Praise the Lord Saints of the most high
God! Praise the Lord everybody! Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is always a wonderful feeling to be in the house of the Lord. It is always a
blessing to be with the children of the Lord. It is always a thrill to be in
the presence of the Lord, to feel His presence, His anointing, His peace that
passes all understanding.
There is nothing that I enjoy more than
dwelling in the presence of the Lord. In taking the opportunity to join in
fellowship with the saints, to partake in the offering of joint praise and
worship to our Lord. That is exactly what we will be doing in heaven saints!
That is exactly what we will be doing for eternity. If you don’t like praising
God down here, you aren’t going to like heaven!
So let us take a few moments to pray
before we get started on this message. Let us take a few moments to ask the
Lord to anoint me as I attempt to bring forth His word. Let us take a few
moments to ask the Lord to anoint our ears to hear the word and help us to
apply it to our lives. Let us pray!
Pray for as long as the Lord
directs:
Could we all please stand
for the reading of God’s Word.
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in
the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 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. 13
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15 And
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 Above
all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the
fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword
of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints; 19
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,
You
may be seated
I will attempt at this time to explain
this passage to the best of my limited human abilities. I am not God, nor do I
desire to be God. That was what Satan did, he desired to be God, and that is
what got him kicked out of heaven. I do not intend to make that same mistake. I
told the Lord long ago that I wasn’t interested in the job, not that He was
offering mind you!
I believe that all of you are the same
way, you’ve seen how much work it is just to take care of your own business and
thus you’ve decided that ruling the world is just too much work. You’ve wisely
decided that living for God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength is
your life’s calling. By so doing, you’ve retained your reservation in heaven
and become the enemy of the devil.
Because we were wise enough to make the
correct decision and he was not, the devil now hates those of us who live for
God. He’s declared war upon the saints of God and has committed acts of war
upon our persons. Therefore it behooves us to prepare for battle, and thus the
reason for this message.
Pause
Now, when a people go to war, they must
have confidence in their leadership, both political and military. They must
believe that the war is just, and that their leadership has the ability to pull
them through. They must believe their military has the will and the firepower
to defeat the enemy; otherwise the pressure is on to sue for peace.
So where does our confidence lie in this
war with the devil? It lies in our leader. Who is our leader? Does our leader
have the power to overcome the enemy on all fronts! I say emphatically, YES!!! It says in:
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in
the power of his might.
I think this answers our question: the Lord God
almighty is our leader! He’s omnipotent,
meaning all powerful. He’s omnipresent,
meaning everywhere at the same time. He’s omniscient,
meaning all knowing! No other leader in the history of the world has ever been as
qualified to lead a people in war as the Lord our God!
Let’s break this down just a little bit more. If
you’re all powerful, that means you are abundantly more powerful than any enemy
you could ever face. No matter how many troops the enemy brings to the battle,
no matter how many planes he brings, no matter how many tanks he brings, no
matter how many missiles he brings to the fight, he still has no chance
whatsoever to win!
If you’re everywhere at the same time, you have the
enemy in your sights at all times. You have him surrounded at all times. You’re
in front of him, beside him and behind him at all times. You can attack him
from the front and sides, or cut off his supplies from the rear at any time you
choose. He doesn’t have a chance!
If you’re all knowing, you know everything about your
enemy. He can’t pull any tricks on you, he can’t sneak up on you, he can’t
spring a trap on you, he can’t hide weapons or troops from you, he can’t even
hide his plans of attack from you. The enemy’s tail is hanging out from behind
a rock with a shotgun pointed at it!
But just because you have the enemy surrounded, that
doesn’t mean that you have to be foolish in how you attach his strongholds. This brings us to our next verse:
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil.
We have to put on the whole armor of God! Not just a
part of it, but all of it. There was a book I read once called “Blackhawk
Down”. One young soldier was trying to save the weight he had to carry on a mission
so he removed the armor plate from the back of his vest. His thought was that
he would never be running away from a fight so he didn’t have to worry about
being shot in the back. Needless to say, he was shot in the back during the
battle and he died. He didn't fully put on his armor and thus he paid the
ultimate price.
Now let's
look at our next verse:
Ephesians 6:12 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.
When you go to war with someone, you have to know your
enemy. You have to know who you're fighting against. Are you fighting cavemen
or are you fighting sophisticated soldier of a highly advanced military? It
makes a difference in how you fight a war depending upon who you're fighting.
