Thank
you, music ministry.
Have your Bibles.
Or you can look upon the screen.
Turn to Ephesians, Chapter
6, and we are back.
into this text that
teaches us about the armor of
a believer, and what I want to do is just kind of go back a little bit
to read, versus 10 through
17, the entire text in this subject, just
to get our mind juices flowing back to where we've been in this text.
The Apostle Paul,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit starting in verse 10,
says, finally, Be
strong in the Lord.
And in the strength of his
might, put on
the full armor of God so
that you will be able to stand firm against the
schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the
world forces, of this darkness, against the spiritual
forces of wickedness, in the heavenly places.
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.
Stand firm, therefore, having
girded your loins with truth, and
having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with
the preparation of the gospel of peace.
In addition to all, take up
the shield of faith with which you
will be able to extinguish all
the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of
the spirit, which is the
word of God.
Now, you may have heard the story
of the time when
Martin Luther was held up in
the Warpburg Castle in 1521,
and it got so intense
for Martin Luther in his conflict
with the devil, it
got so real, in his anger,
he picked up his inkwell,
and he threw it at the devil, so
to speak, and the ink whale broke
apart, and the ink stained
on the wall.
And the ink stayed on that wall for hundreds
of years after that, and it became like
a little place where you could go in, like, a little museum out of it.
This was just a reminder.
Now, Luther's not telling you that there was literally, he was seeing this,
but the conflict, he knew he was there.
Okay?
And that's why he threw the ink well.
But that story is
just a reminder, for many folks, of just how
vivid the
conflict was, for Luther,
and his ministry, and the conflict is no less real
for us, in
our lives, though many of us have the
spiritual intensity of Luther,
that would have that scenario play out in that way.
In other words, if there was anybody that I
would pick in that time period that the actual Satan was dealing
with, it would be Martin Luther, as he's bringing
about the Reformation at that time.
Now, as we've learned here in
chapter 6, all
believers, all over this globe,
right now, are at war.
And that war is
made up of daily battles with
an enemy that viciously
hates us.
So I want you to get these two things in your mind.
There is a big
picture macro spiritual war that
the enemy and his minions are waging in
a world view way, a big picture
way, like over nations, like what's been happening
in Iran for 47 years, right?
But then there's also, for Christians, daily
individual battles that we fight.
So, you understand, there's two forms of this.
When I talk about spiritual warfare, and we're at a state of war, both
of those things are happening simultaneously.
But also, for all believers, God has set every
single one of us.
on this personal
trajectory that's in our lives that
we call theologically the process of sanctification.
That's what every believer is going through right now.
And in it, in sanctification,
what is God doing?
Well, number one is growing us spiritually, toward
deeper and deeper levels of spiritual maturity.
He's conforming us to the image of
Christ in sanctification.
He's preparing us
to meet the king, and
to live forever, one day in glory with the king,
and other believers, and all the holy angels.
And part of what is
involved in all of that right now
is his calling
us to live in
a manner that sets us apart from
this evil world system that he
has ordained for all of us to
be sanctified in.
You get me?
And at the same time, he
has ordained, God has, to allow our
most powerful adversary, the
devil himself, to continuously work
hard at doing all that he can,
to hinder us, in fulfilling
God's purposes in this grand design of
sanctification that he has designed for
every believer's life.
So that means, as
we've been learning, that every believer
is, again, in a state of constant warfare,
every day of our lives, right up to our very last breath.
on this earth.
I want you to think
back in the Gospels when Jesus
entered the world as an infant.
Think back to the story.
Satan
did everything he could behind the scenes to
have Jesus, baby Jesus, murdered by Herod.
You remember the plot?
You remember the story?
Think about all those times that the
Pharisees picked up stones and plotted to
kill Jesus, but it wasn't his time yet.
Who do you think was behind all those scenes?
in the Bible.
And then,
Satan finally succeeds at
working through the sinful,
willful hearts of men
at getting Jesus murdered
in the most torturous way ever invented by
mankind, and he's duped again.
