All right, let's open our Bibles
to Ephesians chapter 6. Let me see if I can lay sort of a foundation for this study
tonight. This morning we talked about
wives being biblical, spiritual. good wives, submitting themselves
to their own husbands, and husbands being loving, tender husbands,
and fathers, children obeying their parents in the Lord, and
fathers bringing their children up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, and servants being obedient as unto Christ in their
work for their masters. And then masters being good masters,
treating servants as they themselves wish to be treated, remembering
that they have a master in heaven. And then in verse 10, Paul said,
finally, my brethren, everybody, wives and husbands
and children and fathers and servants and masters, my brethren,
all of you. Be strong in the Lord. Be strong
in the power of his might. These things which we are exalted
to do cannot be performed or accomplished in our strength.
Can't be done. These things that we are exhorted
to do, and the kind of persons that we ought to be all the time,
and the witness that we are told to hold forth in the name of
our Master, cannot be performed and accomplished in our own strength. Here is the source of our ability
and strength. It's be strong in the Lord and
in the power of his might, who said, without me, you can do
nothing. You can't do any of these things.
You see, the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. The fruit is
not the fruit of the branch, it's the fruit of the vine. And
the branch cannot bear fruit. What is fruit? Love, joy, peace. faith, meekness, gentleness,
kindness, patience, long-suffering. It's impossible. That's the fruit
of the Spirit of God who dwells in us. You see, repentance is
the gift of God. We know that. We labor that point
so that everybody might learn that it's the goodness of God
that leads a man to repentance. And faith is the gift of God.
Our grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. As repentance is the gift of
God, and faith is the gift of God, love is the gift of God. The ability to love, not to talk
about it, not to profess it, but to love. The love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts for the Holy Ghost. That's how
it gets in your heart. It's God's gift. Patience. Tribulation works with patience.
By whose hand does tribulation come? Our Lord. Wisdom. If any man likes wisdom, well,
I'll buy me a whole set of commentaries. You still won't get any wisdom. Let him ask of God who gives
us wisdom. That's where wisdom comes from,
understanding, understanding, grace. Hold that place there
in Ephesians and turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul says here in verse 9, 1
Corinthians 15 verse 9, I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the
least of the apostles here, that I'm not meet or fit or qualified
to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.
But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which
was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. I labored I labored
more abundantly than all of them. But remember, not I. Not I. I didn't do these things. It's
the grace of God in me." You see, Paul learned that in
the school of affliction. Turn to 2 Corinthians, chapters
12. He learned that in the school
of affliction. Over here in chapter 12, I'm laying a foundation to
talk about the armor of God. But over here in chapter 12 of
2 Corinthians, the Lord gave the Apostle Paul a thorn in the
flesh. Let's read verse 7. He called
it a messenger of Satan. God permitted Satan to bring
this into the life of the Apostle Paul. Let's read verse 7. "...unless
I should be exalted above measure, unless I should think of myself
more highly than ought to think, except I should find that I feel
like I have any abilities of my own through the abundance
of the revelations. It was given to me a thorn in
the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, to harass Lest I be exalted above measure
to keep me from pride and self-dependence." Read on. And for this thing,
this troublesome thorn in my flesh, we don't know what it
was. Nobody does. For this thing, I besought the
Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he gave me
a message. He said this. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you.
It's sufficient for all that you need. It's sufficient for
all that you do. My grace is quite sufficient. I read on, And my strength, for
my strength is made perfect in weakness. What does that mean? The Lord said this, now to Paul. He says, My grace is sufficient
for all you need, for all that you do. for all that I command
you to do, for all that I lay upon you, because my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Now, our weakness does not add
perfection to him. Our God is perfect. Everything
about our God is perfect. He's altogether lovely and perfect. But the power and grace of our
Lord is most glorified and most magnified and shines forth in
using us in spite of our weakness and overcoming that weakness
for his glory. That's how his strength is made
perfect in our weakness. I'll give you an example. Keep
that place there and go to Judges, chapter 7. You remember the Lord
was going to use Gideon. in chapter 7 to deliver Israel
from the Midianites. And old Gideon had an army of
32,000 men. That's a lot of strength. That's
a lot of power. That's a lot of firepower. That's a lot of men. But God came to Gideon and said,
You've got too many men. Look at chapter 7, verse 2 of
Judges. The Lord said, The people that
are with you are too many. Gideon thought there were too
few. He still thought he had a battle on his hands with that
many. Because the forces of evil outnumbered him in bodies. But the Lord said there are too
many for me to give the Midianites into your hands. You're too strong.
