Putting on the Armor [C]

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 6 tonight. Ephesians chapter 6. And I’ve already laid most of the foundation for this last week.

If you’ll remember, last Sunday night, I started talking about the second set of three parts of the armor of God and got hung up on one of them. And I had a full message prepared on three of these things last week, but sometimes the Spirit leads us in a different direction and leads us to emphasize something differently than we thought we would. There have even been times that I’ve gotten up to preach and the direction of the Holy Spirit took me had nothing at all to do with the notes that I had in front of me.

So, you know, we work for Him and go the direction He tells us. And so we’re going to finish tonight what we started last week. And I will dispense with a lot of the introductory parts of the message because just about everybody here tonight was here last week.

But we’re going to look at Ephesians chapter 6 starting in verse 10. And we’re going to read the whole thing again just for context. And it says, 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 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, so in other words, because of this, 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.

Then he explains how we’re supposed to do that. He says our battle is spiritual, our real enemy is Satan, and the battleground is for the hearts minds of the people around us, not to mention their eternal souls. And he says, we’ve got to be prepared to do battle.

So take the full armor of God so that you can withstand and that you’ll be able to stand when you’re called upon. And he says in verse 14, 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, taking 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 the 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 am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

And so he talks about the whole thing being preparation for the battle of taking the gospel to those who need it. Because the battle, if the battle is not physical but spiritual, then the objective is also not physical but spiritual. The objective, the enemy is spiritual, the enemy is Satan, the battle is spiritual, doing battle for the hearts and minds and souls of those around us, and the motivation or the mission is spiritual, which is to take the gospel. That’s how we win, is by promoting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he gives us all these ideas about armor that we’ve talked about, having your loins girt about with truth, the belt of truth that holds everything together, and it’s through the truth and the discernment of God’s word that when you’re confronted with something you know how to respond.

And in that way, we’re going to look tonight at the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And here’s part of the difference between the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit, because there’s some overlap between them. They both have to do with the knowledge of the Word of God.

The belt of truth seems to be more of a defensive thing, holding everything together. And there are times that we’re on defense and we need the Word of God for that defense. For example, when Jesus, and I know I’ve talked about this, when Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, it was Satan saying, well, what about this?

Well, what about this? What about this? Coming after Jesus, and Jesus in his defense threw up the word of God and said, no, you’re misusing God’s word.

Here’s the truth. And so that discernment, that belt of truth is part of our defense, whereas the sword of the spirit is an offensive weapon. So we’re supposed to have our loins girt about with truth.

We have the breastplate of righteousness, meaning we cover our hearts. We cover our innermost being with the righteousness of Christ, knowing that we don’t have enough of our own. The feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, that those are like our, I know I’ve described them as cleats.

And Charla pointed out to me this week after the, from having studied this in the ladies Bible study, she said, you know, they’re really more than cleats. And I said, well, I know that, but apparently I’ve not been communicating that. When I say cleats, I’m really talking, and what he’s talking about is like spikes, okay, not these little rubber nubs on the bottom of the shoes that the kids play soccer with, although that’s an example.

These were big metal spikes on the bottom of the shoes that would enable them to dig in and not be moved, and the gospel is where, as I’ve said all through this, the gospel is where we stand our ground, and we don’t back down, and we don’t move, we don’t budge an inch, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. no message that we could preach, no message that we could convey or share with our neighbors, no message matters more than the gospel. And he talks about the shield of faith, which we talked about last week, which the idea of faith being confidence in God and his promises, saying even though I don’t know how this is going to work out, I know who God is and I know what he’s promised, and so I’m going to trust him even no matter what fiery arrow of doubt or fear Satan tries to shoot at me, what I throw up is the shield of faith and saying, this is not going to hurt me.

This is not going to penetrate me because I have confidence in God. I know who God is, and because I know who God is, I’m confident in his promises. And it doesn’t matter what Satan says to undermine it because I know God’s promises and I know they’re true.

And again, I don’t need to take a lot of time to talk about that one because I spent the whole time talking about it last week. Tonight we go on to the helmet of salvation. In verse 17, he says, take the helmet of salvation.

The helmet, as you know, I don’t even have to tell you this, but I’m going to anyway. The helmet covers the head. And the head’s pretty important.

I watched part of a documentary a while back. I didn’t watch the whole thing because I thought this is ridiculous. But I watched part of a documentary on health a while back that was talking about there’s really only one way to die.

There’s really only one cause of death. I thought, okay, this is interesting, convince me. But they made a good case that there’s really only one cause of death.

