Ephesians 6. I hope this will be a blessing
to you. I hope it will be a help to you. It has been to me. I've
been thinking about it for days. I was talking to a young pastor
one time. I told him that it would be a good
thing to always be in or around the epistles because they're
written to the church. The Lord had the apostles build
on everything that He said and wrote all of the epistles to
the church, and they're so vital, so necessary. Verses 10 and 11
say this, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Stand and not fall. Now the scripture warns us, let
him that thinketh he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. And I don't want to fall. Do you? I don't want to fall
away. I don't want to fall temporarily.
I want to fall to temptation, to fall in sin. There are many
Scriptures that speak about us falling. Listen, Hebrews 4, Let
us fear lest a promise be left to us of entering into His rest,
any of you should seem to come short of it. Scripture is full
of these warnings. It says, Let us labor to enter
into that rest lest any man fall. After the same example, of unbelief,
or like the children of Israel in the wilderness who were overcome
in the wilderness. Listen to this. It says, It is
impossible for those who were once enlightened and had tasted
of the heavenly gift, made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they
should fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. to themselves
the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame. One of the last verses in Peter's
letter, he said this, he said, Beware lest ye, being led away
with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. So Scripture warns us. Now, God's Word teaches us, thankfully,
of the preservation of the saints, that he will preserve his people. Kept. Preserved. And teaches
us of the perseverance of the saints, which our brother Crabtree
made a new word, and I like it. It's called perseverance of the
saints. It contains both. We persevere
because the Lord preserves us. That's the only reason. We're
kept. God's people are said to be kept
by the power of God. Through faith. Ready to be revealed
for the last time. The Lord is my keeper. The Lord
is thy keeper. He that keepeth Israel. Scripture says. Isn't that good
news? Unto Him that we give praise. Unto Him that is able to keep
us from falling. But here's the fact. Anyone who
falls away and leaves the gospel was never born of God. Never. If you're born of God, it is
of God, sinneth not. Sinneth not. Cannot sin. Because the seed remains in it. The root of the He that leaves
the gospel, she that leaves the gospel, was never born of God. Like John said, they went out
from us. But if they'd been of us, no doubt would have remained
with us. And Christ was never in them,
because Christ said, I will never leave them. He said, I and the
Father will come and take up our abode with them. And so it
says things like this. After that verse I just read
to you about those that, if they fall away, on down it says, beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, things that accompany
salvation. Listen to this. In Hebrews 10
it says this, now the just shall live by faith and if any man
draw back, God says he'll have no pleasure in them, but we are
not of them. that draw back unto perdition,
but of them that believe to the Saviour of the soul. So why should
we worry? Why should we read all of this? Why do we need to do what He
said, having done all, to stand? Why then? Because we're going
to be kept. The fear of the Lord, that's
why. The fear of the Lord. Let us fear, he said. Let the
promise be made up. By the fear of the Lord, men
depart from evil. I love Psalm 130. It says, There
is forgiveness with thee. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquity, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee. Can you quote the rest of it? That thou mayest be feared Forgiveness should make us think
about, well, the pain and the guilt and the shame of sin and
of reproach and all of that is almost punishment enough. And forgiveness makes us so grateful. And then, like the Lord said
to the woman caught in the act of adultery, go and sin no more.
You don't want to go back and wall her on. You don't want to
go back and pound the porch to her. This is why. And presumption.
David said, keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin. Do not
presume upon the mercy of God. Trust in His mercy. But here's
the point. Paul said, I count not myself
to have apprehended. And so this one thing I did.
I pressed. Now, he said, and here's a verse
of Scripture that scares me as a preacher. He said, I keep my
body in subjection, lest in preaching to others I myself am a castaway. I wish it scared me more than
it did. We are saved if we continue in the faith. We are saved if
we die. We are saved if we continue in the faith, die in
the faith, and our Lord said, to him that overcometh. In every
letter to every church in the Revelation, it says, to him that
overcometh. And in 1 Corinthians 10, it talks
about how they were all overcome in the wilderness, except a few. But to him that overcometh. Presumption
is dangerous. Not only that presumptuous about
our soul, but presumption will lead to carelessness and indifference
and lead us to fall into sin. We can easily fall into many
foolish, Scripture says, and hurtful lusts. Not only ourselves,
but others. We can fall into bad spirits.
