Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6 and look at verse 10. I'll read a few verses here. Ephesians 6 and look down at verse 10. 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, 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. 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 ye 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 all saints. I've preached on the whole armor of God before, but there's one thing I've never done, and I've wanted to do it for a long, long time, and I'm going to start today. I'm going to give you a series here on the armor of God. And it might take a few weeks, I don't know. But I'd like to break down this passage and kind of expose the passage a little bit over the next couple weeks and just look at each piece specifically that the Lord has provided for us. Let's open in prayer. Father, I come before you now, and I pray, Lord, that you'll please, Father, fill me with the Holy Spirit. I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart will be acceptable in thy sight. Father, I pray, God, that you'll touch the hearts of your people here today, God. They'll get something from your words that means something, Lord. They'll get something here today, God. Lord, we're not just looking for some new thing, but Father, we're looking for a way to be closer to you in our lives. And Father, we're looking for things that we can apply in our lives to be better soldiers for you. And I pray that you'll help. We love you. We pray all in your son's name. Amen. Now here, our passage today, I legitimately believe this is one of the most important passages for a New Testament Christian in the whole Bible. And that has to do with the fact that you're a soldier called to war. And I'm going to give you those verses here in a little while. But if you're a soldier and you're called to war, a good warfare, as the Bible says, This passage is extremely important because it has to do with that fight. And it has to do with you staying alive in that fight. God's not going to call you into a fight and then not give you the proper equipment to win. And so that's what we're looking at here today. And notice in verse 10 it says, Finally, finally, my brethren. What's he talking about? Well, you're closing out the book. We're at the last chapter, last passages here. And Paul, he's been writing this letter to the Ephesians, and he's been writing from a prison cell. And he's concluding a very positive letter. If you know your Bible, Ephesians is not like Corinthians. He's not writing, he writes to the Corinthians and it's all rebuke and it's all correction. And he's setting those charismatic straight because they don't know where tongues is and they don't know how to do it. If you know your Bible, you know what I'm talking about. He's sitting there saying, you guys are boasting, you have all these gifts and stuff and that's not true, you don't have those things. And he's having to rebuke them and he writes, two of his longest letters are written to one church because they can't get their act together. But if you know Ephesians, it's not like that. It's a very positive book. In fact, the theme of the book of Ephesians is the Christian and heavenly places. Let me show you. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. You'll see it four times. You'll find that phrase, heavenly places. That's pretty positive, wouldn't you say? Ephesians chapter 1, look at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. That's pretty positive. Look at verse 20, Ephesians 1.20. I'm sure Isaiah 1.20 is good too. Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Look at chapter 3, verse 10. Chapter 3, verse 10. to the intent that now one of the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. And look at chapter 2 verse 6. And hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now think about what's being said there because I don't know if any preachers actually fully explain that thing. I've never understood it very well and I've heard many preachers discuss it. He's talking to Christians. He's in a jail cell physically and he's writing to people in another place in Ephesus and yet he's talking about them being up in heaven together, sitting together in heavenly places. It must be have to do with the fact that if you're born again, you're part of the body of Christ, you're saved, we're all part of the body and we're connected to him because of that or something. But it's interesting that even then he's saying, we're up there right now. But then you have a passage at the end of the book where he says, finally, brethren, and he brings it all back down to earth. You see that thing? And then here in this short book of Ephesians, you have a book full of grace. You have a book that's full of compassion and a revelation of God's love and revealing of God's mercy. And all that material is lifting the Lord up. You got passages in there giving God glory, talking about us being in heaven, talking about how good God is. And then it culminates with chapter 6 and Paul says, finally. And all that talk about heaven gets set aside and he brings you back down to earth where you're standing. And he says, there's a battle and there's a fight. And he brings the Christian back down to reality. He wraps up the book and he doesn't leave the reader up in heaven, though I wish he would. He doesn't. It brings you back to the reality that you are supposed to live a Christian militant life, a life of warfare, a life of battle, a life of strife sometimes. But it's not a bad life, it's actually the right life. And that's what every person here is called to. And I know some of you know these verses, but for the younger Christians, let me show them to you. