Turn with me, if you will, to
a book of Ephesians. We're gonna look at a few verses
here this morning for our Bible study in Ephesians chapter six. Paul having given, in the first
few verses of this chapter, Paul had given advice to the parents,
husbands and wives, to the children and parents, and then to the
servants and the masters. And then down in verse 10, he
gives advice to the whole church. And he says, finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on,
put your trust in the Lord, depend upon him, rest in the Lord, knowing
that he is able to keep you from falling. And I believe it was
the book of Jude said, who is able to present you fall before
his throne in eternal glory. And then verse 11 is where we
want to start at this morning. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand the wiles of the devil. A believer
in this world, we live in a world of evil. You don't have to go
very far to see it. You turn your TVs on. You walk
through your neighborhood. We live in a world of evil. We're surrounded by evil powers,
evil people. And we know that the evil is
all about us, and the sad fact is it's on us and in us. We by
nature, Paul says, for I know that is in me that is there is
no good thing. Nothing good in this flesh. People
want to pamper the flesh, they want to uplift the flesh, they
want to edify the flesh, but the scriptures declare that there
is nothing good in the flesh. For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And this is the first
thing that God teaches us when he begins to reveal the gospel
to us. He teaches us something about
his holiness and then he teaches us something about our sinfulness.
For I know that is in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. For the will, or to will, that
new man, that new creation that God has put within us He desires
to do the things of God. This new creation, this new man,
desires to be holy as God is, but we still have this flesh
to deal with. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. I don't find in myself any way
to perform that which God commands. He said, Be ye therefore holy,
for I am holy. I don't find that in the flesh.
I find the flesh is wandering. I sit down at my study and begin
to prepare a lesson, and a dog barks, and my thought, my trained
thought is vanished to this side or that side. A bird flies by
the window, and my thoughts are turned. That's the flesh. For
the good that I would, I do not. I don't find how to do the things
that God commands me to do. But the evil, oh, the evil, which
I would not, that I do. Now if I do that which I would
not, it is no more I, Paul said, but sin that dwelleth in me.
We have this thing of sin in us. There's evil in me and all
about me to the point that I cannot do that which I would. Who was it that wrote the song,
I'm a pilgrim on a journey? That's what we are. This world
is not the believer's home. We live in a world, we associate
in this world, we work in this world, and we have to have contact
with the world, but we are not of the world. The scripture tells
us, ye are of God, little children, ye are not of the world. The
Christian life that we live in this world is compared to a race. It's something that we must struggle
with every, every, every day. You that run, you that run for
exercise or enjoyment or whatever it may be, there's a continual
motion here. You put one foot in front of
another foot and it's a struggle. Paul said, if we're foreseeing,
we are encompassed about with so greater cloud of witness.
We have a cloud of witness in the gospel. We have a cloud of
witness by our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let us lay aside. Let us lay these things aside,
the weight and the sin. See, we're talking about sin
in us and about us and on us. Let us lay aside the weight and
the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. And how do we do this? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Our life is a battle. A battle
to be fought, and that's what we're going to look at, the whole
armor of God. We must have everything that
God supplies for us, for us to continue to fight this battle.
Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12, fight the good
fight. Lay hold of eternal life, whereunto
thou art also called. and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses. And on down farther in the next
book in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 7, he says, I have fought
a good fight. I have finished my course. I
have kept the faith. How do we do that? Looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. This race or this
fight, this conflict will not be over till we put off this
flesh. As long as we're here in this flesh, we're going to
have this battle, this race to fight and to run. No wonder Paul
said, be strong in the Lord. Oh, be strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might. That's the only way possible
that you and I, knowing something about who we are and what we
are, can be strong, is to be strong in the Lord. We need help. I need help. I need strength
to stand. I'm not able to fight these things,
the viles of the devil, whatever it is that comes in your way.
