Ephesians chapter 6 and Luke
chapter 1. I want to read just verse 15 to
us. This is the armor of God. You and I have been involved
since we've been here, but I want us to go back here this morning.
Instead of beginning in verse 15, let me remind you. who we're fighting against and
why we need armor. God has provided armor for his
children, for the believer. And he's provided us armor because
of who our enemy is. In verse 11, put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the trickery
of the devil, the wiles of the devil. Verse 12, for we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, against principalities, powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness
in high places. And therefore, he tells us in
verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to
stand. We need to stand. We don't want
to fall. So put on the whole armor of
God. And then verse 13, taken to you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Well, this is
an evil day. We have enemies, not flesh and
blood. That's nothing. These armies
and these great generals and commanders, they have a battle
on their hands. They don't know what a fight
is. We're fighting against real power. Principalities in high
places. Up here is a high place, ain't
it? And this is what we battle with in our hearts, in our minds.
And I'm telling you, they're strong. They're wily. They're
wise. They hate us. Therefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God. And then he says in verse 14,
Stand therefore, having your loins girth about with truth. Now, let me remind you, we've
already studied this. Having your loins of your mind,
gird about with truth. Truth is one thing the devil
cannot fight against. He cannot stand before the truth. The reason he seeks to oppress
us, and does oppress us often, because he seeks to blind our
minds to the truth. You know why he hides the gospel
from people. Because he knows that unless
a person is brought to believe and understand the gospel, he's
got him in his clutches. He holds him in his darkness.
He deceives him. But let a man hear the gospel.
Let the gospel of truth come to his heart. And that's when
the devil has to turn him loose. You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. Free from what? Satan's clutches,
for one thing. You're of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father you will do. He has you captured. He's your father. He has your
mind blinded. He has you in the prison house.
And he's going to hold you there until you understand and believe
the truth. So your loins gird about with
truth. And then notice this in verse
14. Put on the breastplate. having
on the breastplate of righteousness. You know the only righteousness
that will stand and withstand Satan's fiery darts. You know
the only righteousness that his fiery darts will not penetrate
through and reach your heart is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. We put on our own righteousness and our own merits and our own
good works and what we abstain from, you know His arrows would
shoot right through that. They had these breastplates that
reached from just to the bottom of your neck all the way down
about your navel because that protected the vital organs. And that's what the righteousness
of Christ does. It's a righteousness given to
us, and it's a perfect righteousness. Christ already worked it out
in the days of His flesh. And he's seated there in heaven,
and the most marvelous thing in this world, that you and I,
poor sinners as we are upon this earth, can have that perfect
righteousness given to us. And it's a breastplate. It's
a breastplate that Satan cannot penetrate by his power of darkness.
This is why Paul said that I might be found in him, not having my
own righteousness. Why, Paul? That won't protect
your vital organs. But that righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God. Can
you imagine the first time that they invented breastplates? I
have no idea when they were. They've been around for centuries
and centuries. But can you imagine when they used to go to war and
somebody got a heart, a dart knocked through the heart? They
always aim for the Bible organs, you know, and boy, they'd aim
for the heart. Can you imagine the first time
they invented these breastplates, and somebody had one on, and
suddenly he saw an arrow coming right at him and didn't have
time to dodge it, and it hit him right there. And his utter
and happy amazement, it just bounced off. Man, he said, this
works! This works! That's what Paul's
talking about, the righteousness of Christ. We need our vital
organs protected. What will protect it? The righteousness,
the breastplate of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For when the devil comes to you
and says, do you realize what a miserable, hell-deserving wretch
you are? Everything you do has sin mixed
with it. Just tell him, yeah, you know
that. Well, sure I know that. Sure, I'm a sinner. I'm a miserable
wretch deserving of hell. But tell him this, old Luther
used to say, you have the righteousness of one that's in hell. And you
know what he'll do? He'll turn, tell, and run. Because
he can't penetrate that breastplate of righteousness. Put it on.