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, I'm sure that some of you were raised with the pictures of Jesus with long hair and it's red for some reason. He always looks like he's Irish. His blue eyes and red hair, he doesn't look Jewish at all. And they portray him just kind of like a pleasant pacifist. And that's not Jesus Christ. You don't know him and you haven't read his words. He was a preacher, a street preacher. And not only that, if he's gonna call you into the military to be a soldier, that would require him to be a good leader. Look at Hebrews 2 and look at verse 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. That's a title for a military leader. Captain! But you'll go a lot further than that. Turn to Exodus 15. That's the second book in the Bible there. Genesis, Exodus. Look at Exodus 15. You'll find that Jesus Christ was no pacifist at all. Exodus 15, look at verse 3. Exodus 15.3, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. So your captain's called a man of war. He's going to bring peace, yeah, through war. If you know your Bible at all, that's how it goes. But right now, you're not in a physical fight, you're in a spiritual fight. And the captain, called a man of war, has called you into it. Look at 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1, look at verse 18. Excuse me. 1 Timothy 1.18. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. And your Christian life is called a war. And your leader is a captain, a man of war, and he's called you into warfare. Here's a good quote on this. Life is indeed a warfare, and just as a man enlists in the army for a term of years, and then his service runs out and he is free, so every believer is enlisted in the service to serve God till his enlistment is over and we sleep in death. Our charge and our armor we shall put off together, but not until we are home with God. Look at 1 Timothy 6. I always like to point out that it says he wore to good warfare. You'll notice it's similarly put over here in 1 Timothy 6.12. 1 Timothy 6.12, fight the good fight of faith. And Christians, and I don't want to get ahead of myself, I've got notes on this later, but Christians love getting involved in all kinds of things that aren't the good fight. They'll find some political agenda to get involved in. They'll find some rally to get a part of. And they'll say, well, I'm in a fight. Is it a good fight? Does it line up with scripture? You're supposed to be in a good fight. Look at 2 Timothy 2. One book over, 2 Timothy 2. And look at verse 1. 2 Timothy 2.1, thou therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Verse three, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And there's so much to unpack. I could preach the whole sermon on this right here. I remember one time preaching on this saying, I said, talking to a bunch of Christians, and I said, you guys are soldiers. And I had a Marine come up to me at the end and say, I'm not a soldier, I'm a Marine. And I said, if you're saved, you're a soldier. All right, buddy. The Lord doesn't have any Marines. He has soldiers, OK? Do you find it in the King James, the word Marine? I'll give it to you, OK? You're chosen to be a soldier here, a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And not only that, I like how it says it there. It says he chooses you to it. So everybody in here is enlisted. When you put your faith in Christ, you sign the dotted line. You said, all right, I trust you with my soul. You know what a lot of Christians do? They sign that dotted line with the caveat of, I'll give you my soul, but I'm going to live this physical life the way I want to live it. I don't want to have to fight my flesh. I don't want to resist temptation. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. No, he's chosen you. He's called you to be a soldier for him. Brethren, you are soldiers. Enlisted when you believed in Jesus. Let me remind you that you are a soldier. You will always be at war. You will never have a furlough. You will never conclude in a treaty. Like the old knights who slept in their armor, you will be attacked even in your rest. That's true. There is no part of the journey to heaven which is secure from the enemy. That's true. At no moment, not even the sweet rest of the Lord's day, when the clarion may not sound. Therefore, prepare yourselves always for the battle. Put on the whole armor, God, and look upon life as a continued battle. Be surprised when you have not to fight. Man, if Christians could get that concept right there. Be surprised when there isn't a fight. Something's off when you're not under attack. Be wonderstruck when the world is peaceful towards you. Be astonished when your old corruptions do not rise and assault you. You must travel with your swords always drawn, and you may as well throw away the scabbard. You will never want it. You are a soldier who must always fight, and by the light of battle you must survey the whole of your life. Alright, go back to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6. I'm not going to, I'm going to mention this more a little bit later on, but listen, when things get real quiet and something's wrong, something's off, and I'm going to repeat this later, but there's a good chance you're not on the devil's radar. If everything's real quiet, it means you're not doing anything worth the enemy's time. Ephesians 6, 10. 