Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. I'm so blessed to have the opportunity
to share this message with you tonight. It's truly, truly a
blessing. I'm thankful for this church
and for each of you and I pray that the Lord will make this
a help to you as he has to me in my life. Notice, let's read verses 10
through 20 again, Ephesians chapter 6. The apostle wrote, finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the wiles, the trickery of the devil. For 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. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Above all, take in the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that
utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I'm an
ambassador in bonds, that therefore I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak. Last week's title of the message
was to be strong in the Lord, and this week I want us, the
title of the message is put on the whole armor of God. We believe that the Apostle Paul
here, when he wrote these verses, this letter, he had in mind the
armor of the Roman soldier. And that's what he had in his
mind as he wrote this. And my intention tonight is to
not to try to cover these pieces in depth. You could spend months. I read a book here recently by
Martin Lloyd-Jones on the armor of God, I think he had 26 messages.
And so the best that we can do tonight is maybe just have a
high overview of these different pieces, but I trust that the
Lord will use this in your life and will spur an interest in
all of our hearts to go and to search deeper into this armor
that our God has provided for us. We saw last week that we
are in a spiritual warfare And many times I say that I'm afraid
that as believers we fail to realize this truth that we are
in a spiritual warfare and that we have spiritual enemies. But
God has not left us without armor. He's left us an armor and he
has exhorted us to put it on. And that's my prayer tonight. Not only that we would know about
these pieces of the armor, that's good, but they won't help us
unless we put them on. We must put them on. And so,
let's begin here, the first piece here, verse 14. He said, stand
therefore, having your loins gird about with truth. That is,
stand therefore, having girded your waist with the truth. You see, the foundation of the
Roman's wardrobe was what we would call a gown. And that gown, When they would
stop to relax, they would loosen up their belt. But whenever they
were preparing for action, when they were going to put on the
rest of the armor, they would take a belt, of course, and cinch
that robe up. Because unless they did that,
they would be likely to trip over it or for sure be slowed
down and incapacitated in this battle that they were stepping
out into. You know, our Lord Jesus, he
instructed something very similar to this exhortation. He said,
let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. Now, what did he mean by that?
He was exhorting us, as we look for his second coming, to always
be ready for action. That's what's meant by that,
to have your loins girded about and your lights burning. I think
one of the truths that we are to take from this passage is
that we can never take a day off in this spiritual warfare. There's never a day that Roman
soldier, when he would stop to relax, he would take that belt
off. But the exhortation to us is that our Lord said is, let
your loins be girded about and your lights burning. Always talking
about always. He hasn't come again yet, has
he? And until he comes again, his exhortation is that we have
our loins girded about with truth. There's no ceasefire in this
battle. The devil and his ministers of darkness, they never take
a day off. And we as believers can never take a day off in the
spiritual warfare. The belt we're to always have
cinched around us, you notice, is truth. Truth. What is meant by truth? You know,
there's some really good commentators, so much more knowledgeable than
I know I will ever become of the word of God. that they took
that to mean truthfulness and sincerity, or truthfulness and
sincerity. I don't believe that that's what
the apostle is exhorting us to do here. Yes, the believer, we
want to be truthful, don't we? We want to be sincere. But do
any of us want to stand against the trickery of this powerful
being and of his powerful servants? with our sincerity and our truth.