Bad attitude. This has happened to most of
the saints. Every saint, but not all in scriptures
are recorded. David did, for a long time. He'd
have been hard-pressed to know that he was a believer at one
time. Lot, and on and on it goes. Abraham. We can fall into a bad
spirit, a spirit of pride, a spirit of self-righteousness. worldliness,
selfishness, the bond of iniquity, the gall of bitterness, the bond
of iniquity. We can fall into Satan. He talks
about the wiles of Satan. He has many pits, many traps,
many nets, many temptations at his disposal, and he knows how
to use them all. And we are no match. Righteous woman Eve was no match
for him. Where does that leave us? So
we need this desperately. The Lord gives us some help here. So it begins where we need to
look. He says, verse 10 in our text,
Ephesians 6, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. Martin Luther, we almost sang
that hymn tonight, but I thought, no, we're going to get right
into the message. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving
would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side. The man of God's own choosing. He must win the battle. He alone
is stronger than our adversary. We're no match for him. Filthy
dreamers that Jude talked about, filthy dreamers speak evil and
brag and boast about what they do with Satan when they are under
his spell and captivity, doing his work. And we don't speak
evil of dignities, and we say like Michael the archangel, when
accosted and when the Lord rebuked. That's our only hope, and he's
our only hope. Be strong in the Lord is to look
to Him, to call on the Lord, to commune with the Lord, to
of His fullness receive grace for grace. We need grace, daily
grace, hourly grace. Did you read the article by my
pastor? I don't have it. What did I do with it? Did you
read the article in Sunday's Bulletin by my pastor about how
we need the fellowship of His people, be around His people,
those of like faith and like mine, whereas the people of this
world that are captives of Satan. Well, now, everything here we've
looked at before. In fact, in the past, we did
a message on each one of these pieces of armor. But there's
nothing new, nothing you don't already know, most of it. And
there's nothing, no secrets. There's no secrets. formula. There's nothing new
here. What he's going to speak about
and use armor as a symbol, he's going to talk about Christ, looking
to Christ. He's going to talk about the
gospel of Christ, talk about the Word of God, the Word of
Christ, prayer, calling on the Lord Jesus Christ, calling on
our God. It's all symbolized by armor. You know, we don't use armor
today, do we? We're not even familiar with
it. But back then, they were well-versed in armor. They saw
it every day. The Romans and their enemies
were everywhere. Arrows were flying constantly.
Swords all around. We live in relative peace and
safety now. But they knew something about
it. And they knew the value of each piece of armor, necessity. And armor over the years was
perfected and invented during the course of war and battle,
you know. They knew they needed this, they
needed that, and so on and so forth. So here's the symbolism. Verse 11. He says, put on the
whole armor of God. The whole armor. And everything
he's going to tell us about is from God's Word. The truth of
God. The whole armor. Did not Paul
say, I preach unto you the whole counsel of God. I kept back nothing
profitably. There's no chink in this armor. There's no chink in this armor. In the chain mail, there's no
weak link. Chain mail, what suits of armor
were made of. The fiery darts of the wicked
cannot get through this. Anything else is a mighty
poor suit of armor. There's a chink in man's armor. Well, put on the whole armor,
the whole counsel, all the truth of God that you may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil, the cunning, the tricks,
the deceptions, the lies, Everyone, until the Lord reveals the truth
to us, we fall for Satan's lies. Everybody does. Everyone falls
for his lies. He's the father of lies. He started
in the garden with our mother, Eve, and she fell for his lies. Satan is the father of lies.