At participating, in
his hatred, in the greatest act of love
and grace for sinners in human history.
But he never stopped
trying to kill Jesus.
And then after Jesus rose
from the grave, and went back to heaven, he never
tried to stop ever to stamp
out the church of Jesus, and he continues to
do that today.
Just read the book of Acts.
Paul on his missionary journeys.
He's out there going from town to town.
He's preaching the gospel.
What's he running into?
Magicians and sorcerers, and demon possessed people.
And they're all trying to shut him down.
He's getting stoned and whipped,
and beat with rods, and left for dead, and
as the church begins to grow, the
relentless persecution.
of the church begins to ramp up
to the point in the Roman Coliseum,
they're feeding Christians to starved wild
animals, jeering
and gleefully clapping, watching human beings
being eaten alive by lions and tigers.
It's unbelievable to think about.
And behind,
every single bit of
all of that, Satan
and his hobgoblin helper squad,
constantly.
at work doing everything
they are possibly allowed by
God to do, to
wreak havoc upon his church.
And I can take you through every single
era right now.
of church history, from then to
now, and give you examples that
will take us right up to today in
2026.
Think about today.
Left this lunatic the ideology.
Marxism.
Communism.
Islam.
Humanism.
Materialism.
Transgenderism.
Do you know that last week, the
British Columbia, Human Rights
Tribunal, ordered,
a school trustee, to
pay $750,000
fine for one thing, for
publicly expressing the view that there are only
two biological genders.
$750,000 fine.
They ruled that that simple...
all he said.
That is all that he said.
They ruled that simple, undeniably true
statement to be discriminatory,
and that it amounted to hate speech.
And get ready.
Because I'm here to tell you, unless
we have massive revival here in America, or
Jesus returns soon, that's coming to a theater near you.
If the left has its way.
And this war
is not just a battle of ideologies
and worldviews, again, I want to press this upon you.
It is that, but it's also made up of daily battles
in the individual lives of every single Christian.
So keep in mind, both of those things are happening at the same time.
This is war that we're in.
And we fight it at both levels.
And that is why the
Apostle Paul closes out this tremendous
epistle of Ephesians in the way that he does.
And what he gives us is the blueprint.
For what is necessary for
all believers to be able to chalk up victories
in the daily battles that we have been ordained to fight.
Don't you want to have victories in the daily battles that you're ordained to fight?
I do.
So how do we deal
with this enemy who
is constantly warring against us?
How do we deal with this?
Exorcisms?
Rituals?
Holy water?
Commanding
demons to go to the pit?
In Jesus' name?
You will find none of that in this text.
You won't find any of that anywhere in the Bible.
In fact, let us look at his overall
summary answer again.
Look
with me at 10 and 11.
Here's the summary answer to all of this.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength
of his might.
That's number one.
Number two, verse 11,
put on the full armor of God so
that you will be able to stand firm against
the schemes of the devil.
And in case you didn't get that, again, verse 13.
Therefore, take up the full armor
of God so that you will be able to resist
in the evil day, which is every day until Jesus
returns, and having done everything to do what, again?
Stand firm.
Be strong in the born in
the power of his might, and put your armor on.
Those are the answers for us, in summer.
And in verses 14 to
17, Paul gives us, now,
the description of the armor that he's talking about
and exhorting us to put on.
And we've already studied two of the pieces.
Look again in verse 14.
Stand firm, therefore, having girded your lawns with truth.
And remember, the word belt is, in most other translations, that's
what the new American standard is talking about, when it's talking about
girding your loins, with the belt of truth, and what
Paul has in mind, starting here, as we've seen, is this
great picture of a Roman soldier.
And he's fully dressed, and he's
fully prepared for battle, and he starts with this belt.
Remember I told you about this?
It pulls the robe together, nice and tight, pulls
it up above his knees, and it makes him able and agile
and ready to fight in battle.
So all that doesn't get hung up when he's fighting.
And as we learn, the belt of truth, is
not only defining truth in terms of content.