It can occur many ways, but there’s one cause of death, and that is when blood stops flowing to the brain. Now, it can happen any number of ways. You can nick an artery, and all your blood can squirt out, and suddenly there’s not enough blood to go to the brain.

It can happen when there’s a heart attack, and the heart stops pumping. Well, guess what? It’s not pumping blood to the brain.

It can happen with a blockage that blocks the blood from getting to the brain. But every cause of death, and I thought, yeah, that’s true. Because if you drown, then you breathe in water, and that stops everything from moving here.

The heart stops pumping, and the blood stops going to the brain. There’s one cause of death. If you’re wondering, why is he telling us this?

It’s to reinforce the idea that we already know the head is important. The head is important. I know this from experience because when there were snakes at my house all the time, and thank God I didn’t see one this whole year.

I think they got the message. But when there were snakes at my house, I didn’t cut off the tail. You go for the head.

You go for the head. The first time I ever saw a snake in real life that wasn’t in a terrarium or something was at my house in Norman, and I had just moved in, didn’t know where a hoe was or an axe, everything was still boxed up. There was a pygmy rattlesnake on my front porch as we’re trying to get in the door after church on Sunday morning, and the pastor had preached that morning on the verse from Genesis that I quote all the time about crushing the serpent’s head, and I thought, well, I do know where there’s a key for the water meter, and so what did I do?

I took that water meter key, I went for the head. I crushed the head. If you want to kill the snake, you go for the head.

The head’s important, right? If somebody cuts off your head, guess what? Blood’s not getting to the brain anymore, and there’s death, okay?

The head is vitally important. The head has got to be protected. That’s why the kids wear bike helmets when they’re out riding their bikes.

That’s why they have started, you know, that’s why they’ve started making football players wear helmets, and now we’re finding out that may not be enough. The head is important, and you’ve got to protect the head. So their helmet would cover the head, one of the most important, you know, along with the heart, the most important and yet the most vulnerable part of the external anatomy.

When it comes to the things that stick out from the body, the head is the only one that can be removed and it guarantees you’re going to die right then. Somebody could cut off my hand and theoretically I’ve got another hand I could keep fighting. Somebody could cut off a foot and theoretically I could keep fighting, especially if we’re talking firearms here instead of swords.

But the head, you lose the head and it’s over. The battle’s done. And so when he talks about something to protect the head, it’s salvation.

It’s God’s salvation that secures the very core of who we are, the very most vulnerable part of who we are from Satan’s attack. And folks, we are vulnerable to Satan’s attack. We’re vulnerable to Satan’s clutches, if I can put it that way, apart from the salvation of God.

Because the Bible tells me that I’ve been bought with a price. It tells me that I’m bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. And before that moment, before that point of salvation, when I was bought with a price, I was in slavery to sin. I was in Satan’s clutches, as we all were.

And as though around us who’ve never trusted Christ as their Savior are. And it’s the salvation of God. It’s the salvation that God offers through Jesus Christ that protects us from spending eternity in hell, that saves us from certain death and destruction.

Apart from the salvation that Jesus Christ provides, I would and you would otherwise spend all of eternity separated from God in the fires of hell. and yet his salvation is offered and you know what it can’t be taken away and I realize there are some churches that would take issue with this I understand there are some verses in the bible that sound like you might potentially be able to lose you lose your salvation but the ones that are very clear indicate to me indicate to me that nothing can take us out of his hand that the salvation that he offers has nothing to do with my works or my effort. It has everything to do with what Jesus bought and paid for in full once and for all on the cross.

And that helmet of salvation is an impenetrable covering. Now, it doesn’t mean that we’ll never have trouble with Satan. How many of you are still tempted to sin?

Anybody? A bunch of good people in here, or maybe just a bunch of liars. No, just about every hand went up.

And the hands that didn’t go up are just too slow. Or you’re like me, I’m not raising my hand just because you asked me to. This might be a trick.

He’s going to have us come up and tell what kind of temptation it is. No, I wouldn’t do that. No, we’re all still tempted.

Even as believers, we’re tempted. Do you ever give in to that temptation and sin? No, just me?

yeah absolutely so there are still times that we’re vulnerable to satan’s attack that’s why we need the full armor that’s why we need to get up every day and put on the full armor but folks that helmet of salvation is impenetrable he may be able to he may be able to give you a flesh wound here and there he may be able to get under your skin but folks he can never destroy the relationship that you have with God through Jesus Christ. He can never destroy the security that you have. He can never, ever pluck you out of God’s hand because Jesus puts you there. And that helmet of salvation is a reminder that this salvation that he offers is the most important protection we have against Satan because apart from Jesus Christ, it’s just us against him and we don’t stand a chance.

