demons that we're gonna talk about today, will
rise up against the Lord at the end of time,
but the king of glory will
destroy them with the might of his coming.
You have your Bibles, turn with me to Ephesians,
chapter 6, and
verse number 14, and as
I said earlier, we're going to get back to our exposition
of Ephesians, and really
begin into the actual study of the armor today,
the verses leading up, we're preparing us, but
now we're really getting into the armor.
Let's begin by reading verse 14.
Stand
firm, therefore.
Having girded
your loins with truth, and
having put on the breastplate of
righteousness.
Now, the
depth of what we are dealing with here
is really far beyond my ability
to communicate properly to you.
But hopefully, we're gonna scratch the surface
enough to receive some
benefit and some growth for ourselves
out of this tremendous text.
We're talking about things here from
the spiritual realm that we can't even see with
our physical eyes.
And this is the final section, as
I've said before, of the Book of Ephesians,
and in our last two messages, we learned that all
believers are engaged in warfare.
A great continual
battle until Jesus
returns, or we go to glory ourselves.
And we also learned in this text, so 4,
that all believers are
engaged in this battle against
a very formidable enemy,
Satan, and all of his host,
of fallen angels.
And I need you to understand that
as a Christian, as you strive
to live for God's glory, you
will not be able to escape this war.
And in fact, the
more diligently, you
live for God's glory, the
more intense, the enemy will make
the warfare be for you.
So you can't escape these battles.
as a believer.
It's only a question as
to how it manifests itself.
And what specifics may
occur in your own personal part of
this warfare.
As I said last time, you are either in the tent?
Or you're out on the battlefield,
swinging your sword as a Christian.
Either way, the
collision is inevitable,
and it's very constant, it's very continual.
If you're in the
tent, you're getting beat
down by the enemy on the regular and you probably don't even know it.
If you're out on the battlefield,
you know, for sure, the intensity of the
fight, and you know, by personal experience,
how hard the adversary fights,
and how powerful and effective he is at
waging war, with all believers.
But we've also been learning,
since the very start of Ephesians chapter 1, all of
the tremendous resources that we possess in
in order to fight this war in addition to
the armor that we're going to start into to talk about today.
We've all received all spiritual blessings in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Remember from Ephesians chapter 1.
We've been granted forgiveness of all of our sins.
We've been adopted by grace into the family of God.
Think about what we've been given.
We've been given peace, the peace, that surpasses all understanding.
We've been given knowledge.
We've been made a part of this incredible mystery
that was planned from before the foundation
of the world.
Well, we've been given the Holy Spirit to indwell
us, and who has sealed us until
the day of redemption.
We've been made ambassadors of
the king of kings, of the universe.
We've been made soldiers in the Lord's army.
We are the people of God.
And we have been put in this
world to accomplish the
goals, and the plans, and the purposes
which Creator God himself has
designed for the advancement
of his kingdom, throughout church history, all
the way up to the Second Coming.
Let me ask you.
What greater purpose
in meaning in your life
could you possibly have than that?
We have the greatest sense of
purpose and meaning for why we're here, then anyone on
the Earth as the people of God?
And with all of that, we
are withstood, or sure, by
a very bitter enemy, who
hates our guts.
The very enemy, think of it.
who withstood God himself,
in his own heavens, and said, I will be like the Most High.
Can you imagine?
The very enemy who withstood
man in his innocence in the Garden of Eden, and
helped plunged the entire human race into a
state of sin and misery?
The very enemy who has tried multiple
times to wipe out the nation of
Israel, the very enemy.
Think of it, who tried to stop
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in
the slaughter of the innocents.
You remember the story?
He wanted to wipe out all
of Jesus' ministry, life, death,
bare resurrection and second coming when he worked
through King Herod to murder all those little babies.
That enemy.
The very enemy who is always at work.
trying to deceive and
rip the church apart at every chance he gets.
