Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I want to speak this morning
on this subject, the whole armor of God. Now Paul says to the
church at Ephesus, finally my brethren. He's speaking to believers
at this time. An unbeliever is incapable of
putting on the armor of God. Now, he's closing this glorious
epistle to the Ephesians, and he says, finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord. Literally, be strengthened in
the Lord. Now, my only standing before
God is in the Lord. When God looks at me, all I want
Him to see is me in Christ, so that really all He sees is Christ. My only standing, every believer's
only standing is in the Lord. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. You see, we don't
have any strength. POWER BELONGETH UNTO THE LORD.
THE LORD SAID, WITHOUT ME YOU CAN DO NOTHING, AND I NEED TO
BE STRENGTHENED IN THE LORD, IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. IF HE DOESN'T EMPOWER ME, I'M
NOTHING BUT WEAKNESS. BUT THANK GOD PAUL DID SAY, WHEN
I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG. NOW LET'S GO ON READING. He says to these brethren, put
on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. Now he's going to go on and give
us what this armor is in the following verses, but first he
tells us why we need to put on this whole armor of God, that
we might be enabled to stand against the wiles, the deceit
of the devil. Now, the devil is a deceiver. And I'd like to read a passage
of scripture to you from 2 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 2, he
said, I'm jealous over you, said this to the Corinthians, I'm
jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now what Satan's
motive is in all that he does is to try to get someone corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. The singleness, the onlyness,
the wholeness. He's all in salvation. He's not
99% of salvation. He's all of salvation. And if
he can corrupt me or you from that, we've left the gospel. Look in verse 13 of this same
chapter. But such are false apostles,
you know there are false apostles, and there are false prophets,
and there are false preachers, and there's a lot of them, a
lot of them. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. They come in Christ's name, saying
Christ sent them, and the message they bring is from Christ, it's
deceitful. Let's go on reading. He says
it's no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. The prince of darkness comes
as an angel of light. Therefore it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.
They come telling you, you need to be righteous to have God to
accept you. You need to live a righteous
life. You need to perform good works. You need to have righteousness. And they never preach the righteousness
of Christ. They preach human righteousness.
Paul said, oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God. by faith, but these men come
as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according
to their works." Now, I need the whole armor of God that I
might not be deceived. You know, it's easy for me to
be deceived. I'm so weak. I can't stand on
my own, nor can you. And we desperately need this
whole armor of God. Now, Satan is called the accuser
of the brethren. Revelation chapter 12, he's called
the accuser of the brethren. Now, what does he accuse them
of? He says, how could you be a Christian
when you committed that sin and you commit that sin repeatedly? How could you possibly be a Christian?
How could you be a Christian when you have that wicked desire?
How can you be a Christian when you have those evil motives?
How could you possibly be saved when you are the way you are?
Now, anything he accuses us of is true. He's not making things
up. Anything, any accusation he can
bring against any believer would be a true accusation. He doesn't
have to lie. He's got actual material he could
use. But here is the deceitfulness
of this. When he says something like this
to a believer, the implication is, if I didn't commit this sin,
if I didn't have this motive, if I didn't have this thought,
if I didn't have this desire, then I would be a believer. And
what he does in doing that is make you look to yourself rather
than Christ only. He's a deceitful being. Subtle and he can turn me and
you inside out Apart from Christ protecting us from him. I love
what the Lord said to Peter He said Peter Satan is desired to
have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for
you that your faith fail not now Why did Peter's faith fail
not because Christ prayed for him? That's the only reason Now,
back to our text. Paul says, put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our adversary
is not men. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities. against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Now, there is an unseen world. and I'm no match for it, and
neither are you. There is an unseen world. Now Christ is in control of this.
It's not like these powers are threatening him. He's the one
who created these things, and he's in control of them all,
and they are all going to be used for his glory, but they
don't know that. These unseen powers, this demon world that
I know so little about, except the Bible tells me it's there,
but I know this. I'm no match for it. So he says
in verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. The only way you and I will not
be destroyed is if we have the whole armor of God that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And there's going to be a day
of attack. And in this thing of Satan attacking the believer,
let me say this. If you're a believer, Satan doesn't know whether you're
genuine. He doesn't know if you're one
of God's elect. And he is not so much against you, but he's
against Christ. He hates Christ. And if he can get you to look
somewhere other than Christ, he feels like he's defeated Christ.
And that's why it's not so much you, it's Christ he hates. And if he can get you to turn
away from Christ and look to your own works, he will have
felt as though he got the victory. Now, verse 13, to stand, not be knocked down,
but to stand. And then he gives, in the next
three or four verses, the six pieces of the whole armor of
God. Now, six is the number of man. Adam was created on the sixth
day, and maybe that's why there are six pieces of armor, but
they're all of infinite importance. I must be clothed with this armor.