It is that.
It definitely is that, but also, in
this picture of this soldier, having this
belt on with truth, is
demonstrating readiness.
Preparedness, a
commitment to fight in the battle.
That's what this belt of truth is demonstrating.
And then having girded your loins with
the belt of truth for the believer, there has to
be a commitment for you
and I to fight in this war, and
have a commitment to proclaiming the truth in this war.
Now, the second piece of armor we studied is found next in verse 14.
Look at that with me.
And having put on the breastplate
of righteousness.
we talked about last time.
Remember the Roman soldier?
Think about it in the movies, you bought, we've all seen movies with Roman soldiers,
that breastplate, a lot of times there's a big eagle on there.
Usually came to about right here, went down to the
waist, covered the vital areas.
Remember, the heart and the lower organs.
Remember, in the Hebrew mind, the heart was referring to the mind.
The bowels was referring to the feelings and the emotions.
And so with the breastplate of righteousness,
The believer protects his mind,
and his feelings.
Because those are the areas where the
enemy most tempts us, our thinking,
and our feeling.
And if you missed that message, you should go back and watch it or listen
to it, because I'm not going to go back over all that again.
We got to get to what this breastplay
of righteousness means real quick.
What does it mean?
It's very simple, very simple.
It means living a righteous line.
That's it.
It means living the way God intends for you to mean,
live, and how he's described that living in
his word, a daily life of repentance and confession of
sin, a daily life of keeping short accounts with
God, a daily life of striving every day with a
motive to bring glory to God, and, of
course, I'm not talking about Simla's perfection.
No one achieves that in this life.
Keep your bearing straight.
But certainly, what Paul is
talking about is striving to lead a spiritually disciplined
life, and again, we went into all that detail last
time, because now we need to move on to the next piece of armor.
Verse 15.
Look at it.
And having shod
your feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
So now we've gone from the belt
to the breastplate, now we get into the shoes.
As you know, shoes
have become a major part of our American culture.
I can remember back
when Converse, there was only Chuck Taylor's, the
canvas Chuck Taylor's.
I remember as seventh grade, I think it was, the
leather converse came out, the
white leather converse.
And Buddy, if you didn't have a pair of white leather converse,
and you just still had your lucky chucks, and that's all you had on,
man, you were hurting.
You were not in with the group.
But originally, shoes
were used primarily to protect feet,
protect feet.
Today, it's all about a fashion item.
I mean, nowadays we really don't need much protection for our feet.
What I mean by that?
Well, think about it.
You got carpet in your car.
I mean, whatever flooring you
have in your house, I mean, it's pretty safe for
your feet, right?
I mean, think about, we got rubber floor in here.
Pretty safe.
If we all took our shoes off, it might not smell great, but our
feet would not have been any peril, our feet being,
if we all went barefoot right now.
Unless you choose to,
we're never walking over rough
rocks, and briar patches, and hot sand, and
the kinds of places that can do damage to our feet.
So we, here, in 2026,
America, we don't get the picture, quite as clearly,
as they did in Paul's day, when
it comes to the subject of feet and shoes.
And also, today, think about
it, we have shoes for every conceivable
kind of sport, and then different types
of shoes within each sport, like I think about football.
Trenton used to have to have cleats for turf
and cleats for grass and for tennis, depending
on what kind of court you're playing on.
There's a different kind of shoe, running track, depending
on what kind of track you're running on.
There's different kinds of shoes.
Every surface in each sport requires
a different type of shoe so that you
can achieve optimal performance in that sport.
And even though they only have one kind in the Roman days,
This special shoe was very,
very critical for a Roman soldier in a time of
war, and I'm fixing to tell you about.
I mean, it's one thing for it to be important in athletics, but it's
a whole nother level of importance.
When you're fighting for your life, and
the footwear is important.
A Roman soldier would not ever
go out to battle with
the normal leather type shoe that just had a
slit bottom in that day that they wore around
the house, or not in war situations.
I mean, if they did, they'd be slipping and
sliding all over the place.