The very enemy who is always at
work, trying to hinder our service to
the king, while we're here on the earth.
The very enemy, who I said earlier, will one day,
literally, go directly at God, in
war, and battle at the very end of time, and
any Christian, who doesn't understand these things.
Any Christian, who
doesn't understand the significance of these things,
is a Christian who is going to be victimized.
by the enemy.
He will keep you in the
tent, as I said.
And you are then what?
You are then one less soldier out on the
battlefield when you're in the tent.
This causes you
to forfeit rewards in heaven.
Strip you.
of your ability to bring
glory to God with your life.
And if you are genuinely a regenerate
Christian, you should want more
than anything to bring glory to God with your life.
That should be an automatic new desire for you when you come
to faith in Jesus Christ.
You want to live in such a way as to bring him glory, not
in the perfection of your life, but in the direction of your life.
Now, we
have to be aware of this war.
And we have to be ready for battle.
Every day.
And unless you're in some
kind of hurry to finish Ephesians.
Which I guess it doesn't really.
matter if you are or not.
Before we get any further
in this text, this is what I want
to do, I want to give you a little further explanation.
And added to last time, actually, of
the how and the why Satan attacked
believers.
Number one, he attacks a
believer, to undermine God's
character and God's credibility.
He wants to undermine God.
He wants
you to doubt God.
He did it in the garden with
Eve, you remember?
Has God really said?
He was impugning
God's motive at that moment.
He was saying, well, the real reason God doesn't want you to eat that,
is because God knows then you'll be like him,
and God can't stand competition, right?
So God really has selfish,
ulterior motives, and you really can't trust him.
You really can't believe God.
I mean, he may say one thing, but deep down inside,
he means something else.
So his word is not really totally believable.
The New
Testament makes clear, if you deny God his word, you make him a liar.
And that's what Satan wants to do.
He wants people to think that
God is the liar and that he is the one who's telling the truth.
You can't trust God.
You can doubt
God, and you should.
You can doubt God and his word and
his power, and guess what?
We all fall for this trap at times.
Very subtly.
We get tempted.
In a difficult situation, and what do we do?
We worry.
We fret, we get anxious, we get angry, we
lose our self control, and in those moments,
We are walking in our flesh,
and we stop believing in those
moments that God can actually get us out of the situation.
We're overcome with worry and fret
and doubt.
We doubt God's grace sometimes.
We doubt God's mercy sometimes.
It's nothing but a denial.
Of his promises to us, and thereby his word.
There are times when we also, we
also even doubt the love of God.
We think, How in the world could
God possibly love me
when he let this happen to me?
And
the enemy works really hard.
to push us to the place where we actually
doubt the love of God.
One time he attacked Peter, and
he caused Peter to doubt the
truth of God.
You remember what Jesus said to him?
Peter, be careful.
Satan
desires.
to sift you like wheat.
What a description from the Lord Jesus.
So Satan attacks us to undermine
God's character and God's credibility, and here's a pro tip.
As soon as you start to
doubt God.
at any point in
terms of his perfect character that
you know he has, and his perfect
credibility that you know he has, that
is perfect, consider the source.
That's all you have to do.
You know he's perfect in his character.
You know he's perfect in his credibility.
Consider the source of where that thought came from.
Number two, Satan attacks
us to make it hard to live the Christian life, as I said.
He knows that in the end, he can't have us.
He knows this perfectly.
So he wants to make things as
difficult as possible for us while we're here.
And he does this in a number of ways.
Number one would be persecution.
That's the most extreme way.
Just go ask the people in Nigeria right now.
Just go ask other people in Africa
and other parts of the Middle East who are being persecuted
for their faith right now.
In addition to that, he makes it hard to live the Christian life
in much lesser ways of what, that's
a shame to even call persecution, but think of
little subtle ways, being made fun of.
