If you'll take your Bibles and
turn me to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. The title of the message this
morning is the warfare of the saints. The warfare of the saints. Believers in Jesus Christ, the Scripture tells us it is
high time we awake out of sleep. It's high time we awake out of
our slumber and see the truth concerning our warfare. Our warfare. Although Satan has been defeated
and bound by the Lord Jesus Christ, And soon, so will all our enemies
be cast out, and when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, death
being the last enemy, we'll be cast into the lake of fire, and
sin will be no more, the curse will be removed. But until that
day, we must understand, if you are a believer in Christ, you
must understand that you and I are engaged in a spiritual
struggle. This is not a mythological struggle. It's not a philosophical struggle.
We are not in an academic struggle. But we are in a spiritual warfare,
a spiritual struggle. Jesus has accomplished the victory
and soon it'll be manifest to everyone that this victory that
He's already accomplished will be sure It's accomplished, it's
finished, but in this present state that we find ourselves
today, in this present earthly vessel, we must understand that
we are to fight. We must endure by faith. The Apostle says, I have finished
my course. I have fought the good fight
of faith. And we too must fight and finish
Our course. Our course. The course that is
set before us, that we should receive a crown incorruptible,
undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. The crown of eternal life is
reserved in heaven for us. And we are at war. If we are at war, how then are
believers to fight? How are we to fight a Christian
warfare? What does this mean, a Christian
warfare? A lot of people have very foolish
ideas of what it is to struggle in a Christian warfare. Well,
in order to struggle in a warfare, we must first understand who
we're fighting. If you're in a warfare, you just
don't fight everybody. There's an enemy. And we must
be engaged and focused on who it is we are fighting. Know your
enemy. That's what he tells us in our
text. He says, finally, brother, be strong in the Lord. In the
power of His might, put on the whole armor of God that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of who? The devil. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Here it is in verse 12, For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities and powers against rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. We wrestle not with flesh and
blood. Believers, you're not engaged in warfare with men. You're not fighting against Arminians. You're not fighting against the
Pope. You're not fighting against Catholics
or other denominations of works religion. You're not fighting
against men who follow after such darkness. If it were not
by the grace of God, we would be right there with them in that
darkness. We don't fight against flesh
and blood. Evil men of flesh and blood,
they hate us. That's true. Religious men would
hate those of the gospel of God's sovereign grace, and they would
do us harm if they could. There's no doubt about this.
This has been proven century after century. When the gospel
is preached and has free course, and it stands against the enemy,
they will and they are at war with your flesh. They will do
everything they can to cause you pain and suffering. They will try to stamp out the
gospel. And if they cannot stamp out
your life, they will try to stamp out your witness. Jesus tells us that these men
will hate you. And listen to this. He says,
they will hate you because they hated Me first. And not only will they hate you
and persecute you and ridicule you and mock you, they will hate
you and then they will say, it's for my namesake. Has that not happened? Is that
not so? Do you not think the men that were
burned at the stake, that they were not burned in the name of
Jesus? What about when the gospel is
ridiculed? It's ridiculed with all religious purposes in the
name of Jesus. How many believers have suffered
and been tortured in the flesh? But remember, believers, even
if we are burned at the stake, even if we suffer great ridicule
for the gospel of Jesus Christ, our warfare is not against the
men who burn us. It's not against the men who
mock us. It's not against flesh and blood
that we wrestle. Our warfare is not with men. Our warfare is against sin. Our
warfare is against principalities and powers and rulers of the
darkness. Our enemies are spiritual. These men who do such things
to us are ignorant. What did the Lord say when they
were nailing him to the cross? He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And such should be our speech. Such should be our hearts when
men persecute you and revile you and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely." What did the Lord say when they
do that? He said, you are blessed. I was reading George Whitefield
in his biography and he was talking about how he had been ridiculed
and mocked and he laid there in the bed at night and he gave
such praise and glory to God that he was able to suffer, that
he was counted worthy to suffer such ridicule and persecution. And so should we count it praise
and glory when we enter into such persecution of other men. Our warfare is not against men.