They had to have a kind of footwear
that would be able to sustain long marches.
Footwear that could handle going
over all kinds of terrain, rocks, and
sand, and woods, and I mean, it really
is true if you study history.
Wars were lost.
over bad footwear.
They really were.
Think about Valley Forge under George Washington.
Now, they were victorious, of course, but if you
read that story in a bitter cold,
The shoes had worn out, and their feet were
frostbitten, as they were fighting, and they
had to wrap their feet with strips of cloth in unbelievably
cold temperatures.
In the Roman army days, the
enemies who knew that the Roman army
was coming, the scouts would figure out, oh, here they come, one
of the things they would do, they would take sticks.
And they would sharpen them to a razor's edge,
and they would plant them down in the ground with the hope that
it would damage a soldier's foot, because once you damage a soldier's
foot really good, he's out.
He's out of the battle.
So protect to protect against that.
The Romans developed like
a boot, if you will, that had a heavy, thick soul.
It would be real difficult for something to pierce it.
As I said, you can hurt your arm, you can hurt
your hands, you can hurt your elbow many places and keep going.
But you damage those feet, you're
sidelined as a soldier.
So, the Roman soldier had this sick,
this, it's like a thick soled, semi boot,
but what it had, it had strap that went all around it.
Maybe you can think of movies you've seen this before.
And the straps went all the way up almost to the knee,
and they would be very tightly tied.
But on the bottom of those soles, those
thick soles, they had what were called hobnails.
And they were like little pieces of metal, and
they stuck out like cleats for a football player,
and that gave the Roman soldier grip in the soil.
It gave him firmness in battle.
He could confidently stand in battle with
those little hobnails.
They could hold their ground, they could make quick moves and keep their balance.
And that imagery right there that
I'm giving you should be starting to
percolate how this applies to a
piece of armor in your Christian life.
And let's go back to verse 15.
And let's unpack what Paul was teaching us here.
Verse 15.
And having shod
your feet with the preparation of
the gospel of peace.
Now, listen to what RC Spro writes about this verse.
He says, this is a clear allusion to
Isaiah 52,7.
You may have part of this version, caps
in your Bible, because that's where it's coming from.
He says, Paul has in mind the messenger who takes
the gospel to others.
The image here is of
the Roman soldier's sturdy boots, which
gave him stability and protection,
in battle, so that Isaiah has
been combined with this Roman background, ironically,
the piece that comes from the gospel, readies
one for war against evil, end
quote, from Dr. Sproul.
Now, look at that word in verse 15.
Preparation.
You see it there.
It means made ready.
It means equipped.
And what he is saying is that your feet
should be made ready by
being shod, which simply means to
shoo, which you also see in this verse.
They should be equipped, prepared.
Now, most commentators say that
this is a reference to preaching the gospel of peace,
where are they pulling that from?
Well, primarily they would pull that from Romans 10,
verse 15, and you know this verse.
How will they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet
of those who bring the good news of
good things?
And that is Paul, again, pulling from Isaiah 527 right there.
Other translations use the same phrase.
Gospel of peace, like
we see here in our verse today, for the good news of good things, in
Romans 10:15.
And listen, that is solid, biblical analysis
for sure right there.
The gospel of peace is to be preached.
We need preachers, to be sent
out into the world, to preach it.
That is definitely what Romans 10:15 is talking about.
But both RC and
John MacArthur, take this a little deeper in their expositions.
Think about what we just heard from RC earlier.
If you think carefully,
about the wording of this verse.
And you think carefully about the context of
what all we've had leading up to this, from
verse 10 that we read at the beginning of the message.
It really doesn't have anything to do with
going anywhere, does it?
Look at the verse.
Well, go back to verse 14 real quick.
What's the first word?
Stand.
So we're not talking about going.
We're talking about standing.
The point that we have been returning to
throughout these sermons on the armor is not about, necessarily,
evangelizing the loss.
The point is fighting the adversary.
The life of a Christian fighting the adversary.