It don't take much. It don't take much to affect
this flesh. Just a word here, an evil look
there, or a glance here, and this flesh may do anything. But in the Lord, in the Lord. We have strength, we have protection,
we have comfort. Look at verse 12. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, and against rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. This is the battle that
we fight with. We don't go to hand-to-hand combat
with our neighbors. We are fighting a spiritual battle,
that which is against evil, false religion, this thing of free
willism, this thing of do all you can do and God will take
up the rest. That's evil and that's our fight that we fight
against. We don't have a natural enemy
that we can look at and say, oh, he's my enemy or she's my
enemy. We have spiritual enemies, the
realm which is of Satan, and he goes about to the sea. Paul
said in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4, he said, for our weapons are
not, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that means physical,
that we can lay a hold of, but they're mighty. They're mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds, verse 13. Wherefore, because of this, taken
to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
in the evil day and having done all to stand because this warfare
is not carnal it's not a natural warfare that we fight hand to
hand let us take our taken to ourselves the whole armor of
God everything that God provides for us put on that which God
has provided for me let me not take one thing and not take another
but let me take the whole armor of God for that is the only way
the only way that you and I can stand strong in the Lord is to
be armed with the things that God has provided for us that we may be able to stand
every trial, every temptation, every affliction that comes our
way. There's many things that comes our way that I can't explain. Why does some get sick? Why does
some lame? This is the way God purposed
it. I mean, for us to try to explain God, we'd have to be
God, and we are not. So God supplies everything that
we need. to stand before Him and to find
acceptance in Him. And we find these things in the
Lord Jesus Christ and what He provides for us. Verse 14 down
through verse 18 is where we're going to deal with the majority
of our time. Stand therefore having your loins
girded about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. Above all things,
above all, take the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God." And how do we do this? praying always,
with prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." We want to look
at these one at a time here. The parts of the armor that God
had provided for us. Your loins girded about with
the truth. the part of the body that extends
from the ribs to the thighs, or to the hips, or the loins
that he's talking about here. What's that mean? We are to be
shielded with the truth. That's what we need to hear.
The truth of the gospel, the truth of the redemptive work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, verse
13, Wherefore, girt up, your loins of your mind and be
sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. This thing of the
truth, the truth is the first armor that is mentioned here
by Paul because it's the most important. Without the truth
Without this firm foundation, without you being established
in the right course, the right frame, on the right gospel, there
will be no standing. The truth about who God is. Who
is God? Well, the scriptures tells us
he's holy, holy, holy. The truth about who I am. The
scriptures tells us that we're dead and trespassing in sin.
The truth about this race that we are to run. How are we to
run this race? We must know how to run. And
the truth is, looking unto Jesus, we see him magnified and exalted
and enthroned in the word of God. We see him uplifted. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. So the truth is the first
thing that we must be established in, who God is. Who I am, the
race that is set before me, and how do we run this race? We run
this race with the might and the power and the grace and the
mercy of God that we receive through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we depend, we rest, we lean
upon all that he has provided for me. Look at the second one,
the breastplate of righteousness. This breastplate, one writer
called it the breastplate of integrity. The right standing
before God. How do I stand before God? I
stand there with the breastplate of righteousness. I stand there
when God looks upon me and he sees me standing in this breastplate
of righteousness. He finds no fault. He finds no
fault. What is this breastplate of righteousness?
It is but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that he
has worked and provided for me, given unto me, imputed to me,
and charged unto my account. And when God sees me standing
there with the breastplate of righteousness of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot help but to say, welcome
in. He must accept that which he
provides. the perfect righteousness that
he has provided for me, given unto me, and charged unto me.
Paul said in Romans chapter 8 and verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Who's going to charge me? Who's
going to condemn me? Who's going to say he's not right
when I have this breastplate of righteousness on? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. It is He that says, I am well
pleased in Him. It is He that says, you have
obeyed my law in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Him
that says, welcome in unto the joys of the Lord. Who is He that
condemneth? How do we get this place? How
do we receive this righteousness? It is Christ that died, yea rather
it is risen again who is ascended unto the right hand of God. And
there he makes intercessions for me. Standing there in my
room and my stead when the charge of Satan comes about and he says
he's sinned and he's come short of your glory every day. Our
Lord says yes he's sinned. He does fail. He does come short
of the glory of God. But I died in his room and in
his stead. His sins was charged to me, and
now they are paid for, and that he bears them no more. No wonder
our Lord said, look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends
of the earth. Look at the next one. Your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel. I've heard many ideas
on this, and I've read several different things on this, and
several of them are true. We are to have a firm foothold
on the gospel. We are to be established on the
gospel. That's true. We are to have a sure foundation
of the gospel of peace. Without this sure foundation,
the building cannot be erected in the right stead. You take
a foundation that's toddled or teetered, Offline, when you build
a building, that building is off. But if we are founded and
grounded and rooted and settled in the Lord Jesus Christ, upon
who He is, what He did, why He did it, where He's at, and what
He's doing right now, then we have a sure foundation. We have
a good foothold. And there's a godly walk. How do we live our lives in this
world? We are to live our lives in this
world as unto the Lord. Let us not do anything that is
not pleasing unto the Lord. You say, well, I don't know what
the Lord's will is. Ask him. He'll show you. If you're his, he said, I'll
send forth my spirit, and my spirit will lead you and guide
you. What? in the path of righteousness
for my name's sake. Lean upon the spirit. Have a
good foothold for the preparation of the gospel. And another one
is a readiness. A readiness to go forth and to
proclaim this gospel. A readiness to stand. I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him. Let us be ready to stand there
with our feet shed with the preparation of the gospel. Feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel. The next one is take the shield
of faith. How often? How often do we doubt? How often do we fear? How often
are we depressed? Weary? How often do we murmur? and question regarding spiritual
things. How often do we wonder, am I a child of
God? Can a child of God act and say
and do the things that I do with this evil all about me? Often times This is Satan hurling
his darts towards us. These are the wiles of the devil. And they can only be shielded.