Put on the breastplate of righteousness. And then we come here to verse
15, the gospel. Look in verse 15. and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now, I
want to look at three things with you this morning. First
of all, I want to look at this word itself, the gospel. And I want to just look at the
definition. Why is it called the gospel? And secondly, I want
to consider the gospel of peace. And then thirdly and lastly,
what does it mean by putting on these gospel shoes? And for this, I want you to turn
over to Luke's Gospel, Chapter 1, and here I want to read you
a good definition of the gospel and why it's called the gospel. If you'll look in Webster's dictionary,
most any Bible dictionary, right here is the definition of the
gospel that I'm going to read to you this morning. But let's look in Luke 2. I said Luke 1, look in Luke 2. In verse 7, this is speaking
of Mary, the birth of our Savior. And she brought forth her firstborn
son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people." What is the definition of the
gospel? What is the gospel? Look in your dictionaries, and
right here's what it'll tell you. Good tidings of great joy. That's what the gospel means.
It means good tidings of great joy. For tidings to bring joy,
they have to be good tidings, don't they? We shut our hearts
to bad tidings. Don't tell me that. Don't tell
me that. I don't want to hear that. But
let good tidings come. Oh, we'll let that into our hearts,
won't we? Why? Because we love good tidings. Good tidings cheers the heart. We don't like evil tidings, but
we like good tidings. Because good tidings produces
joy. But the gospel is more than good
tidings. It's great tidings. It's just
not good news, it's great news. Because He said here, I bring
you good tidings of great joy. What is it that will bring great
joy? Well, it's great good tidings,
isn't it? If it's just tidings, we may have some joy. But here
He said, it's great joy. So what is it that brings great
joy? If it produces great joy, it has to be great tidings. Great good news produces great
good joy. Job's poor heart was so heavy
because he heard all of these evil tidings. They just kept
coming and coming and coming. But remember Mary? The scripture
says she departed from the sepulcher with great joy. And what was
it that produced that great joy in her heart? The angel brought
her some good news. He's not here. He's risen. That's the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It brings great joy. So it's great timing. Brothers
and sisters, the gospel has nothing in it whatsoever to grieve a
person. It has nothing in it whatsoever
of evil tidings. The gospel, by the very definition
of it, is good news. But it's not just good news.
I tell you what, it's the best news a person could ever hear. I bring you good tidings of great
joy. So for the gospel to be the gospel,
it can't have any bad news attached to it. It's got to be good news. It's got to be such good news
that reaches the heart of an individual and produces joy. That's the gospel by its very
definition. But let's go one step further.
Thirdly, for the gospel to be glad tidings, it has to be good
news to me. It has to be good news to me. Dear Amy, if she gets through
this and they get this procedure, and she comes out of this and
she's healthy again, I tell you, I would rejoice. If Shirley calls us and says
she's fine, we would rejoice. But you know what would make
us rejoice more? If I'd had a heart attack, and then I was cured,
That would make me rejoice. It has to be good news that comes
to me. And look here how he says it
in verse 10. Look here how he says it in verse
10. And the angel of the Lord said unto them, fear not for
I bring you good tidings. I bring you good tidings. of
great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the
Lord." See who the angels were talking to? You. You. I bring you. It has to come home to our hearts. I tell you, if there is somebody
here this morning lost, And you hear the gospel this morning,
he'll make me happy. I tell you, he'll fill me with
joy. But you know who's somebody he'll make happier than me? He'll
make you happy. He'll make you happy. You may
hear somebody else, and you say, well, that gospel must be good.
It must be good. Look what it's done for them.
But, boy, wait till it comes to you. Let the angel of mercy
speak to you and say unto you, We bring good tidings unto you.
So for the gospel to truly be good news, it must become the
gospel of my salvation. It must come to me, unto you,
unto you. These shepherds would have paid
no attention to this if these angels would have been over there
talking to another group of shepherds on the other side of the hill.