Now, listen carefully.
We have to make distinctions.
We have to have nuance.
Preaching the gospel is part of our fighting, for sure, right?
Absolutely.
But that's not the point of the text that we're dealing with here.
What we're dealing with here is standing
and fighting the enemy.
I love 1 Corinthians 6, 13.
Look at it, please, be on the alert.
Stand firm.
There's the phrase, again, in the faith.
Act like men.
Be strong.
Boy, I wish there was a whole bunch of preachers.
I'd like to just get in the room with him.
Let's execute this.
I'm moving on.
Remember our whole text here, now.
Look at Ephesians 6:11.
Put on the full armor of God, so you will be able to what?
Stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
Verse 13.
Take up the full armor of God, so that you'll be able to
resist in the evil day, and again, having done everything, to stand
firm.
And then again, verse 14.
What does it start out with?
again?
Stand firm.
Are you getting the context here?
Next verse, our verse.
15, and having shot your
feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Now that verse should be digging a little deeper in your brain.
Right?
So the gospel of peace is
to be preached for sure, with preachers sent out
all over the world to preach it.
Oh, how beautiful are the feet of those who go out and do the work of
the preaching of the gospel?
Yes and amen to that, but deeper, deeper point here in verse 15.
is that when our feet, all
of us, all of us, when our feet are
shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace, we are able to stand our ground.
We
have this piece of armor on
our feet, when we have our feet shod this way, we don't slip in battle.
We don't slide.
We don't fall when we're under attack.
Now, really
quickly, let's consider the phrase, the gospel of
peace, the word gospel.
Of course means good news, as you know.
And there's endless comparative
text that I could show you here when thinking about this, but maybe
none better than Romans 5, starting in verse 6.
So I want to do this this way with you.
Here we pick it up with the Apostle Paul.
He's describing the
basic state of the natural man.
Now, what I want to do here is I'm going to emphasize
and key in on certain words, okay?
For example, verse 6.
For while we were still
helpless.
note that one.
Verse 7.
For one will hardly die for a
righteous man.
Now, notice the implication is nobody dies for an unrighteous man.
Hardly will one die for a righteous man, you got that?
So right there in verse 6 and 7.
How's the natural man described?
Helpless and unrighteous.
You with me?
Then verse 8.
But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and
that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us, verse 9, much more than having
been justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from
the wrath of God through him.
Now, Rachel, keep up verse 8 and 9 right there.
Verse 8, what is G?
It calls us what?
Paul calls us what?
Sinners.
Verse 9 implies that
we were unjustified, unsaved,
and objects of God's wrath.
So look at that.
Just in verses 6 through 9.
Paul is teaching us that the natural man is helpless, unrighteous,
sinful, unjustified, unsaved, and objects of wrath.
Is that clear?
With anybody with a brain and two eyeballs, you ought to be able to understand that.
But then, verse 10.
Paul goes further.
For if we,
while we were, what's that word?
Enemies.
I mean, that's strong.
Enemies, but that's a strong word.
Well, that's just a logical sum of what led up to this verse.
Think about it.
If you have a person who is described as helpless,
unrighteous, sinful, unjust, and an object of God's wrath,
What have you got?
You've got an enemy of God, just
as the verse is telling us.
Someone who is the object of
God's judgment.
So, enemies, sorry,
for the easily offended, it's just not too
strong of a word right here to use.
I'll raise, remember, we're not all God's children.
We're all God's creatures.
Not all of us are children.
children of God are adopted by grace into
his family, by God.
Every person is
naturally an enemy of God.
That's what the Bible's teaching.
But God did something.
to change this terrible,
natural condition, the state of
being and enemy, enmity.
Go back to Romans 5.
Now, let's emphasize some different words, can we?
Verse 6, for
why we were still helpless at the right time, Christ
died, for the ungodly,
verse 7, for one will hardly die for a righteous man, though
for a good man, someone would even dare to die, verse
8, but God demonstrates his own
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.
So yes, you are all my enemies, God says.