The pressure of not wanting
to move on from that certain circle of
old friends who are not believers,
not wanting to be thought of, as different,
not wanting to be thought of, by others, as peculiar,
not wanting to lose out on being well
liked, by others, being
thought of, as a religious nut, or a
religious kook.
A third way, he makes it hard
to live, the Christian life is sometimes
making it too easy to live in.
That's another subtlety.
And this is a problem both inside and outside the
church in a very general way.
You've heard me say it many times.
We are way too comfortable here in America.
Way too comfortable.
So believers
start to think, well, why do we need to be so serious?
But, Philip, why are you so serious about all this?
Lighten up, dude.
Or for the unbeliever.
Why do I need Christ at all?
I mean, I got a nice house.
I got a nice car.
I got a boat.
I got a great salary.
I got a very secure retirement.
Things are going great.
What do I need Jesus for?
Right?
Now, societally
speaking, it's less easier to be a Christian in
America than in the past when cultural
Christianity coming to an end.
I mean, we did just see a Baptist worship service attacked
by leftist lunatics in Minnesota.
I've never seen that happen before in the way that it did,
but thankfully, arrests have been made.
Thank you.
Thank you, DOJ.
Came a little slow, but it came.
So, really, when you think
about it, I mean, we still have it pretty comfortable,
folks, here, in the USA.
And that brings about a temptation to
just coast in the Christian life.
Stay within the four walls.
Not feel the need to
impact the world outside these four walls
because we're just so comfortable in here.
Another attack
that Satan uses against believers is
that he confuses believers with false doctrine.
books, social
media, post, whole
worldwide ministries, all in
Jesus' name, can wreak havoc in
the minds of Christians who are not rooted and
grounded in sound doctrine.
And the enemy is very sleek.
Never forget, there
are always, always, elements
of truth mixed in with error
with professing Christian false teachers,
always.
Just like if you take a medicine dropper, and
squeeze one drop of arsenic into a
five gallon jug of Kentwood, spring water,
or 55 gallon drama, Kentwood, spring water,
The Bible says a little leaven.
Leavens the whole lump.
Right?
This is yet another reason.
You need to be at church.
Sitting under the expository
preaching of sound doctrine rooted
and grounded in sound theology.
You need to come to Sunday school.
Be discipled by sound biblical teaching.
You need to be exposing yourself to sound sermons
and sound books at home.
And we're here.
We're here to help point you in the right direction of
those books, and those sermons, and those teachers.
If you are consistently and
constantly immersed in
sound doctrine,
And you're putting that into your head, into your brain,
into your bloodstream, on a regular basis.
When something pops up on social media that's out
of line, immediately, your discernment antenna
goes up and says, Revert!
That ain't lining up with scripture.
The things that
people believe today in our
country, that are actual Christianity,
they think, and the millions of dollars, that
people sin to false teachers every year, is
a sad witness to the effectiveness
of our enemy, using false doctrine in
Jesus' name, to literally deceive millions
of people, every single day in this country, and around
the world.
Now,
fourthly, the enemy tries as hard as he can
to hinder our service to Christ.
He wants to stop
faithful, effective service.
I'm telling you, he wants to stop me
from serving here or anywhere else on
the planet.
I mean, I want you to think about what happened out at First Livingston.
Pure evil is
what happened at First Livingstone.
You're going to find out a little bit more about that as
the days go on, but what they meant for evil, what did God do?
He turned it for good in an amazing way.
at Salem Baptist.
Consider what happened, 16 years ago,
17 years ago, at Cedar Crest Baptist Church.
What they meant for evil.
God turned to good,
with a church that has lasted over
15 years now.
rooted and grounded and sound doctrine.
And yeah, we're small, but think about all the things coming
out of that evil that this little church has done over the past
15 plus years.
Think about the turkeys we fed in our community,
to people in need.
Think about the Christmas toys, to underprivileged children.
Think about the ministries Tracy and Dad have to the
police that we do.