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. Now, all through the New Testament, the Christian's life is likened to militant warfare. And that word militant is interesting. It means vigorously active, combative, or aggressive, especially in support of a cause. Now, buddy, if you can't apply that to a Christian life, man, militant, vigorously active. How active are you in service for the Lord? It says combative, too. The Lord's called you to warfare. That requires combat. I'm supposed to be a combative Christian? Yes. And not on the YouTube comments arguing with a Calvinist. No, that stuff's for the birds. There's no treasures in heaven for that. That ain't no good fight, amen? It says combative, it says aggressive, listen, especially in support of a cause. That's what militant is. Do you know what the antonym for militant is? I looked it up, I didn't know this. The opposite of militant is the word pacifist. If I didn't know that, that makes sense. Pacifist, another antonym is tolerant, compliant, passive. Those are the words that I would use to describe the majority of secular Christianity. Well, they'll say stuff like, we just need to tolerate each other. Then it's not militant. Militant is the opposite of tolerant. And Christians say, we just need to comply. We just need to get along. Yeah, it's passive Christianity. And it is the exact opposite of how the Bible teaches Christians to be. The exact opposite. You're called to be militant. You're called to vigorously, you're supposed to be vigorously active and combative in support of the cause of Christ. Look at Jude. That's right before Revelation. Right near the end of the book. Jude, only one chapter, look at verse 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Have you earnestly contended for the faith this week? Because they're called to it. He's exhorting them that they're supposed to be contending for it. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2. And watch Paul describe the way he gives out the gospel whenever there's opposition. 1 Thessalonians 2, look at verse 2. 1 Thessalonians 2, look at verse 2. But even after that we had suffered before..." Okay, so suffering, negative. "...and were shamefully entreated..." Negative. "...as ye know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God..." Watch what it says. "...with much contention." Do you know what Christians do today? They treat contention and resistance like it's a negative thing. When it's actually showing that what you're doing is right. Maybe not every time. I've known some knuckleheads. They go into a Catholic church and put the rubber ducky there in the holy water. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe that's not quite contending for the faith. I don't know. I don't know if that's really the cause of Christ. I don't know. That's a little bit, you'll get some negative opposition. I don't know if that's, that one might be warranted. But you know what, a lot of times what Christians do is they get out and they put out the gospel and they get a negative response and they go, oh, I must be doing something wrong. No. Chances are you're doing something right. Brother Quigley's not here today, but he told a story of him and Jacob Jacobson knocking on a guy's door down there in Pensacola just trying to give out the gospel, and the guy opened the door with a gun like this. Some people say that you're in the wrong occupation. No, that's militant. The guy, what are you guys doing? And he's like, ah. And the guy's shaking. That's the worst way to have a gun pointed at you, a shaking hand. Now, some Christians look at that thing, and they see resistance, and they go, well, I must not be doing it right. No, the opposite, actually. You're actually doing it right. And as a general rule, if the devil and the spirit of this world is pushing against you, you're doing the thing right, because you're called to fight against that thing. Dr. Ruckman taught us that a Christian is supposed to figure out what the spirit of the age is and fight against it. And so you know why there's been an uptick when Bible believers are preaching against social media? Because it's the spirit of the age. It clicked for me, this was within the last year or two. I remember sitting there and I wondered why my preacher, Brother Donovan, preached always against the, he preached so much on the political stuff against it, and why Christians are so pro it and getting their lives entangled with that thing. They're not soul winning, they're not reading their Bibles, they're not doing right, but they get entangled with all this stuff. And I sat there and I said, why is he always preaching on social media, why is he always preaching on politics? And I realized, Brother Donovan figured out what the spirit of the age was, and he went against it. And that's what you're called to do. You're supposed to figure out what the spirit of the age is and fight it. I think it was my dad. I don't know if he got this or if he came up with it or if he got it somewhere else, but I only ever heard him say it. He said, the theme song of this generation is don't rock the boat. That thing has lived with me. I've had that in my heart for years. And what you're actually supposed to do is figure out what the spirit of the age is and rock the daggum boat. That's what you're supposed to do. And that's why we street preach. It rocks the boat. It fights against the spirit of the age. The spirit of the age is just get along. Why are you making a scene? You're just a Pharisee out there. No, you're not. You're actually