He's a deceiver. And so are his ministers, deceiving
and being deceitful. And they're telling lies. And
people are falling for them. There's only one remedy to keep
us from falling to his lies. Satan is the great master of
delusion. Delude people. Temptation, snare,
the wiles of the devil. I have a book that thick by William
Gurnall. I think I read it twice when
I was young, about the Christian in complete armor. Because he
deals with the wiles of the devil, things that we are not aware
of, but yet we're pointed out to as, oh, I see that. Why did I fall for that? He's
wily, crafty, crafty, wily. Verse 12 says, we wrestle not
against flesh and blood. We're not wrestling with mere
mortal men here. And we're really not just wrestling
with our own flesh right now. It's a struggle to hear this
that is so helpful. Why is that? We've considered
this before, that if I were standing up and talking about trivial
things, we could, we might even be engrossed
in it and all ears, but the minute We start dealing with spiritual
thing, eternal thing, vital thing. Life or death matters. What happened?
It's a wrestling match here. It's a battle. Well, he says
we're not wrestling with flesh and blood. We're wrestling with
the principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this
world, the darkness of our own hearts. against spiritual wickedness
or wicked spirits in high places. My, my. This is too high for me, but
I'm going to try to deal with it. Our battle is against wicked
spirits who inhabit the supernatural world of which we cannot see.
And he deals in lies. His principal works are pride,
idolatry, covetousness, lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh,
pride of life, which we are so easily beset by. And he knows. And this is what he uses in all
manner of sin. So here he gives us some help.
Verse 13. Take unto you the whole armor
of God. Take upon yourself. Take advantage
of. Utilize, use, wear the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day. We're living in the evil day.
We're living in the last day. We're living in the day of evil,
Satan's little season. That's what we're living in.
And our Lord said it's just temporary, it's a little season, and then
he's going to destroy him with the brightness of his coming.
And I sure wish he would come quickly, don't you? But I fear falling right now. I believe it. Now, you may be able to withstand
in the evil, and look at this, having done all to stand. Is there anything for us to do? Well, you read it with me. I
remember reading or hearing you preach a message on what can
a sinner do? We're not saved by our works. We know that. The work of salvation is done.
It's not do, d-o, it's d-o-n-e, done. We're saved by the doings
and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're saved.
So, there's nothing for us to do. That's not so, is it? He talked about scriptures full
of it. Repent. Except you repent. Call. Call. Seek. Ask. Knock. Paul said, I press. And here
he says, take this armor. Take this armor. You want to
stand, don't you? Oh, I do. Then do everything
I say. Whatever he says unto us, do
it, okay? You're not talking about forced salvation. I don't want to fall into Foolish
and hurtful loves, do you? I don't want to fall to Satan's
temptation. I don't want to fall. I don't
want you to fall. I know you need this because I do. I need
it worse than you. Alright, he says, so take the
whole armor of God. Stand, verse 14, stand therefore
having your loins girt about with truth. Now, a man would
put on armor, and this armor is for men and women. But a man
with Joan of Arc, she wore armor. But a man put on his armor, the
first thing, before he put all that other stuff on, the first
thing he did was get him a big leather girdle and just tie it
tight. Wrap it up there. Just tie it
just really tight. What's he protecting? The Bible? The old westerners used to talk
about being gut shot. You get gut shot or stabbed,
it's over. Lauren's girt about with truth.
The foundation. The underlying garment. The undergarment is, as it were,
the foundation. That which keeps us from falling
apart. To prevent all the wild... the temptations and everything
from entering into the lust of our flesh, our loins, our deep,
you know, these deep desires, the truth. Have your loins girt
about with the truth. Wrap yourself up in the gospel
of God's redemptive glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the first armor mentioned
because it's the most important. It's the foundation of all the
rest. It's the truth about God. The fool has said, No, God. But
yet, in Him we live and move and have our being. We know it.