You've got too much going for you. Because you will balk yourself
against me, Israel will balk themselves against me, saying,
My own hand has saved me." So the Lord depleted Gideon's forces,
used 2 or 3 things, and finally brought them down to 300,000,000. Just about as many as are right
here in this service tonight. That's all they had. He's going
against thousands and thousands and thousands. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness." That's a weak force. That's a pitiful force
to go against such an awesome army. But if we defeat them with
32,000, we're going to get the praise. But if we defeat them
with a handful, the one who gave us the victory, he gets the praise. And that's what Paul is talking
about. Go back to that 2 Corinthians 12. My strength is perfected. My power and strength is magnified
when I use someone like you and a handful like your honor. I get the glory." That's what
he said. And when God uses a fellow like
me to preach the gospel and blesses it, he gets the glory. That's
right. So Paul says in verse God said,
Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength, my power
was made perfect or perfected, magnified in your weakness. So
Paul says, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. Most gladly, therefore, will
I accept my lack of talent, gifts, wisdom, intellect, credentials. Most gladly, therefore, will
I accept and acknowledge my weakness and my infirmities," listen to
him, "...in order that the power of Christ might rest upon me."
Well, you want Gideon? You want to go to war with 32,000
and you get the praise, or you want
to go to war with 300 and God gets the praise? What do you
want? What I want in my ministry. Do
I want to accomplish something in which I'll be exalted or do
I want to be used of God to accomplish His purpose? And that's what
Paul is saying here. He said, God brought this thing
into my life to shut my mouth and humble me and bring me down
to dust and show me I'm nothing. Lest I be exalted above measure,
and I complained. I said, I need this, I need that,
I don't need this trouble. He said, my grace is sufficient
for you. And my strength, my power is
made perfect, magnified in your inability and weakness and infirmity. All right? If that's what I have
to do to have him and his power on me, then that's fine. our
glory in my infirmities. I'll accept them. I'll accept
them. I'll acknowledge them. I'll let
everybody know. And that's what he did. And I
want to show you this now. I'll turn to these. You don't
have to, but I'll just turn to them quickly. And this is what
he said about himself and what other people said about him.
You just stay where you are and I'll read them. He said in 1
Corinthians 3, chapter 2, he said, I was with you in weakness. in fear and but trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but my speech and
my preaching was a demonstration of God's Spirit and God's power,
that your faith should not stand in me or my wisdom, but in the
power of God." That's what he said. over here in 2 Corinthians 10,
and that's just one page back from where you are if you want
to turn to it. In 2 Corinthians 10, verse 1, he said this, Now
I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness
of Christ, who in presence am base among you. He said, you
don't think much of me. I'm base among you. But being
absent, I'm bold toward you. But that's what some people think
I'm based. I've turned to verse 10 of that
same chapter. He's talking about himself now. In verse 9 of chapter 10 of 2
Corinthians, he said, "...that I may not seem as if I would
terrify you by letters. For Paul's letters say they,"
people talk about my epistles, and they say they're weak and
powerful. They're powerful. I mean, they're weighty and powerful,
his epistles. But his bodily presence is weak.
His speech is contemptible. That's what he says. His speech
is contemptible. Look at chapter 11, verse 6.
Verse 6 of chapter 11, But though I be rude in speech. Can you
imagine Apostle Paul being rude in speech? But he said that,
rude in speech. I'm not in knowledge. I know
whom I have believed,' he said later. But we have been throughly
made manifest among you in all things." Now, back to where I
was in chapter 12, back where we were in chapter 12, verse
11. Now, I've become a fool in glory. I've become a fool in defending
myself. But he said, You compel me to.
For I ought to have been commended of you. For in nothing am I behind
the very chief apostles, who would be Peter, James, and John. But wait a minute now, comma,
so I'll be nothing. This man has talked about himself
as being, in the eyes of a lot of people, base, speech contemptible, rude in
speech, being nothing. And yet he says, most gladly,
will I accept that and acknowledge that, my weakness and infirmities,
that the power of Christ might rest upon me. And that's not, in our days,
the total wishes and desires of most religious people. You hear a fellow say, well,
now that preacher, he's really, he's highly educated. Maybe he's
too educated. Maybe he's too educated. Well,
this preacher is so clever. Maybe he's too clever. Maybe
he's too highly thought out. Well, this man is such a powerful
speaker. Maybe he's too powerful. Maybe
the cross of Christ is being pushed to the background. He
can't have both. And that's what he's saying here.