It came to them. And fourthly, for the gospel
to be truly the gospel of good tidings and great joy, it must
be true and certain. It has to be true. It has to
be certain. If the gospel is doubted, if
the gospel is uncertain, you know what it does? Instead of
filling us with joy, it will fill us with anxiety. We'll be
waiting to see if the gospel is really good news. The reason
they said we bring you good tidings of great joy is because they
said this is sure now. There's no doubt about what we're
about to tell you. Here in verse 10 and verse 11,
boy, they use these words. Fear not, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy which shall be which shall be to all
people. And he said here in verse 12,
this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes laying in a manger. These angels loved
this word shall. It means unavoidable. It means
unmistakable. And look down here in verse 20.
Boy, these angels skedaddled over there to where they told
them to go. And look here, and the shepherd
returned glorified and praising God for all the things which
they have heard and seen as it was told unto them." They went
and they found everything just as the angels said it would be. And for the gospel to be good
news of great joy, it has to be just like the Bible says it
is. It has to be true. It has to
be certain. It has to be for sure. That's
the wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, about the gospel.
It's good news. Because you can't mess it up.
I was leaving the conference Sunday morning, and Delper Scruggs
came out, and he flagged me down, and I pulled up next to him in
the parking lot and rolled my window down. I knew he was so
happy. He was laughing and slapping
my arm. He said, oh, it's been so good.
He said, you know the thing I love about the gospel more than anything
else? I can't mess it up. Ain't that wonderful? How many
things have we messed up? But you won't mess the gospel
up. That's why it's such good news. It has all these shalls
attached to it. I love that word shall, don't
you? Unavoidable. Inescapable. It means you can't
mess it up. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. You can't mess it up. I'm the
resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that lives and believeth
in me shall never die. You can't mess it up. Oh, that's
what makes it such good news, brothers and sisters. If the
gospel puts you on probation, do you know anybody that's on
probation and they're happy about it? I read one where a commentator
said, the Lord saves us and he puts us on probation to see if
we're going to make it, you know. Well, you find me somebody on
probation and see how happy they are about it. It has a certain
amount of stigma attached to it, doesn't it? And you're afraid. Because you're on probation.
The law is watching you. And the first time you mess up,
they're going to stick you in jail and take your liberty away
from you. Is that the gospel? No. For the gospel to be the gospel,
it has to be sure. It has to be certain. It has
these shalls attached to it. All the promises of God in Christ
Jesus, they're not yea and nay, but all of them's yea. to the
glory of God. Oh, they said, let us go and
seek this soul. And they went and found this
soul. Just like they were told. Just like they were told. The
gospel, brothers and sisters, is good news. Because it's certain. It's sure. It's sure. And this, consider this, for
the gospel to be truly good tidings, for it to be the gospel, it has
to be something that you never heard of before. For good news
to be good news, for it to be great news that causes you great
joy, it has to be something unheard of. You never considered it before. And that's what happened here
to these angels, these shepherds. They never heard of such a thing.
And you know when they found it out. You know who made it
known to them. I tell you, the gospel is such
a mystery. It's such an unheard of mystery
that you can't even know it. You can't even learn it, except
the Lord teach it. Do you know that? Look what they
said here in verse 15. Look at this. And it came to
pass, as the angels were going away from them into heaven, the
shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem,
and see this thing which is come to pass," look at this, "...which
the Lord hath made known unto us." How did they find this out? The Lord made it known unto them. The Lord revealed it. And I tell
you what makes the gospel the gospel of good news. Here we
are. We're going along and we're in
darkness. We're as ignorant as we can be. And then the Lord comes. And
what does He do? Why, He opens up our understanding.
And there's news unheard of. There's news that we couldn't
imagine. And it's wonderful news. It's
good news. Somebody said, oh, my children,
I raised them to know right from wrong. They know right from wrong. Don't we say that so often? My
children know right from wrong. That's a wonderful thing. All
of us should teach our children right from wrong. But we're not
talking about morality, are we? We're not talking about right
and wrong. We're talking about the gospel.