When fighting cavemen, you should be able to overpower
them easily, but extreme care must be taken when fighting an advanced and
highly trained enemy. If you don't respect your enemy, you can underestimate
your enemy and fall into a trap that may condemn you to defeat, even to a loss
of the entire war.
We're fighting against an enemy that is powerful,
advanced, very knowledgeable, and highly motivated toward the goal of our total
destruction. You see, the devil hates God with all that's with all that dwells
inside him. The devil hates us because we're the children of the King. Since he
can't kill the King, the next best thing is to kill the children of the King.
So with all his heart he wants to kill us.
The devil is a skilled, experienced and committed
enemy and we could never defeat him by ourselves, he's had way too much
practice at deception for that. We have to rely upon the Lord God Almighty in
order to win this battle. We have to put on His armor, not the physical armor
of mankind. It says in:
Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that
ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
There's been some type of armor to protect soldiers
for almost as long as there's been warfare. It started off with leather gloves
and gauntlets to minimize cuts from edged weapons. Then it went to shields to
deflect swords, knives, or spears. Then there was chain mail so that the effect
of any weapon getting past the shield might be minimized or nullified
altogether. Finally, there was a suit of armor that encompassed the entire body
in a layer of metal.
With the invention of each type of armor, there has
been the soon invention of a means of defeating that armor. Even today's modern
body armor that our soldiers wear into battle can be defeated by the right
weapon. But the armor of the Lord is invincible; we just have to be sure to put
all of it on every day! We can never be lazy about it, or like the
aforementioned young soldier, we might get shot in the back by the enemy's
arrows!
So just what does the armor of the Lord consist of?
Well let's just check the rest of this passage and find out. Let's start with:
Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with
truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Your loins are the waist area of your body. Everything
in that area must be covered and secure. A blow to this area can deny you the
ability to defend yourself further. The devil's greatest weapon is that of
deceit. When you are encompassed with truth, a lie can never deceive you. You
will never believe the devil's lies; you'll only follow the word of God.
The breastplate of righteousness covers your chest
area. It protects your heart and other vital organs. The heart is one of the
main targets of the devil. He tries to turn your heart away from serving and
loving God and point it toward anything else but God! That's why it's so
important that we keep God's word hid in our heart, so that our heart is
protected from the attacks of the devil. Now
let's look at:
Ephesians 6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace;
In a self defense class, one of the first places
you're taught to attack is the feet. If a person can't stand or move easily due
to problems with their feet, they are much easier to defeat in battle. You
actually start with the shins and run the hard edge of the side of your shoe
down the shin and stomp on the arch of the foot.
I don't know if any of you have seriously scraped your
shin, but trust me, it really hurts! I don't know if anyone has ever stomped on
the arch of your foot but it can break the bones of your foot. Even if you miss
and stomp on their toes it's going to hurt your attacker.
The devil tries to cut your feet out from under you
spiritually. If you're not rooted and grounded in accurate biblical doctrine,
the devil will try to distort the word of God to the point you don't know what
you believe, much less why you believe it! Pretty soon you won't believe
anything except his lies…
When you're rooted and grounded in the word of God,
you're unmovable in your faith! Remember I said "rooted", when a tree
has deep roots in the ground, it is not easily blown over. Only when those
roots have died can it be blown over. That's why it's so important to feed your
spirit the word of God, so that your roots stay strong and deep!
The Giant Redwood trees are the largest trees in the
world by volume, but they have shallow roots. The greatest danger to these
trees is not fire, but toppling. If the root system gets damaged, they can get
blown over by a strong wind. As long as their roots are strong; even though
shallow, they can live for thousands of years.
We need to develop strong roots of faith through the
reading and hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that we are able to stand
against the attacks of the enemy of our souls. It says in:
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
How are we to have our feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel if we are hearing the gospel, or reading the gospel? If we aren't
reading the word, and if we aren't hearing the word taught, or preached then we
are leaving ourselves vulnerable to attack. We haven't put on the whole armor
of God! Now let's look at:
Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
It's not always enough to wear armor that covers the
body. Some weaponry can pierce through that armor, and thus we need to have an
auxiliary layer of armor for added protection. That auxiliary layer is just
what a shield provides. It slows down anything that may be approaching at a
high enough velocity to pierce our body armor and slow it down enough so that
if it passes through the shield, it won't have enough velocity left to
penetrate our body armor.
Those fiery darts that the devil will throw at us are
the spiritual equivalent to a javelin. It's not as long or as heavy as a spear
and thus it can be thrown harder and so achieves a higher velocity. Without the
shield to block or deflect the javelin, it might pierce our soul and cause
irreparable damage.
