Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
Ephesians, Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, chapter six,
beginning with verse 10. Ephesians six, verse 10. And
the title of the message is The Armor of God. And this is where
in verse 10, Paul, as he closes out the letter to the church
at Ephesus, He says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord. And my friend, that's the only
way we who know our sinfulness and know the sovereign mercy
and grace of God can be strong. Our strength is in the Lord,
it's not in ourselves. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might, His mightiness. We have no strength. You know,
Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm strong. What did he mean by that?
Was he just being poetic or trying to contradict himself? No. He
was saying, when I recognize my weakness, that brings me to
rely on Christ even more. Christ is the power and the mighty
conqueror. He's the arm of the Lord. That
means power. And so when I realize at some
particular time, I should realize it all along, but there are times
in life where you kind of see it more, our weakness, our impotence. And if we're believers, that
causes us to look to Christ even more as our strength and our
power. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthen me. So he says in verse 11 of Ephesians
6, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
against the wiles of the devil, the subtleties. And understand
that. Now I mentioned this last week.
I want to return to the passage that I preached on last week
to make a few points by way of introduction before I get into
the particulars of the armor of God that we're going to deal
with. And I'll go as far as I can go. But last week I preached
from 2 Corinthians chapter 10 on the gospel warfare. Showing
how Paul said that though we walk in this physical world,
we don't war in a physical war. Our warfare, the warfare that
Christians have, true Christians now, true believers, sinners
saved by grace, who know God and know Christ, know themselves,
know the gospel. The warfare that we have is engaged
against the world, the flesh, and the devil, but it's a spiritual
warfare. And it's a warfare empowered
by God. And it's a warfare of the mind
and the spirit. And he says it here in 2 Corinthians
10 verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're
not physical, but mighty. They're powerful. Just because
I don't have a gun, a physical gun or a physical bomb, doesn't
mean that the weapon that I do have is not powerful. But it's
mighty. And how is it mighty? Through
God to the pulling down of strongholds. This weapon that I have, if empowered
by God, will pull down the greatest of strongholds. And you know
what is that stronghold? Well, verse five of 2 Corinthians
10. He says, casting down imaginations,
reasonings, ideas, thoughts, and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God. What is that knowledge
of God? That's the revealed truth that
God gives in His Word, empowered by the Spirit. Christ said it
in John 17, I believe it's verse two or three. He said, this is
life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent, knowing God as both a just
God and a Savior, based upon the righteousness of God in Christ. That's the entire merit and value
and power of Christ's obedience unto death to accomplish the
salvation of His people by satisfying law and justice on their behalf,
paying their sin debt, and establishing a perfect righteousness, the
very righteousness of God that God has imputed, charged, accounted
to His people. Christ bore my sins to the cross
and died in my place. He was my surety. He is my surety. my substitute, my redeemer. And now he's my preserver, my
keeper. He is my conqueror. And so anything
that exalts itself against that true knowledge of God revealed
in the gospel and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ. Now notice there in the King
James Version, it says the obedience of Christ. And I believe that's
a proper translation. Many translators will interpret
it this way, that bringing every thought to the obedience to Christ. Well, now there's truth there,
because the Holy Spirit, using the Word of God, aims to bring
every one of our thoughts and our ideas to obey Christ. Obey Him as our Savior, our Lord,
His Word, to obey Him. And that's a warfare. Because
the flesh within us, the corruption within us, will fight against
that. And so that's a truth. But I believe the emphasis here
is the obedience of Christ. In other words, what Christ did
on that cross in His obedience unto death, His death, burial,
and resurrection. The knowledge of God that brings
us to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation,
the only way of forgiveness. Forgiveness comes by His blood. Like one preacher said one time,
he said that the forgiveness of our sins comes on condition
of our repentance. No, sir. It comes on condition
of the blood of Christ. And if the knowledge of God therein
is empowered to your heart and your mind, you will repent. That imagination and stronghold
will be taken down. The strongholds and imaginations
of men are self-righteous religion. Just like Paul said, all that
I used to think recommended me unto God, those strongholds have
been torn down by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. So that
now my only hope is to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith, which I receive by faith in my own personal experience
of it. So it's the obedience of Christ.
Well, if you go back over to our text in Ephesians, this is
what he's talking about. The devil is a subtle, wily creature. And he comes in the name of truth.
We read last week in 2 Corinthians 11 where Paul spoke of how the
devil disguises himself as an angel or a messenger of light.
He quotes a lot of scripture. You remember when Christ was
on the Mount of Temptation after his baptism, much of what Satan
said there in trying to tempt the Lord of Glory was quoting
scripture, but he misuses it. So don't get the idea that a
false preacher a follower of the devil, as it were, can't
quote scripture. I heard of a man years ago, they
called him the walking Bible. He memorized, they said the whole
Bible, I'm not sure that that's true, but he could quote it,
but his gospel was a false gospel. Salvation conditioned on sinners.
