If any of you read the bulletin
that Shepard put out, that quote from Brother Don. It says, except the Lord keep us,
we shall not be kept from any evil. But oh, our gracious God, if you keep us, we are well kept. Our Holy Spirit, our old Holy
Spirit of God, ever lead us to all precious, all glorious, all
merciful Christ. Ever sprinkle our hearts with
his precious blood. Keep us always in Gethsemane,
always at Calvary, always at the throne of grace. We cannot
mortify the deeds of the body and live unto God. But you can
mortify the deeds of the body in us You can make us live under
God Do it for Christ's sake That's the message Message put on the whole armor
of God if you'll turn over to your Bibles to Ephesians Chapter
6 Ephesians chapter 6. Saints of God, sinners saved
by grace. God tells us to put on the whole
armor of God and stand fast in His power, in His might. Stand
fast in His strength. He tells us over in chapter 5
of Ephesians, Verse 1, Be ye therefore followers of God as
dear children, and walk in love as Christ also had loved us and
had given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God
for a sweet-smelling savor. All through this chapter, the
Word of God tells us We were once children of darkness. But now Christ has made us children
of the light. God chose us in him from eternity. And Christ came and redeemed
those that he chose with his own blood. He calls us by his
gospel through the foolishness of preaching. And God, the Holy Spirit, who
quickens us and borns us again, reveals Christ in us the hope
of glory. We belong to God. And we are to serve him. Only
in Christ can we do what is contrary to that old nature that we got
from Adam. For it wars continually with
our new creation created in us in Christ Jesus. He has made us partakers of his
divine nature. He has purged our consciences
and given us a heart sprinkled with his own blood to serve the
living God. He's given us spiritual life,
for we were dead Spiritually dead. Fallen in Adam. In our own sins and trespasses. And he has given us faith. A
gift of God. Gift of God's grace. And now
we can believe and trust on the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Because we are God's creation in Christ. Chosen of God. before the world was in Christ
Jesus. And led by His Spirit over in
Galatians. You can turn there if you want,
or you can follow along. In Galatians 5, 16, This I say then, 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 one to another, so that you cannot do
the things that you would." We're led by the Spirit. We're
under God's grace. We're not under the law. His children were His children
of light. Christ is that light that lighteth
the world. He sees all, and He is in all. He exposes. He exposes His sins. He exposes
the thoughts and tents of your heart. He knows us. He came in our nature only without
sin. to redeem us. And we face an
enemy that we are powerless against. And we can't see it. And God
tells us to do things that are contrary to our old nature. To
love one another, to serve one another, to love him, serve him. He's instructing that new man.
born of the will of God. And he gives us examples, revealing
the mystery of Christ in his church, his elect, the elect
of God. He is our husband here in chapter
5, in our representative head. And he On in chapter six, the
first part of it, he's our loving father. He's our Lord and master. And we, we are the weaker vest. We are his wife. We are his bride. And we are to submit to and love
him. Adore Him. To know of His will
and good pleasure. And as His children, we are to
obey Him. We are to obey Him. Reverence Him. For everything He does, when
He chastens us, when He instructs us, as our Heavenly Father is
for our good. and is His servant. We are to
do His will and follow Him. You were once the servants of
darkness. He's made you the servants of the living God. It's your reasonable service
to serve Him. And in chapter 6 of Ephesians, As His elect soldiers, we are called on to put on the
whole armor of God and stand. Stand fast in His strength and
in the power of His might. For the captain of our salvation
has already gone on before us. He's victorious. He's successful. He has overcome the world for
us. And we are more than conquerors
in Him and in Him alone. Over in Hebrews chapter two, verse nine, But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with the 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
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing unto
thee. It's the Lord's battle. And He's mighty in battle. Psalms
tells us that. He is worthy of our praise. Our
glory and honor all belong to Him alone. Take up your cross
and follow Him. Ye servants and soldiers of God. For the just shall live by faith.
And He is the object of that faith. He is faith. He's the author and the finisher
of faith. So put on the whole armor of
God. Walk in the Spirit. Because only He can make us fruitful. Romans 12 tells us, 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. And be not conformed to the world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of
God. And we're called on to suffer
for His namesake. You want to mortify the deeds
of the flesh, then you walk in His love. You walk in His Spirit.