It's the same thing as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know when it says, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make
no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof, you're
putting on this armor. This is what it means to put
on Christ. And I know that you and I cannot
put this armor on unless he enables us to, but here it is. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth. There's the first piece of armor.
Having the breastplate of righteousness. That's the second piece of armor.
Third, having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. There's the third, your shoes.
Fourth, above all, taking the shield of faith. There's the
fourth piece of armor, the shield of faith. And it's a body shield.
It's not a small shield. It's a shield that covers your
whole body, that you should be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation. There's
the fifth piece. the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The scriptures, and I think it's
interesting, it's only the scriptures that are used, that gives us
a weapon for offense. Everything else is defense. Everything
else is to protect us. But this is what we use as our
offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God. Now, the first thing he mentioned
is the girdle of truth, or the belt of truth. The Lord said, sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth. He said in John 14, verse 6,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. He said in John 18, 37, before
Pilate, for this cause came I into the world to bear witness to
the truth. Now, when the Lord was nailed
to a cross, there is the truth concerning the true character
of God. He will not let sin go unpunished, even in His Son. That sin of His people became
His sin, so that He became guilty of it. We see the power of God
in putting away sin. We see the love of God in giving
His Son for sinners. All hearing is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us. and sent his son to be the
propitiation of our sins. All of God's attributes are magnified
in the cross of Christ. There's the truth concerning
God. And when he's nailed to that cross, we find out the truth
concerning me and you. Don't think of the things that
you feel guilty about right now. Think of this. You are so sinful
that you would put God to death on the cross. Don't think you're
any different than those people. Me and you are so sinful that
if given the opportunity and the restraints are taken away,
we would nail God to a cross and get rid of Him and be without
Him. But the cross tells the truth regarding salvation. My
salvation was accomplished by what? He did. When he said, it is finished,
my salvation was finished. Now that's the truth. That's
just the truth. And you can't get on any of these
other pieces of armor without the truth first. The truth. Oh, I can't emphasize enough
the importance of the truth. The Lord said, We're bound, Paul
said, we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. The evidence of the sanctifying
work of the Spirit is belief of the truth. I think of salvation
as described in 1 Timothy 2.4 as coming to the knowledge of
the truth. Repentance is described in 2 Timothy 2.25, if God will
grant them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth.
You change your mind and believe the truth. Faith is called in
Titus 1.3, the faith of God's elect, the acknowledging of the
truth, which is after godliness. The Lord said in John chapter
4 verse 24, God is spirit and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. If you don't begin with the truth,
it's not going to end well. It's got to begin with the truth.
God never uses error. He doesn't have to. He's God.
And he only uses the truth. And none of the other pieces
of armor will be able, we won't be able to put them on until
this is first put on. THE BELT OF TRUTH. THAT'S WHAT
HOLDS US TOGETHER, THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH. NOW, THE NEXT PIECE
OF ARMOR HE MENTIONS IS THE BREASTPLATE. THE BREASTPLATE IS THE PROTECTION
FOR THE INTERNAL ORGANS, PARTICULARLY THE HEART. AND LOOK WHAT HE CALLS
IT IN VERSE 14, THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. NOW, LISTEN
TO ME REAL CAREFULLY. David said in Psalm 71 verse
16, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. You know why I said that? Because
his righteousness is the only righteousness there is. His perfect
life, his righteousness is my righteousness before God. That's
the fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of
the saints. The righteousness of Jesus Christ, His perfect
law keeping, His life of sinlessness, His life of holiness before God. He never sinned. That life, that
righteousness is my personal righteousness before God. Somebody
says, how can you say that? Well, listen to this scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, for
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Now that is the only
breastplate that will truly protect you. If that means human righteousness,
if that means your works in any way, oh, there's so many seams
in that and the darts are going to get through and kill you.
There's only one breastplate of righteousness. That is the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, this is justification. That's what righteousness is.
It's justification. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. His personal righteousness is
my personal righteousness before God. Just as my sin became His
sin and He died for it, His righteousness becomes my righteousness. Now, that's the only thing that'll
protect you. If you look at anything else, there's no protection in
that, only his righteousness. Now, the third piece of armor
is our shoes. Verse 15, and your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now, think about how
important shoes are for a soldier. doing battle. Can you imagine
being barefooted in a rocky terrain trying to battle your enemies?
You couldn't do it. You'd be brought down and killed.
