Turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Title of the message, Put on the whole armor of God. Why would we do that? Because we're in a battle, a warfare, and it's very real. I know we can't comprehend how
real it is, the warfare that goes on day after day after day. And we are involved in it. We are told here, Paul writes
to the Ephesians and to us, to put on the whole armor of God. When men and women go off to
war, they are made battle ready. They go to boot camp, battle
ready. And they are given battle garments.
give a weapon, a munition. Well, God does no less for His
soldiers, of which we are if we are His.
We are not only His children, but soldiers. This struck me
as I was reading this, that we are His soldiers in this life. Every child of God is in a real
warfare with Satan, sin, and this lost world. Therefore, God has equipped us
with what we need to fight this battle until he takes us off
the battlefield. You know, usually when a saint
of God dies, one of the first things that I think of One of
the first things I think of is they have now been taken off
the battlefield. Gone home. Gone home. Not in this fight no more. But
we are. We're still here. We're still
in it. And Paul says here in verse 10,
finally my brethren, in closing my brethren, be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might. What is our strength in this battle?
Where do we get it? Where is it? It's in the Lord. It's that simple. Our strength is the Lord. Paul
said in one place, well, let's turn over to Philippians
4 and read it. Philippians chapter 4, look in verse 11. Not that I speak in respect of
want, for I have learned. And this is something we learn
too. Paul said, I've learned. This
is something I've learned. In whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content. We do not start out that way,
but we do learn it. God teaches us through trials.
to be content. I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. He's my strength. There is where
I draw my strength for whatever I go through, whatever you will
go through. The power to go through it and
to go through it graciously is drawn from Him. The branch draws
its nourishment, its strength from the vine. When Christ said,
I'm the vine, you are the branches. In another place, he said, My
grace. He said to Paul, Paul wanted to ask the Lord to remove
that thorn in the flesh. Three times he asked Him. And
the Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee. It's enough. That's all you need,
Paul, is My grace. My grace. Another place, our
Lord said in John 15, 5, without me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing. Christ is our strength in this
battle. And he says here in verse 11,
put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil or the trickery, the craftiness
of Satan. He knows exactly where my weaknesses
are. He knows where they are. And he's got a bag, I'm telling
you, he's got a bag of tricks. He's got a bag of tricks. That's
why he's talking about the wiles here, it's a trickery. It's the
trickery of Satan. And to stand against him, the
only way to stand against him, is to put on the whole armor
of God. Not just half-dressed. You ever see a soldier go out
half-dressed to fight a battle? You put on the whole outfit.
We're going to have this here in a little bit. You put on the
whole outfit. And the whole armor of God is
just this. It's the gospel. Christ is the
gospel. Christ is the gospel, it's his
person, his work, it's him. Those whom God saves have put
on Christ. Look over in Galatians chapter
2. Galatians chapter 2. Galatians, I'm sorry, Galatians
chapter 3 in verse 27. For as many of you, as have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Christ Himself is
the believer's armor. He's our armor. And Paul gives us the reason
why we are to put on the whole armor of God. To be saturated
with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we wrestle not. Well, we do wrestle, but we wrestle
not against flesh and blood. That's not our problem here.
The real warfare is not with my neighbor. The real warfare
is not with other countries that want to take us over. That's
not the real warfare. That's what the world sees. But
we are given a different scene here. Paul is pulling back the
curtain here. He's saying, here's the real
battle going on. Here's the real battle. And we wrestle with this. I know a little bit about wrestling.
I did it in high school. Here's what I do know about it.
It is hand-to-hand combat. It's hand-to-hand combat. And
you are trying your best to take your opponent to the mat and
not let him move. And that's what's going on here.
He's not saying we're just in an argument here. This is not
an argument between us and darkness. This is not an argument between
God and Satan. This is a real warfare. This
is a real hand-to-hand battle going on here. We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities. That's what we're wrestling against,
principalities. Against powers, unseen powers. Against the rulers of the darkness
of this world. Against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Our enemies. are not flesh and
blood only. They are more than physical opponents.
