, aren't I?
If I'm wrapped up in that truth, I'm not going to be deceived
by the lies and twisting of scripture that Satan uses to deceive people. Just wrap yourself up so tightly
in this truth. You can't trip over error that's
been put in front of you. You know, we talk about the truth.
Well, I'm not just talking about true statements of the gospel.
Different things we say that are true statements. You can
stand up here and make a whole string of true statements and
not preach the truth and not preach the gospel. The truth
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the truth. Now wrap yourselves
in him. Wrap yourselves in him. Not just
true facts, not just true doctrine. Wrap yourselves in Christ, in
his person, in his word, and you'll be protected from error.
If you're looking to Christ, if you're depending on Christ,
you'll be protected from error. Then Paul talks about the breastplate
of righteousness. The Roman soldier's breastplate,
it covered him from the base of the neck to down probably
his mid-thigh or something. And his purpose was to cover
all the vital organs. Well, believers' breastplate,
our breastplate of righteousness is Christ himself, Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord, our righteousness. This breastplate of righteousness
is not something that we produce. It's not something that we make
up. It's Christ. We can only stand before God
accepted in Christ. Christ being our righteousness.
And if Christ is our righteousness, we have a perfect breastplate.
Nothing can penetrate it. Now, if I gotta produce it myself,
Brady, it's gonna be full of holes, it's gonna be easy. I
mean, I'm gonna be shot up in no time. Just full of holes. But if Christ is my breastplate,
if Christ is my righteousness, I'm perfect, perfect. And this breastplate of Christ
that we're talking about, it's a whole lot better than the body
armor. Like today, we probably call
this, I guess, body armor. It's a whole lot better than
body armor that we give our soldiers today. The breastplate of Christ's
righteousness protects us without and within. It does both. Imputed
righteousness. That's the breastplate that protects
us from divine wrath, from without, and imparted righteousness. Righteousness
put in us, a new righteous nature. That protects us from the old
man attacking us from within. It's a perfect breastplate, protects
us without and within. Now Paul says, take that and
put it on. Wrap yourself in Christ. It's the only way you can have
life. He goes on in verse He says, have your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's very important
for soldiers to have good shoes. They do their best to make sure
soldiers have good shoes because an army moves on its feet. That's
how it moves. Now believer, we need good shoes
to protect ourselves against the traps that Satan lays for
us. You know, ancient armies, if they were defending an area
or they were withdrawing and trying to defend an area, what
they'd do is they'd put traps all in the road, in the way,
sharp sticks sticking up, trying to hurt the feet of the army
chasing them, and so they couldn't keep marching. Well, a believer
needs good shoes to protect our feet, to protect our walk, to
keep us following Christ. And the only thing that will
protect our feet is the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace
enables us to stand firm on a foundation of faith in Christ. And a believer
needs good shoes because we've got a long way to go. We've got
a long way to go. The Lord tells us to go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Well, if we're going
to go into all the world, we've got a long way to go, don't we?
We need good shoes. We need good shoes to walk the
believer's walk. You know, the second half of
this epistle that Paul writes here, largely given over to instructing
us in the believer's walk. Well, how are we not gonna stumble
into all these temptations? How are we gonna not stumble
and keep following after Christ? It's the gospel of peace. The
gospel of peace. The believers have a race to
run. And I'm telling you, it's a long
race. It's a long race. Sam, when you
were running, how many pairs of shoes did you go through in
a season? And you kept getting new ones,
didn't you? You had to have good shoes. The writer to the Hebrews
talks about running with patience, the race that's set before us.
You don't need much patience to run a 100-yard dash, but you
need a lot of patience to run a marathon. You need good shoes,
it's a long way to go. And I tell you, the shoes that
the Lord provides, this gospel of peace, they're like the shoes
that the children of Israel wore in the wilderness. You know,
those Israelites who left the wilderness, 40 years there in
the wilderness, their shoes never wore out. This gospel of peace is just
like that. It'll never wear out. It'll always be what you need.
It'll never make your feet hurt. It's the gospel of peace. It
won't make you hurt. It'll never make your feet swell.