And then he says, and the sword of the Spirit. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And as I’ve mentioned already, the sword was an offensive weapon.

And it was perfectly suited. There were different designs of swords, but the sword in general was perfectly suited and useful for slicing, chopping, piercing, even deflecting. You can even deflect a blow of somebody else’s sword with a sword.

Have you seen fencing? I’ve seen that on shows and it looks like a lot of fun. But I don’t have the time or the money to take up yet another expensive hobby.

So fencing will have to be something that waits for retirement maybe. But it looks like a lot of fun. Especially if you’re protected and it’s a round tip sword and they can’t run you through.

But they deflect each other’s swords with their swords. And we’ve all seen movies and read that, you know, talking about the knights and the Romans and all sorts of people that fought with swords. And they would hack at each other and they would slice and they would pierce.

And it’s just, it is a powerful weapon. We don’t think of it as a powerful weapon today because we’ve seen guns and we’ve seen cannons. But you know what, you don’t have a gun or a cannon and somebody comes after you in the middle of the night with a sword.

The sword is still a very scary weapon, right? And it can accomplish all sorts of things. The sword is a powerful weapon, and it’s a weapon that allows us to go on offense.

Why is this important? The Bible in Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, for the word of God is quick and powerful. And by the way, that word quick doesn’t mean fast. It’s just like when the Bible says that Jesus will judge the quick and the dead.

It doesn’t mean the dead people and those who run fast and everybody in the middle like me is off the hook, who doesn’t run fast and isn’t dead. No, the quick means the living. In our English language up until just a few, maybe one or two centuries ago, this word was in use meaning living.

As a matter of fact, they would talk about the quickening during a pregnancy, and the quickening meant when you could feel the baby move, and they knew there was a baby, they knew there was something alive in there, they knew there was something quick in there. So the Bible says here, Hebrews says, the word of God is quick, meaning it is alive. and please understand what that means.

It doesn’t mean it’s a living document. I hear that phrase used mostly with the Constitution by people who want to say, well, it’s living, meaning it’s open to reinterpretation. We can just make it mean whatever we want to because it’s 2017.

There are some people who want to treat the Bible that way too. Well, we can just interpret it however we want and be sloppy with it. Now, it doesn’t mean it’s a living document subject to reinterpretation.

it means it is as relevant as it was the day it was written. If you’re reading the Bible, if you’re studying God’s Word, and it seems dusty, and it seems old, and it seems irrelevant, and it seems obsolete, then you’re not studying it right. And I don’t tell you that tonight as an attack, to say, shame on you, you’re not studying it right.

I’d love for us to sit down and work on how do we do that then. How do we study our Bibles better? How do we learn from God’s word more effectively and get the truth that’s in there and really understand it?

Because when you start to understand God’s word, it’s alive. And folks, it will convict you and it will challenge you and it will frustrate you. And I mean that in a good way, as much as any living person that you talk to.

All the time I read the Bible and I see something new that I’ve never seen before. I don’t mean some new weird doctrine that nobody’s ever seen before. I just mean some truth that I’ve never noticed in a particular spot.

Some detail that I’ve overlooked for 20 years. There’s always something new in there. And I’m always being challenged.

Here’s this I need to do better. I’m often made to feel uncomfortable as I study scripture. And I know that sounds like a bad thing.

We’re uncomfortable. We’re offended. We need our safe spaces.

Folks, it is a good thing for us to be made to feel uncomfortable by the word of God. It is good for me to be made to feel uncomfortable by the word of God, because it shows me those areas where I’m falling short of what God expects from me, and it’s God and his Holy Spirit pointing out to me the things that I need to change. And I’ve said to you before, just recently on a Wednesday night, that if God and his word don’t ever disagree with your opinions or your lifestyle, then you’re probably not worshiping God as much as your own idea of God.

And I’m challenged all the time. I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated with the things that I don’t understand, and I know they’re just right there, and I’m digging and searching and trying to find them out, and it’s a quest and challenged and encouraged.

There are times I’ll run across a scripture, and it is exactly what I need to know that day. It speaks exactly to the question that’s on my mind. It speaks exactly to the problem that I’m dealing with.

It speaks exactly to what somebody around me is going through. And folks, make no mistake, this book is alive. It is as relevant today as it was when it was penned at the least nearly 2,000 years ago.