But, I have a remedy.
The only possible
remedy.
A perfectly sinless substitute
who will die for you.
Verse 9, much more
than having now been justified
by his blood, meaning his death,
without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sin, we
shall be saved from the wrath
of God through him.
So what is the gospel?
Well, there's many ways to answer that, but one answer could be that
man is naturally at war with God, but
Christ made peace between man and God.
When we come to Christ on his terms of
repentance and faith, we move from a state of
being at war with God, to a
state of being at peace with God.
So that is, back to Ephesians 6:15,
the gospel of peace, but
now back up to Romans 51.
How
do you kick off the fifth chapter of Romans 5.
Therefore, having
been justified, by faith, we have what?
Peace, with God,
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the gospel of peace.
The gospel, again, is that man and God were at
war, and God was on the opposite side against man,
and Jesus said, if you are not with
me, you are what?
Against me.
There's no mental ground.
There's no 3rd way.
If you're a Christian, this
morning, the good news is, you
are at peace with God.
That's the best news in all of news that is news.
You understand?
God is on your side.
That's the gospel of peace.
We are reconciled to God.
I love Colossians 120, and
through him, Christ, to reconcile
all things to himself, having made what peace
through the blood of the cross.
And so, in
this state of peace, when the enemy
comes to attack you.
If you have, back to
Ephesians 6.15, if you have shod
your feet with the preparation of
the gospel of peace, guess what you can do when he comes.
You can stand firm, like them hognails in
that Roman soldier's boot, had him planted down in the ground.
You're planted with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Immovable.
You're anchored in the ground.
You got the, the belt of truth, you got
the breadth of righteousness, and the rest of the armor
we're going to study in the Sundays to come.
Now, I
don't know about you, but if I had to stand there and fight against the demonic realm in my own power and strength,
Well, that fight's over before it gets started.
If you think you can, you already lost yourself.
In
fact, Mike Tyson once said, Everybody's got a plan, that I get punched in the mouth.
Now,
let me give you an illustration from
my absolute favorite book.
It just is.
Everybody's got a favorite book.
Well, some people say, well, I can't have a favorite book.
I have a favorite book.
John, you know that.
Chapter 18.
We're gonna get there maybe when I start
collecting social security to chapter 18.
This great scene.
This is a great scene.
Peter!
He's in the garden with the rest of the disciples.
And the soldiers are coming to arrest Jesus.
And the text says
that a Roman cohort
came to arrest Jesus.
Now, you need to understand what a cohort was.
There were different types of cohorts, with
different numbers of soldiers, but at a minimum,
at a minimum, a cohort would have been 500
soldiers.
That's about how many people pack into Friday
night, probably, in Central Stadium.
Okay?
Think about 500 soldiers.
And they're marching in the darkness of night.
from Fort Antonius, and they've got those torches.
that are lighting up the night sky, and they're heading
to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus
and the disciples are.
The text says they had weapons.
Other gospels,
say clubs and swords.
They were ready to fight the disciples.
They were ready to beat down Jesus with one
of those clubs, if necessary, to get him to where the Jews wanted him to go.
Love, verse four.
Look at it.
So Jesus.
knowing all things that were coming
upon him, went forth.
Don't fly over that.
He went forth and said to them,
whom do you seek?
He went forth, means he stepped to them first.
All 500 of them.
This ain't no hippie Jesus.
He don't exist.
He never existed.
This is the god man who was much a man in his humanity.
Look what he says in verse four.
Whom do you seek, verse five?
They answered him, Jesus the Nazarene.
He said to them, I am he, and
Judas also, who was betraying him, was standing with them, verse 6.
So when he said to them, I am he.
They drew back and fell to the ground.
Picture that!
They come into the garden.
Jesus steps up to them.
Who are you looking for?
Jesus the Nazarene.
I am he.
Boom,
500 men flat on their backs, Jack.
Hmm?
What a scene.
Verse 7.
I love this, too.
Therefore, he asked him again, whom do you seek?
And I can imagine, Jesus?