Think about how we help support Mary's house of
bread and the Gideons and Ed Lacy Ministries.
Think about the men's meeting that has developed here over the
course of the last year with men from as many seven different churches here coming every month.
The ladies meeting with different people from different churches coming here.
Think about all the ways that God has used Providence
Baptist Church to affect our community.
Let me tell you.
It's noticed.
You may not know this, but the mayor and the
leaders of our town, they know about us, that we help in the community.
And that's not just to say, hey, look at us.
No, we're following scripture.
We're helping those in need in the name of Jesus.
But all of these things.
Do not deter the enemy.
One bit, from
continuing to try and take us out.
He wants to shut us down.
Especially, these here we stand churches that we are a part of.
Another ministry that wouldn't have
probably happened without Providence Baptist Church.
Think of it.
He would love to take us down.
Examples abound with
preacher friends of mine.
It's part of the warfare that
we have to expect that we don't run from,
that we run two with
our sword, ready for battle.
Here's another attack that he's constantly happens on the regular.
Satan does all that he can to try to stir
up division inside churches.
We've all seen it.
We've all experienced it, right?
Praise God for his work here at
keeping us unified in the way that he has.
That's why Jesus was so clear when he said, If you have anything against your
brother, go and be reconciled to your brother before you come back and worship.
So Paul said, in Ephesians chapter
4 and verse number 3, being diligent to
preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We have to be sure to never, ever take our unity
that we have here in our church for granted, ever.
We have to be diligent to keep our unity in check.
Because the enemy always
wants to tear it all up.
And then there are some subtle attacks that come at us,
really, in a myriad of ways.
I mean, we could just go on for days here.
How about get to chunking
up all the theological knowledge you've learned?
We've read all the right books.
We listen to all the best sermons
from all the best preachers in the world.
We know all the principles for Christian living.
We've been taught by the best Bible teachers, and
so I can handle the problems in my life.
Because I go to church all the time, and I've got all
my theological ducks in a row.
So now I can lean on my own understanding.
I can depend on my own wisdom and knowledge
and learning to live the Christian life.
That's a place the enemy can get us to out of the number one sin of all sins.
Pride.
Instead of being like Isaiah.
Woe is me.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
That's the right attitude, before God.
He understood so well that he had no resource apart from God.
And neither do we.
Here's another
subtle way the enemy attacks.
A believer.
Show up to church, Sunday
after Sunday, interact with people.
Like everything's fine all the time.
I don't have any problem put on the mask.
All is well, so good, I just
never allow brothers and sisters to minister to you.
and bear your burdens and pray for you, praying for one another's knees.
Another attack, the relentless attack, to
appeal to our flesh,
to make us worldly.
And this was a big one.
And this would be tricky.
I want you to listen.
Because there can be worldly things that we
engage in that are not sinful in and of themselves.
We can participate in these things without
sinning, but at the same time, we
can fall into being sinful in
them in a very worldly way.
Remember what John says.
He says, Love
not the world.
The issue is, do
you love the things of the world in
such a way that they consume you?
That's what the issue is there.
For example, Chrissy can tell you.
I don't really care
much what's on TV except during football season.
All right?
During football season, when I have time to
watch the games, or on TV.
I used to have a special room.
where I watched the games, but
there's a certain feline who has commandeered that room.
So I have had to move to other spaces
in the home in order to watch football.
But if my
football watching took priority over
my necessary work and study and ministry,
that would be sinful, in a worldly way.
You understand what I'm saying?
That's just a dumb, practical example.
And you can come up with an endless
list here of these kind of examples, materialism,
keeping up with the Joneses, on
and on and on and on and on.
You can go with this list.
What I want you to understand is that the enemy never
stops trying to entice us, to
draw us away in a sinful way.
And I'll stop with one more.
And remember, this is not an exhaustive list.