And so people may be impressed with his memory, but my friend,
if you know Christ, if you know the gospel, you wouldn't be impressed
with his gospel. So understand that. So Paul writes
verse 11 in Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And then
he says in verse 12, now look at this, this is right in line
with what I preached last week about gospel warfare. He says,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We're not in a warfare
that's physical, but against principalities. And he says,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wicked spirits. Our warfare again, it's spiritual. It's a warfare that's empowered
by God alone. It's a warfare that is of the
mind and of the thoughts, of the heart. And our weapon is
the gospel. And so when he says in verse
13 here, now look at that in Ephesians 6. Wherefore, or for
this reason, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand. Put on the whole armor of God.
Now this is not physical armor. And everything that he says here
has to do with spirit and truth. And so let's look at it in verse
14. He says, first of all, stand therefore having your loins girt
about with truth. Now, if you look and think about
a Roman soldier, and he had all of his garb on, his armor on,
and around his waist, around his loins, He had a girdle, or
a girt, and that held everything together so that he could run
and he could walk, he could get up on a horse. It wasn't loose
hanging and dangling. So it held everything together.
And that's the first point of this armor. If what you believe
and what you're banking on, your hope, if it's not held together
by the truth of God, As it is in Christ, what good will it
do you in the day of battle? It won't do you any good. You'll
be tangled up in the lies of the world and the flesh and the
devil. But truth, Christ said, I am
the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto
God but by me. Have you ever been to a church?
I say church loosely, I'm using that generically. Because a church,
literally a church is one that means called out. And the true
church are those who have been called out of the world and into
the family of God. But there's all kinds of false
churches. Those are Satan's tares that
he sows throughout the world. Have you ever been to one that
preaches what they call progressive Christianity? Now, I never have
been to one But I had a lady who came to our church one time
and she left her church because she said they were teaching progressive
Christianity. And she asked me if I knew what
that was. And I said, well, what I think
it is, is this. They preach that Jesus Christ
is not the only way to God. That there are other ways. Well,
everything that they preach about Christ falls flat. Because it's
a lie, it's not girt about with truth. Christ is the only way. Peter preached, he said, in Acts
chapter four, he says, there's none other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. And that's Jesus Christ, crucified
and risen from the dead. Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. There's no other way. The Bible
says there's one God and one mediator between God and men,
and it's not Mary, as the Catholic church says, that's a lie. It's
not an angel, it's not the apostles, it's Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, God manifest in the flesh. And the ground upon which He
mediates for His people is His righteousness imputed, nothing
else. That's the simplicity or the
singularity of Christ for God's people. So it's not a mixed bag
of false religions. I heard the Pope, somebody said
the Pope said that there are other ways to God, that every,
he said something like, every religion is a way to God. Oh no, my friend, if that's what
you believe, your loins are not girded about with truth, you're
girded about with a lie, and it'll break free, and you'll
die. The truth, what is the truth? You know, Pilate asked that question
to Christ. And what Pilate was reflecting there was a popular
belief that truth is relative. There's no absolute truth. You
know, a lot of so-called churches act that way. There's no absolute
truth that people must go by. There's no objective truth. It's
all relative. What may be true for you may
not be true for me. Have you ever heard that? I heard
a man say one time that he loved the scriptures because we could
both read the same verse. You get one truth out of it,
and I get another truth out of it. Well, my friend, that's a
lie. There's only one truth concerning
salvation. You look at the apostle Paul,
and he wrote very, very much about justification before God. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all of our sins on a just ground. And what is the only just ground
upon which God forgives my sins? The blood of Jesus Christ. And that's it. And if anybody
preaches anything else, it's a lie. And then to be justified
is to be declared in God's court, you might say it this way, in
His court of justice, it's to be declared, pronounced, not
guilty, but righteous in His sight, according to His law and
justice. And it's upon a just ground.
And what is the just ground? The imputed righteousness of
Christ. And if anybody preaches anything
else, it's a lie. You say, well, what is that imputed
righteousness? Well, Paul wrote in Romans chapter
four and verse six, he said, talking about King David in the
Psalms, describing the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. What that is, is that God does
not lay my sins to my account, charge me with them, but He lays
Christ's righteousness, the merit of His obedience unto death,
as my surety, my substitute, my redeemer, to my account. My
debt's fully paid. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. And it's Christ's righteousness
charged, reckoned, accounted, imputed to me. It's not my faith
in Him that makes me righteous. You say, well, doesn't the Bible
say we're justified by faith? Yes, but faith there is the content
of faith, not the act of my believing. What is the content of faith?
The gospel. For the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and the Greek also, or the Gentile. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith, that's knowledge revealed to you by
God, to faith, that's knowledge received by that which God brings
you to believe. For it's written, the justified
shall live by faith. Now you go over to the book of
James and James in chapter two, he makes statements like this,
that a man's not only justified by faith, but by works. Well,
is one the truth and the other lie? No, they're both true. But
James is talking about something entirely different than what
Paul was talking about. And you've got to read the Bible
and see the context. Paul was talking about justification
of a sinner in God's sight. James is talking about the vindication
of a person's profession of faith in the eyes of men. And that's
what he's talking about. It's entirely, both are true. But he says, have your loins
girded about with truth and not a lie. Christ is the truth and
the way and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by Him. Only one way of salvation. by
God's grace in and by the obedience unto death, the merits, the value,
the worthiness of Christ, His blood and righteousness alone.