out there where the Lord wants you to be. Hebrews 13 says to get outside the camp. and make a fuss and make a scene for the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what you ought to do? Some of you, listen to me, you ought to get it in your head to start trying to figure out ways to quote scripture to your coworkers. I'm telling you, man, it will rock the boat. I haven't worked out in the secular world for a while now, because I've been a preacher, but I remember years and years I'd go out there, and if they said, I'd be sitting there just waiting. They had no idea, man. I was ready to pounce. If they said something that I could say, I would be like, oh, you know the Bible talks about that, right? Ah, preacher, get out of here. They don't want to talk to you like this. Yeah, that's rocking the boat, man. That's contending for the faith. That's figuring out the spirit of the age and fighting against it. And quote some scripture. You know what you ought to do sometimes? I mean it. You need to mention hell more. Do you believe it? The Bible talks about it. That same book that preaches on heaven preaches on hell. And you ought to bring it up. And you ought to figure out ways to rock the boat. Pray about it. Say, Lord, I'd like to fight the spirit of the age. Can you reveal what the spirit of the age is and help me to figure out a way to fight against it? Get out there and do it. Just rock the boat a little bit, amen? I remember, I know most of you know this, I've told the story, but down there during Halloween, me and a bunch of my PBI buddies would go and we printed off the 95 theses. That was what Martin Luther did. He wrote out 95 arguments he had against the Catholic Church and he went and he nailed it to the Catholic Church door. That's the 95 theses. And we printed it off. Which I never forget the look on this lady's face. I think I went to Office Depot or something and I said, I need to print off the 95 theses. And she's like, and I said, I want it to be this big. She's like, taller than you. I said, can you? And she said, we can. And she did. She just printed them off, man. And we just took, just rolled them up and took and put them on all the Catholic church doors. Once again, I'm not recommending that, but we did it. Just trying to rock the boat a little bit, amen. And I remember me and my buddy, we took hundreds of gospel tracts, and we went to a Books a Million. Now listen, if you do this, don't take our gospel tract that has our address on the back, okay? I don't want to hear from them, okay? We sat there, and I stuffed them in my pockets, and I had them in my sleeve like this, and we just pretended we were looking through books, and we put hundreds of tracts just in all those things. Now, I'm not saying that that's perfectly legal. You might get in trouble for it. We're just trying to rock the boat a little bit, man. Just trying to get out there. Would you be willing to do something like that and contend for the faith a little bit? Alright, go back to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. The other day they had these big wildfires out here and the news pulled up here and wanted to talk to somebody that knew someone in the fire and they said, they said, can we interview you? And I said, of course. And she goes, you saw the fires, right? I said, I did. Yes, ma'am. She goes, what was the first thing you thought? What's the first thing you thought when you saw the fires? It went like that. And I said, well, I'm a preacher. I thought about hell when I saw that fire. And she went, oh, OK. Are you guys thankful to be out? I said, I'm so thankful I'm not going to hell. They didn't put any of it on the line, but that's what I said. I knew they weren't going to post it, but that's what I said. Look at Ephesians 6.10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. So before we get to any of the armor at all, we won't get to the armor today, I'll tell you that. Before we get to any of this armor, you need to consider this, that the strength you need for the battles ahead are clearly from the Lord and not from yourself. You require His strength. Let me show you. Look at a few verses. Look at 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. And your own personal strength is nothing. It won't do anything when it comes to having to fight with the devil. 2 Corinthians 3, you need the power of the Lord. Look at 2 Corinthians 3, look at verse 5. Paul, he says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That's what you have to do is rely on that right there and not lean on your own strength in the arms of flesh. They'll fail you. Look at look at Philippians chapter three. Philippians three, look at verse three. Philippians 3.3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. And that's what man likes to do. If a man has a good education, he wants to lean on his education. It does not matter how much education you have. Listen to me. It doesn't matter how many talents you have. It doesn't matter how much money you have. That's confidence in the flesh. It doesn't matter how many natural abilities you have. You will not go out in the battles of life, and if you go out in the battles of life and rely on that, you'll lose. It won't work. You'll die. And the adversary of the devil, as a roaring lion, is walking around. You don't think he realizes how much strength you have? He's looking at you and he's seeing your weaknesses and that's where he's going to attack you. Look at Colossians chapter 2. I'm going to say something and I know what I'm saying is