You'll never want to take them off. It's the gospel of peace. Then verse 16, Paul says, above
all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you should be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Now, this Paul
says is above all. Most importantly, take the shield
of faith. How important is faith in Christ? There's no salvation without
it. There's no life without it. There's no forgiveness without
it. There's no righteousness without it. There's nothing from
God without faith in Christ. And Paul says, he describes faith
here as a shield that you hold up in front of you, a shield.
And we need to use it because Satan's casting a lot of fiery
darts at us. Darts that are burning. When I was a kid, I used to love
westerns. And you see, you know, the Indians,
they light their arrows on fire and shoot them, you know, and
just, man, everything gets on fire. It seems like the most
dangerous thing in this world to me, you know. It's terrifying.
That's what Satan's shooting at God's people. Burning arrows. And our only defense against
those flaming arrows is faith, it's faith. First of all, faith
in God's word. Look over with me at Romans chapter
four. It's faith in God's word. Look at verse three, Romans chapter
four. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God. And it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now what did Abraham believe?
He believed the word of God. He believed what God told him.
The promise that God told him is believing the word. Now look
over at verse 20. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he
was able also to perform. Now, if we have faith, you just
take this book and believe it. Just believe every word of it.
Everything it says, every promise of this book is just as sure
as the promise God made Abraham. Now, take it and believe it.
Don't be turned away from it. Don't let somebody take this
word and twist it so that you start trusting your own words
and your own morality. Take this book and believe it.
This book, you know what it does? You know why God gave us this
book? To reveal Christ to us. To reveal Christ, the incarnate
Word. Now believe it. There's faith in God's Word and
there's faith in Christ. Christ, the incarnate Word. Believe
Him. He came to save sinners. Are
you a sinner? Then believe Him. Trust your
soul to Him. Trust Him. to do all of the saving
for you. Just trust Him to do it all.
If Christ did all the saving for you, I'm going to tell you
what, you're saved. You can't perish. If you trust
Christ, you're complete in Him. And you can never be cast off.
That's what the end of Romans 8 is all about. If you trust
Christ, you can never be cast off. So take the shield of faith,
of faith in Christ, and when Satan fires these fiery darts
at you, these burning arrows, that sword, or this, excuse me,
the shield will put out every last one of them. I thought of
a few fiery darts that Satan is known for hurling at God's
people. How about the fiery dart of guilt? Satan fires this fiery arrow
at you, burning arrow, telling you, you're guilty. You've sinned. And you know what? It's easy
for him to shoot that arrow at, because we are, aren't we? We're
guilty. I mean, there's not one accusation
that Satan can hurl at me. I can say, no, I didn't do that.
I'm innocent. I'm guilty. Well, then what defense do you
have? The shield of faith in Christ. Christ is my innocence. Christ is my righteous. My obedience
before God is Christ. If I'm trusting Christ to be
my innocence, that fiery dart is gonna be put out and fall
short, harmless, because I'm not guilty in Christ. Then there's
this fiery dart, and this is a common one. Satan whispers
in your ear, you better start living right. You better start
living better, or God's gonna get you. God's gonna punish you. Things aren't going so well,
because you better start keeping a few laws. Things will start
improving, you know. Now, how are you going to defend
yourself against that? The shield of faith. I trust Christ. He's the one
who already lived perfectly for me. I'm already perfect in Him. And my sin, He's already been
punished for. You can't charge me with that.
You can't tell me start living better or God's gonna get me.
God's already punished my substitute. And he's gonna accept me, not
in what I do, but in the person of Christ. I'm trusting him.
Now if that's your shield, that burning arrow, be quenched and
fall short. Won't hurt you. Then here's another one. Satan
fires his burning arrow of doubt. Oh, he whispers in your ear.
You can't be saved. You can't know Christ. Just look
at you. Just look at you. Would somebody
trust Christ to do that? Huh? Would somebody really trust
Christ to really be doing what you're doing? Now, how are you
going to defend yourself against that? It's the shield of faith
in Christ. I'm saved, not by looking at
myself. but by looking to him, by looking
to Christ. And if you're looking to Christ,
that burning arrow is gonna be quenched and it's gonna fall
harmlessly short. See, it's trusting Christ, isn't
it? It's all trusting Christ. Then Paul says in verse 17, take
the helmet of salvation. Verse 17, take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of
God. Now take the helmet of salvation
because a helmet protects your head. Protect your head against
false doctrine. Now, I spent some time on this
verse. I spent some time looking at
it and thinking about it. Salvation is a heart work. It's
a work that's done in the heart. It's God giving a new heart.