It's not by power, it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. Turn
to John 6, verse 63. Our Lord said, it's the spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh, prophet, is nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, they are life.
That's where the power is in the word of God, not in our cleverness. Not in our credentials, not in
our oratory, not in our illustrations, not in our cleverness. We're
nothing. A violin can't produce any music
at all, unless it's totally in the hands of one who has the
power. That goes for us. That organ
over there, Barty's been playing that for so many years and blessing
us. If you stand here and look at it, it's beautiful, fine organ. But he won't play it, Sam. That's what Paul is saying, that's
what I get out of this chapter, 2 Corinthians 12, go back to
it one more time. That he's desiring the power
of God to be upon him. That's what my text said, brethren,
be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might. But something
has got to happen to us in order to be strong in the Lord. We've
got to admit, we need him. We're nothing without him. It
won't make a sound. Not a sound. Here in verse 10 of chapter 12
of 2 Corinthians, that's over. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities. I take pleasure in reproaches. I take pleasure in necessities,
in persecution, in distress, for Christ's sake. Because when
I'm weak, when I just can't do it, I don't have the strength,
the power, the ability, the intellect, I just don't have it, then I'm
strong. in this platoon with this old
fiddle. That's right. I'll paraphrase
that verse. Verse 10, I'll paraphrase it.
Listen, Most gladly, then, will I be content to remain poor and
needy, a poor, weak, feeble creature, in order that the power of Christ
might rest upon me. I want that power. I want the
power of Christ, but I can't have it from somebody. I've got
to be nobody. I can't have it. God's not going
to use me. I've got to be brought down like
Gideon's army. I've got to be humble like Paul
the Apostle. But when I'm sensible of my inability
and my weakness and my need of him, then and only He'll use
me for his glory. Something will happen. Guaranteed. Something will happen for his
glory. He'll uphold me by his mighty
arm. He'll give me wisdom beyond my
abilities. He'll make me strong in his purpose
and work. And then I'll truly know that
what happened, what is happening, is of God and not of man. That's how I know it. When I
can do nothing, when I have nothing, when I know nothing. When the power of Christ rests
upon me, whatever happens, if somebody's broken, comes to knowledge
of the gospel, somebody's blessed, somebody grows in grace, it's
not me. God did it. God did it. And that's what we're talking
about over here in Ephesians. And I laid out these things this
morning, that what we're commanded to be and do and think and how
to live, it's not in you to do that. It's only by his power
and his grace. And when we're brought down to
that place where it's the Lord, be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might. Now, look at verse 11 and 12,
and here is where we go from that. In verse 11 and 12, he
says, "...put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, But our warfare is against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness and complacency. Our Lord prayed for us in John
17. He said, Father, I don't pray that you take them out of
the world, but I pray that you keep them from the evil, the
evil one. That's what he's saying. When
he taught his disciples to pray, he said to pray in this fashion. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against
us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil
one." And that's what this verse is talking about here. We are
surrounded by evil powers and evil people. This world is not
the friend of God or of greats. We wrestle against not flesh
and blood, but principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness,
spiritual wickedness in high places. Our enemy is Satan. He's
called in the scripture the accuser of the brethren. He's called
the adversary. He's called the father of lies.
He's called the prince of this world. He's called the God of
this world. He's called that old serpent.
He's called the tempter. He's called that wicked one.
And he's powerful. And the field of battle is not
against the flesh. The field of battle is not the
flesh. The field of battle is the mind
and the heart and the spirit. He invades the mind and the spirit
and causes doubt. and fear and division and distrust. He'll attack an angel. He attacked
Michael in disputing over the body of Moses. He'll attack an
apostle. He attacked Peter. And our Lord
had to say to his apostle, Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're
savoring up the things of God. He'll attack the righteous man,
he did Job. He'll attack the Son of God.
Our Lord was led up into high mountain, and there Satan unloaded
on him, tempted him with iron. You be the Son of God, make these
stones into bread. You be the Son of God, cast yourself
off here. People will believe on you. Our enemy, our enemy is principalities
and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world. And the
battlefield is the mind and the heart and the soul, spirit. And do you know what his objective
is? His objective is to corrupt you. from the simplicity of Christ.