Don't set your hatred on men. How many fools have done this
in history and ruined the name of the church? You think of the
Crusades. What a foolish endeavor that
was. How many lives were wasted in the name of Christianity? God never told us to go out and
slaughter men to make disciples. Our warfare is not against Muslims. It's not against men. It's against
wickedness, darkness, works, religion. Our warfare, our enemies. our principalities and powers
and rulers of darkness in high places. Believers, we are at
war with sin, we are at war with spiritual enemies, not governments,
not politicians, not society, not false prophets, not atheists. Our war is the root of all these
things. Our warfare and struggle is at
the root of these things. Our war is with the very nature
of sin. Our war is with the father of
sin. And our war is with the spiritual
wickedness of this world. Our warfare is with our own self. Do you know your enemy? If you don't know your enemy,
you don't know how to fight. The greatest enemy I have is
standing right here in this pool. My greatest enemy is me. My own
wicked nature. Do you know your enemy? Do you
know how susceptible you are to deception? how easily we are deceived. I
think about things and I go, well, you know, I'm going to
pray about this. All the while, I've already set
my heart to do it. I've already determined in myself
I'm going to do this. And so, I put on a facade and
say, well, I'm going to pray and seek God's will for this. See, I've been deceived. I've
already deceived myself. is desperately wicked and deceitful
above all things who can know it. Our enemy is within and without. What then, how then are we to
fight such an enemy? An enemy that cannot be seen.
An enemy that is not to be dealt with by physical means or exertion. In 2 Corinthians, I believe it's chapter 4. I'm in the wrong book there.
Just a second. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 10.
2 Corinthians 10, verse 4. It says, For our weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high
thought that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Our
weapons that we fight this warfare are not physical weapons. You're
not going to be able to go to a monastery, and you're not going
to be able to chain yourself up, and you're not going to be
able to torture your flesh until you stop sinning. That's not
how we war against the flesh. That's not how we war against
our enemies. People say, well, if I can just
get away from this, then I'll be better off. No, because wherever
you go, there you are. Wherever you, the wicked person
you are, wherever you go, there you are. So wherever you go,
sin follows you. So we're not going to do this
by cutting ourselves or by stopping this and starting that, by doing
this and not doing that. No, that's not how this warfare
is waged. It is a spiritual warfare and
it is conducted with spiritual weapons. Spiritual weapons. We do this by spiritual armor
and weapons of God given to every one of us in our text. It says
in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. I looked up the
word wiles, because we don't use that. We don't use wiles,
I haven't heard it in the sentence, unless I read out of this text.
What are wiles? Wiles, it means to lie in wait
or to ambush. It means to be tricked or deception. This is the tactic of our enemy. Our enemy is never frontal assault. He is always casting darts from
a distance. He's always setting and laying
traps in the way. Disguising them. punji sticks, these bamboo sticks,
and they would make them very sharp, and then they would put
all sorts of manure and all sorts of vile stuff in there, and then
they would cover it over and make it look just like the rest
of the ground. So when the soldiers were marching,
they would march through and then they would step on these,
and then they would not be able to fight anymore. This is how
Satan deals with God's people. He is deceptive. He is divisive. He's never in your face. Because truth always
will prevail. But it's half-truths. He delivers
half-truths to us. He's deceptive. This has always
been his method. He will not fight believers in
an honest contest. He will use subtle means and
confusion. Think of this, emotion. Oh, what
a deception our emotions are. When we are alone, how many different
emotions come over us? We say something and then we
go home and we think about it and we dwell on it. Did that
really offend somebody? Man, I don't know. Why don't
you just ask them? No, we let these emotions well
up inside of us and we let them explode. Emotions are a deceptive thing. They're powerful. Passions are deceptive. Luther said, feelings come and
feelings go. Feelings are deceptive. They're deceptive. They're good
in their place. I love to have feelings. We all
have them. But if they're not according
to the Word of God, throw them away. They're no good. They're
no good. They're deceptive. They're a
weapon of the enemy. Satan is like Amalek. You remember
Amalek, when he attacked Israel, he waited for Israel to pass,
and then he got in on the hinder parts, where all the older people
were, where all the sick people were, where all the children
were, the ones lagging behind. He was a very wicked nation,
a very wicked king. This is a picture of our enemy.
He comes in from the behinder parts. He's very subtle. He likes to take those who are
weak, those who are sick, those who have not availed themselves
to the gospel of Jesus Christ, those who have misworshipped,
those who are not engaged in this struggle, those who are
laxadaisical about worship and praise and study and prayer.
It's those who are in the hinder parts He will attack and engage
most, because they are weak. Remember what He said to our
mother? Yea, hath the Lord said. Well, my goodness. We live in
such an enlightened age. Surely there must be a better
way than church. Surely there's got to be a better
way than having some man preach. Surely. Let's just be logical
about this. Let's just be reasonable. Really? God said, by the foolishness
of preaching, He chose to save them that believe. Paul said,
I came not to baptize, but to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the only means of salvation. If any one of you listen to me,
if anyone is going to be saved, it's going to be under the sound
of this gospel and nowhere else. You won't find salvation anywhere
else. Now, another man may preach it,
that's fine. But it'll be God's man, at God's
time, by God's will. And it will be by God's means.