I sure don't, against the trickery of the devil, absolutely not. That's not what he's talking
about. I'm convinced that what the apostle Paul here is speaking
of is the same thing he was speaking about in 1 Corinthians when he
said this. He said, watch ye, stand fast
in the faith, quit you like men, and be strong. That is, he's
talking about the inerrant, what I mean by inerrant, the incapable
of being wrong Word of God. We need to have our belts cinched
with the truth, the truth that's taught in the Word of God. You
know, We can't let anyone ever influence us to believe that
the truth is not important. The truth's not important. People
say, well, no, what's most important is unity. Unity is the most important
grace. No, there's something even more
important than unity, and that is the truth. Look back and you
say, why is that the case? Just go back two pages here to
chapter four in verse 14. There are great implications
for us in this spiritual warfare if we're not girded about with
the truth. Ephesians 4, verse 14, he said
that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of
men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive. You see, unless we be settled,
unless we be cinched with the truth, we will be carried about
with every wind of doctrine. Every last thing that we hear
somebody say, you know, we'll chase after that and chase after
that. No, we're exhorted to cinch up,
to take the belt of truth. And truth is important. Truth,
what the Bible says about God. what the Bible says about the
Lord Jesus Christ, what the Bible says about us, what the Bible
says about the world, what the Bible says about the way to live
a joyful, a happy life in this world, all these things, the
truth revealed in God's word. Without that, we are easy prey
for Satan. There's some, when they say that
unity's more important, As they say, I think the Apostle Paul
didn't get that memo. When that memo came out, you
say, well, why do you say that? Because Paul said that when Peter
came to Antioch, imagine this, the Apostle Peter, he who was
so strong, And the way he spoke and his authority, and yet Paul
said, when he came to Antioch, he said, I withstood him to the
face because he was to be blamed. What? Paul, you withstood Peter
to the face? He said, yeah. Why? Because he
was to be blamed. Well, why? He said, I saw that
they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. Even Peter needed to be rebuked
if he walked not according to the truth of the gospel. You remember what happened, don't
you, in that instance where Peter was sitting and he was eating
with fellow believers, Gentile believers, and then these Jews
came along and Peter got up and got away from them, and Paul
was very disturbed by that. Why? Because by that action,
he was acting contrary to the truth of the gospel. That is,
that salvation is by grace through faith, and that salvation is
the same for Jew and for Gentile. That we're all saved by the same
righteousness if we're saved, and we're all saved by the same
blood if we're saved, and that there is no difference And so
you see, Paul, he stood for the truth, and that's what he exhorts
us. We must have our way cinched
with the truth. And here's another lie that we
must be aware of. There's a lie that says the Bible
contains the Word of God. Don't ever fall for that deceit
that the Bible contains the Word of God. The Bible doesn't contain
the Word of God. The Bible is the Word of God.
There's a huge difference. When someone says that the Bible
contains the Word of God, typically what they mean is the parts that
they like and they believe, that's the Word of God, but they stand
in judgment of God's Word, what's God's Word, or what's not God's
Word. No, no, that's not, the Bible
doesn't contain the Word of God, it is God's Word, and unless
it be God's Word, we have no foundation to stand upon. And
we have nothing to to fight this battle against Satan with. No,
the Bible is the word of God. And truth is so important because. The devil, he's the father of
lies, that's what the Lord Jesus said, he's the father of lies
and he he comes to us as believers and he lies to us. He will lie
to us, just like he lied to Adam and Eve, that God was keeping
something that would be so good for them from them, right? And
Satan will come to us, whether it's him or whether it be one
of his evil demons. There's so much about the spiritual
world that we don't know, but we know that it's real. And we
know that they will come to us and they will try to trick us,
the trickery of the devil, that there's something that God's
trying to keep us from that would be good. Whatever it may be,
God tells us to flee all of these things that are not for our good,
and yet he will tempt us that, oh, God's keeping something that
would make you so happy. No, no, no, see, we must be girt
about with the truth, because if we're not, then we're easy
prey in this battle. I need to move on here. I don't want to not finish tonight.
So look, going on to the second piece here, verse 14. He said,
first of all, standing, therefore having your loins girt about
with truth. And then notice, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness. Here's the second piece of the
armor, the breastplate of righteousness. Now, what righteousness is this
breastplate in the armor of God? What does it consist of? Is it
our righteousness? You know it can't be our righteousness
because the scripture says that our righteousness is as filthy
rags in the sight of God. So surely we don't want to have
that for our breastplate and in our armor and our protection.
No, this is speaking of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the breastplate of righteousness that will protect us in this
battle. It's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. But by the
obedience of one man, that man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
many shall be made righteous. That's the breastplate that we
are to have on, for Christ is the end of the law. That is the
end, he's the purpose, the goal, the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. We saw last week we're to be
strong in the power of his might. Our strength and our joy as believers
comes as we have this breastplate of righteousness on, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our strength and joy comes in
knowing that we are accepted in the beloved. You see, unless
we have this breastplate of the righteousness of Jesus Christ
on, we will spend our life miserable, defeated. Why? Because we know that in ourselves
there dwelleth no good thing. Right? And Satan comes and he
hurls his darts upon us. Oh, surely you can't be a child
of God and have that thought that you just had. Surely you
can't be a child of God and do that thing that you just did.