We've already talked about what it takes to develop
faith. It takes hearing the word of God. But faith also comes through achieving
victory in battle. The more we overcome the devil the more faith we develop to
fight him with. Now that doesn't mean that we seek to do battle with the devil;
because that would be foolish. Also, we should never get too lifted up when we
have a victory over the devil, because the bible tells us that pride cometh
before destruction.
But we should always seek to give God the glory for
any victory in which we are a participant. We do that because it's God who has
given us the victory. We didn't defeat the devil, God defeated the devil, and
all we did was sit back and pray for that victory. Now let's look at our next piece of armor:
Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God:
As the old saying goes, cut off the head and the rest
of the body dies too. The devil is more than willing to go for the kill at any
time. He'll try to convince you that you aren't saved, that Jesus could never
love you. He'll try to destroy your faith with petty little attacks, things
that are annoyances more than hindrances. But he'll whisper in your ear that
they're happening because God doesn't love you anymore and you just aren't good
enough to be saved!
That's why it's so important that we know and
understand what the bible says about salvation. What do the scriptures say that
we have to do in order to be saved? Are we saved by our own works, or by faith
in God? Can God; and does God forgive us of our sins when we ask Him? Knowing
the answers to these questions is what the helmet of salvation is all about!
The sword of the spirit is the word of God; we
maintain the effectiveness of our helmet of salvation through the study and
usage of the word of God. If you've ever read the 4th chapter of Matthew which
tells us the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, then
you know how he defeated the devil. He defeated the devil by quoting the word
of God! "Thus sayeth the Lord", "It is written".
When we study the word of God it not only allows us to
defeat the devil when he attacks us, but it also allows us to go on the
offensive. It says in:
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh: 4
(For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) 5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ;
Just in case you
didn't know this, you don't pull down a stronghold if you are inside it. You
pull it down if the enemy is inside it! We have power through the word of God,
which is working in our lives; to pull down the strongholds of the devil! Not
only shall no weapon formed against us be able to prosper, but the very
strongholds of the enemy are in grave danger if we are studying the word of God
each and every day!
Don't you like the
thought of making the devil cringe? Every time you read the word of God, every
time you pray and seek God's face you make the devil cringe. Every time you
praise and worship the Lord freely and without reservation, you make the devil
cringe! Every time you witness for the Lord, every time you tell someone your
testimony, you make the devil cringe! I just love making the devil cringe
instead of the other way around! Praise God!!!
But wait! There's more
to armor that just the part of the armor. Let's
look at:
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for
all saints;
We have to remember to watch the back of our fellow
soldiers! We can't let the enemy creep up behind our brother or sister. If we
see our brother or sister leaning the wrong way, when we see the enemy creeping
up behind them, we have to tell them. You don't have to tell me, but you need
to tell them if they will receive it. It
says in:
Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling.
We have to watch out for ourselves as well, which is
why we're told to pray with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. But it
doesn't stop there; we need to pray for all the saints as well. We need to
learn to be prayer warriors. That's why this church is named "Tabernacle
of Prayer", because we are to be a praying people, a praying church! We're commanded in:
1
Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without
ceasing.
We can't rest on our laurels; we need to always be
ready for battle. When Jesus needed to cast out a demon, He didn't say come
back in three days after I've fasted and prayed. Jesus just cast out that demon
or demons right then and there!!!
A good soldier is always ready for war, he never lets
down his guard, he stays in shape, and he properly maintains his weapons. As
Christians we need to do the same. I'm not talking about being able to run 30
miles without stopping, or being good with a gun. I'm talking about our
spiritual weapons, our prayer life, our bible reading; our being faithful to
church and to pay our tithes. We need to be on top of our game spiritually and
be continually vigilant, always ready to do battle with the enemy of our souls!
Now we come to the final part of our armor. Regardless
of the armor we're wearing, it does no good if we have poor leadership. That's
where our last verse in Ephesians comes in. It says in:
Ephesians 6:19 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,
Remember this verse is a continuation of Verse 18.
We need to continually pray for those in our church that are in leadership
positions. Do you recall my talking earlier about cutting off the head and the
body will die? The devil will save his most evil attacks for those in
leadership. He'll try to destroy the leadership in a church in hopes that it
will destroy the whole church, and those within it.
Please, please, please always remember to keep your
pastor in your daily prayers, because you are always in mine! If we could all
rise at this time, Sister Jo, would you please close this service in prayer,
asking God to help us apply what we've learned today, to our hearts.