I mean, if you want to really see how subtle the
demons can be, go read C.S. Lewis screw tape letters, and
he really gets down in the weeds of all the subtleties
of the ways the enemy can attack us.
This is just very general.
The enemy wants us to to act
in disobedience to
what we know, without a shadow
of a doubt, is disobedience to God's word.
I'm talking about directly.
Whether it's social, sexual,
any manner of headings that you can come up with, where we
know for sure that this right here, what
I'm doing is direct disobedience to God's Word,
and the enemy comes in, and he tempts it, go ahead and do it anyway.
Just go and do it anyway.
I think of an example here.
women pastors, okay?
This is an example that just made me think of this.
With two eyeballs and
a brain, and an ability to read,
you can easily understand that the Bible
is very clear that the office of pastor is ordained for men only.
Very easy to understand.
OK?
It doesn't have anything to do that men are more intelligent.
Men are more elevated, anything.
Remember, we studied this.
It has to do with the authority structure that God has laid down.
And yet, many people read that and say...
I see that, but I don't think that that's
really what it means for this time.
It just means it for back then.
I think women pastors are okay.
Come on, Lady Jones, or whoever, come up here and be our pastor.
Let me tell you something.
That is just direct willful
disobedience to the word of God for
a church to have a woman pastor.
And the results of that kind of thinking have wreaked havoc
in the church, especially in America, because what has it led
to in many of the mainline denominations?
Well, if you can have a woman, pastor, you might as well have a homo pastor.
You might as well have a sodomite up here being your pastor.
That's what it's led to.
And so, again, we
come back to how do
we deal with all of this?
Well, that's a lot of different kind of
attacks, Brother Philip.
Well, that's many more.
And I will remind you of
what we've already started to look into.
Here is the
overarching answer that's going
to lead us into the details over the next few Sundays of time.
Look at verse 13 before we get to 14.
Let's remember what 13 says.
Here's the overarching answer.
How do you deal with the attacks of the enemy?
Therefore, take up the full armor
of God, so that you will be able to resist in
the evil day, and having done everything to
stand firm.
How in the world?
Do you possibly think that
you are going to be able to resist all
of the subtlety and the cleverness and the schemes
of the devil on your own?
You're a fool, if you think that.
You can't?
I can't.
None of us can.
I'm telling you, we have to have this armor.
And let me tell you to start with, you
don't concentrate on what he's doing.
That's not what your focus is supposed to be on.
You need to concentrate on what you're doing.
It really doesn't matter that
much that you can categorize all those
attacks that I just laid out for you.
I mean, it's good to know them.
It's good to be aware of them.
That's why I gave them to you.
But it doesn't really matter that you get down all into the
weeds of the definition of each one, because in the big picture,
you can't begin to grasp the subtlety
of what he's doing in each one of those types of attacks, and
many other tactics that he's constantly employing against us.
The actions of this, this unseeing realm.
It's far too sophisticated, far too
supernatural for us to be able to deal with it on our own.
What does matter is that we get our overall.
That we keep our armor on.
So that whenever the battle starts,
it doesn't matter what the tack is.
I don't care what the attack is that he brings.
If you've got the armor on, you're able to defend yourself.
If we have our armor on, it doesn't matter
where the enemy's attacks come from.
It doesn't matter how subtle his attack is.
When he gets there, you're already ready for him.
With your armor on.
The believer, with his armor
on, will be able to state and defend
himself, no matter what the attack is.
The issue is not, whether or not he's coming.
Because he always is.
Constantly, the issue
is not what kind of attack is he bringing?
The issue is, are you ready?
Are you ready for him when he comes?
Because if you have your armor on,
you can handle it.
trusting in God's power and strength and not yours.
Now, the rest of our time today I want to just look at the
first piece of armor, look at verse 14.
It starts out with stand
firm.
And then look at how verse 13 ends.
And having done everything to stand firm.
And the idea there, of course, is to stand firm
against the attacks of Satan, to be standing firm
already when the onsoughts come.