We're talking about something you don't know by nature. We're
talking about something man can't teach you. Not even your parents
can teach you. They can't open your heart. How
many of us have taught our children and tried to drive this home
to their heart, and they go on their way. The gospel is not
good news to them at all. Well, we taught them the gospel,
yeah. We tried to get it in their heads
and can't even do that. But boy, let the Lord teach you.
Let the Lord make it known to them. And they'll sit under the
gospel from the time they're little tots up to twenty or thirty
years old, and when the Lord opens their heart to hear it,
you know what they'll say? I never heard this in all my
life. And that's what makes the gospel the gospel. Oh, the Lord opened Lydia's heart.
The Lord opened Lydia's heart. I wonder how many times Lydia
had gathered with those women out there to pray. They had a
habit of gathering out there on the riverside, there in Philippi. That's where they would gather
when Paul found them and went to preach to them. I wonder how
many times she had gathered there and somebody had read the scriptures
and taught out of the law. And she sat there, and after
they'd prayed and heard a few words, she went back to the cell
in the purple. But boy, that day, she heard
some good news that she never heard in all her life. And the
way she heard it, and why it was good news, is for this. The
Lord opened her heart. That's what makes the gospel,
the gospel. And consider, lastly, is this. To be good tidings that brings
great joy, it has to be tidings that is of the utmost importance. It has to be of the greatest
importance. You call me and tell me that
the Miami Heat won the NBA championship. I ain't going to leap for joy
about that because I don't give a hoot. I don't care who wins
the Stanley Cup. I don't care who wins the World
Open or the Beauty Classic or anything else. I just don't care. But tell me something that's
going to affect my eternal destiny. I tell you, that'll get my attention.
You tell me that my eternal destiny has been fixed And it's for the
good. It's for the salvation of my
soul now and my body in the end. I tell you, that will get my
attention. You tell me that my redemption has been accomplished,
that my sins that I could not atone for has been atoned for,
that all my sins have been washed away. that I have a perfect standing
with God that He's now my Father. And all of this has been accomplished
by a mother on my behalf. And if I love my soul, I tell
you that's going to be the best good news I've heard in all my
life. And you know what made this Good
Tidings a great joy? You know why the angel said,
I bring you good tidings of great joy? Well, he tells us there
in verse 11, until you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior. A Savior. That's good news, ain't
it? He's come to save you. Oh, the
old prophet said, they shall cry unto the Lord. the cause
of the oppressor, and he shall send them a Savior, a mighty
one, and he shall deliver them. I tell you, if you and I know
anything this morning, brothers and sisters, about the awful
wrath of God, one of the most horrible things that you and
I could face is the wrath of God. And if a man faces God in his
sins, he'll face the wrath of God. And the Scripture says that
Jesus Christ came and delivered us from the wrath to come. That's the Savior. It's good
news about a Savior. He says here in chapter 1 of
Luke, look in verse 67, what he says about this. This is where
the father, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was filled
in verse 67 with the Holy Ghost and he prophesied, Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel, for he's visited and redeemed his people.
He raised up the horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant
David. as he spake with the mouth of
his holy prophet, which I have been since the world began, that
we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that
hate us." Oh, that's what we're talking about. Dear children,
that's what we're talking about. You young people, bless your
hearts. This is so serious. It has your
eternal destiny involved in it. You say, well, Bruce, you're
old. You're concerned about those things. You know you may die tomorrow.
You young people may get killed in a car accident tomorrow. Your
appointed hour may be tomorrow. You may be old and don't even
know it. This is so serious, is it not?
We've got enemies. The wrath of God is our enemy.