You walk in His light. You walk in Christ. Because you
don't want to stand alone. You can't. You put on the whole
armor of God. And here in Ephesians, chapter
6, verse 10, With the faith that God, by His
grace, has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ, let us look at
His marvelous work of armor. Led by His Holy Spirit, we're
going to see that every piece of that armor points us to Christ. For He is our refuge. So in verse 10, finally, my brother,
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. So subtle and we're so easily
led astray. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities. against powers, against the rulers
of the darks of this world, against spiritual wickedness 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, stand." Look at what God has delivered
us from. And delivers us from continually. You're in bondage to Satan. Led by his every whim. He like
a lion. Roaring, devouring who he may. What other strength can you possibly
have to stand with against such a foe? It isn't flesh and blood, and
we can't see it. You're fighting an enemy you
can't even see. Or better yet, you're standing
against an enemy that you can't even see. They're all around us. And they're in you. They're in
me. We have an old nature. We have the nature of Adam, the
fallen nature of Adam that hates God. It despises his word. How are you going to fight it? What can you do? We're helpless. There is no good in me. There's
no righteousness. There's no works that God is
going to accept. Brother Evans, one of his sermons
said, even our humility is full of pride. That's how vile and
sinful we are. Even our humility Isn't that
true? I know it's true with me. I know
you're a lot better people than I am, but it's true with me. Oh, we hate it, don't we? The
more God shows you who you are, and who He is, we hate that old man, we pack
it around. He knows without Him, we can
do nothing. Look what Christ has overcome
for us. Our enemies are his enemies. He arose from the grave. Victorious. Successful. He has delivered us from our
darkness into his light. He was delivered for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. We were in Him. We're in Him
now. And we always will be. In His
strength, and in His power, and in His might. What do we have to fear if we're
in Him? Look at all these things. Look
at all of them. Principalities, powers, rulers
of darkness. They're in the palm of His hand.
He rules over all. So what do we have to fear if
we be in Him? He is the almighty sovereign
God over all His creation. Let's turn over to Isaiah 45.
In verse 5, Isaiah 45 verse 5. Drop down
ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. Woe unto him that striveth against
his maker. I am the Lord, it says in verse
five, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. I form the light, and I create
darkness. I make peace, and I create evil. Only God can make good out of
evil. Bring good from evil, I should
say. I, the Lord, do all of these
things. And don't we love to hear how
mighty He is? He is a God to be worshipped.
Turn on over a little bit more. Let's get a little bit more of
this in Isaiah 54, verse 13. I'll try to read from the scripture. It's there first. In verse 13,
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great
shall the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be
established, thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt
not fear. And from terror, for it shall
not come near thee. Oh, to be in Christ. Behold,
they shall surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold, I have created the smith
that bloweth the coals and the fire, and that bringeth forth
the instrument of his work. And I have created the waster
to destroy. and no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage,
the inheritance of the saints of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. What a wonderful God, what a
wonderful Savior. He's omnipotent, He's omnipresent. He's purposed our salvation in
a holy, righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my only
righteousness and acceptance before God. That's my refuge. My life is hid in Him, and He
is my life, and He is my hope. Put on the whole armor of God. because each piece points to
Jesus Christ and what He has done for us that we, as the brother
said, could never do for ourselves. In 1 Samuel 17, we see a young
David, a man after God's own heart, and he sets aside the
armor of King Saul because it wouldn't prove him. Does he not put on the full armor
of God to go against the life? Let's look and see. Let's go
to 1 Samuel 17. Starting verse 45. Then said
David to the Philistine, that big life, Thou comest to me with
a sword and with a spear and with a shield. But I come in
to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies
of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand. and I will smite thee, and take
thine head from thee, and I will give the carcass of the host
of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to
the wild beast of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord save not with sword and spear. For the battle is
the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." And he ran, and he slew Goliath. Wasn't in his own strength and
might, was he? I don't know. Put on the armor of God. It's
tried, it's true, and it's proven. He's proven Himself over and
over again. In Him, we are more than conquerors. Christ is faithful, holy, and
righteous. Put on Christ. Look what He's
done for you. Let's go on to verse 14. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness. Loins girt with truth. Brethren, grace and truth come
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He holds the keys to life and
death. He holds the keys to heaven and
hell. He holds everything together
by His mighty power and by His Word. He is the Word of God. All the Godhead resides in Him
bodily. He is truth. and the only way to the Father
is by Him. And then we put on that breastplate
of righteousness. Who is our righteousness before
God? There's only one who brought
a perfect obedience to the Father when He came to this earth in
the flesh as a man, who did the will of His Father, who sent
Him, The God-man unto the death on
the cross. He's the end of the law for righteousness
sake. He came, he suffered, he bled,
he died. He was made sin for us. Who knew no sin? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He's our substitute. He is our
only righteousness. He's our only acceptance to God
the Father. He alone, His blood, His one
time sacrifice of Himself appeased the holy justice of God. in our
stead. He is the propitiation for our
sins. And God only sees us in his son,
washed in his blood and robed in his righteousness alone. Verse 15. And your feet, your feet are
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Who tore down that wall of partition? Who? Who brought peace by his
own shedding of his own blood? Who made peace? Who made your
peace with God? Christ did. Christ did when he
came as a man, born of the Spirit, the only begotten of the Father.
