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ARMOR OF GOD - June 10, 2007
ARMOR OF GOD Ephesians Six Sermon of the Week #200723 – June 10, 2007 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. If we are to be strong for spiritual battles it will have to be in the power of the Lord, because Paul reminds us, “For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” Be strong in the Lord. How strong is the Lord? He said, “Strong enough to uphold all things by the word of His power. Strong enough to taste of death once for every man. Strong enough to draw all Christians into the air to meet Him at His second coming. Strong enough to use the cross as a battering ram to knock the Gates of Hades off their hinges.” Stand in the strength of the Lord because we do not have strength to do it alone. Stand is mentioned four times. God wants us to make a stand. In 1st Chronicles 23:1, “And Satan stood up against We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against a spiritual host of wickedness. Some of the wrestling among the ancient Greeks permitted the antagonist to gouge out the eyes of their opponent, and they lived the rest of their lives in darkness. For this reason many do not believe in a Devil they cannot see. They live in spiritual darkness. Paul says the Devil has blinded the eyes of them that believe not. The forces of the Devil are highly organized. The Devil is the ruler of the forces of darkness. Jesus, in Luke, mentioned the The Church is not a playground; it is a battleground, the Church is not so much a hospital for sick Christians, but more like the barracks of soldiers. Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal. You can be sure the Devil has a highly organized plan for you. Wherefore take up the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand in the evil day. Notice that Paul urges us to stand. He mentions it three times, “Stand against the wiles of the Devil, having done all to stand, stand therefore.” Remember he said, “Stand against the wiles of the Devil.” Look at his wiles. One of his wiles is, he will tell some people the Bible is not the Word of God, and then he tells others the Bible is the Word of God, and so is every other book that claims to be a revelation from God. Another of his wiles is when he tells some people that they are good enough to go to Heaven without Christ, and the next thing he is telling somebody they are so evil that even Christ could not save them. Here is another wile. We are justified by living a good life, be as good as you can be. Faith and baptism have nothing to do with it. And then the next thing he is telling somebody is to believe and be baptized for the remission of sins and then tells them to indulge in any work of the flesh they please. The Devil has a device for everybody specially tailored for your situation. He can sock every jock, sack every Jack, chill every Jill, zap every sap, and cope with every dope. When you put on the whole armor of God, you have done all that God can do for you, and that all is sufficient to defeat the Devil. Make a stand for God, a stand for the Lord’s Church, and then sing, “Ain’t given up no ground.” THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH So here, ladies and gentlemen, is the armor of God. The first piece that is mentioned is the girdle of truth. Stand therefore having girded your loins with truth. Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of girdle are you wearing? Some people have girded themselves with their ‘I feel girdle’. These good folk are always ready to tell you how they feel. Some even say they are saved because they feel they are saved. They may read a passage of scripture and then not conform to it on the basis that they feel it does not mean what it says. The girdle Paul speaks about here is the girdle of truth. Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” He did not wait for the answer. Jesus did not say, “Truth is what you think.” He did not say, “Truth is what you feel.” He said in His prayer in John seventeen, “THY WORD IS TRUTH.” The Apostle John reminds us that Jesus is full of grace and truth. Some like the idea of grace, but would rather have grace without truth. Grace without truth is nothing more than sickly sentimentality. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one cometh unto the Father but by Me.” Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the truth. Paul said we should rightly divide the word of truth. If the word of truth can be rightly divided, it can also be wrongly divided. A good example of wrongly dividing the word of truth is looking to the example of the salvation of the thief on the cross and applying it to themselves. The thief died before Jesus was raised from the dead, and the law of pardon given to those who believed on Jesus were told to repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. A man died who was a member of the Church. He had been immersed but was very rarely in services by his own choice. After the funeral his son told me he wanted to be immersed. I asked him why? He said, “I want to go where daddy went.” Now I hope his daddy is with the Lord, but if he is, I must be the biggest fool in town. I have been telling people for several decades they had to be faithful unto death. Put on the girdle of truth and then the breastplate of righteousness. THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS The righteousness that we put on is not our own. Paul states it for us when he says; “Him that knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” When we put on Christ we put on the righteousness of Christ. As many of us as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There is a song that says, “I dare not trust the sweetest frame.” I have often wondered, “What in the world is that frame? It doesn’t seem to make any sense. What is a frame? Is the word frame just something that was thrown in to rhyme with name, dame, game, same?” I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. I suppose the thought must be regarding the statement we sometimes make, “This person is in a certain frame of mind.” If a person judges his salvation by how he feels, that could be a sweet frame of mind. If you sing a sentimental praise chorus, and repeat it over and over about ten times, it is easy to see how you can work your feelings up to a state of euphoria and feel you are saved. But that is not good enough. I cannot trust my feelings no matter how sweet they may be. I will not trust the sweetest frame; but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. “Ain’t given up no ground.” Put on the whole armor of God. FEET SHOD WITH THE GOSPEL Then he said, “Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. To put on the gospel shoes is to walk