Yes, sir.
Verse 8.
Look at this.
Jesus answered.
I told you.
Then I am he.
If you seek me, then let these go.
So why do you do that?
Well, it's clear.
He did all that, let the disciples go.
You after me, come get me.
Now, based on what happens next.
in verse 10.
I'm thinking that Peter's
standing there, and he's thinking, man,
that is some cold blooded power right there, Jack.
I mean, all 500 soldiers
just went down when he said, I am he.
And so a little light bulb, I
think, went up above Peter's head.
Man, with that kind of power, there
ain't no sense in any of us going to the pokey.
Verse 10!
Simon Peter, then having a sword, drew it.
struck the high priest
slave and cut off his right ear in the slave's name was Malchus.
Now, Peter was from North Baton Rouge.
He wasn't going for the ear.
Malchus just pulled to Ali.
That's what happened.
And the ear was the best that Peter could catch.
And if Peter,
think about this now, if Peter was willing to do that,
right there, with all this happening, he was willing to keep
going into that crowd of 500 soldiers, I promise you he was.
Now, where do you get that kind of confidence?
Hmm?
Where do you get that kind of strength?
Well, he just watched the whole cohort of Roman
soldiers fall flat on their backs by Jesus just
saying, I am he?
And I think when he went to swinging that sword, he had to be thinking, well,
if I get in trouble here, I'm just gonna yell out to Jesus, say it
in, Jesus, and just keep going, right?
I think he was thinking that.
He feels invincible.
Because he had just witnessed
the effortless power of King Jesus.
He has this great sense.
Man, that is nothing gonna take me down out
here, because the power he has seen
has been displayed in such dramatic fashion,
with great boldness, he pulled that sword out.
He started to go to work to defend Jesus because he knew.
That's who's got my back.
That's who's on my side.
That's where the resource came for Peter.
When Peter and John boldly
walked into the Sanhedrin meeting in Book of Acts.
They said, it doesn't matter what you say.
You don't care what you tell us?
We're here to serve God.
I had no fear.
Why?
Because they knew who was on their side.
How about Paul?
Preach like a man.
A monk, boys, the gospel, wherever he went.
Remember how hostile his environment was?
How could he do that?
He knew the resources that he had.
He knew he was
a man at peace with God.
So who cares what man does?
God's on my side.
And the point is, folks,
I'm telling you, it's just the same with you and me.
That's what I want you to see here.
Our daily battles with the enemy.
Put your armor on.
Trust in the Lord.
And no matter what comes at you, we have
no fear.
Why?
Because God is on our son.
Dig those feet,
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace down
in the ground, and you stand firm when the attacks come.
Isn't it?
Isn't it beyond tremendous?
that Jesus said, I
am not ashamed to call you brothers.
That's every believer.
So no matter what the adversary says,
Look back in Ephesians 6:10,
We can do this.
We can be strong in the Lord and in the strength
of his might.
That's the confidence of having shod your feet with
the preparation of the gospel of peace.
I'm telling you, daily victories in these daily battles
are possible.
And in line with that, I want to close with three questions.
Which you need to ask yourself concerning this subject.
Number one, do you want to win?
Do
you really want to win in these daily battles?
Do you
keep the belt of truth on?
Do you have the breastplate of righteousness
on, as we discuss?
Number two, do you have a breastplate of righteousness?
Are you seeking to live a
spiritually disciplined life?
Number three, are
you bold in battle?
Are
you bold because your feet are firmly rooted in the
confidence of God who is on your side?
If you're here today
and you're struggling through the Christian life, and you're defeated, and you're
constantly doubting the Lord and His strength.
I'm here to tell you, if you don't do something about that
with this armor, you're going to stay beat down on the regular.
You have the ability to
turn that around, with the Holy Spirit that's inside of you,
with the resources that you have that God is providing, for every single solitary Christian.
If you can answer yes to
those three questions.
I'm telling you, you're going to be able to achieve
daily victories.
I'm not talking about perfection.
You know that.