They are evil spirits. It says here in higher places
that's heavenly spheres. Our opponents are evil spirits. Now, I may be standing talking
to a man. A man may be opposing me. He may be in my face. But there's something else behind
that. You take the leaders of the world, of different nations. They all have their different
heads of state. And we see them. And we hear
them. We hear their policies. But that's
not just them talking. There's a lot going on that you
don't see. Evil spirits is what it says
in high places. Satan has been allowed to rule
this world of darkness since the fall. He's been allowed to,
he's called the God of this world, little G, but he's called the
Prince of Darkness. And don't ever look at this world
and think it's all right. It never will be all right. This
world never will be all right. It will always be all wrong. Always. It's darkness. It's not
light. It's darkness. Everything about
this world is darkness. I remember Henry saying one time
in a message, I don't remember what the message was, but he
said, Satan owns Hollywood. He owns it. All this stuff that
comes out and just entertains us, And I'm entertained. I'm telling you, there are some
movies I've watched, it moves me. But I realize, in the books
I read, I read a lot of different books. I like to read. But I
realize that apart from the Word of God, there's something dark
behind this. There's something dark. I don't
always see it. And cannot always see it. But
it's there. If it's not of God, it's not
light. Is that right? If it's not of
God, it's not light. If it's not of God, it's darkness.
That's why you have to really watch when you watch anything
or read anything. Because the whole world lies
in wickedness. And everything about it is darkness. And don't think for one minute
That the rulers of this world are alone. Was it Michael? I can't remember.
Maybe you can remember, Frank. It was Michael. I can't remember
if he met with Joshua. I hope he didn't bring his lips.
I just can't remember. Anyway, he said he had to go after he
was dealing with them there. He said, I have to go and fight
with the Prince of Persia. You think they saw that? They didn't see that. Over in
that battle, that's having a battle going on. They didn't see Michael. He said he had to leave. He said
he was battling with the Prince of Persia. I think it's over in Daniel. The first time I read
that, I thought nobody in that battle over stabbing each other
can see You can see that spiritual warfare going on. Look that up when you get home.
I will, but it'll bug me to death. So don't think for one minute
that the rulers of this world are alone. There's unseen power
behind every one of them. Every one of them. There's unseen
power. And they don't even know it.
They don't even know it. They don't even recognize it.
Now what is it that Satan is after? What is it he's after?
Here's what Satan's after. Your mind. Your heart. That's what he's after. Your
mind and your heart. Remember how he came at Eve?
That's not God's head. He got into her head. That's
what he did. He got into her head. And she
started listening to him. Next thing you know, the reasoning
kicked in. Next thing you know, she's in
trouble. Next thing you know, we're all dead. Trespassing is
a sin. Adam knew what he was doing.
I want you to look at something
here. Cole asked this once. He said,
why do I have to obey? I told him to obey his dad. He said, why do I have to do
that for? I told Jeremy today. I told him, I said, have him,
I said, let me tell you something, I said, have him to read Ephesians
chapter 6, the first three verses to you out loud. And I said,
right there's why you do it. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord, for this is what? Right. Do you know what? Satan would have you not do that. He would have every one of them,
every one of these children be rebellious. Be rebellious. Fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath. Satan would have every father
here to provoke his child to wrath. Every one of them. Servants, be obedient to them
that are your masters. Satan would have you to be disobedient
to them that are your masters. He'd have you to build a wall
between management, labor and management. There's nothing more
that he loves than to have that wall build up, have that separation,
that going back and forth with each other. I'll never forget,
Henry said this one time, I believe it was in a Bible class. He said,
when brothers and sisters argue, fuss and fight all the time,
that's just natural. Husbands and wives fight, And that's natural. And he said, no, it's not. And
you know what? He's right. Between believers. Now, in the home of a believer,
that's not natural. Where there is fussing and fighting,
you can be sure, you can mark this down, that's satanic. Satan would have the wife not
to be obedient to the husband. Satan would have the husband
not love his wife as Christ loved the church. Is that right? He's after your mind. You start
to reason things out. You know, you read the Word of
God and that's what it says. Children, obey your parents.