By this gospel. You want to grow in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? It will be by preaching
the gospel. Anything else is just deceptive.
You have any feelings different than that? They're deceptive. You're being deceived. The enemy
says, yeah, hath God said. Surely, God is holding something
good back. Isn't that the temptation? God
knows that in the day you eat thereof, you shall be as God's.
You see, God's holding something good. He's holding it back from
you. See, He's just a cosmic killjoy. This is a deception. This is
a lie. Look at all the fun everyone's having out there. Look at that
church, how sullen they are, how weak they are, how few they
are. There's better things out there than church, than worship. See how subtle it comes in. And
it sounds logical. It sounds reasonable to the flesh. This is a lie. His lie is always
against God. See, it's not Satan that gives
you your breath to curse God, it's God. It's not Satan that
gives you food to eat, things to enjoy, it is of the hand of
God. Only God is good. He lies He doesn't tell the complete
truth, but He only shows you the good part of sin. Anybody went fishing? Know how
to fish? Well, man, you don't want the
hook to show. You want to hide it. You want
it to sparkle. You want it to look dazzling.
So it's tempting. But it's only when they buy it,
the hook is revealed. And friends, when sin comes in,
it's dazzling until the hook sets. And you can't get out. How many men have you seen trapped
in drugs and alcohol? I mean, how many? How many? Oh, it looks so dazzling. Looks
so good. And now then the hook is set. Sin is deceptive. We who are
believers in Christ are to make ready for such warfare. We must
put on the whole armor of God. We must endure in the service
of God. We must suffer all things for
the elect's sake. Look at your text. The apostle
gives us. a great picture, an illustration
of what a believer is to put on to engage in such a warfare. He uses physical illustrations
so we can all understand, so we can all see what is important
in the believer's life. First of all, he says this, Wherefore,
take on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand
in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth. Belt. Number one, put on the belt of
truth. The belt of truth. Without this
piece of armor, all the other armor falls off. Everybody's
seen the comedic thing, hey, man puts on his pants and belts
not down, his pants fall down. Well, that's what happens with
the armor of God. If truth If God's word is not
put as preeminent in truth, the whole armor of God falls off. Without this, there is no defense. The truth of the Word of God
is the foundation of all faith, hope, love, and practice. It is the foundation of our conversation. Believers, stand fast and gird
up the loins of your mind with this. This Word is truth. Truth. This Word is truth. God's word is truth. All truth
belongs to God. Truth is not relative. Go to
college and these higher education people will tell you that truth
is relative to your situation. that truth is relative to how
you feel or what your circumstance is. Truth is not something that
anyone can grasp. Truth is just something that
floats in the air and you can pull it down anytime you want
to and anything and everything is true. That man is an idiot. That man is a fool. Truth is
not relative to circumstance, emotion, culture, time, or place. Truth is not based on your upbringing
or what your grandma taught you. Truth is not relative to opinion. This is why we don't have group
study. Group study is foolish. Because
then everybody goes around and say, okay, what do you think
about this? What do you think about this? What do you think
about this? I really don't care what people think about this. You shouldn't care what I think
about this. My thoughts and your thoughts, my opinions and your
opinions don't mount to a hill of beans. It's not about opinion. It's about truth. God's Word
is the truth. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Without this, without this being the true,
inspired, infallible Word of God, we have no such hope of
heaven. You have no defense against the
enemy. If this is not true, if every word is not an inspired
word of God, then this is worthless. But we know, and we gird up the
loins of our mind with this, and we say, this is truth. I don't care what men say. This is true. God is true. God is truth. Think about this. Why would God
lie? Now, you and I have a reason
to lie. We try to cover up our errors. God has no reason to lie. Scripture says God is not man
that He should lie. Matter of fact, God cannot lie because
He is holy. He is just. He is not like us. He is all-wise, all-powerful. He is just and holy. And He does
not need to lie to you. This book is the inerrant word
of God, and we should gird that up first. We should hold this
fast, first of all. Second, we should put on the
breastplate of righteousness. This piece of armor protects
the heart and lungs. If you think about a breastplate,
that's what it was designed for, to protect the vital organs.