Satan is our enemy. Sin is our enemy. And here's
the good news. Unto you is born a Savior. He's come to save His people
from their sin. That's good news. Don't just
tell me about the bad news. Don't just tell me I'm a sinner
and I'm under the judgment of God and there's a hell that awaits
me. Don't just tell me that. Tell
me about this Savior that came and delivered His from the wrath
of God. Old Scott Richard used to say,
since I heard the good news, I ain't heard any bad news. And
the gospel of good news ain't. And I tell you, when you hear
it like this, there's no room for bad news. Gospel. Having your feet shod, he says
in my text, with the gospel of peace. Here's another reason
it's good news. It's the gospel of peace. Why does Paul use this here,
the gospel of peace? He called it different things,
the gospel of grace, the gospel of redemption, the gospel of
your salvation. Why does he call it here in our text the gospel
of peace? Well, he does so because he's
dealing with our warfare against the devil and the fallen angels. And there's three things the
devil cannot stand before regarding this peace. He can't endure to
see the brethren. He hates peace among the brothers. The devil loves confusion. If
he can get into a congregation like this and start causing confusion
and debates, he can separate it, and pretty soon you have
to shut the doors. But if there is peace, if there
is unity, one with another, he cannot get in that congregation.
He cannot tear that congregation up. how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, endeavoring to keep
the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Peace binds us together. Be at peace among yourselves,
Paul said, and the God of peace and love shall be with you. And how do we have peace among
ourselves? Look here at Ephesians chapter
2. Let me remind you of this. Ephesians chapter 2. Look in verse 13. Ephesians 2
verse 13. But now, but now, in Christ Jesus,
You who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For He is our peace, who hath
made both Jew and Gentile one, and is broken down the middle
wall of petition between us." One of the greatest mysteries
of the New Testament is how the believing Jew can have peace
with a believing Gentile. It had never been heard of before. The Gentiles looked upon the
Jew with his law and his ceremonies and said, Boy, those people are
so self-righteous. They are so standoffish. They
are so stuck up. We don't want to have anything
to do with that bunch of self-righteous people. The Jews looked at the
Gentiles And they worshiped devils. They had no law of God to live
by, no promises. And they said, you're nothing
but a bunch of dead, dogged, uncircumcised Gentiles. Don't
even come near us. How can you bring two people
that's so far apart and bring them together and have peace
one to another? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He took all of those ceremonies
And he fulfilled every one of them. He was their priest. He
was their tabernacle. He was their sacrifice. And when
they looked upon him, they said, man, he's all. I don't need the
temple anymore. I don't need the Aaronic priesthood. I don't need to take sacrifices
in the temple. He's everything. He's everything. And they said, I'm one in him.
I'm in him. And here are those dead dog Gentiles. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they said, He's taken all of our sins. He's taken all of
our enmity. And He's put it all away. And
now we're in Him. We're one in Him. And they came
together. And the Jews said, We're one
in Christ. That's all that matters. And
the Gentiles said, We're one in Christ. That's all that matters.
They said, Bless God, we've got peace. Remember when the Lord
told Peter to go down and preach to Carnelius the Gentile? Remember
what Peter said to him? Well, Lord, I ain't going down
there. Those people are common and they're
unclean. It's against the law for me to enter their house.
I'm not going down there. And the Lord showed him, don't
you call any man common or unclean when I've cleansed him. And remember
the first word out of Peter's mouth when he started preaching?
The word which God sent to the Gentiles preaching peace by Jesus
Christ. First thing out of his mouth,
I'm here to preach peace by Jesus Christ. He's Lord of all. What brings peace among the brethren? Why do we have peace in the church? We're in Christ. If you're in
Christ, you've got peace with Him. If you're in Christ, brothers,
you've got peace with your brethren if they're in Christ. The devil
hates that. Boy, he hates that. Peace with
the brethren. It's the gospel of peace. It
brings peace with men who before were enemies. Satan hates this. He hates the gospel of peace
because the gospel of peace brings peace to the conscience. It's
called the gospel of peace because it's the only thing that can
bring peace to your conscience. You know what the devil loves,
and we're warned against this everywhere because we know how
he oppresses. He loves to see a conscience full of guilt. He loves to see the conscience
full of darkness. He loves to hear it screaming
because that's the way he works. He works in the conscience to
create turmoil, and finally he brings the soul to despair and
to say, there's no hope. There's no hope. I tell you,
the conscience is an amazing thing. The conscience that's
awakened to sin and the judgment of God upon it, there's but one
thing that can satisfy that conscience and bring peace to it. The conscience
can make an amazing thing. You can lure it to sleep. You
can lock it to sleep. And the devil does that all over
the place. But boy, let that conscience
become afflicted with a sense of its guilt and the judgment
of God. He'll not keep it quiet then.