Then you start to reason things out. But this is the way I want
it. This is what I want to do. Oh, we have a powerful enemy.
Powerful enemy. That's why we are told in verse
13, wherefore, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
we can see flesh and blood. We can see each other. We can
deal with that, but we can't see the spiritual world. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. We're not just wrestling
with some little inch on the rail. We're talking about principalities. and powers far greater than we
are. Far greater than what we can
imagine. And because of that, wherefore,
take unto you the whole armor of God. And I'm glad it's of
God. It's an armor provided by God.
And I assure you, if God provides you and me with an armor to stand
against the wiles of the devil, it's good armor. It's perfect
armor. No chink in the armor. There's
a lot of it in mine. The armor here is provided by
God. And you put it on that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day. The day of trials. Job had it
on. My soul. We've been looking at that. That
man was tried to the core of his very being. And he stood, didn't he? He stood. Oh, he's sitting there on the
ground, scraping the boils in confusion, but at the same time,
he's standing. Did he not say, I know my Redeemer
lives? Oh, he's standing all right.
He said, you put on the whole armor of God, which is the Gospel,
that you may be able to stand, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, and having done everything
necessary, everything that you are called upon to do, to stand. And that word right there, to
stand, means victory. Victory. At the end of a wrestling
match, the victor stands up beside the referee. And he raises his
hand. That other one stands over there
with his hands down. He lifts his arm up. He's the
victor. Having done all to stand, stand
victorious. Victorious in Christ. Now he's
going to give it to us, parts of the armor. He's going to start
describing parts of the armor. Stand, in verse 14, stand therefore. Don't lay down on the ground.
That's what God said to Job. Job, stand up. Gird your loins like a man. Gird
up your loins like a man. Stand up. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with what? Truth. Wrap yourself in the truth
of the gospel. Wrap yourself in the gospel of
grace. Wrap yourself in the gospel of
substitution. Just wrap yourself up in it.
He said, gird it. You know those Roman soldiers,
they'd gird on their sword. They would just strap that thing
on and then tighten it up and gird. He said, gird yourself
about with the truth of the gospel. Christ said, I am what? I'm the
way, the truth and the life. Gird yourself up of Christ. And therefore, having your loins
girt about with truth, wrapped tightly with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness. You know, when our soldiers go
to war, when they're out on the battlefield, they wear bulletproof
vests. Supposed to be bulletproof. What's our bulletproof vest?
We have one. The believer's bulletproof vest
against anything, any charge Satan wants to lay, anything
that he wants to throw at him, that bulletproof vest is the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. It's impenetrable. There's no chink in his armor.
His righteousness repels all charges. Listen to Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can do that? The righteousness
of Christ repels all charges. What a breastplate. Put on that
breastplate of righteousness. His righteousness. and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Every soldier needs good shoes.
Every soldier. They give you a pair of shoes
when you go into the military. The best shoes you've got, I'm
sure it's the best shoes you've made. Because you're going to
go over different terrain. Some is going to be rough, some
smooth. Long marches. You better have on a good pair
of shoes. And you better have on a good pair of shoes that
fit. They've got to fit. The gospel of peace is our shoes. It's our preparedness. It's our
foundation. It is our constant and firm standing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. We go forth with a gospel of
good news to the guilty. It's a gospel of peace. We're
not trying to stir up trouble, are you? I'm not. I'm not trying
to stir up trouble, just trying to tell the truth. And above all, you got your shoes
on, you got that breastplate of righteousness on. Above all,
taking the shield of faith. Those Roman soldiers, they had
that big old shield. I think it was like four or four
and a half feet long. And they held that right in front
of them. That was right out there in front. I can't stress to you the value
of faith. Faith receives everything from
God. It receives everything of Christ. It receives Christ Himself. The greatest thing said about
Abraham is what? He believed God. Abel believed
God. Over in Hebrews 11, read all
those who believed God. Moses left Egypt to believe God. Noah built an ark, moved with
fear. Why? He believed God. If you're going to go to battle, you want to go to battle for
something you really believe, don't you? Nobody will fight. No one will fight like the man
who believes what he's fighting for. And the man who believes God,
watch out. I'm telling you, watch out. And
that shield of faith here, it's Christ. Christ, you know, is
the object of faith. He's that shield of faith. Look
over in Genesis 15. Genesis 15. Verse 1, After these things the
word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram, I am thy shield. Amen. And this shield covers
the whole person. God covers us. Your life is hid with Christ
in God. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward." Look in Psalm 5. Psalm 5, verse 12, For thou, Lord, wilt
bless the righteous, with favor wilt thou compass him as with
a shield. Look in Psalm 84, Psalm 84, in verse, let me find 84 here,
in verse 11. For the Lord God is a sun and
shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk
uprightly, but He is a sun and shield. Taking this shield of faith,
which is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why does the shield Save us from it. It says here, above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts. And the other translation of
that word, darts, is missiles. Missiles. You're not like a dart board
that's on darts. He's shooting missiles at you.