If a man had his arm cut off, legs cut off, he could still
live. as long as his heart and his lungs were protected, as
long as his vital organs were protected. This is the vital
part of the gospel. If you don't have this, you don't
have any hope of standing against the enemy, the righteousness
of Christ. We, by nature, have a heart of
darkness. Men, by nature, have a heart
of darkness. a hatred for the gospel, obstinate against the things
of God. This is because we are unrighteous
and we deserve to be pierced through with the justice of God's
heart, yet by free grace He has fashioned for us a protection,
a protection for the heart. One that was fashioned by the
hands of Jesus Christ Himself, the righteousness of God. If you are to stand against the
accusations of the enemy, then you must have a new heart. You must have a new heart of
righteousness. If you don't have this, The enemy's darts will pierce
through easily into your heart. But we who have the righteousness
of Christ, you hang on. You gird up the truth of God's
Word that says, that Jesus Christ is all our righteousness. Gird
this up in Romans chapter 3 verse 22. It says, Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, there is no difference. Gird that up. Hold it close to your heart that
I have the righteousness of Christ. What are His accusations to me
if I have the righteousness of God? This is the promise, a new heart
I will give you. I will take the heart of stone
out of your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh. Believers in Christ, let us hold this close, the breastplate
of the righteousness of Christ. As God the Son needed no righteousness,
yet for our sakes He became poor, that through His poverty you
might be made rich." In what? In righteousness. He said, I
came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law and the
prophets. Behold the truth, that the soul
that sinneth it shall surely die, and we have been guilty
of sin and rebellion, yet by grace He has given us His righteousness. Who then shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again. Who shall separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Who? not even me and all my sin. Nothing shall separate me from
my Lord and my Savior. The righteous breastplate protects
the lungs which are meant for prayer. Number three, not only
take the belt of truth, the Word of God, the righteousness of
Christ, hold it near to our heart, but number three, shod your feet
with the preparation of the Gospel, of peace. Shoes are an important
piece of armor. Shoes for the soldier were protection
for protection and traction. Two things, protection and traction. First of all, it was protection
against all kinds of spikes and rugged terrain that was laid
out by the enemy. Believer, the gospel of peace
is the foundation of our peace. Do you have peace with God? I don't know how I could walk
one more step if I didn't have peace. I don't know how I could make
it out that door into my car and go home not knowing if I
had peace with God or not. We who believe, you put on this. You put on this as a foundation
that Christ has made peace for us. How? By the blood of his cross. By
the blood of his cross. How foolish are men to try to
make peace with God themselves? Have you heard any of the fools
say that? I have. Well, I've made my peace with
God. What an idiot. What a fool. He has no protection. He has no hope. My peace was
made long before I ever came into this world. My peace with
God was made by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Believer, remember to bind this. Daily bind this. When you get
up in the morning, and you get dressed, and before you go out
the door, what do you put on? Do you not put on your shoes?
I noticed that this morning as I was getting ready to go. And
when I put on my shoes, I remembered this. I remembered this. I do this every morning. You
should put these on every day. This is a daily thing. Shod your feet. Protect your
feet. Put on the gospel of God's peace,
so that when you walk, your feet are protected along the way,
so that you are not injured by the traps of Satan that are laid
out before you. They're daily laid out there.
Daily, he doesn't sleep. He's constantly putting out traps
for us. Daily put this on, that Jesus
Christ has made my peace with God. He has reconciled me to Himself
by the blood of His cross. By peace with God, by reconciliation
with God was by the one offering of Christ forever. And because
of this I can march safely into the fray. from all the wiles of the devil,
from all his traps, from all his devices, from all his subtlety,
from all his trickery. Christ is all! Christ is all! Christ is all! If he has any accusations against
me, I point him to Christ. He must answer to the Messiah. And this gospel of peace gives
us traction. You know, the Roman soldiers
had spikes in order to hold fast their ground. They would take
their shields, and as they were being rushed, they would be hit
upon by hundreds of men at one time, and these feet, these shoes
with their spikes gave them traction to stand. There's a lot of times
I don't feel like I'm marching forward. It feels like I'm toiling
and rowing, that I just keep rowing and going nowhere. But
I'll tell you what, this gives me traction. I will not be moved. I will not be moved from this.
I may not go forward, but I'm not moving backward. Jesus Christ
is all my peace. He's all my peace with God. They give us traction that we
will never be moved from off the rock of Christ. Learn it,
believer. Study the gospel. Never take
it for granted. Ask yourself, do you take the
gospel for granted? Do you give it any attention?
Or do you suppose that just Sunday and Wednesday will be enough?
Don't be fooled by that. Do you realize I can't give you
everything I've got? We'd be here all week. I can only give you what little
time we have together. Study this yourselves. Feast on the Word of God daily. Learn it. Bind it. Bind it to your heart. Study
that Christ has crushed our enemy, and now He invites us, come and
put your foot on the neck of your enemy. That's a picture,
isn't it? Every time a king would conquer,
he would take his foot, and he'd put that king on the ground,
and he'd put his foot right on the top of the neck of that king.