Now, it began much earlier than that. But it says the word is quick and powerful. I’m still on Hebrews 4.

12 here. We’re like five words into the verse. The word of God is quick and powerful.

It is strong. The word of God can accomplish things that we cannot. I’ve read where people have tried to get away from the idea of using Scripture and witnessing.

And I understand, I think, where they’re going with it. Because if somebody doesn’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then it doesn’t matter to them what Romans says. It doesn’t matter to them what Genesis says.

And so the idea is we’ve got to start from something that they believe, some point of reference that makes sense to them. Folks, I am all for, without changing the gospel message at all, packaging it in such a way that people can understand it. I’m all for that.

But at the same time, we dare not divorce the gospel from Scripture because we know who Jesus is from the Scriptures. We know the demands of God’s law and His holiness from Scripture. We know how far we fall short because of Scripture.

And we know the remedy is found in Jesus Christ and His shed blood because Scripture makes it abundantly clear. And so my question on that is, does the fact that they don’t believe it’s God’s word and accept it as God’s word change the fact that it is God’s word? No.

Just like the protesters, whether it’s been Obama in the White House or Trump in the White House and people say, well, he’s not my president. Okay, whatever. Get over it.

Get over it. He’s president whether you admit it or not. It doesn’t change anything.

He gets to sign and veto whatever he wants and nobody says, oh, there’s a protester down there who says you’re not his president. So I guess you don’t get to be it anymore. No, God’s word is God’s word, whether people recognize it or not.

And the Bible, I don’t want to give you the impression, well, the Bible is powerful because it says so. These were the apostles writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and said God’s word is powerful. And it’s powerful whether people realize it or not.

And the word of God, whether they accept it in their mind or not, it has the power to get in there and it has the power to convict and it has the power to challenge and it has the power to resurface months and even years later when people need it most and the Holy Spirit to use it to prick the conscience exactly as it needs to be pricked to bring people to an understanding of Jesus Christ and repentance for their sins. The Word of God is powerful. I’m sorry, I’m not a yeller, but I feel like the louder he gets, the louder I’ve got to get.

He may make a fire and brimstone preacher out of me, yeah. and here it says it’s sharper the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword so as sharp and intimidating as scary as a sword would have been in the hands of a Roman soldier it says the word of God is even sharper and more powerful in ours it says piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and these terms are not completely interchangeable and as someone who’s been preaching for about 15 years and been a Christian longer than that and been studying these things, I still could not stand here and tell you with absolute certainty the difference between the soul and spirit. Probably something I need to study on it a little more.

But soul and spirit are interconnected but not exactly the same. And where I can’t even give you a precise definition, the Bible says it is able to get in there and draw a clear line. Yeah, that’s pretty sharp.

Have you seen, have any of you ever watched, I don’t know, the Food Network, the Travel Channel? I see these things all over the place. They’ll go to different countries and they’ll experience their food.

And I’ve seen where these sushi chefs will go in and cut this puffer fish. Anybody else ever seen this? This poisonous puffer fish that you have to be real careful with and you have to have a super sharp knife because if you nick the bile duct or something, the poison goes everywhere and you’ll die.

You have to be very careful, have a super sharp knife to get this fish and get the parts that aren’t poisonous so you get just enough poison to make your lips tingle and not kill you. And they cut it in these paper-thin slices that you can see through, and they arrange it in the shape of a chrysanthemum blossom. Has anybody else ever seen this?

It’s incredible. I think the fish is called Fugu, F-U-G-U. Go look it up sometime if you’ve never seen this.

It’s incredible. The knives that they use are able to cut these paper-thin slices of this puffer fish. That’s the kind of thing that we’re talking here with the Bible.

It said, It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit. What I can’t even define, it can divide. And the joints and marrow.

It’s sharp enough that it can get in there and it can divide the joints. It can divide the bones and the marrow. That’s pretty sharp, and that’s pretty impressive.

And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. says the scripture discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. Does that mean that I put this book on my head and it’s like a mood ring?

It can tell you what I’m thinking and what’s in my heart. That’s not what it’s talking about. But it’s talking about the principles of scripture when applied to make you wise.

Because there are principles that are taught in God’s word and things that are told to us, for example, that by their fruits you’ll know them. And there are people who will appear to be truthful. There are people who will claim to speak for God.

There are people who look like they’re doing the right thing. And sometimes you can tell something’s just a little off the more you search the scriptures and the more you compare it to what’s being taught and what’s being done. See, eventually, comparing somebody’s teaching and somebody’s life to the scriptures will demonstrate the true colors.