But if you're going to stand firm,
you have to have what it says next, starting in
verse 14, having guarded your loins with truth.
Now, the Greek word here for
truth can be translated truth as
content, like truth as
opposed to falsehood, truth as defined
in the word of God, and it also, though,
can be translated as attitude,
an attitude of truthfulness,
of sincerity, or honesty, or integrity.
So let's deal first with the understanding of truth as content.
Most translations include,
in some way, there in verse 14.
Girded with the belt of truth.
Now, that's implied here in the new American standard with
having girded your loins with truth.
And I'm going to explain that in just a moment.
And we need this belt of truth,
because Satan is going to come at us with his schemes,
which is the same word translated at the end of
Ephesians 4:14 as deceitful,
scheming.
And in the context of that verse, it's
referring to every wind of doctrine, so the enemy comes blowing
the winds of the doctrines of demons, and they
use the trickery of men in cunning craftiness, in deceitful
scheming, Paul says, and the only way that
we can resist all of this is to have the truth
having girded our loins with
the belt of truth.
That's why it's so important to
preach, and teach, and preach, and teach, and preach, teach,
the word of God on a regular, consistent basis.
That's why I'm doing this right here today.
That's why I'll be doing this as long as the Lord gives me breath.
Now, John MacArthur gives us some imagery
to this belt of truth with the following.
Back in Paul's day, everybody,
including Roman soldiers, wore a tunic.
Now, a tunic was just a big square piece
of material, and had a hole for your hit, and
two holes for your arms, and it draped
down, and that was it.
But a soldier wouldn't
go into battle with all that material flying around,
and he's swinging his sword, and he's got his shield.
I mean, you wouldn't even take a journey in that situation with
the robe hanging all down.
I mean, in Exodus, when God told the
people, Get ready to leave.
Egypt, he said, Gird up your loins.
So girding up your loins, as an
expression has found, both in the old and New Testament, that meant to
gather up all that loose flowing material, so
you could be ready to go, whether it was on a journey or even to war.
And the phrase really means readiness.
Preparedness.
And the belt was
the key ingredient to the...
Again, the soldier couldn't fight with all that material flying around.
These guys weren't shooting people from 100 yards away.
They were engaged in hand to hand combat,
so what would they do?
They would tighten up all that material.
They would literally pull the
cloak, the cloak, the tunic
up above their knees, and wrap it
all up tight, and put the belt around there, and
that would keep everything tight, and that would improve their
ability and their agility, and make them better be able to fight.
That's an example of what Paul is talking about.
That's what girding up your loins meant.
Now, attached to that belt.
They would have a stripe, a strap,
that would go across your shoulder,
would attach here in the front, go over the shoulder,
and it would also attach in the back to the belt.
And the Roman soldier would
attach his sword on there, with
a sheath on the strap.
And later on, we're going to see the sword of
the spirit, which is the word of God, is
attached to the belt of truth.
And we'll get more into that when we get to the sword
of the spirit here at the end of the armor.
So, the belt of truth,
especially connected with the sword of
the spirit, is referring to truth in terms of content,
but also, as I said earlier, the Greek word can
be defined as attitude.
An attitude.
And this is what, from that understanding, Paul is saying.
He's saying in this armor.
First put your belt on.
Put on the belt
of truth.
That shows an attitude of readiness, an
attitude of commitment, it
shows an attitude of, hey, I'm ready for battle
with the enemy.
This is an attitude that says,
Hey, you are serious about this.
When a soldier put that belt on.
And he put that strap over his shoulder, and
he put that sword in his sheep, he was saying, hey,
Hey, I'm ready to fight right now.
One of the reasons that
our nation is in the state that it's in today is
because too many Christians for too many
years have had no interest in putting the
belt on, much less the strap, much less
swinging their sword in the Christian life.
That's why we're in the state we're in today.