And then he would take his soldiers and he'd tell them, come over
here, put your foot there. Christ tells us to put our foot
on the neck of our enemy. How are you going to do that
if your feet aren't bound with the gospel of peace? You can't. Next, take the shield of faith.
It says, above all, take the shield of faith. This shield
is to be taken above all because the shield quenches the darts
that are cast from all sides. Who is not cast over with doubts
and fears? And where do they come from?
I don't know. Sometimes I'll just be walking along and all
of a sudden, ow! Where did that come from? Ow!
Where is this coming from? Where is this piercing coming
from? These accusations! Where are they coming from? My
conscience is bricked! What do I do? Shield of faith! Hunker down. Sometimes I feel
like I just go into a corner and just hold my faith up. And not my faith. This shield
is made by the faith of Jesus Christ, not by my faith. Oh,
what a worthless shield my faith would be. But the faith of Christ
is a great shield. Because I'm not relying on my
faith. I'm relying on His. Oh, how it quenches His darts.
How it eases the conscience and the burden lifts from my shoulders. Life I now live, the apostle
said, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. What a shield. What a shield
against these darts that are constantly thrown at us. Believer, know this and be aware
of this. Your faith will be tried. All of this is not by accident.
Satan is not allowed to do all of these things by chance. Remember,
he had to have permission from God to do that to Job, and he
has to have the same permission to do it to you. Job's faith was proven by suffering. Abraham's faith was proven by
trials. And so will our faith be proven
by suffering and trials. I told you before, if your walk
is very smooth and everything is going okay, you're in the
wrong road, buddy. You're on the wrong path. Our path is a path of suffering. Our path is a path of difficulty. This is my pitch. This is my
sales pitch for Christianity. If you would be a Christian,
you must suffer! Well, I don't want any part of
that. Go on. Go on about your way. Go to hell. Not me. We are to endure hardness as
good soldiers. You know, a soldier before he,
I remember being in the military, they made a sign, Last Will and
Testament. Why? We had to make sure everything
was taken care of before we went because we were as good as dead. That's how you should account
your life, as good as dead. Already dead. I keep telling
you, this is the most dangerous thing to this world, is a believer
that's got nothing to lose. I got nothing to lose. Take it
all. I got nothing to lose. I've got
everything to gain. Heaven awaits me. Do what you
will. A believer's road is hard. Our
faith must rest completely on the grace of God who justified
us. Christ who died and rose again
for us. Our faith is in the eternal,
immutable love of God. And nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Fifthly, the helmet of salvation. No man is saved unless he hears
the gospel. No man is saved unless he hears
and understands the gospel. This is a gift of God. Gird up the loins of your mind. Alright, who here has not wandered
in your mind from this sermon? Which one of you? Which one of
you have not thought of 10,000 different things as I've been
preaching? Gird up the loins of your mind.
Hold every thought captive to the Word of God. Put on the helmet of salvation.
Let this be our mind. The mind of Christ Jesus, who
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made of Himself no reputation. Put on this helmet of salvation.
Humility. Humbleness. The mind of a servant. Who has the mind of a servant? Our old nature has a mind that
everybody should serve us. But a believer's heart is one
that serves. One that loves and serves Christ. Put on the helmet of salvation. Before the gospel enters a heart,
it must enter the head, and it must come through the ear gate.
The scripture says, faith cometh how? By hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. Are you saved? How are you saved? The same means I was saved by
hearing the gospel. Are you not saved? How then shall you be saved?
By the hearing of the gospel. Don't sit at home and hope to
be saved by some epiphany. You'll die in your sins and hell
will be your portion. Humble yourself. under the mighty
hand of God. And He will in due time exalt
thee. Stay and hear the gospel. Avail yourself at every opportunity if there is any hope for your
soul. If there is any defense against
such a vile enemy as Satan, If there's a defense against such
a vile nature as your own, it must be by the whole armor of
God. To sum it up, Christ is all our
armor. And the last one was the sword
of the Spirit. I cannot convert you. I want to. But I know this, the sword of
God must pierce. It must cut deep. But I like this, the sword of
the Lord and of Gideon. I'm so grateful that it is his
sword. He must use it, but yet he uses men to deliver it. Vessels of clay, just like you.
Just like you. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against your enemy, not flesh
and blood, but principalities and powers and rulers of darkness.
that you may be able to stand against the self, the sin of
self and emotion, that you might hold fast the truth of God's
Word. May God bless this to you, please. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.