took on our nature, took on our flesh, laid his robes of glory
aside for a moment to suffer, to bleed, to die, and bring in a perfect righteousness,
bring in a perfect righteousness, bring in a peace. He reconciled
us to himself in Christ Jesus. He put away our sins in him. that we have peace with God. God's no longer angry. There's
no sin. Christ took it away. There's still that old man in
us, but it's crucified with him on the cross. Our life's hid in him. We're
a new creation. He was buried. We were in Him. And when He rose again, victorious
and successful over all His foes and all ours, He conquered death,
He conquered sin, He conquered Satan, all His work, all His
enemies, He conquered us. He conquered us. We're His. We belong to God. Our life is
in Him. We don't have any life. It's
in Him. Our feet are shod with the preparation
of the Gospel. He's given us His Word. He's
given us His peace. We have an acceptance in Him
to God the Father. And in verse 16, Above all, taking
the shield of faith, Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked, the shield of faith. Who shall lay any charge to God's
elect? He sits on his throne and intercedes.
Satan accuses. But there's no sin there because
He's already put it away. Again, He is the object. There
is an object of our faith. And it is Him. It's Christ Jesus.
He's the beginning of it. The author of it. We have it because of Him. And
He's the end of it. Because when He takes us and
separates us from this old sinful flesh, He takes us to glory with Him.
We're going to see Him. We're going to know Him because
we're going to be in Him. We're going to be like Him. There's your faith. Don't need faith no more. You
can be any. He is our faith. His faith, the
faith of Christ, His doing, the will of God, is our substitute
unto death on that cross. He is faithful to forgive us
of our sins if we confess our sins to Him, the ones He's already
put away. And cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's our mediator. He's our intercessor. He's our advocate to the Father.
There's a man sitting on his throne today in heaven, and we're
with him. We're in him. He's in us. But we're still here. We still
face our worst enemy, who's in us. But just like the rest of them,
Christ is already conquered. And in Him, in Him, the one who crushed Satan's
head, the one who sits on his throne till all his enemies be
made his footstool. Oh, think about that. We'll soon, Satan will soon be
under our feet. In Him. Cause he loved us and he gave
his self for us. That we might live in him. And
all the just shall live by faith. For by grace ye are saved, through
faith in that not of yourselves. Grace is a gift of God, faith
is a gift of God. And not by your works. lest any
man should so foolishly, sinfully boast before a God Almighty who's
done all for you in Christ Jesus. Salvation is of the Lord. And then, we take in verse 17
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God. that helmet of salvation. Let's
turn over to Hebrews 9. In verse 14, just one verse.