Salvation is heart faith in Christ. Not a knowledge of facts about
Christ. The gospel goes to the heart
through the head. You can't believe what you don't
know. You can't believe what you don't
understand. You know, I try very, very hard
to preach simply, to make the point in simple, plain language,
plain words, so at least you can understand what I'm saying. It's not my responsibility to
make you believe what I'm saying. I can't do it. But it is my responsibility
that you understand, that you understand what I'm saying, because
you can't believe what you don't understand. And here's why we
go through the scriptures verse by verse like we do. I want you
and me to be taught the scriptures so that we understand what the
scripture says. I want to believe it. God's got
to give me faith to believe it. But I want to understand. I want
you to understand what the scripture is saying, and here's why. So
some false prophet can't come along and confuse your mind with
error. If you know what the scripture
says, your head's protected. So that you can't be tricked
into believing all these horrible lies. And I know that there's a lot
of false religion. I mean, none of you would fall
for that. I don't know why any human being falls for some of
it. But some of it mixes in just enough truth, they could deceive
you, couldn't they? I don't want us to be deceived,
or the way our head won't be deceived is by being taught the
scriptures. What do scriptures say? You know,
the helmet of salvation is Christ. He's the one that protects. He's
our salvation, our hope of salvation in Christ alone. That's what
protects the head. That's the best defense that
you can have against all the religious error that's about
you. It's Christ alone. It's Christ alone. It's Christ
alone. It's Christ alone. That will
protect your mind from believing this false error or this false
teaching that tries to add to Christ. Yes, Christ is the savior
of sinners, but you've got to do this. You've got to quit this. If you don't quit this, you're
not saved. If you still do this, you're not saved. That's adding
to Christ, isn't it? That's adding to Christ. If you
know this, salvation is Christ alone. Righteousness is Christ
alone. Life is Christ alone. If somebody's
trying to add something to Christ, you won't be deceived by that,
will you? Your head won't be turned away from Christ if you're
trusting him alone. And then Paul says, take the
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Look over Hebrews
chapter four. The writer to the Hebrews gives
us a little explanation about this sword, the word of God. Hebrews four verse 12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Now, the word of God is a sword that's got two sharp
edges. There's no blunt side to it.
That means you can't come in contact with the word of God
and leave unaffected. We, by God's grace, we preach
God's Word. We teach God's Word. We make
so much of the Word, teaching it verse by verse by verse. Every
Sunday and every Wednesday, this is heavy on my heart, I don't
want you to leave unaffected. These two sharp sides of this
sword, it's the law and the gospel. One side wounds and kills, and
the other side heals. It's the sword of the word that
convicts of sinning. I mean, just cuts right to the
heart. Cuts out that self-righteousness, kills human pride, and at the
same time, that sword heals and gives life and comforts it. See,
Christ is the incarnate word. He's the sword. Remember when
Satan came to attack him? What was the Lord's weapon when
Satan came to attack him? Satan took the scriptures and
put a twist on them, didn't he? And the Lord said, it's written.
It's written. He used the Word as his defense. So I tell you, make much of God's
Word. Make much of it. Read it yourself. Go home and read it. After a
lesson, after a message, go home and read the text again. Read
it again. Read God's word and I like brother
Tom Harding said this years and years ago. He said, he said,
don't read, you know, a chapter, two chapters or three chapters,
you know, trying to get through the Bible in a year. Tom said,
try reading a verse and asking God, show me what that means.
Would you show me what that means? Make much of it because this
word is our only offensive weapon. Every other weapon Paul mentioned
here is a defensive weapon. Our only offensive weapon when
Lord told us go into all the world and preach Christ How are
we going to go out and conquer the world? Conquer God's people
bring them to Christ the sword of the word. It's our only offensive
weapon Now take this and be become well acquainted with it It'll
protect you it'll protect your mind Now I'm out of time. So next next week the Lord willing,
we'll look at this matter of prayer. Prayer is an important
part of our armor. Lord willing, we'll spend a little
bit of time on that next week, all right? Hope the Lord blesses
that to you.