This is the truth that we must wrap ourselves up in. God is
true and every man is a liar. Don't fall for anything. Wrap
yourselves up in it. The truth about ourselves. Our
Lord said, Without Me, you can't do nothing. Nothing. But you
love this verse, don't you, John? I can do all things through Christ
who strengthened me. Who strengthened me. The truth
of this race that we run. The race that we run. We're in
a race. And it's an ongoing thing. And until it's over, we can't quit. Christ and His redemptive work,
and it will keep me close to God and defend me from all the
evil suggestions of Satan. How often does He tempt you? And these are things, you know, too
wonderful for me, any of us. And I don't know how much to
attribute to Satan and how much to attribute to our own old man
inside. Know this, though. Let us know
this for our comfort and some peace of mind. Satan is not God. He's not omnipotent. He's not
omniscient. He can't read your heart. No,
he can't. He knows human nature. God alone
looks on the heart. Let's not attribute to Satan
what belongs only to God. That's what men do. He's not
omnipresent. He's not everywhere at the same
time. No. He has many workers, demons and devils, but not as
many angels as God has. So, quite often, the old devil
in us is what gives us so much trouble, and whether or not it's
Satan or... I remember reading that one time. I think it was
Gurnall in that book, as a young man. There'd be times when thoughts
would come in my mind, and he said, I would wonder, is it the
devil or is it me? How could I think things like
that? Well, they're one and the same. That old man. So this girdle of truth is the
only thing to defend us against all the suggestions of Satan.
He's a liar. He's a liar. Deceitful. And he'll
tell us that bitter is sweet. He'll tell us that good is evil
and evil is good. He'll tell us, look, that's going
to feel good when the pain and the suffering after it's over
lasts sometimes a lifetime. He's a liar. He's a liar. Believe
God. Believe God. The breastplate
of righteousness. Read on. Stand, therefore, in
having the breastplate of righteousness." The breastplate of righteousness.
Whose righteousness? Right. Right. There is no other. David said,
I'll speak of thy righteousness and thine only. We'll stand in
His righteousness. We're covered by His righteousness.
The breastplate of righteousness. before Satan with our righteousness. Shoot. You're going to see right
through that. These sons of Seba. You remember
that story? The sons of Seba who pretended
to cast out demons and the devils came to them and said, Jesus
we know and Paul we know. Who are you? And tore them and
stripped them naked. That's significant. Strip them
naked. They went running with the righteousness. You can't
strip you naked. With the righteousness of Christ on, you can't strip
you naked. You can't penetrate that blessed place. Have that
around your heart. The righteousness of Christ,
the righteousness of Christ, the perfect righteousness of
Christ imputed to us, repels any accusations of Satan that
he levels against us. And he is the accuser of the
brethren. And here, listen to this. Listen
to Romans 8, again, for your comfort. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. That's
the truth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes an intercession. That will keep your heart and
mind so warm. The righteousness of Christ. Oh, man. Look at the next one. Your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Your feet,
a firm foundation. Your feet firmly standing on
the rock Christ Jesus. The preparation of the gospel
of peace. You know, you can't walk without
shoes, can you? No, not very far. Not on rough
terrain. Not in slippery places. No, sir. The Gospel prepares us to walk
in this world. You're hearing the Gospel right
now because you've got to walk out there in this world in the
next few days until we come again. And this Gospel prepares us to
walk. Walk by faith. Walk by faith. In what? in His Word, in His
promises, in Christ our Lord, depending, looking to Him, walking
by faith in Him. Why is it called the preparation
of the gospel of peace? Gospel of peace. This gospel
will give you peace. Christ our peace. But it's called
the preparation because there's some preparation that must be
done to hear it. There's some preparation on our
part to receive it. There's some preparation to receive
it. Prayer. And he's going to talk
about that in a minute. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on Him whom
they have not heard or believed? How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except to be sent? So it all goes together.