Daily victories
in these continual battles.
I hate to tell you, they're not going to stop that we have in this war, you're
going to have them until you go home,
or until Jesus returns.
That's what Paul is trying to get us to see and
understand in this tremendous epistle of Ephesians.
All right, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 11.
Because
what's so great, is
that yet, again, we have a text in
a subject matter that we can,
and you can really do this all the time, but here
particularly today, and then with this armor.
We have a text that can make
us draw a straight line to the cross.
How do we do that?
Well, how do we have all these resources?
Who Christ is and what Christ did?
on our behalf.
That's what we're celebrating here.
Now, let's read this, and in
a couple of words of explanation.
Therefore,
whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord, but
a man must examine himself, and in so doing,
he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup, for
he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks, judgment
to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly.
For this reason, many among you are weak and sick,
and a number, sleep.
Now.
We've gone through this many
times, but we're going to continue to repeat
it, because intermittent
repetition is the best instructor, for one thing, but
I really want you to keep it down in your mind, because it
really is a micro version of
a macro understanding that you have to keep between
justification and sanctification.
Why do I quote those verses?
Well, over here, on the one hand, it's,
number one, for reverence sake.
so that you understand that what we're doing
here in celebrating the Lord's Supper is something that we are to do with reverence.
It's not something that's flippant.
That's what the problem was there in cornered.
They were going hog wild, if you read the whole chapter.
You read all about it.
They were just getting nuts.
And the Lord's Supper.
So there's reverence.
Then there's also a call to the attention
of your own personal inventory.
How'd you do this week in
the daily battles that you fought?
How'd you do with walking in the
spirit, and not after the flesh?
How did you do?
Well, if you like me, I had some victories, and
I had some failures, right?
That's every day in the life of a Christian.
There's things I should have done that I didn't do.
There's things I should have said that I didn't say.
There's things I said that I shouldn't have said.
Commission and omission.
We can go back and forth with that, right?
So what this is is an opportunity
for you to be honest with God who already
knows all of your thoughts before he even made the world.
And to say, hey,
in and of myself, yeah, I'm
not worthy, in and of myself, to
come to this table to have this great celebration of the Lord's supper.
I'm not.
I'm a sinner.
Lord, I need you to forgive me for this, and for
this, and here's where I fell short and this, and this, and this.
But then, at the same time, that's
what the gospel is all about.
You turn away from yourself.
You dealt with yourself.
You turn away from yourself, and
you look to Christ, and you say, wow.
Look at what he did on my behalf.
He not only died for me, He
lived the perfect life for me that I can't live.
And I get his righteousness by grace through faith alone.
And all of my sins are forgiven.
So we can have all that in
our minds at the same time.
So this is not to bring darkness into this
ceremony here today.
It's to bring great joy, and
honesty, and truthfulness, to
your God about the struggles that you're having during the week.
And, Lord, forgive me, and then look to Jesus.
and say, it's his righteousness.
that makes me right and keeps me right with God, not my own.
Rejoice and be exceedingly
glad that the gospel is a gospel
of grace.
That you put all that together.
That's why I quote these verses.
So that you can have opportunity to put
all of that together in your mind.
So let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
Today,
Roger Dale has his snipples, so he wisely is
going to stay back there and I'm going to serve you.
And
I want you to just go
to do business with the Lord, as the old timers like to say.
Deal with your issues.
Ask him to forgive you, and
then rejoice in the forgiveness that's already there.
yours in Christ.
The supper for all
those who have repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus
Christ, and in a public profession of that faith, have
been baptized, you know, Christian.
You're walking down this aisle, you're very walking down here
to come receive the supper, rather than me going out and handing
it out to everybody, is you are physically getting up
and saying to the church, and to the Lord, and
to the world, I am a blood wash saint of
God, and I am acting in obedience to the Lord
Jesus Christ for the Lord's supper.
That's what you're saying when you get up and come down to be served.
So let's take a moment of silence.
And
then I'm going to pray and ask you to come down.