Isn't that true? And what do we have to do? We
have to respond. Getting a little ahead of myself
here, but with the word of God. No. You're a liar. I was never accepted
by my righteousness. God has never looked for me and
for my for me and my acceptance based on my righteousness and
all my good deeds or my bad deeds. Right. So all the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ and with that breastplate on, then
we have joy. because we're accepted in the
beloved and we're able to war in the spiritual warfare, but
without that we're defeated already. And tonight, you know, maybe
there's someone here, this armor of God is for the believer, but
maybe there's someone here and yet you have not believed and
trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior tonight. Unless you have this righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you say, what are you talking about
that righteousness? I quoted that verse a minute ago, by the
obedience of one, many shall be made righteous. We walk every
day in this world from birth to death, and every day we walk
in disobedience. Our very best day is the day
in which we sin, still sin against God. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
From the moment he was, that body, he was prepared for him
to the time he died upon the cross, he walked every day of
his life perfectly. Never having a bad thought, never
having an evil deed, never sinning against God. Always, always pleasing
the Father. That's the righteousness that
you need. And you need it when you're lost, and you need it
when you're saved. It's the righteousness we will always need, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. We sing that song, on Christ
the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. All of us want to have good feelings,
don't we? I do. I'd be lying if I said
I didn't. I want to have good feelings.
But you know what? So often I don't. And I've been moaning myself
for not. But my salvation, my acceptance
with God is not based on the breastplate of my feelings. It's
based on the breastplate of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And it's in that righteousness that we can fight the spiritual
battle. So we must take it and put it
on. Now let's notice the next verse
here. And just before I move on, I
wanna say this again because this is so common and it happens
to me in my life. And I've learned over the years
of talking to other believers, we're all pretty much the same. Preaching is just one beggar
telling another beggar where he found a piece of bread. It's
one pilgrim walking through a desert telling another pilgrim walking
through the desert where he found some water to drink. Some of
us just get the opportunity, the blessing, to be able to share
it in this type of venue. Many of you, you're so much more
faithful, I know, than I ever am or ever shall be in witnessing
outside of here. I'm thankful I have the opportunity
tonight to share these words with you. But Satan comes to
us, and he will say, you've sinned yet again. You're condemned. You may as well just quit. You
ever hear that? You may as well just quit. Just
go back to the world. Who are you kidding? You're condemned
already. No, I'm not. And why not? because my righteousness is the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with that breastplate,
we can withstand in that battle, in that day of evil, as it said
here. Now, notice verse 15. He says, in your feet shot. With the preparation of the gospel
of peace, your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel
of peace, that is, is literally our feet shot or covered with
the preparedness of the gospel of peace. Apparently when they
had battles in this time similar to today, they would lay traps
or mines, not as we know explosives today that are laid, but whether
it be sharp sticks or gins or traps, some way to try to injure
the feet of the opposing army. Now, if they injure their feet,
they wouldn't kill them, but they would incapacitate them
in this battle. They would make them not able
to wage warfare, right? I've struggled a little bit with
bad feet. And let me tell you, there's
so many things you can't do when your foot hurts. And we're told
here, we're exhorted here to have our feet protected with
the preparedness of the gospel of peace. You see, our Christian
walk will be compromised, and we will not walk in the Christian
way, and we will be useless in the spiritual warfare unless
we're confident that we're at peace with God. You see, unless
you're confident that you're at peace with God, you're gonna
spend all your time, believer, wrestling with yourself. You're
gonna be doing battle. I'm gonna be doing battle, but
I'm gonna be doing battle against myself instead of against the
powers of darkness. We must have this confidence. You say, well, how can you have
that confidence? By the word of God. The scripture says, therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. It says, there is therefore now
Not someday, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. See, we must be clear about our
relationship with God that we are at peace with him, but more
importantly, that he's at peace with us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because without that, as I said,
what we're gonna do is we're gonna spend all of our time battling
ourselves instead of our spiritual enemies. We're to be at peace
with God, yes, but also we're to be at peace with others. You
know, Paul wrote to the Romans, he says, if it be possible. You
know, you say, well, you don't know, it's just not possible.