Shoes are very, very important for armor. And he says our shoes
are the preparation of the gospel of peace. Your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now that word preparation
means preparedness or readiness. What makes you ready to stand
before God in judgment? What makes you ready to do battle? Only one thing, the gospel of
peace. That's what makes me ready to
stand before God in judgment, the gospel of peace. Now, what
is meant by the gospel of peace? Colossians 1.20 says, having
made peace through the blood of his cross. Now, when Jesus
Christ died on Calvary's tree, He made my peace with God, so
that God is completely satisfied with me. No sin for Him to be
mad at, because He is my peace. He accomplished my peace. Listen
to this scripture. Romans 4.25 and Romans 5.1, He
was delivered He was delivered over for our
offenses, raised again for our justification, therefore being
justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this is the peace that only
the believer possesses, the peace of justification, the peace of
knowing God is satisfied with me. You see, the peace I have
is because of the peace he has. He's at peace with me through
his son. I have peace. And that's the only way I can
walk through this world with my feet shed with the readiness
of the gospel peace. That's my shoes in this world.
And then he says in verse 16, above all, taking the shield
of faith. whereby you shall quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. Now, this shield was a body shield.
It was a shield that covered the entire body. It wasn't just
a little, small shield. It was a shield that covered
the entire body. Now, the shield of faith. What
is faith? Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.12,
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Faith is faith in Christ. It's
believing who he is and what he did is all that's needed to
make you perfectly accepted before God. Faith in Christ. And let me say this, it's faith
alone. It's not faith and. If you look for some assurance
from your life, your works, your progress in holiness, How well
you're dealing with sin. And if you find any assurance
from that, it's a false assurance. The only assurance any believer
is allowed to have is Christ only. Not Christ and, Christ
alone. He is the object of faith. I trust him. You know, faith,
there's an acrostic faith. Forsaking all. All, everything,
any other hope, forsaking all, I trust Him, F-A-I-T-H, forsaking
all, any hope anywhere else, I trust Him. Faith in Christ, that's the only
thing that will quench the fiery darts of the wicked. If you look
anywhere else, those fiery darts are gonna hit you. and you're
going to be destroyed. It's only faith in Christ that
quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked. And then he says
in verse 17, take the helmet of salvation. Now this is the
fifth piece, the helmet of salvation, that's protection for the head.
That's why you wear a helmet, it's protection for the head. Now, here is protection for the
head, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is all of grace. Christ
Jesus is salvation. Now, anything that's contrary
to that is error. and it will drive you from Christ
rather than bring you to Christ. The protection for the head for
error is salvation is of the Lord. That means he did it all.
When we say salvation or when the Bible says salvation is of
the Lord, that means you didn't have anything to do with it.
You're not saved because you did anything. You're not saved
because you received anything. You're not saved because you
asked for anything. You're saved for Christ's sake. You're saved
by grace. It has all to do with Him and
nothing to do with you. And anything that's contrary
to that is error and will only lead you away from Christ. For
a helmet, salvation. He said to the Thessalonians,
for a helmet, the hope of salvation. the hope of being saved by what
he did. And the last thing he mentions
in verse 17, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. Now he's talking about the scriptures,
the scriptures, the word of God, the word of God is quick and
powerful. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. Now the Lord Jesus showed his
great respect for the scriptures when Satan came to him and tempted
him three different times. And with each temptation he said,
it is written. That's how he dealt with the
devil. Now he could have destroyed him.
He could have tortured him. Who are you to try to tempt me? And he could have just done anything
he wanted to with him, but he didn't. He lets us know of the
authority of Scripture. It is written. When Peter speaks of the Scripture,
He first talks about that experience on the Mount of Transfiguration
where they saw the Lord transfigured before them and they heard a
voice from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. And then he said, we have a more
sure word of prophecy. Do you know the scriptures? It
is written is better than any experience you can have. I don't
care what it is because you can't be totally sure of that experience.
You might have been dreaming, but it is written is eternal. The Bible is the word of God. Somebody says, how do you expect
me to believe that? Will you believe God created the universe?
I know you do. If God can create the universe,
he can inspire men to write a book and keep it preserved from error.
And we must have the scripture, or all we got is my opinion and
your opinion. And that's a mighty flimsy foundation. No good will come out of that.
Thank God for the scriptures. What did Paul say to Timothy?
Preach the word. The scriptures, that is our only
weapon of offense, the Scriptures, the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God. Now we have this belt of truth,
breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. We have the shield of faith,
faith in Christ, We have the helmet of salvation to protect
us from error, and we have the scriptures, thank God for the
scriptures, put on. the whole armor of God. Now we
have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. To receive a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.