That is his objective. Let me show you that. Back to
2 Corinthians. His objective, his objective,
this is it. His objective is to corrupt your
mind. That's the battlefield. Let me
read it to you. Chapter 11, verse 1 through 3,
listen, 2 Corinthians. With the God, you could bear
with me a little. in my folly, and indeed you do
bear with me," Paul said, "'I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy. I have espoused to you one husband,
that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ, up here, lest
by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
your man.'" Man? Oh, no. That's what Peter thought.
My man? You talk to the Son of God? On
what ground? Are you the Son of God? Prove
it. Let me put a little doubt in
your mind here. Lest your mind should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. What are his weapons? Now, our
enemy is Satan, spiritual wickedness. The battlefield,
the battleground is the mind, the thoughts. His objective is
to take you away from the simplicity of Christ. What is his weapon?
Anything. Anything at all that will take
your heart from total dependence on Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus,
the Lord. These enemies do not want you
to believe on Christ, that in him dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead body, and you are complete in him. that his
blood maketh atonement for our souls, that his perfect obedience,
his righteousness is imputed to us, and with his spotless
garments on, we are as holy as God's Son, that we have a great
high priest that ministers in heaven, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, and because he represents us, we are accepted in the beloved.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn't want you to rest in his righteousness. to trust in his blood, to find
all your assurance and comfort in his personal work, to be an
obedient servant, a loving parent, a generous master, a loving,
forgiving, godly believer. He doesn't want you to do that.
He wants you to trust your works and rest in your feeling and
all these other things. That's Satan who deceived Eve. should corrupt your mind from
the simplicity of Christ. I preach Christ, Christ in Him
crucified. Believe in Christ, rest in Christ,
find my all in all in Christ. He's my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption, my all in all. He's my life,
Savior. He doesn't want you standing
there. Believe in that. So what are we going to do? All
right, go back here now in verse Verse 11, and he repeats this
twice, he says in verse 11, "...put on the whole armor of God, that
ye may be able to stand against the wiles of Satan." Trickery! You can use anything, anything. Subtlety, craftiness. Verse 13,
"...wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God." That command
was repeated twice, "...put on the whole armor of God, Take
the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day. In the evil day. Whose armor
is it? It's God's armor. If he provides
it, you're blessed to use it. And it's the only armor we need.
And we're to take it. We're to put it on. And this
commandment is repeated. And if we're going to stand,
If we're going to resist these temptations to be led away from
Christ, if we're going to stand in these most evil days, and
these are most evil days, if we're going to continue to stand,
having done all to stand. He said that you may be able
to withstand in the evil days, in the days of temptation, in
the days of trial, in the days of sorrow, in the days of things
that just going away from you. That's the evil of days. And
having done all, when life ends and the gray hair is white and
the back is spooked and the steps are slow, having done all, still
standing in Him. Now that's going to happen. God's
going to bless us and use us and glorify himself in us and
make of us what we ought to be. We're going to have to take unto
ourselves the armor of God, which you have done, which you've got
to keep doing, that we may be able to stand. And we must take
the whole, complete armor of God, Christ is all in him. It's
all in him. He's made unto us all we need.
All right, let's see what it is here. beginning with verse
14. Okay, stand, therefore, right
where you are. Right where you are. Stand, having
your loins girt about with truth, in other words, wrapped around
you as a strong girdle, just completely wrapped around. A
girdle, that's all just wrapped around you, the gospel of redemption
through the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel. What is the gospel? Well, I give
it to you in song. Living, he loved me. Dying, he
saved me. Buried, he carried my sins far
away. Rising, he justified. We live
forever. One day is coming. Oh, glorious
day. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also." That's
the gospel in song. I'll give it to you in Scripture,
one verse. He hath made him, God the Father
hath made Christ the Son, to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? He knew no sin. He had no sin.
He's God, God in human flesh. He had no sin. But he made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made in
him." Righteousness of God. I'm going to wrap that around
me and find in that my warmth and my peace and my rest and
my joy. Christ. Then he says, having on the breastplate
of righteousness, That's the perfect righteousness of our
Savior. I don't have any righteousness of my own. His perfect, immutable
obedience is imputed to us, and it will answer and it will repel
any accusation, any charge, or any judgment against us. We are
righteous in Christ. In him there is no sin. We are
holy. Near, so near to God, nearer
I cannot be in the person of his Son, I'm as near as he. Accepted
into the love. That's my best place. And it'll
repel any accusation who can lay a hand in charge of God's
elect, it's God that justifies. Who is he that condemns, Christ
to die. Who can separate us from the
love of God? Can anything, no. All right,
read on. and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, as you have received Christ, walk in
him." The believer's walk is in Christ. He leads me in paths
of righteousness, for his name's sake. The believer's walk is
a long, long walk. It's a lifetime. And the believer's
walk is through some rough places, some awful rough places. Awful
difficult times and the believers walk is through some slippery
places and the believers need some good shoes Need to be shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace I went into the service
17 year old boy and They gave me a uniform, but they gave me
some boots did a lot of marching They gave me some boots. I was
shod with the best boots that Uncle Sam could find. With the
preparation, it fit me perfectly, made sure it fit me perfectly.