Using the scriptures, God can enable us to discern the intents and thoughts of the heart. And we can apply that to ourselves as well. we’re really good at deceiving ourselves and convincing ourselves that, well, what I’m doing is okay for this reason.

We make up our reasons. The scripture can cut right through that. And boy, does it do that for me.

When I convince myself that it’s okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason, you know what? The scripture comes smashing in and says, uh-uh. It just cuts through the baloney and says, no, this is what’s true.

That’s where I talk about being convicted and being frustrated by the scriptures because the scriptures cut through everything like this sharp sword. And we need this sword as our offensive weapon. Because as we go forth with the gospel, it’s the word of God that’s our offensive weapon.

It’s the word of God that cuts through the enemy’s armor. It’s the word of God that can tear down the walls that the enemy has built. And let me say it this way.

The walls that the enemy has built around the hearts of the people we’re doing battle for. It’s the word of God that can pierce through all of that. It can cut through layer after layer after layer.

I can talk to somebody until I’m blue in the face and get nowhere. And yet a word from God, spoken to them, can have an effect that thousands of my words cannot. Even years later, his words, a few of them spoken, can have an effect that thousands of mine cannot.

I remember a pastor friend of mine telling the story of being frustrated many years ago, that there was a man that would come and visit his church, and he knew he wasn’t a believer. And he’d preach hard at him week after week, month after month. He’d visit with him, and he’d just try to get him to understand, get him to trust Christ. He’d preach evangelistic sermons, he’d visit, he’d argue, he’d do all these things, and getting frustrated because no matter what he did, he could not get the man to trust Christ as his Savior.

And his frustration at a visit from a visiting missionary who talked about the work he was doing, and then gave a short devotional on the 23rd Psalm, and was done, and the man came forward and trusted Christ as his Savior. And he talked to him later, and he explained how the 23rd Psalm, what the man said about it, pricked him in his heart, and he realized his need for God. Thousands and thousands of words from me or you may have no effect.

I’m not saying stop talking to people about the gospel. I’m not saying stop sharing your testimony. That was part of the point of this morning’s message, was that your life can be a picture of the gospel.

But at the same time, don’t dare divorce scripture from your efforts. whether they believe it or not, it’ll get in there. And what thousands and thousands of words from you and me may not accomplish, just a few words from God might just get in there and do the trick.

His word is sharp and powerful like a two-edged sword. And folks, when it comes to going on offense against this world, when it comes to going on offense against the enemy who rules over this world, the scripture is the offensive weapon that we have in our holsters. And folks, going along with the belt of truth, we need to be able to wield it skillfully.

We need to be able to handle the word of God skillfully. With what I know about swords, one would not be terribly scary in my hands. But there are men and women so skillful with swords that you’d think they perform their own cesarean section.

I mean, they just, even today you look at fencers and there are people that just look like they came out of the womb with a sword in their hands. That’s where we need to be with God’s word. And you may be sitting there tonight saying, well, I don’t know God’s word that well.

Start. Make it your goal. I’m not one for resolutions, but we’re getting close to the beginning of next year. 2018 has kind of sneaked up on us, huh?

Make it your plan to start now. Maybe you’re saying, well, I’m so old, I may not be around much longer. I’ve heard this before.

I’m not saying you’re so old. I haven’t heard it here, But I’ve heard people say, well, it doesn’t do me any good to start anything now. I’ll be 85 next year.

Okay, well, you’ll be 85 anyway. It was like the story I heard of a woman who decided to start law school at 90, and somebody said, well, you’ll be 93, 94, 95. I don’t know how long law school takes, but you’ll be whatever age, say 94, when you finish.

And she said, so I’ll be 94 anyway. Well, there you go. Start today and use the time that God gives you to prepare yourself and make yourself useful in battle.

Start digging into God’s word and learning how to wield your sword with the skill that you need to put the enemy to flight. And folks, when I say the enemy, please remember the context of this message. I don’t mean the person that you’re talking to.

I don’t mean, not to mix metaphors, but to load up your Bible gun and go blow your neighbor away. I mean to learn to use our weapons skillfully because against the word of God, Satan doesn’t stand a chance. And it’s not our neighbor.

It’s not our unsaved neighbor, our non-believing family member, the lost person that we know at work. They’re not the enemy. They’re not the ones we’re doing battle against. They’re the ones we’re doing battle for or over.

The one we’re doing battle against is Satan. And as Jesus demonstrated in the wilderness, against the word of God, He has no defense that can stand up.

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