Alright if you'll turn in your
Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6 Ephesians chapter 6 Put on the whole armor of God. What is it to put on the whole
armor of God? Saints of God and sinners saved
by grace, God tells us to put on the whole armor of God and
stand fast. He didn't tell us Anything else other than put
on his armor that he is provided and to stand fast In his power and in his might
and in his strength And in Ephesians 5 just right
over in verse 1 and 2 I He tells us, be you therefore followers
of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved
us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. Be you therefore followers of
God. So all through the chapter, chapter
five, the Lord is telling us, he's revealing the mystery of Christ in his church. And he's doing it, showing us
that man and a wife, a husband and
a wife. It is talking about Christ and His church. We are His bride.
He is our head. He is our husband. We are the
weaker vessel. He is our strength. He is our
power. He is our might. He's our head,
and without the head, the body can do nothing. He is the one. who has given
himself for an offering, sacrifice for sin for his people. And as
his wife, we are to love him and to adore him and to know
his will. And in chapter six, the first
part, he's telling us and showing us examples of being our father and that we are his children. And he's also telling us we're
his servants. He is our Lord and he is our
master. And as his children, We are to obey him. Obey his
will. And he chastens us, he instructs
us as his children. And as his servants, we were once in bondage. We were once captives imprisoned by satan
and sin he is the one who has delivered us and in galatians 5 16 I've lost my place. In Galatians 5, 16, we read,
this I say, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
to one to another so that we cannot do the things that we
would. We are helpless. against this enemy that we are
to stand against. We can't even see the enemy that
we are against. Because he tells us, 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. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual
weakness in high places. Look what God has delivered you
from. Look what God, by His grace in
Christ Jesus, has delivered His people from. And we know He's
in control of all these things. He's already came, suffered,
bled and died, and rose again victorious over these things. God does these things. God created
these things. It's all of God. He created the heavens and the
earth and all that are in it. All for his glory. and for the
saving of his elect. So we face an enemy that we are
powerless against. And God tells us to do what's
contrary to our human nature. To not fight these things, because
you know who one of the biggest enemies is? Who'd he conquer? He conquered
you. He conquered me. He conquered
his elect. That old man, that old sinful
nature was nailed to the cross because we's in him. He dead. We dragging him around. And we're going to drag him around
until God separates us from him. Contrary to our nature, can you
love your brother? Can you love? Now we in our sinful
nature, we have what we call love, but that's not the love
of God. Serve one another? Serve someone else? Serve your
brother? A servant? Brother Evans quoted one time, and I never
will forget, even on our humility is full of pride. Full of sinful,
vile pride. I know that's true in me. God is instructing the new man.
You're born again of God by His grace in Christ Jesus. He's called
you out of your darkness into His light. He sends His gospel. And He borns you again. That
inward operation of the Holy Spirit of God by God's grace
forms in you a new creature, a new creation. In Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus
revealed in you the hope of glory. He instructs you and he gives
us these examples so that we might, our brains
can grasp what he's telling us spiritually
because we can't understand. We only understand in part. We
see through a glass darkly. And even when he gives us that
little glimpse of his glory, of his grace in Christ Jesus,
look what it does to you. Look what he does to you. In Hebrews 2, Verse nine, he tells us, but
we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing
many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation. Perfect. through sufferings. For both
he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all one. For which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren. Saying I will declare thy name
to my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. So he's calling us his soldiers. And he's telling us to stand
fast in his power, in his might, and to put on the whole armor
of God that he has provided. We've already talked about this,
but we're going to talk about it some more. The battle is the
Lord's. It's not ours. It's the Lord's. And he is mighty in battle. He is mighty, he is successful,
he is victorious. He's worthy of praise and glory
and honor. It all belongs to him. So take
up your cross and follow him, he says. The just shall live by faith,
and he is the object. He is the object of our faith. He is the author, the beginning
of our faith. And he is the finisher. of our
faith. He's the end of it. He's the
reason we have it. He is our faith. It's His faithfulness. And when He calls us to glory
and separates us from this vile sinful body, our faith will be sight. The
end of your faith. You don't need it anymore because
you're going to be in Him without sin. Glory to God. So put on the whole armor of
God. Walk in his spirit. He's the only one that makes
us fruitful. Romans 12, 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. So when you have done all your
duty, Those steps that God has already ordained you to walk
in before the foundation of the world, to do His will, I am unprofitable servant. Do not be conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. For you want to mortify the deeds
of your flesh. You walk in His Spirit. You walk
in His love. You in Him. He in you. You put on the whole armor of
God. Now in Ephesians 6, verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. With that faith that God, by
his grace and Christ Jesus has given us, I want us to look at
this marvelous armor, this beautiful armor that he has provided for
us. Because every piece of it, Every
piece of that armor is gonna point you to Christ Jesus. Put on the whole armor of God
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against the spiritual weaknesses in high places, Wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day. And having done all this, stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Christ has overcame all of that wickedness. He's defeated us, and he's given us armor to stand
in. That loins that we read about,
stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having
on the breastplate of righteousness. The loins of truth, grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. He holds the keys to heaven and
hail. He holds the keys to life and
death. He holds everything just like
that belt. that girds your loins, He holds
everything in this universe together by His mighty power, by His strength,
by His Word. He is the Word of God. And all
the Godhead resides in Him bodily. He is truth. He is the only way
to the Father. It's by him and this breastplate
of righteousness. He's the righteous one. His perfect obedience to the
father. As the God man under death on
the cross. He is the end of the law for
righteousness sake. He made it honorable. He walked. He did God's law perfect in our
stead. For us. For the glory of God. And he's the end of the law for
righteousness sake. He was made sin. God. Reconciling us to himself. and his son, Jesus Christ, our substitute. He made him to be sin, who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. How much did he love you? He was delivered for our offenses. We deserved the wrath of God
for eternity. But he was delivered for our
offenses. Praise God, he was raised again.