through this world in the gospel. Those who do not know the gospel are walking in this world barefooted. Paul told the Romans the Lord would bruise Satan under their feet shortly. This reminds us of the statement in Genesis where God predicted that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. If I am going to step on the head of Satan the old serpent, I do not want to do it barefooted, so put your foot on the Devil’s neck. Paul said you could do it. He said in Romans 16, “The Lord will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Years ago I saw a sign on the highway that invited people to come in and look at the snake pit. I paid fifty cents and looked down into what appeared to be a shallow well. In the bottom were several reptiles. If I by some quirk of fate would fall into a snake pit, I think I would start stomping as fast as I could, but I would hope I would not have to do it barefooted. If I am to stomp on rattlesnakes I want to be wearing hob-nailed boots. Ladies and gentlemen, the world is a snake pit. I don’t want to live in this world without the gospel shoes. The gospel shoes are hob-nailed shoes. The nails are the four nails that pierced the hands and feet of Jesus. With those shoes I can go anywhere with the gospel. Christian young people have to stomp on snakes in school. Snakes usually infest the biology class since the creation story of the Bible is usually forbidden. For a young person to come out unscathed he has to do some tall stomping. Most folk are walking through the snake pit of life barefooted. Put on the whole armor of God. I do not know about you, but I ain’t given up no ground. THE SHIELD OF FAITH The shield of faith was not given to make us comfortable. A shield did not protect Paul from a thorn in the flesh. The shield of faith will not keep you from getting fired or from getting a disease. But the shield of faith will keep you from becoming bitter. It will keep you from giving up. Many a fiery dart has been fired by the Devil at the shield of faith. I have known of preachers who were strong in their belief of the Word to be felled by the fiery dart of lust. The best way to use the shield of faith is to take the Bible and hold it in your hand and declare, “Lord, this is your Word. I believe every word of it. I may not understand it all. I may not be able to answer all the questions the sneering unbeliever may ask. But Lord, it is your Word and I believe it. Help thou my unbelief.” I ain’t given up no ground. When you accept the testimony of the Word of God by faith, all of your stupid inane, insane, asinine, nonsensical, intellectual problems will disappear. Put on the whole armor of God. And now the fifth piece of gospel armor is the helmet of salvation. THE HELMET OF SALVATION The Helmet of salvation is important because it encircles the head. The helmet of salvation will keep you strong on the doctrine of salvation. You will not be pressured by the popular preachers and cave in to public opinion. Of course, some use the helmet to protect their head and then drop their guard by lowering the shield of faith, and their heart is pierced by a dart from the Devil. You can be a saint in the head and believe the right doctrine, and a reprobate in the heart with an unfaithful life—faithful in the head, but not in the heart. Paul also calls the helmet the hope of salvation. Every plan we ever make is encircled by the thought that this life is not all there is. We are limited in this life as to what we can do and accomplish by the grave. There is a song that says, “One sweetly solemn thought that comes to me o’er, I am closer home today than I have been before.” Without the hope of life after death, life in this world would not be worth living. Put on the whole armor of God. Then the sixth and last piece of gospel armor is the sword of the Spirit. THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. In Hebrews we read that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even unto the dividing of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. In Revelation, John saw a vision of Jesus with a sharp two-edged sword sticking out of His mouth. The sword of the Spirit is not used by the hand of the preacher; it is used by the mouth. This is God’s super weapon. Jesus used that sword when He was tempted of the Devil. He chose to use the same weapon we have at our disposal. He used the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. He said over and over, “It is written, it is written, and it is written.” Every scripture the Lord used was from the same book, the book of Deuteronomy. This was a testimony of the adequate supply of ammunition we have as we use the sword of the Spirit. How frustrating for the Devil to know that if the Lord stopped quoting Deuteronomy He still had thirty-eight books of the Old Testament to go. The Bible is a sword. Take it and read it for fifteen minutes, open it up anywhere, and read slowly for fifteen minutes. It won’t be long before one of those verses will jump right off the page and stab you. It will condone or condemn. It will edify or tear you down. It is the sword of the Spirit and it will cut. Take up the sword of the Spirit with all prayer. All prayer is praying in all private and public prayers. All prayer is praying at all meal times. All prayer is praying in the morning, and at night, and several times in between. All prayer at that time was praying for such leaders as Paul, that utterance might be given to him that he might speak as he ought to speak. How much more do we need to pray all prayer for leaders today? All prayer is praying for all the members of the Church. Stand fast in the Lord and sing, “Ain’t given up no ground.” The Devil is still standing up against the Church, the Israel of God, with a suit of armor for the damned and without hope, and tells all who will hear to gird their loins with lies, and falsehood, then put on the breast plate of debauchery, fornication, adultery, abusers of themselves with men, and by all means put on the gospel shoes of division among the followers of Christ, and the shield of unbelief and doubt, and don’t forget to put on the helmet of damnation, and last of all take the sword that James calls the tongue that is as a fire, the world of iniquity among our members, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by Hell, and don’t pray for anybody. The instructions that come with this suit of armor from the Devil, advises us to put it on, and follow him to Hell. So which suit of armor will you wear in the battle of life? Put on the whole armor of God and stand therefore. Stand against the wiles of the Devil having done all to stand. Make a stand and tell the world, “Ain’t given up no ground.” |
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