That's what's going on. I think the more I read in the
Word of God, the more I realize how protected we are by Christ. Because He's shooting missiles
at us. But you may be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked. None of them stick. None of them
stick. And this shield also shields
us from the darts of fear and doubt. Do you ever have any
doubts? You do until you turn to the
Lord and He removes them. And you think, why did I doubt
Him? Why did I doubt Him? The Lord will provide. Why did
I doubt that? And then when you get in that
situation again, you'll doubt it again. And again you'll say,
why did I doubt him? And you'll say that over and
over until you die. At least I find that to be so with me. And then he says here in verse
17, And take the helmet of salvation. That helmet is to protect your
head. It's to protect your head. It's to protect that hope that
we have in Christ. And I thought about this as I
was looking at this. Whatever enters the heart has to pass
through the head. It has to pass through my mind.
He said, put on that helmet. And Christ gives that helmet.
He's every part of this armor. He's every part of this armor. And the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God. Every soldier has his weapon
that he fights with. The believer's weapon is just
the Word of God. And believe me, that's all we
need. That is one powerful weapon. It cuts going and coming. Two-edged
sword. Take with you the helmet of salvation,
the hope of salvation, and the Word of God in the hand of the Holy Spirit
is all you need. I tell you what, if He takes
His Word, as I stand here and preach and Frank stands here
and teaches these other men, if He takes His Word and He penetrates
your heart with it, my heart, We will never, ever be the same. Ever. Never be the same. He'll conquer us. He'll bring
us to His feet. He'll instruct us and teach us.
Then He'll make soldiers out of us and put us on the battlefield. And our weapon will be His Word. It's not going to be gimmicks. What do you do for the children
when we just entertain the daylight out of them? I mean, they're
entertained from the time they get up, aren't they? From the time they get up to
the time they go to bed, our children are pretty much entertained
in this day and time. Let's take a little bit of time
and just tell them the truth. Tell them the truth. And then last of all, praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, with sincerity
in the Holy Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all things, not just praying for yourself,
but for one another. But praying about everything.
That's what I'm saying. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication. Pray about absolutely everything
and pray all the time. You have them on your grass. Pray. That's what He said. If you're washing the dishes,
pray. I believe this. I believe when our Lord was not
speaking and teaching, He was praying all the time. I don't believe He ever ceased. If he wasn't talking, he was
praying. We're told here to be in constant communion with the
One who is our armor. You're on the battlefield. We
are on the battlefield. Be in constant communion with
the Commander-in-Chief. Constantly. This is the only
army where every soldier is allowed at any given time to talk to
the commander-in-chief. You don't have to go through
channels of command. No, this is every soldier on
the battlefield. You've got direct entrance into
his presence at any given time to talk to him. And he said,
do it. Do it. If you don't, it's your
fault. If I don't, it's my fault. Put on Make an effort. Put forth an effort. A real effort. Because you're on the battlefield
now. You're on the battlefield. This
is the real battle we are in. And it's one of those tricky
battles. Satan's tricky. Crafty.