Well, a lot of times it is possible. There are very few things in
which it's not possible to heed this exhortation. He said, if
it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all
men. You say, well, why is that so
important? Because if not, then our spiritual walk, our spiritual
war, our spiritual battle is going to be compromised. There's some thoughts I would
share there, but for the sake of time, I wanna move on to chapter,
verse 16, chapter six, verse 16. He said, above all, taking
the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. Above all, that is, in addition
to everything else that he's already mentioned, take the shield
of faith, Now what is meant by taking the shield of faith? I
believe that this refers to responding to the devil's fiery darts and
temptations with the truth and the promises of God that he and
his grace has given, he's revealed to us in his word. You see, faith
never looks within. If what we think is faith is
causing us to look within, We're wrong. That's not faith. Faith
always looks without, not within. It always looks to its object,
doesn't it? It always looks to God, the God
Almighty who is able to make good on all his promises. See,
faith looks without. looks outside of ourselves to
God. That's what faith is. And we
are to take the shield of faith. Why? So that we might be able
to, as it says here, quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
You know, when I would read this scripture in the past, I'd always
think you see in all these movies and shows, they see people shooting
fire at people. And maybe that was included in
this. But I think it's really talking
about poisonous darts. They would somehow take those
darts that they would shoot and poison them with something, so
that if they struck the opposing or the Roman soldier in any place,
that it would cause them to get an infection. cause them to become
sick, to become ill. And Satan would like nothing
better, as our pastor talked about this morning, than for
us to just fall asleep, to become ill in the spiritual warfare
that we've been called to. What's the solution? The shield of faith. The shield
of faith. You remember God promised Abraham
that he and Sarah, in their very old age, were going to have a
son, an heir. Don't you know that Satan tried
to defeat Abraham with doubts and with fears? You know that
he did. And you know what? If Abraham
would have looked within, Satan would have been victorious. But
the scripture says, listen, Abraham staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded, what? That there was something
in him to enable this promise? No, being fully persuaded that
what God had promised, he was able to perform. See, faith is
the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things
not seen. That is, faith is the confidence
that what we hope for will actually happen. And it gives us assurance
about things that we cannot see. All these promises that God has
given us in his word, we can't see them with these eyes, can
we? But thank God he also gives us this gift of faith that we
might believe him and believe his promises that he's revealed
to us from his word. It gives us assurance about the
things that we cannot see. The Apostle John put it this
way. He said, for whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the
world. I want to overcome the world,
don't you? I want to, we have to live in the world, but we
don't want to be overcome of the world, do we? I want to overcome
this world as a child of God, as a follower of the Lamb. He
said, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world,
and this is the victory that overcometh the world. How is
that possible? He said, even our faith. Who
is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God? If we will be victorious in spiritual
warfare, we must take this shield of faith which the Lord's provided
for us. I can think of no better answer.
When Satan comes and he shoots these fiery, these poisonous
darts at us, I can think of no better answer that we can answer
him with, that we can withstand him with than this, no, I believe
that Jesus is the son of God. He says quit, no I can't quit. Why can't you quit? Because I
believe that Jesus is the son of God. Who is he that overcomes the
world but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God? He says,
you've fallen, you've sinned, quit. I cannot. Why? Because I believe that Jesus
is the son of God and I'm victorious in him, that I'm more than a
conqueror. He said, more than a conqueror,
you just fell flat on your face in your spiritual walk. Yes,
but I'm more than a conqueror through Christ our Lord, right? Through him who came into this
world to live the life that we could not live and died the death
that atoned for our sins. You see, that's the shield of
faith. It's to be able to take these promises. Unless we have
a promise for God, then we have nothing for our faith to stand
upon. But if we have a promise, then we're to take it above all.