And they were comfortable, the gospel of peace, shot with the
gospel of peace, they were comfortable. And they were able to stand any
kind of, any kind of marching, no matter what the terrain, you
know. And they lasted me all the way through. I don't think
I, did you ever get a new, I never had the same, it wasn't in every
two years, I had the same shoes. So I got this giant. And that's what he sought of
us for our walk. With the best boots that could
be provided. And they fit perfectly, just
right for me. The gospel's just right for me.
This is my gospel. It's just right for me. It just
fits every part of me, this gospel. And it's comfortable. I can sleep
at night. Can you? Sure you can, in Christ. And it's able to stand, having
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, firm
and solid, no matter the terrain, and having done all to stand
all the way through. And then in verse 16, he said,
and above all, this is the armor of God, the truth, righteousness
of Christ, the gospel of comfort and peace. But above all, believe
God, take the shield of faith. Above all, believe God. Without
faith, it's impossible to please God. He said to Peter, he said,
Peter, Satan hath desired to try you and test you. But I prayed
for you. And the matter of my prayer for
you is not to whip Satan, because you're not going to be able to
do that. I'll have to do that. But my prayer for you is that
your faith won't fail. And that's what we've got to
take, he said, the shield of faith. I did a little running
research on this. You see, faith is enough. Abraham
believed God. That's all said about Abraham.
He believed God and counted him for righteousness. He believed
God. Faith is enough, because he says here, you take the shield
of faith wherewith you'll be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. The shield of faith turns every
way and protects and keeps the whole man, and turns every way
and meets every challenge and answers every charge, because
our shield is Christ. What did the Lord say to Abraham,
the first time he mentioned Sheol, Genesis 15? Fear not, Abraham,
I'm your Sheol. You know, I worked so long on
that, trying to get across to people that the word rewards
is not in the Bible in reference to the believer. Plural, rewards.
There's no such thing in the Bible as rewards. My belief is
because God, Christ, said to Abraham, I'm your reward. When
you unlearn, you can't get anything better. I'm your reward. But he said also, I'm your shield. I'm your shield and your great
reward. And then I found more verses. Psalm 512 says, For thou,
Lord, wilt bless the righteous, and you'll compass him as a shield. Proverbs 30 says, every word
of God is pure and he's a shield to them who put their trust in
him. Psalm 84, the Lord is a son and a shield. He will give grace
and glory. The shield of faith is Christ
himself. You see, we believe in him. Him. It's not a doctrine, it's him,
the person, the doctrine in him. He is the Word of God. All right,
verse 17, listen, and take the helmet of salvation, a helmet. I've got one of those, too, in
the service. You fellas did, too, a helmet. It came down a
million years. A helmet is a piece of armor
for the head, and it protects the head against all attacks
that are aimed at the head. So the helmet of salvation protects
my head against false teaching and false doctrine. And people
have come along with the message of works instead of grace. But in 1 Thessalonians 5, that
helmet is identified a little more completely. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
5, the helmet of salvation. And it sort of describes what
that helmet of salvation is. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8,
listen to this. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8. Let us who are of the day be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for helpment
the hope of salvation. Who is that? Read the next verse. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So our heraldment and protection
against false doctrine and false preaching and false hope is the
hope of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. Christ in you. That's the hope
of glory. That's the hope of salvation. Let me just show you this, don't
turn to it, over in 2 John, listen to this, 2 John verse 9 and 10. Who so transgresses and abides
not in the doctrine of Christ. That's our helmet, the doctrine
of Christ, the doctrine of salvation, the hope of salvation in Christ.