Now next, he says in verse 14 of Ephesians 6, having on the
breastplate of righteousness. Now you know the breastplate
of that armor that the Roman soldier had, it protected his
vital organs. So that if a spear or an arrow
was shot at him or plunged towards him, that breastplate would turn
it back. And that's what he says here,
the breastplate of righteousness. And he says in another place,
that you may turn back the fiery darts of Satan and his accuser. You know, Satan is called the
accuser of the brethren. When Satan came before God, to
talk about Job, remember in Job 1? Satan brought charges against
Job. And God said, well, you can test
him, but you can't touch his soul, and you should read the
book of Job. Well, what the Bible teaches
is this. Whenever those charges are brought
against God's people by Satan and his people, and they'll do
it, For example, if you would look at me and charge me with
being a sinner, you're right, but I cannot be condemned. My
vital organs spiritually cannot be touched because I have on
a breastplate of righteousness, and that's what I was talking
about earlier, the imputed righteousness of Christ. No charge can penetrate
Christ's righteousness which has been given to me and imputed
to me. And you can look at passages
like Romans 8 33 and 34 which says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again. and at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for us. John wrote in 1 John
2, he said, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
Who is it? Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He is my breastplate. He protects me from all condemnation. Romans 8 1, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. who walk not after
the flesh, that is, trying to save themselves by their work,
but walk after the Spirit, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. That's the breastplate of righteousness.
It's the merit, the value, the work of Christ accounted to me. It's not what I do for God. Listen,
I ought to work hard for the Lord. I try to be the best I
can be, but that's not what saves me. That's not what protects
me. That's not what keeps me from
condemnation. It's what Christ did as my substitute,
my surety, my redeemer, and my preserver. He is the Lord, my
righteousness. Look at verse 15. He says, and
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Our feet
take us where we want to go. And that's where we go when we
go into warfare as a soldier of God. Onward, Christian soldier. What should be on our feet? What should guide our feet? The
gospel. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Most churches
don't even know the gospel, so-called churches. What is the gospel? It's the revelation of the righteousness
of God, Romans 1, 17. And it's from faith it has to
be revealed to us by God. From faith to faith. God-given
faith. The Bible says, for by grace
are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith
drives us to Christ. God-given faith looks to Christ
and the glory of His person who is none other than God manifest
in the flesh and the power of His finished work, His blood,
His righteousness alone that settles it all. Faith doesn't
look to itself. In other words, I don't have
faith in my faith. Somebody says, well, I know I'm saved because
I believe this or believe that. Listen, the only ground of salvation
that true God-given faith will drive you to is the merits of
Christ's obedience unto death. You will plead Him. Paul said
it in Philippians chapter three, that I may know Him whom to know
is life eternal. That's, listen, it's all about
Him. And that which I used to think
recommended me unto God, I repent of it and look to Christ and
Him alone. And so that's our feet shod with
the gospel of peace. The gospel reveals the way of
peace with God. Now it's not talking about peace
between nations or peace even between men. You remember Christ
told his disciples, he said, don't think that I've come to
send peace on earth. And I know the Bible says peace
on earth, but that's a different thing now. He says, I come to
put a sword between a mother and a daughter, a father and
a son, because they'll differ on the gospel. They won't be
together on truth. One's saved and the other one's
not. But this is peace that is made by the blood of the cross
between God and sinners. God reconciled to sinners. Through
the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed, and sinners
reconciled to God. Through that same ground, the
blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed. Be ye reconciled
to God. And then look at verse 16. Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. Now the shield of faith there
is faithfulness, walking by faith, The just shall live by faith.
And what does that mean? Living and walking, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. So that when accusations
are fired at us, what do we do? Do we plead our goodness, our
innocence? No, we plead the righteousness
of Christ. We plead the grace of God. That's
what turns back all the fiery darts of the wicked. and those
who have his righteousness as their breastplate, and their
feet shod with the gospel, and those who have their loins girt
about with truth, they plead Christ. When I stand before God
at the judgment, am I going to be like those false preachers
who said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name? Haven't
we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Is that what I'm going to say? Only to hear him say,
depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. No,
I'm going to plead Christ, the grace of God, His blood, His
righteousness. That's what it means to have
the shield of faith to guard us. And then he says in verse
17, take the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation is in
our minds, protects the head. And what it means is the assurance
of salvation and hope that we find in the Lord. And then he
says, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This
Bible, we can call it our sword. Whenever psychizations are made
or whenever false gospels are preached, go to the word of God. If they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. And I know people say,
well, everybody interprets the word differently. There are rules
of interpretation that we must go by. I wrote a book on that.
You can order it from here. But that's the whole armor of
God, and I hope you'll join us next week for another message
from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.