And Paul is saying, Hey, you've
got to realize, whether you like it or not, you're in a war.
And you've got to get serious about it.
Look at the state of our nation.
Think about what
we see happening in our day.
People who actually think
that men can be women.
Mutilating children's
bodies deceiving them into thinking they
can be something other than what God created them.
How did we get here?
Part of the reason is because Christians have left
the strap and the belt and the sword in the tent.
And have it put it on.
And having got engaged in the fight,
embraced the soldier mentality, is what Paul is saying here.
I love 2 Timothy.
2:3.
Suffer.
Hardship with me
as a good soldier of
Christ Jesus.
I've told you before, I love being a soldier.
I love being in the fight.
And with every year that goes by, I'm
realizing my days as a soldier are moving by fast.
And I want to finish strong.
I want to go down swinging.
That's what I want.
the kind of soldier I want to be, and you should want to be that type of soldier.
Look at what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9.24.
Do you not know that those who run a race,
all run, but only one receives the prize, run
in such a way that you may win?
I want to win.
And yeah, we're going to win in the
end, but I want to win in the now.
I want to win in the battles right now.
I wanna be in the fight.
I mean, if we're going to be in
this fight, if we're going to be in this Christian life,
why not go hard at it is what I'm saying to you.
This country needs Christians
who are willing to go hard, to go
to the libraries, where they have pornography for children,
to go to the school board meeting, and stand up in
Jesus' name for what is right, to stack up
crowds, that we get to lay at the feet of King
Jesus when we die.
God has given
us, church, the most magnificent, greatest
gift in all of the human
experience, salvation, by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
And what kind of life is it that pleases our king?
Look at Romans 12,1.
Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
by the mercies of God, to present your bodies,
a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship, and
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what
the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect.
God doesn't want us on the bench.
He wants us in the game.
God doesn't want you in the tent, Christian.
He wants you on the battlefield, living a
life of voluntary sacrifice and suffering
when the battle gets hot.
So go back to that first part of Ephesians.
6:14.
Stand firm therefore.
Having girded your loins
with truth again.
This is content, as well as
attitude.
Stand firm.
Gird your loins.
This is war.
We're in war in this country,
a spiritual warfare.
This is Paul giving us a call
to a serious Christian commitment with our life.
So the call to
put on the armor for a believer.
It starts with
commitment, commitment at the very start.
You, again, again, you
are not going to beat the adversary
on your own.
He will beat you down, if
you're on your own, in many more ways than I just gave you today.
You have to have this armor on.
So I'm telling you, don't
be content with mediocrity in the Christian life.
Don't be content with lethargy
and apathy in the Christian life.
Life is going by us at light
speed, and please,
I implore you.
Don't let your
first audience, with the
king of kings, finds you
standing next to a big old pile of
wood, hay, and stubble at the judgment seat
of Christ, having done nothing to live
for his glory during the time he gave you to be a Christian.
Because all that you did as a Christian will be evaluated at
the judgment seat of Christ, and those wood, hay,
and stubble, that's useless things.
That's not just sinful things.
That's useless things that you did in your Christian life.
Don't let that be your 1st audience with your king.
Start today.
Commit yourself to laying
up palates of gold, and precious stones that
you can present at that first audience with your king
when you die.
Where do you start?
You start by putting on the belt of truth.
In our scripture for today.
And next time, we
won't even get out of this verse.
Verse 14, next.
The breastplate of righteousness.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day.
What an incredible reality you have given
us in salvation.
What a privilege to be ambassadors and
soldiers in this great warfare that's raging
about us in the unseen realm, Lord.
Thank you, Lord.
That you have given us the armor to
put on to be able to wage this war and
not be continually beat down by our adversary.
Lord.
Take this word today and plant it in our hearts and minds
and help us all, starting with me, to make
a fresh commitment to be a soldier who
endures hardness as a good soldier in
Jesus Christ, all for your glory.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.