Whoever is called is going to hear from a preacher, not just
a call. So there's some preparation,
some preparation. The gospels choose to give fitness
to the feet or courage a sure footing for Some steep places
we're going to be called to walk. Some rough places. Some slippery
places. The gospel shoes won't let your
foot slide. This may or may not be a good
illustration, but I was out digging in the garden and my little neighbor
named Caleb, well I hope he is a Caleb, but he comes over and
helps. every single day. He comes over
and blesses his little heart. He kisses him big. But he came
over and, can I help? Little redneck boy. Can I help? Sure, Caleb. And he got his shovel
and his wheelbarrow and he had some flip-flops on. I said, Caleb,
son, you can't dig in this hard ground with flip-flops on. No,
that shovel's not even going to pierce You can do a lot of
things with tennis shoes. You can't dig with a shovel. It ain't really hard work. You
need to protect your feet. I remember, Stephen, the railroads
required us to wear steel toe boots. It was a requirement.
I got used to wearing them. I wore them all my life. All
year long. I felt impenetrable. Courageous with my steel-toed
boots on. Honestly. Some courage there. Give you some courage. This gospel
is the only thing that will give you courage. In other words,
Walter Gruber, when he went down to the mission field, he went
with one thing. He had very little support to
a foreign country, very little knowledge of the language. What
did he have? Shoes on his feet. Gospel shoes. And he ran. And boy, has the Lord blessed
him. Preparation of the gospel of peace. My, my. Take the shield of faith, he
said. You've got to hurry. Take the shield of faith, wherewith
you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Listen to my pastor's comment
on this from his commentary. Satan hurls all manner of fiery
darts, darts of doubt, darts of fear, darts of depression,
all manner of questions regarding your spiritual state. The only
shield against these fiery darts is the Word of God, the truth
of God. And he gives this reference,
Romans 4. Listen to this. It talks about
Abraham. It says, he staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in the faith,
fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able also
to perform. So he went walking. Abraham went
walking, and he walked all his life, journey, sojourn. shield of faith and fiery darts,
faith in God's purpose, and the pastor gives it. Romans 8. We know. All things work together. The Gay Priesthood. All things
work together according to God's purpose, don't they? Yes, they
do, for the good of them that love God, according to His purpose.
We know that. That keeps these fiery darts
from entering, of doubts and fear, And then Christ redeeming
work, who shall separate us from the love of God? Satan says,
nah, you're going to fall away. The shield of faith says, who
shall separate us? Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril of the sword? No. And all these things
were more than conquerors through him that loved me. Take, he said,
now all of the rest of those other things were defensive armor. Look at this next thing. It says,
take the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation. Paul
wrote in another place, take the helmet of hope. Hope of salvation. Keep your head from being bombarded
with all the thoughts that the world, you know, that you hear,
nor some pestilence you hear. A helmet of salvation. Hope in
the salvation of Christ. He said, I'm coming and I come
quickly. Against all the notions that you hear, all the lies,
have this helmet of hope. And read this. Here's the offensive
weapon. The sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God. The sword of the Spirit. Now,
the sword works on us at first. God uses this sword on us. A
two-edged sword. It wounds and it heals. It kills
and it makes alive. The sword of God's Spirit kills
pride, kills envy, kills lust, kills sin in us. It must. It
must. It's a weapon God uses upon us,
and we have but one weapon that we use. I use in preaching. We use in talking, witnessing
other people. dealing with other people. Our
comments, our whatever, avail nothing. One word in season. The Lord can use one word. One
word. It's the sword of the Spirit.
And be not afraid to use it. Mindy and I were talking the
other day, and, you know, we hesitate sometimes to be too
blunt with people. Well, with a verse of Scripture, don't
ever apologize for saying something that God's Word says. God's Word is not blunt, mind
you, it's sharp, but very forceful. Very forceful. Take a verse of
Scripture, a word of Scripture, if it comes to mind, and slay
Him with it. Do it in kindness, speak the
truth in love. But that's what God uses. That's what God uses. The only thing God uses is his
word. That's what he used on us. Nobody can convince us of
anything. Never could. God with one word. One word,
truth. So that's, we need the sword,
don't we? The sword, the word of God. And
pray in all ways, with all prayer. Praying always with all prayer.