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. He borned us again and created
that new creature in Christ. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
His blood was sprinkled on our consciences and on our hearts. We're new creatures in Christ. New creatures. That old man,
he's already crucified. He's temporal. He's not going
to be here. But that new man is in Christ, and Christ is eternal. He has made us partakers of His
divine nature. Making us those new creatures
in Him. And He has given us the mind of Christ. We're led by
Him and His Holy Spirit who teaches us all things. He said, I will
not leave you comfortless when I go to my Father, but He and
I will make our abode in you. I and my Father are one. God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, they're all
one. I give you the Comforter. I give you the Holy Spirit. It's
a gift. It's a gift of God's grace. And He will keep you. And He
will teach you. We're taught of God. He'll preserve you. He only testifies
of me. That's what Christ said. He only
testifies of me. He only testifies of me. a new heart, flesh sprinkled
with his blood, to know him, to love him, to serve him, by
faith, to believe on him, who loved us and gave himself for
us. He has loved us from eternity. He's our head and our representative, only to his elect. And that sword,
the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, the gospel
of God, Christ crucified, the power, the dynamite of God. Let's turn to Hebrews 4 verse
12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit. and of the
joints and morrow. Nothing can stand against him
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God's who we sinned against. God's who we offended. God demands payment for all sins. And he demands a perfect sacrifice
that's righteous, holy, and just, pure, without spot, without blemish. And he provided His sacrifice
that he's pleased with and appeased his holy justice for us. For
all the sins of all that he chose in Christ Jesus. He laid down his life and he
suffered your punishment in your place. In your room instead. Was made sin. Who knew no sin? and imputed His righteousness
to you. That was done in eternity. That
was accomplished in Jesus Christ when He came. He fulfilled it
all. And then at God's appointed time
of love, He sends you a preacher to preach
the gospel to you. He makes His word effectual.
Only He does. And He will reveal Himself to
who it pleases Him to reveal Himself. And He will not lose
one that the Father has given Him. He will call you out of
your darkness into His light. And He will reveal Himself to
you in the face of Jesus Christ. And He will give you the faith
spiritual life by the Holy Spirit to quicken you and reveal it to you. And you're gonna believe it. You're gonna believe on Him. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He came. He suffered. He knows every enemy you have. He knows every temptation you
have. He's overcome them all. You don't
have a high priest that can't be touched with the feelings
of your infirmities. He knows. Those in awe like points tempted
just like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in the time of need. Oh, what a savior. He sits on his throne and he
must reign and rule till his enemies be made his footstool. Every time he calls one of us
home, his elect, there's less and less of a reason
for this world to be here. Till one day he calls the last
one home, and all that's left is his enemies. His enemies are our enemies.
And he's going to destroy them. He already has. but we're gonna see it in Him. As His followers, we His loving,
obedient servants, serve Him, led by His Spirit, that He gives. By faith, He gives. By His grace,
He gives. All in His Son, Jesus Christ,
whom He sent and gave, His life for us. He knows we're weak. He knows
we can't stop sinning. We don't deserve anything that
God gives us except punishment, except His wrath for eternity. That's all we've ever earned.
That's all we've ever merited, and that's all we deserve. But Christ, but God, chose a
people in Christ to love and to call His family, to call His bride, to call His
child, to call His servants. Put on the whole armor of God. We're gonna be this way until
He separates us. from the body of this death. But in Christ, He has made us
new creatures in Him. He's born us again. Made us fellow heirs with Jesus
Christ, the forerunner. I wanna share just a little bit
of something with you here. And some of you have heard me
say this before, talking about how depraved we
are, how depraved I am. No, when we read about King Solomon,
God gave him wisdom. God loved him. That's a child
of God. Same as we. We leave him in such a state. He allowed temples to other gods
to be put up in Jerusalem. He had many wives and many concubines
that he put before God. And I sinfully thought, and have
said, to my shame, and God forgive me, and I ask you too also, I've
all, I've sinfully thought, how? How could he do that? How could
Solomon do that? How? And the Lord convinced me of
my sin, of righteousness and of judgment. What do I allow? What do you
allow? in your own homes that take you and your family's
mind off the Lord Jesus Christ. And no, I'm not telling you to
go home and destroy all that stuff. That's not what I'm telling
you to do. Who am I to judge? One of God's servants. It's God
that judges His people. It's God that judges. And in Him, His servant will
stand. It's not what's in us. It's not
what we are. It's not what we think. It's who's in us. Put on the whole armor of God. Because there's brothers and
sisters out there. We don't know. And they're God select. And he
loves. He's going to get them. And He
has chosen sinful, vile creatures like us as the means. His elect, His church, as the
means that He uses, it pleased Him to, were sanctified in Him
for His use. That blood of Christ has been
sprinkled on us. We've been immersed In him. And it pleases him. To use us. To preach. To teach. To be examples. In this sinful
world. But we can only do it in his
strength. In his mighty power. In him alone. So, saints of God, ye servants,
ye soldiers, put on the whole armor of God. It's your reasonable service. He's given it all to you. Christ is all. You want a battle
cry? That's the only one I know. Christ
is all.