Now notice verse 17. He said, and take the helmet
of salvation, the helmet of salvation. I want to be brief in these last
few verses. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8,
we read this. He said, but let us who are of
the day, believers, that's us. If you're wondering who he's
talking to, he's talking to us. Let us, who are of the day, be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a
helmet, the hope of salvation." In our verse here, in verse 17,
he says, take the helmet of salvation. In 1 Thessalonians, it's the
helmet of the hope of salvation. You see, the temptation of every
child of God is to quit. How many times have you been
tempted to quit in your spiritual walk? over maybe you've been
a believer a day, or maybe you've been a believer 60, 70, 80 years. How many times are we tempted
to quit, to give up? I could not even begin to count
how many times. And every time, it's my fault. It's because of something that
I've done, that I knew better, that I knew better than to do.
And in that case, we're weak, right? And Satan comes, and he
tempts us to give up, to just quit. And you say, well, I don't
know what you're talking about. I never experienced that. Well,
if you haven't, I'm thankful for you that you haven't, but
I have. So what am I to do when that
happens? I'm to take this helmet of the hope of salvation and
to put it on, put it on the hope of salvation. Our pastor read
the verse this morning. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we first believed. Last week, when I thought I would
preach this message and didn't get to it, guess what? This week,
my salvation is one week closer than when I first believed, and
so is yours. One week closer. You say, well, what are you talking
about? I thought we were already saved. Well, in some ways, we
are, and in some ways, we're not. You say, well, what do you
mean? Well, we've been, in some ways, we've been saved from all
eternity in the purpose of God. God always chose us in his son,
the Lord Jesus, and we were always accepted in him, right? But we
were born in this world, dead in trespasses and sins. Were
we saved then? Well, we were in the purpose
of God, but we were not in our experience, were we? And God,
in his mercy, came and regenerated us. We were born again of the
Spirit of God. And you say, OK, well, surely
we were saved then. Yes, we were saved then. Were
we completely saved? No, not yet. When will we be completely saved?
Not until we're free from sin and this body, this sinful body
is changed and made like unto the body of our Lord Jesus Christ,
unto his glorious body. Incapable of sinning. That is
when our salvation will be complete. But until then, We have to take
this helmet and put it on, the hope of salvation. I believe
that's what he's talking about, this hope. We can't quit. Why?
Because we have such a great hope in front of us. We haven't
come this far to quit, right? No, we must continue. We must
fight on. Now notice, I'm almost finished
here. He says, take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Nothing
is more important to our success in fighting the spiritual warfare
than the Bible, the Word of God. You say nothing and nothing.
Nothing is more important in this armor than the Word of God.
We must be clear about the authority of the Word of God. See, unless
the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, that is incapable of
having any errors, any mistakes in it, unless that be the case,
as I said earlier, we have no foundation to stand upon. Why
are so many people so wishy-washy here and there? Because they
don't believe in the authority of the word of God, that this
is God's word. And it's had an awful effect
upon the church and upon this world, that lack of belief in
the authority of the word of God. I like the way Peter put
it, he said, we have a more sure word of prophecy, more sure than
a voice that they heard from heaven. You mean, Peter, it's
more sure than what you heard with your own ears? He said,
yes, we have a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto we do
well to take heed. as unto a light that shines in
a dark place. Until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts, knowing this first, no prophecy of scripture
is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. You say, isn't the Bible written
by sinful men? Yes. Yes, it is. But what Peter
shows us there, teaches us there, God the Holy Spirit has to convince
us of is the authority of the Word of God that holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And he did
not allow them to make a mistake. Yes, they were fallen creatures
just like we are, but God is able. The God who created us
is able to also keep us from making mistakes. Did you know
that? He absolutely is, and he did those who wrote the Word
of God. And you notice, the Word of God,
it's the sword of the Spirit, the sword of the Holy Spirit.
It's one thing to have the Word of God, and it's one thing to
believe in the authority of the Word of God. It's something even
greater to understand the word of God. You know, there are people,
sad to say, they do believe in the authority of the word of
God, but they don't understand it. They haven't been given the
light yet to understand it. This is the sword of the spirit.