When Adam and Eve had sinned against the Lord. Remember that? That eat the forbidden fruit? And Adam looked at Eve and said,
Bang, you're naked. You're naked. She looked at him
and said, you're naked too. And he, oh my soul, I am naked.
And they ran and got some fig leaves, remember that, and sewed
a bunch of fig leaves and made them aprons. And he said, sweetheart,
you look a lot better now. She said, you look better too.
He said, I feel so safe. You can't see my shame. I'm not
embarrassed anymore. How do these fig leaves look?
Oh, they look great, honey. How do they feel? I love it. I've done such a good job solding
these fig leaves all myself. I feel good about myself. We'll
have some children and we'll make them fig leaves. And we'll
sew aprons on them. And they went along so happy,
dressed in their fig leaves. There's a ministry in Muncie.
I forgot the lady's name. She's passionate. And her church
is called the Fig Leaf Ministry. Can you imagine that? Of all
things, the Fig Leaf Ministry. They run a big ad in the paper,
in some Muncie paper. Fig Leaf Ministry. And they were
so happy, those fig leaves, until the voice of the Lord came in
the cool of the day. And this is an amazing thing.
Eve looked at Adam and said, ìYouíre naked!î He said, ìYouíre
naked!î Were they naked? Theyíd sewn fig leaves together.
I just wonder when the Lord spoke and said, ìAdam, where are you?î
I wonder if those fig leaves just didnít swivel up and dry
up and come apart and fall down. You know, that's probably what
happened. Remember, the Lord cursed the fig tree, didn't He?
And it dried up immediately and amazed His disciples. If He can
do that to a fig tree by just saying to it, don't you think
that's probably what happened to their fig leaves? We're naked. We're naked. Oh, He was shocked,
and she was shocked. We've eaten the tree, and now
we're naked. And now we're shamed, and now
we're guilty. And we came hiding from our conscience, my conscience.
Why did you hide? My conscience? My conscience
was screaming. I tried to control it. I said,
calm down. I tried to hypnotize myself.
Calm down. Calm down now. Get control of
yourself. And the devil was there saying,
don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. But boy,
that conscience was screaming. You're naked. You're naked. Oh,
you're in your shame. And you know, that continued
that way. The Lord said, you serpent, you're
going to go on your belly for the rest of your life and eat
dirt. He said to the woman, you're going to have sorrow in burying
your children. He said to the man, the judgment
that you're going to face, I'm going to curse the ground for
your sake. And all along they stood there
trembling. Oh, the conscience was trembling
until God Himself killed some animals, and clothed them with
the skin of those animals. And nothing else was said about
them being naked. You know what will bring peace
to a screaming conscience? You know what will satisfy a
screaming conscience? It will take the very thing that
will satisfy God to satisfy your conscience. And that's a perfect
sacrifice. That's the only thing that will
satisfy God, and that's the only thing that will satisfy our conscience.
It takes God's provision to quieten the screaming conscience. And
you know what that is, don't you? That's a perfect sacrifice. If the blood of bulls and goats
sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ purge your conscience? And until the conscience
is purged with blood, it cannot find peace. That's why it's called
the gospel of peace. Atoning blood to shed for the
remission of sins. It'll take the gospel that satisfies
God to satisfy your conscience. You know that's why men, the
best they can do, no matter what religion they have, sometimes
their conscience are awakened, and boy, they start screaming.
And you know why? The best you can do won't satisfy
your conscience. The best religion you can have
won't satisfy your conscience. The only thing that will satisfy
your conscience is the blood of a sacrifice. That's why it's
called the Gospel of Peace. It brings peace among the brethren.