He hath not God. He that abides in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath the Father and the Son, and if they false teachers, false preachers,
want you to leave Christ and go to Moses, want you to leave
grace and go to work. If they come to you and don't
bring this doctrine, don't receive them into your house, and don't
bid them God's peace. That's your hell money. It just
bounces right off. If you don't bring Christ, it's
not going to affect my mind. I've taught. There's a fellow
out here on the radio one time, Church of Christ preacher. And
he followed me on the radio every morning and I preached grace,
I preached Christ, blood atonement, our Lord Jesus. He came along
preaching water and baptism and so forth. And so I was walking
down the street one day and people listened to me, sometimes I may
have listened to him. I was walking down the street, Winchester Avenue
down there by the old Second National Bank and a fella caught
up with me. Church of God preacher. He caught
up with me. I said, yeah, how are you? He
called his name, Ed. And he said, do you ever hear
that fella that follows you? I said, yeah, I do hear him.
I do hear him sometimes. Well, he said, doesn't he bother
you? Doesn't his doctrine bother you? He's so convincing. Doesn't
that bother you? I said, no, he doesn't bother
me. Well, how come it doesn't bother you? I found the one true
hope of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't matter
who it is, it comes with something else. It does not bother me,
because I found my joy and delight, assurance, happiness, hope, in
Him who's all in all. It won't bother you. You got
a helmet on, it just bounces right off, you know. All right,
here's the next to the last one. and take the sword of the Spirit.
That's the Word of God. This sword, listen to it. In
Hebrews, we studied this morning, it said it's a sharp, two-edged
sword. It's a sharp, two-edged sword.
That's Christ, and that's his Word. Because you can't separate
Christ and the Word. You can't have Christ without
the Word, or the Word without Christ. He's called the Word
of God, and this is called the Word of God. And this is the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And that sword is for
defense and offense. It's a sharp two-edged sword.
It cuts both ways. And it's our defense against
Satan's charges. It's written. That's the defense. Our Lord used the sword of the
Word against Satan's temptations. That's our defense. But that's
also our offense. When we take the sword, the word
of God, to pull down strongholds, to cast down every imagination
and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, and to bring every thought into obedience to Christ, what
do we use? The sword of spirit, the word
of God. In defense against all false
churches, it's written, it's written, man shall live by bread
alone, by the word of God. It's written, thou shalt Worship
the Lord thy God him only shalt I say, but we use it also as
an offensive weapon. That's what I'm doing Here preaching
the gospel using the soul of the spirit. You see it's quick.
It's alive It's too edgy. It has no good side Nobody can
encounter the word Without effect Nobody it may be too good. Maybe the bad but it now my words
folks can handle them, argue against them, whatever, but not
his way. It's a sharp sword, and it'll wound. It'll wound. If it's used in the power of
God's Spirit, it'll affect people. That's right. Because it convicts
of sin, it cuts away our righteousness, it reaches to the soul and the
spirit, to the joints and the marrow. It opens up and it makes
naked the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word does.
My Word will not return to me void, he said. It will kill pride. It will kill lust. It will kill
envy. It's the ultimate weapon against
evil. And it's the ultimate weapon
in begetting sons. The ultimate weapon against evil.
The ultimate weapon in begetting sons is the Word of God. And the last armor is prayer. Verse 18, praying. I'll just
give you this briefly. Praying always, at all times,
all seasons, all occasions. There is no set time for prayer.
There are no set words. It's just prayer is communion
with God, not talking to your wife or your children. It's communion
with God. And the prayer is to be with
supplication, that is, with sincere petitions and requests. It's to be in the Spirit with
a true sincere heart, not form and ceremony. We're not heard
very much speaking. It's to be in the Spirit. is
to be watching there and through with all perseverance. That is,
God may not deal with this situation immediately, most likely he won't,
but he will in time. David said, wait on the Lord
with perseverance. Wait on the Lord. He said, I
would have fainted if I hadn't have believed to see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living. So wait on the Lord.
I'll tell you again, he said, wait on the Lord. Prayer with Perseverance. And then prayer, supplication
for all saints. Over in 1 Samuel, the prophet
said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord if ceasing
to pray for you. Pray for each other. Pray for
each other. That's the armor of God. God
uses prayer. And look in verse 19, he says,
and for me, Pray for me, pray for the preacher, that utterance
might be given to me. Utterance. Understanding, wisdom,
to preach the gospel, to teach, that I may open my mouth boldly,
that I may make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am
an ambassador. Pray that I may speak boldly,
as I ought to. That's kind of sweet, and he
said pray for me that I preach like I ought to. I sure would
like to do that, preach like I ought to. Like I ought to. All right. God bless his word.