He must enlighten us. And he has, God has chosen in
his wisdom, for reasons known only to himself, most often to
enlighten sinners as they hear another man preach the word of
God. You say, well, why did he do
it that way? That's God's, that's his business, right? And his
wisdom. He is chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And he is chosen by the foolishness
of preaching also to help us in this putting on the armor
of God. And to putting it back on. And to putting it back on. Service after service, message
after message. You say, well, does that always
happen for the believer? No. The spirit, it goeth where
it pleases to go, does it, where it listeth. God, the Holy Spirit,
in his grace and mercy, sometimes take these words, but we don't
ever know when it's going to be. Sometimes you may come to
the worship service, and you come only because you know you
need to come. And you come with no expectation
that God's going to bless you. And God, the Holy Spirit, is
sovereign in taking the words that the pastor brings to us
or the teachers bring to us and blessing them to our hearts.
He must teach us the meaning of the Word of God. But thirdly,
it's the sword of the Spirit. He must teach us how to use the
Word of God. I believe there are many believers
and many times I feel have fallen into this camp and fall into
this camp. God has taught me the authority
of the scripture and he's taught me some of the meaning of the
word of God. You say, do you know all truth?
No, but I want to know it. Do you make mistakes when you
preach? Absolutely I do, but not on purpose. Most of us, we have no idea the
amount of heart and soul and prayer that a pastor puts in
to prepare and to preach. Why? Because he is convinced
that this is God's word, and he wants to make sure that he
does justice to the word of God. I don't know how many times those
of us who get a chance to teach or preach We go back and look
again and again and again just to make sure we all have a soul
and your soul is going to live somewhere forever just like mine
is. And I don't want to stand up here and tell you something
that God hasn't said. And sometimes I may, but it won't
be on purpose. I don't have perfect understanding,
but thank God the Holy Spirit has taught me that this is his
word and he's taught me some truths and the truth concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want him to teach us how
to use the word of God as the armor, the sword of the spirit,
so that I won't live a defeated Christian life, that I may be
able to walk in joy and in peace in this world. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
he told those people, he said, if you continue in my word, If
you continue in my word, that word is most often translated
if you abide, that word is abide in most places in the scripture.
If you continue in my word and my word abides in you, you shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Do we want
to live a free life? I do, don't you? I don't want
to be subject to every wind of Satan and the fires of darkness? Do we want to live a defeated
life? Of course not. Then how can we live a life victorious? I know one way we can is if we
don't take the whole armor of God. And if we don't take the
sword of the Spirit and use it when we're tempted. And I need
to finish up here. But we need to look no further
than to our champion. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he
knew how to use the sword of the spirit. Even after 40 days
and 40 nights with no food and water, when he was driven out
into the desert to be tested, to be tempted of Satan, Even
after, at that very state, when Satan came and tempted, we're
given three of those temptations that Satan tempted him or tried
to test him with, and he found nothing in him. And in every
case, even the eternal Son of God used the sword of the Spirit. He could have rebuked Satan as
God, but how did he rebuke him? He rebuked him with the Word
of God. What did he say? He said, it
is written. Satan tried to tempt him. He said, it is written.
He tried to tempt him again. He said, get thee hence, Satan,
for it is written. You see, the sword of the Spirit
and the armor, nothing's more important for us is to know the
Word of God, to believe the Word of God. to claim the word of
God. The psalmist said, Thy word have
I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. James said,
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you. Really? The devil will flee from
me? That's what James said. That's
part of God's inerrant word. He's really not fleeing from
me. he will flee from the word of God. Right? The sword of the
spirit. That is how we are to battle. That's the only offensive weapon
in this armor. And I need to wrap up here. I'll stop. But as you read on
in this passage, I think prayer is also part of this armor. And
that we're the, you see how this starts with being strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might? And this exhortation ends
with being strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
See, we could have this whole armor doned upon us and still
fall and stumble all over ourselves. That's what we must pray in the
spirit. We need the power of God, the
power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
to give us a successful Christian walk. And my prayer is that God
would help us. He'd help me. Help me and that
he would help you. You say, well, why do you desire
that? So that you may have, so that we may be free. That's the
life that we can have in Christ, a life of freedom. May the Lord
bless his word. Thank you. What a blessing.