accurate. I can see it in the Bible and it's an extreme statement but it's true. The devil has successfully defeated every man he's ever met on the battlefield save one. So why in the world would you rely on your strength when you've lost to him again and again and not rely on the one man's strength who didn't lose to him? I was about to say he took him square up in a fair fight and won. He didn't. It was an unfair fight and Jesus still won. Look at it. Colossians 2.13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. So Jesus Christ is the only man who ever beat the devil hands down. He's the only one who has the strength to. Every other man that ever squared up with the devil lost without the Lord's help. Every one of them without fail. No matter how strong of a man he was, you could take the strongest man who ever lived, Samson, and he just fell and fell and fell. Why? Because the battle wasn't physical, it was spiritual. And that's the strength you need is a spiritual strength from Jesus Christ. Go back to Ephesians 6. A couple more things and I'll be done. Ephesians chapter 6. You're not going to beat that devil with your own strength, so the Lord gives you some armor. Ephesians 6.11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Notice that it's armor provided by the Lord Himself. The armor that follows here in the passage here and the weeks to come, the armor that comes here, it's what God prescribes to a Christian for his safety and his spiritual protection. And listen to me, it's the armor he provides so that you'll have victory in your life. And whether that's victory over sin, whether that's victory in seeing people saved, whether it's a victory in your own marriage, this is the armor required to win those battles. And the Lord says, it's mine. It's the whole armor of God. It's from me. And he offers it to you. And it's his prescription for winning some fights. Look at 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians 10, look at verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now how are you supposed to gauge and win a spiritual battle with physical weapons? It's impossible. I could throw a bulletproof vest on and it will not protect me from the devil coming attacking me with depression. It will not touch it. I could have a loaded shotgun in my house but I will not protect my home from the intruders that come through a cell phone and social media. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. And that's the problem especially with masculine regular guys as they look at something and they say, how can I fix this in the flesh? Well you can't. And you're gonna have to realize that the strength, notice what it says there, but mighty how? Through God. The strength's in Him. And the armor's His as well. Those carnal weapons, all that carnal protection, it won't do anything for you. What you need is some spiritual armor. Look at Romans 13. Just two books to your left. Romans 13. Romans 13, 12. Romans 13 verse 12, The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Look at verse 14, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what you're going to find as we go through and look at these pieces of armor over the next few weeks? You're going to find that they're all things that Jesus Christ had in his life. And you're going to see that putting on the armor is taking his attributes and taking his holiness, taking his walk and saying, how can I apply that to me? And if you'll do that, they'll have some armor on you. And it's stronger than any weapons this world has. And they have armor for your mind. They have psychology and they have all these medications you can take and all this stuff, but that stuff's not strength from the Lord. Let me show you this just real quick. I'm almost done. Look at Ecclesiastes 9. This is just a quick illustration here. I just want you to see the way this is worded. It gives you an idea of how this armor works. Ecclesiastes 9, look at verse 18. Ecclesiastes 9, 18. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. Now that's just one aspect of the thing, but notice how wisdom can be more effective than a physical weapon. Isn't that true? I can sit there and be like, I got a loaded shotgun in my house and it's strong and whatever. You know what will keep me protected more than that shotgun? Just making sure my front door's locked, no one can walk in and catch me sleeping. Just a little bit of wisdom there. Now that's just, I'm just giving you a quick illustration of that thing. But the thing is, is you have to keep in mind these weapons are not gonna be a physical thing. They're spiritual. Why? Because your warfare's against a spiritual enemy. It's your adversary, the devil. Back there in Ephesians 6 verse 11 it talks about the wiles of the devil. And we'll look at that devil more next time, but you've got a devil there. He comes, the Bible says he comes with subtlety. It says he comes seducing and he comes with wiles. Those are tricks. Everything about it is trying, it's never just up front an attack. It's sneaky. It's a trick. It's, well that doesn't really, that's not really that. It looks like that but actually it's like this. He comes at you with guile and deception. Presenting something one way when it's actually something else. That's how the devil works and you need spiritual armor to be able to defend yourself from that thing. Look at Acts chapter 19. I'm gonna just show you this passage to illustrate one last point before we close. Acts 19, look at verse 13. And this is talking about devil possession here, so I know this is a little bit of a crazy story, but I just want to draw out one thing and show it to you before we close. Acts 19, 13. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them, took upon them, so the Lord didn't call them to it, side note, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? I'm just coming to this passage to illustrate a point. That devil is sitting there and dealing with Christians that aren't in the battle. And he goes, I know who Jesus is, of course. I also know who Paul is. That guy fights me night and day. That guy's leading people to Christ. That guy's suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. He's writing books of the Bible. He's starting revivals. He's starting churches. I know Paul. Who are you? I don't even know your name. I don't know who you are. Now to be a Christian is to be a warrior. And to be a warrior means you have to war. And you gotta go out. And what that does is it puts a red dot right here on your head. If you're doing anything, just imagine a real battle. And this is well known throughout history that a soldier will get a name because he's killed so many soldiers on their side. And he'll get a name, and they'll put a bounty on him, and they'll go after him. That happens to you as well. It happens in spiritual warfare. And to be a warrior means you got to be able to go out into war. And the good soldier of Jesus Christ must not expect to find ease in this world, for it is a battlefield. Neither must he reckon upon the friendship of the world, for that would be enmity against God. His occupation is war." Most Christians will not ever get a hold of that thing. I think the Christian life is just showing the love of God. The occupation is war. As he puts on piece by piece of the armor provided for him, he must wisely say to himself, listen, this warns me of danger, this prepares me for warfare, and this prophesies opposition. Do you hear me? As we lead into these next few weeks of going over this armor, as you take the armor, and it's on you to put it on, because it does not say that God puts it on you, it says you put on the whole armor of God. Listen to me. It prophesies opposition. If you decide, I'm going to put on this armor and I'm going to go out and fight for the Lord Jesus Christ, it'll prepare you for war, that's positive. It warns you there's danger to come, amen, but it's going to prophesy opposition. You need to be ready for it. The old Methodist preacher John Wesley was riding along one day, and you talk about a great soul winner. You talk about a man who just loved God and just saw so many revivals, thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people have come to Christ through his ministry and the ministry of his brother and such. One day he's riding along and literally he just said to himself, he said, I haven't had any opposition in a while. And his thought right then, was there must be something in my life I need to get right. And he dropped off his horse and got down on his face and started repenting. He didn't have anything to repent of. Got down on his face, started repenting. And there was a homeless man sitting over there recognized by his attire that he was a preacher. And he said, look at that pious preacher over there just falling down in prayer. What a punk. And he grabbed a brick and he winged it at John Wesley. And the thing just barely missed his head. And he looked over at the opposition, and he looked up to God, and he said, oh, thank God, there's nothing between. Now, Christians today do not look at opposition that way. That guy sat there and said, the devil isn't fighting me, so I must not be a problem. I must be doing something wrong that the devil's not paying attention to me. And he tried to get right, and the Lord said, no, there's opposition. You're doing right, Wesley. I don't know about you. If I had a brick winged at my head, I don't know that I'd respond that way. Some Christians go, well, Lord, I'm trying to serve you. Why would you let that happen? No, no, no. It's a sign that you're doing something right. Christians today are just happy and pacified to be left alone. Here's the problem. If you're being left alone, you're not in the fight. And I'd put it like this. You're not even on the enemy's radar. If you're not having any opposition to your Christian life, you're doing something wrong and you're a useless Christian. I call you a conscientious objector. Too many Christians play, they go AWOL, and the Lord can't find them. You couldn't find them with the FBI, and the devil doesn't have anything to do with them. He doesn't care. There's a song, I'll close with this, I ain't singing it, but I'll quote it. It's kind of a kid's song, but I'll never forget the words. It says, secret service Christians are not needed at this time. That's what Christians want to be, secret service. Oh, you're saved. I'm saved. There's nothing about them that's warring a good warfare. Secret service Christians are not needed at this time. Hiding beneath the shelter of their reputation, fine. Shouting hallelujah as they run behind the line. Secret service Christians are not needed at this time. We don't need them. We need soldiers that'll put on armor. Armor will make you stand out. Armor will catch the attention of an adversary because he'll see the armor on you and he'll go, that guy means business. That lady is going to do something against me and it's going to mean that you're going to get opposition. But opposition means you're doing right. Opposition means that the Lord will be pleased with it.