Because of that righteousness that he brought in. For our justification, God accepted. What the Son did for us, our
substitute. It is the only righteousness
that we have before the Father. our only hope, His blood that
we shed, one time sacrificed for sin, that appeased the holy
justice of God that we offended. He bore that punishment in our
room instead, that propitiation. In verse 15, we see our feet. He's got our feet. He's got our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Who made peace? Oh, come on. Who made peace between us and
God? His elect. Who made it? The God-man did. Came in our
flesh, came in our nature, without sin, and redeemed us with His
body being broken for us. His blood being shed for forgiveness
of sins. Feet, prepared with the gospel of peace. And it's verse 16. Above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench the
fiery darts of the wicked. that shield of faith. Oh, faithfulness of Christ. God given faith by grace, you're
saved not of yourself, through faith, not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Grace is a gift of God. Faith
is a gift of God. And he gives it to his elect
those that believe on him by his will. and by His gracious
mercy. It is He that justifies. So who
can lay any charge to God's elect? It's He that justifies and it's
He that died. Yea, He who lives again. The object. We've already talked
about that. He's the object. He's the author.
He's the finisher of our faith. our substitute, faithful, faithful
to forgive our sins. He sits on his throne, lifted
high, because he laid down his life for his sheep. God the Father
put him on his throne to rule and reign till all his enemies
be made his footstool. When the last one is taken, when
the God reveals himself to his last chosen elect, The end. His judgment will come. His judgment will come. And He sits on His throne till
all His enemies, because that's all that's going to be left is
His enemies, are going to crush Him. He's already crushed Satan's
head. But soon, He'll be under our
feet too. Why? Because we're going to be
in Him. We're going to be known as we are known in Christ. Without sin, he our head, we
his body. What a wonderful, beautiful marriage
it's gonna be. Christ and his church, Christ
and his bride, Christ and his elect. And he is faithful to forgive
our sins. You humble yourselves before
him. He sits on his throne as our high priest and as our advocate,
as our mediator, as our intercessor, as our all. He sets and intercedes
for us. We confess our sins that He has
already been punished for. He's already forgiven you for.
You're not gonna be punished for those sins. Oh no, no, no,
don't you take the glory away from God. His Son, He's already
pleased in His Son who took all those sins away and He did it
perfectly. There's nothing to add to, there ain't nothing to
take away. That's why we have faith in Him. That's why we have
hope in Him and Him alone. And He cleanses us. Forgive us
and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Verse 17, and take that helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God. That helmet, that helmet, we
look over in Hebrews 9, 14. Hebrews 9, 14. How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works, to serve the living God. That helmet, he's your head. His blood's been applied to your
conscience, sprinkled your conscience. He took all the guilt away. He
took all the shame. He took all your punishment.
He took all your sins away. Made you holy, justice, just,
righteous before God. It's gonna be with Him for eternity.
And we don't even know what that means. I don't have a clue. But
it's gotta be great. Because that little glimpse we
get now that He gives us, that He blesses us with, that we only
see darkened through, and that little glimpse that we only see
part, what joy does it give you so? His witnessing, His spirit witnessing
with our spirit, testifying of Him, We got the mind of Christ. He said, I give you the mind
of Christ. Oh, that blood sprinkle. It's sort of righteous. All right. So spirit, sort of the spirit,
which is the word of God, the gospel. Christ crucified, the
gospel of God. The only thing we want to hear,
the only thing we want to know about. Don't want to hear nothing else.
Don't want to think about nothing else. Why do we want to fill
our minds with any other garbage? This is the only, this is the
only weapon we've got right here. And whose hand is it in? Who
is the mighty Whose mighty hand is it in? It's the power of God. Christ
is the power of God. The gospel. His word. Hebrews
4. Hebrews 4 verse 12. Got too quick
and I read it to you before, but For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and
of the joints and the marrow, and he is a discerner of the
thoughts and the intents of the heart. These are any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto his eyes, of whom we have to do, seeing then that
we Have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not
an high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted likewise we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find
grace to help in our time of need. And when do we need help?
I don't know about you, but I need it constantly. Every second of
every day. The Lord is mighty in battle.
We are more than conquerors in him. He has saved us to the uttermost. What a salvation our God has
provided for us in Jesus Christ. Look at that armor. Look at it. He is our refuge. He is our only
hope. He's delivered us with that mighty
hand. His gospel, he makes official,
powerful. It will not return unto him void.
It accomplishes exactly what he wields that sword to do. And he get the glory for it all.
Not us. We didn't contribute one little
bitty thing to this salvation. And we never have. We don't now. And praise God, we never will,
because we would mess it up. He sits on his throne and he
rules. And as his followers, we, his loving, obedient servants,
We serve him by faith that he gives, led by the spirit that
he gives, by the grace that he gives. All in his son, Jesus
Christ, whom he gave and sent, gave his life for us. We are
recipients. All we have is what God has given
us by His grace in Christ Jesus. Till God separates us from this
body of death and He takes us into glory as new creatures in
Him. Until that day, we need to have
this armor on. And every time we put it on,
every piece is going to point you to Christ
Jesus, because it is Christ Jesus who is our refuge. It is Christ
Jesus who is our strength. And it is Christ Jesus who he
puts us in to preserve us till he comes again and takes us to
glory. And then we're going to be in him forever, forever. So when we watch him wield that
sword as his soldiers and we follow him and we watch that
sword in his mighty hand, we sit back in reverential awe and
we praise him that we got a glimpse of his glory and of his grace. That's where I wanna leave you.
Put on arm on God.