It brings peace to the conscience. But more than anything else,
it's called the Gospel of Peace because it brings peace with
God. Peace with God. I want peace
in my conscience. I want peace with you, brothers
and sisters. I've got to have peace with God. And this gospel
gives peace. It's made peace. The mystery
about it, it made peace before you and I were ever born. He
made peace by the blood of His cross. Being justified by faith,
we have peace with God. I get a picture in my mind. Sometimes
I like to just sit and just put my feet up on my desk and just
sit there and imagine and get a picture of things in my mind
that I was doing this history. And I got a picture in my mind
of a man. Couldn't see his face or describe
him, but he's a man. And he's hanging up on a cross.
And from his brow, where the thorns had made holes in his
brow, there's blood still quickly now and running down over his
face. And in his hands there's blood
running out of the prints of the nails, running down his arms
and flowing down his side. And I see all the way down to
his feet, and there on his feet, blood is trickling out of those
wounds in his feet, running down to the ground. And then I see
a hole, a gaping hole in his side, and blood and water gushing
out, staining his waist and his legs, and running out on the
ground beneath his body. And I see in my vision my imagination,
a sword. I see this sword, and it's bathed
in blood. It's bloody. And it says on it, Justice! Justice! It's not a drawn sword. It's
not a raised sword. It's a sword at rest. And though it seems so frightful,
You just almost feel like you could go there and kiss that
sword. It's non-threatening. It's at
rest. And then my mind goes to that
verse of Scripture in Colossians 1.20, having made peace through
the blood of His cross. I'll tell you why this is so
important. If the devil can convince a man that God is angry with
him, if that man does not see the gospel of peace, if he does
not see that peace has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, if
all he ever sees that God is still angry, I tell you, he will
despair. He will despair. And that's what
Satan does to us. This is where he battles us.
God is still angry. That's what he tells us. God
is an angry God. Well, Satan, what's he angry
about? Your sin. Oh, he's angry at my sin. Is
that right? Well, what's that man doing on
the cross in his blood? What's God's smile in him if
he's still angry with me? It's impossible for God to be
angry with me and angry with any believer in light of the
cross. You can't be angry with your
sins. Your sins have been punished. They've been atoned for. They've
been put away by God's darling Son. They are no more. Don't
the Bible tell us that? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away. Well, what's God angry about
that? What is it in God that He's still
angry? Well, I feel so estranged. I just feel estranged. In the
light of the cross, you feel estranged. Don't the Scriptures
say that He reconciled us to Himself? by the death of His
Son? How could you feel estranged
in the light of the cross? How could you feel that there
is this vast division between you and the Father in heaven
when you see the bloody man on a cross? No, God is not angry,
brothers and sisters. He is at rest. There is nothing
for a child of God but peace and love and goodness and grace. If there's any evil in God towards
His people, then I've misunderstood the gospel because the gospel
is good news. And you mix some evil with it,
and it ceases to be good news. It's all good news. And if God
is still angry, I'm telling you, that's not good news. There's
no wrath left in Him. There's no anger left in Him. I remember when Noah got out
of that ark. Remember this, when Noah got out of the ark? God
had destroyed the earth. I mean, he took it away, but
with a flood. He took away the ungodly. Noah
escaped through the ark, landed in a new world, and got out of
that ark and took clean animals, and built him up an altar out
of stones, and laid those animals, and set them on fire. And that
smoke of that flesh began to descend up into heaven. Ascended
up to heaven. And the Bible says the Lord God
smelled a sweet savor. Now, if you've ever smelt flesh
burning, it's not sweet. It's not sweet at all, is it?
But you know what God smelled in that sacrifice? He smelled
His Son. He smelt his side. You know what
he said? I will never again curse any
more. I will never again. What a way
to make a statement. I will never again, any more,
curse. This is a gospel, brothers and
sisters, of peace. A gospel of peace. The last point is this. We have
the gospel, what it is, it's good news, great good news that
brings great joy. It's a gospel of peace. And Ben
here, he makes a statement that's somewhat difficult to understand. Here in the sixth chapter in
verse 15. Having your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. Let's read it like this. Have your feet prepared with
these gospel shoes. Be prepared. You're going to
have to stand. That's what he's been talking
about, ain't it? Stand. Having done all to stand,
stand. And then he talks about withstanding.