The last weapon is prayer. And it includes all sorts of
prayer. Mental prayer. I told someone,
and it's true. I just want to tell you. From the
minute I leave the house until I get back home, I'm begging
the Lord to help me. Middle prayer. Middle prayer. And there's vocal prayer. Vocal
prayer. It's prayer. We're called on
to pray on behalf of others, our family and all that. Private
prayer. It says praying with all prayer. All prayer. Always
be in a mindset of prayer. Why? Because we need Him every
hour. Praying always with all prayer. Prayer in your thoughts toward
God. There's outward, vocal prayer
that's necessary, even in private. Call. And public prayer is so
helpful. When these men meet together,
it is helpful. And we need prayer. And prayer
should always be in Christ, in His name. Prayer should be in
sincerity. Look at this, praying always
with all prayer and supplication. That means asking the Lord to
supply in the spirit, in sincerity, through the Spirit of God. Romans
8, again, who makes groaning for us. Oh, Lord, help me. Oh, Lord, help me. Supply. Supplication. Supply my need. Lord, I'm needy. I'm poor and
needy. Would you please supply my need? What do you need? Wisdom. Oh, my. Watching thereunto. Always watching thereunto. Prayer
will keep you watchful. Calling on the Lord will keep
you watchful. With all perseverance. What's perseverance? Opportunity. It's the widow woman with her
continual coming, even the unjust said, I'm going to give her what
she wants, she keeps coming. That's praying with perseverance
and supplication for all saints. You know who the Lord will answer?
Those that pray for others. Give me an example, Preacher.
Jesus Christ. Rahab. She prayed for her family and
everybody first, and then herself last. Oh, my. Praying always for supplication
for all things. You know, it's not always me
and mine, but broaden my coasts. Enlarge my coasts. Let me see,
it's not all just about me. In fact, I'm a very small part. And read this in closing. He
says, Pray for me, the preacher, that utterance may be given unto
me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel. You know, we get visitors that
come in, and it affects me. I want people to believe. I do,
badly. When people come in, It affects me deeply. I think,
oh. And I can't help it, I think
this, I don't want to offend them. I want them to come back. I don't want to drive them away.
So I need to soften this up a little bit. Oh, no. You see the sense here? Oh, no. This rich person walks in. We
need money. So let's, you know, don't fit.
Oh, no. Tell it. Boldly. Make known the mystery of the
gospel. And utterance. Understanding. I apologize after
every message to our Lord. Apologize. Pray for me that I
may be able to I have this utterance to make known the mystery of
the gospel. If you, your friends, neighbors, children, your lost
loved ones, spouses, fathers and mothers that live around
this area are going to hear the gospel, you're probably going
to hear it from me. And I'm sorry, but that's the
way it is. Pray for me. I pray for them. And I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak. Finally, brethren, be strong
in the Lord, the power of His might. Take unto you the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand and not fall. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, we again call upon
You to take this Word and apply it to our hearts. We pray it
again because our hearts often deceive us. Satan is a deceiver. He used Peter. Lord, he's wily and crafty, and
we know it, but not nearly as we ought to. And Lord, Thou art our strength.
Thou art our salvation. We look to Thee. And yet You've
given unto us these precious promises. You've given unto us
these means of grace, the armor of God, these things that You've
told us that we're to take unto ourselves, to put on. And Lord,
we're still very ignorant and we're still very... We're still very weak and we
still don't really know how to do these things. So we ask that
you would, by your Spirit, teach us these things. Teach us how
to use this armor, how to put on this armor. More than anything,
teach us to pray. Cause us to pray. Call. Pray
without ceasing, nor we don't want to call. We don't want to
call. Let us pray for others, not just
for ourselves. Pray for this church. each member
of it. Pray for the Gospel here that
goes out. Pray for those who come to hear
it. Oh, Lord, bless your Word, we
pray, for us, for our children, for our friends and neighbors,
for your glory and honor. We ask thee to stay and be here
tonight. Amen. Thank you.