They can only be shielded by this thing of faith. The shield
of faith. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. And he spoke in Romans chapter
four in verse 20 concerning Abraham. He said, Abraham staggered not
at the promises of God. The Lord had promised Abraham
a son. And most of you know the story
well. Abraham was somewhere around 100 years old, and his wife Sarah
was somewhere around 90 years old. And he'd been several years. since the Lord had made him this
promise. And Abraham saw no sons. Abraham saw no son. He went about
to conceive a son on his own. You know the story of that. But
Paul had this statement concerning Abraham. He said he staggered
not. He didn't waver. He didn't doubt. He staggered not. at the promises
of God through unbelief, but was strong in the faith, giving
glory to God, and being fully persuaded that He which had promised
was able to perform all that He said He would do. Do we have
this kind of faith? Do I have this kind of faith?
I'm afraid not. I'm afraid not. Faith in God's
Word and faith in God's purpose. And we know that all things work
together for the good, to them that love God, to them that are
called according to His purpose. Do I rest in that? Can I rest
in that? Do I have the strength to rest
in that? Only if we have the shield of faith. For whom He
did foreknow, them He did also predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, to be the firstborn among many brethren.
We run a race that is set before us, and we run it with patience,
and we run it looking unto Jesus. Moreover, whom he did predestinate
them, he also called. And whom he called them, he also
justified. And whom he justified them, he
also glorified. faith in God's word, faith in
God's purpose, faith in the redemptive work of Christ. This is what
our shield of faith is. We rest, we find confidence,
we find steadfastness in God's word, in God's purpose, and in
the redemptive work of Christ. Paul said in Romans again in
chapter eight, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that
died, yea rather He's risen again. This is the proof that God was
satisfied with Him. And if I be risen with Christ,
that's the proof that God is satisfied with me. If I look
to Christ by faith, if I'm rooted and grounded in faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, that's the work that God has done for me
and in me, not something I've done for myself. Who is he that
condemneth that Christ died, yea, that He is risen again,
who is at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us?
Who shall separate us from this faith? You say, well, all I got
to do is walk away. Try that sometime. If you be
in God, try to walk away. God, there is a restraining power. That new spirit, that new creation,
that new man that He has created in you will not allow you to
walk away. There shall be none, I should
lose nothing, but should raise him up against the last day.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Well, he said,
well, all I got to do, get yourself out of the way and lean and look
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulations, shall troubles
that comes our way separate me from the love of Christ? or distress,
or I'm in trouble, I'm in trials and tribulation, or persecutions,
or people saying bad things about me, is this going to separate
me from the love of Christ? Or famine, or nakedness, or pearl,
or sword? He lists the whole things down
through here. He says, as it is written, for thy sake we are
killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, In Christ
Jesus, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuading that neither death, oh no, that death's gonna
separate me. No, death is simply the entering
into the very presence of God's love. Now we see through a glass
dimly or darkly, but then face to face. So death's not gonna
separate me from the love of Christ, nor life that I live
now, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate me. He uses the word us here. He's
not, these things cannot separate me from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus. And if we hold to this, This
is the true faith. This is the shield that we have
about us that God defends the fiery darts of Satan. Look at
the next one. Take the helmet of salvation.
The helmet is a piece of armor for the head to protect against
false doctrine. False doctrine. Be careful what
you hear and who you hear. This helmet is the hope of salvation. I know whom I have believed.
And this helmet is this thing of Christ and Christ alone is
my hope and my salvation. If I lean anywhere else, if I
lean anywhere else or anything else, or if I mix anything with
it, then I have an unsure foundation. But if, by the grace of God,
we take the helmet of salvation, and we put this, the helmet of
salvation on, I say we, it's God that does it for us, it is
looking unto Jesus continually, continually, continually, My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
And the song says, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but
wholly lean on Jesus' name. This is that hope that we have,
the helmet of salvation. My hope is built on nothing less
than Christ and Christ alone. Look at the next one. the Sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Word of God is compared
here to a sword in that it has two edges. It has two edges.
Law and the Gospel. Law and Grace. For the Word of
God is quick. Paul said in Hebrews chapter
4 and verse 12, For the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and the joint of the marr, and is
the discerner of the thought and the intent of the heart.