And he says to stand and withstand, you're going to have to have
some shoes on your feet. You guys have been in the military.
You know something about having good shoes, don't you? Why, they
say a lot of combat soldiers sleep with their boots on. Wouldn't
you hate to get awake during the night, hand-to-hand combat,
and you didn't have your boots on? That would be terrible, wouldn't
it? Jews are important in this fight with the devil and with
these fallen angels. They give us stability. They
give us a firm standing. They give us grip. Sometimes
Satan attacks us, and he attacks us suddenly. If you've ever experienced
this, you know what I'm talking about. Boy, you're going along
down your path, and things are going pretty good, and all of
a sudden, he straddles your path. And he has this smoke and fire
coming out of his nostrils, and boy, he suddenly makes war against
you. And he does it suddenly because
he wants to knock you off your feet. He sets the battle in a
ray, and I'm telling you in just a few minutes, underneath your
feet, it's wet with your blood, it's wet with your sweat and
your slobber, and it gets slick. And if you don't have a good
pair of shoes to study, You'll fall. You'll fall. How often the devil tries to
ambush us. You ever been ambushed? Boy,
that's the worst kind. I'm telling you. Remember what
the Lord told him? Job's in your hand. You do with
him. Just spare his life. He's in
your hand. And boy, I'm telling you, everything comes suddenly. Everything was going along so
fine, then suddenly they came and said, Job, all your cattle's
been stolen. Here come another and said, Job,
all your servants have been killed. I'm the only one that's left
to bring the bad news. Here come another and said, Job, your sons
and daughters, they're dead. Boy, here come another messenger
that came in the form of boils all over his body. Don't you
imagine that just about got him off of his feet. If we're going to stand, brothers
and sisters, we've got to have shoes upon our feet. And what better shoes could you
and I have and be shod with than the shoes of the gospel of peace? Paul said you stand in this gospel. I preached it to you, you've
received it, you're saved back, and you stand in this What does it mean to have them
on your feet? It means you put the gospel on,
you put it in your heart, you remember it. Don't forget it. If you come into a battle with
Satan and you forgot it, who's forgetting the gospel? Yes, don't
we forget it. Don't we forget it. Ain't that
our problem a lot of times, brothers and sisters? We're going happily
along and suddenly we're attacked and we're like the psalmist. Almost my feet slipped. Almost my feet went up. You know
what I think his problem was? He kept talking about feet. My
feet slipped. And I wonder sometimes, Asaph,
what about your shoes? Did you have any shoes on? Shot. Have your feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Lord told the children
of Israel, He said, you are going to have shoes of iron and brass. I think if you could get a pair
of shoes made of that and they were comfortable, I tell you
what now, you could walk on nails, couldn't you? That wouldn't hurt
you because you've got shoes of iron and brass. You could
walk through coals of fire. That wouldn't hurt you. You could
walk through piles of glass with shoes like that. Remember when
the children of Israel were out in the desert for 40 years? And
the Bible says their feet, their shoes, did not wax old on their
feet. Neither did their feet swell. You think the Lord would do that
for them? and not give us proper armor
to walk in. If He did that for them naturally,
and He tells us to put on these gospel shoes, I bet you our shoes
would last more than 40 years. And I bet you they would be better
than iron and brass. And I bet you the person that
has these shoes on, his feet would never swell in them. They
used to make us wear steel-toed shoes that worked. That was the
most uncomfortable thing. But I tell you, it protected
your feet. And you put these gospel shoes
on. Prepare your feet for the gospel. Then you'll stand. When you get in the Murray Clay
and slick, you'll stand. When the devil ambushes you,
it won't throw your feet up. Now, just stand in the gospel,
brother. Stand every day, every day. Let Jesus Christ be your
all in all. And you'll stand. You'll stand. I ain't got no secret formula.
I'll be honest with you. Somebody says, man, I'm in trouble.
I don't know what to do. The only advice I've got is put these
shoes on. Put these shoes on. Let's pray.