The word of God, or the sword of God, has no blunt edges. Brother Henry said one time,
a man cannot approach the word of God and lead the same way
that he came. When you approach the word of
God, when you hear the word of God, And especially when you
hear it with your heart, it has an effect. It has an effect.
Many say under the gospel, hear it with their ears only. And
often times we see a little bit of effect, this and that. But
when God speaks to the heart, when he takes that sword, and
he pierces to dividing us under a soul and spirit. When he takes
that sword and he plunges it into the heart of men, they're
separating them. Come out from among ye and be
ye a separated people. That's what the Word of God does
for us. It separates us and it causes us to look to Christ by
faith. Its effect, it cuts away this
thing of self-righteousness. It cuts it away. It cuts away
this thing that kills our pride or raises this pride up within
us. It kills our pride. It cuts away this thing of me,
me, me. And it points up to Him, Him,
Him. That's what the Word of God does.
It reaches to the hidden secrets of the parts of man. It comes
into the very heart of man, into the very intent and the thoughts
of the heart. This is the weapon that God uses
to defeat every one of his foes. For the devil said unto him,
Satan was, our Lord was taken up into a high mountain and Satan
appeared there to him. And it says, the devil said unto
him, if thou be the son of God, command this stone that it may
be made bread. What did our Lord do? He simply
quoted the word of God. And Jesus said unto him, it is
written that man should not live by bread alone, but every word
which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We take the word of God,
We feed upon the word of God. We live in the word of God. We
are sustained by the word of God. And we are comforted, corrected,
edified, and uplifted by the word of God, the preaching of
the gospel. And how do we take this? The next one is praying. We do it praying. The last armor
mention. Now there's all sort of prayer.
There's a mental prayer. There's a vocal prayer, there's
a private prayer, there's a public prayer. And we should be continued
in these all the day long, praying always with this good hope within
our thoughts and with our minds, knowing that we are heard of
God. But our prayer must be the only
prayer that God will accept. is in the spirit it must be praying
in the spirit assisted by the spirit led by the spirit directed
by the spirit and as we pray in the spirit our prayers is
to be with a sincere heart knowing who we're speaking to and also
knowing this who is speaking unto him how vile, how wretched,
how sinful, how whatever word you want to put upon us is able
to approach the throne of God, is able to come into the very
presence of God through this thing of prayer. We're actually
able to enter into the very presence of God in prayer with Him, led
and directed by the Spirit. And as we come, we make mention
How great thou art, how great a God we serve. We make mention,
Lord, forgive me of my sins, knowing who I am and what I am.
We make mention, Lord, do these things for me in the name of
my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, not because of who I am, but
despite of who I am. Have mercy upon me in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we're led by the Spirit
of prayer, we will persevere. We will continue. This is not
a one-time thing. This is not, oh, I remember when
I prayed a prayer and Jesus spoke to me. That's foolishness. What
has he done for you today? Has the Spirit of God directed
you this morning? Has he spoken unto you while
you've sat right here? Did he speak unto you while you
was getting ready to come? Did he speak to you on his way?
this is what prayer is and did you speak to him this is the
only way that we will be able to stand the fiery darts of satan
and this is the only way that we can stand even in our own
weakness look at verse 19 and we'll close and for me that utterance may
be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known
the mysteries of the gospel. Pray for your pastors. Pray for
the ministers that stand before you that God would enable them
to speak. This is the only life that we
have. This is the only hope that we
have is that we hear the gospel preached. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So we must
first hear the gospel. Men say, oh, I can be saved out
in the woods hunting or fishing. I can be... You must hear the
gospel. It's so important that the gospel
be preached. It's so important that the gospel
be established. It's so important that the gospel
be held up. That Paul says, and for me, that
utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mysteries of the gospel. And he says, for
which none of the princes of this world knew. For had they
have known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. We are in a day that the gospel
is so rare. So rare. You look here this morning. What
have we got? I drove by, as we left Tony's house, I noticed
the churches. The parking lot was beginning
to fill up. Big buildings, full of people. But there's no gospel
there. There's no life there. There's
no blood there. There's only works, do's and
don'ts, and what I've done and what I've not done. But as it
is written, I have not seen nor heard, neither has entered into
the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us, how? By his Spirit, by showing us,
teaching us, giving unto us, uttering unto us through the
gospel. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall he preach except he be sent? And
the next verse, men is abused and misused. How beautiful are
the feet of them that spread the gospel of glad tidings unto
men. That's not lifting up man. That's lifting up his office.
That's lifting up who he is and who he preaches and who he teaches
and who he exalts every time he stands before you. And we
are to pray for them that God would use them for his own glory
that he may be uplifted in and through and by their word. Thank
you. We'll take just a few minutes
and we'll start our worship service.