Amen. And praise the Lord. Take your Bibles if you will and turn to Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6 and we'll be looking at verses 10 and 11 primarily here this evening. We're going to read a few more verses in this passage. I want us to start out in verse 1, but our main text this evening will be Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 and 11. Here in Ephesians chapter 6 and starting in verse 1, notice the Bible says this, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatenings, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Now notice here, before we go into these next two verses, notice some instructions are being given here. Of course, the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Ephesus there, and as he is speaking to them, he's giving them instructions, he's teaching them from the word of God exactly how they are to behave, And then what we find is this, when we get to verse 10, notice as he begins to bring this to a close, if you will, here in Ephesians chapter six, he says this, finally, my brethren. So in all of those teachings that oftentimes we will look at and we'll say, well, the Bible says that children are to obey their parents and honor thy father and thy mother and fathers provoke not your children to wrath. And we go through all of these different and we say, amen, that's right, that's something you should do. We see that it's clearly taught. But then when we get to this part of scripture, many times we act as though we can pick and choose what we're going to do. We can, oftentimes we can become so familiar with a passage that we think to ourselves, well, I know all there is to know about that, so I'm just going to check out, if you will. But it shouldn't be that way. Here in verse 10 and 11, notice 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. We're gonna look at those two verses there this evening, and Lord willing, we're going to be beginning a study here tonight on the armor of God, and ask the Lord to do great things through this study. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll begin. Heavenly Father we come before You tonight and we thank You Lord for who You are. We thank You for Your goodness to us. Lord I thank You that You teach us from Your Word. And I pray Lord that just because it is a familiar passage Lord that we wouldn't check out mentally Lord or spiritually. But I pray that we would see exactly what Your Word has to say to us tonight and that You would do a work in our hearts that only You can do. Lord we thank You for who You are. We thank You for all that You are going to do. And Lord we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as you can tell by there on the back of your bulletin, it says, of course, the armor of God there at the top, and of course, our text verse there. And as we go through this study, we're going to be building a suit of armor, if you will. We're going to be seeing how every piece of armor fits together, and how by the time we get to the end of this study, we're going to see that we are clothed from head to toe with the armor that God tells us to put on. But as we look at Ephesians chapter 6 and we see some truths here, I want us to understand that the armor of God, it cannot start in verse 13. When we're learning about the armor of God, we cannot jump right into verse 13 where it says wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God because when it says wherefore it's talking about those verses before that it's talking about the truth that we just heard finally my brethren be strong in the Lord 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. It goes into what we wrestle not against in a very familiar verse there. And then it says wherefore. So because of those things, you're going to put on the armor of God because you're supposed to go in God's power, because you're supposed to go in his might, in the power of his might, be strong in him because the devil is coming against you, because you wrestle not against flesh and blood for those reasons. take on the whole armor of God. We see this passage here and chances are most of us have heard messages, if not multiple messages and series on the armor of God. We may be able to quote the different pieces of armor from head to toe, but if we are honest with ourselves and honest before the Lord tonight, there are many days that we go into battle either with no armor on or just with some pieces that we pick and choose. Well, this one here, I'll go ahead and wear that piece of armor, but that one there is gonna get in my way today. Every day is a battle though. We live in a sin curse world. We live in a world in which people, this world, it wants nothing more than to chew Christians up and spit them out. It does that with its own kind. You know it wants to do that with believers. So we know that there's a battle going on. We see that in the end of verse 11 and verse 12 as well. So how foolish is it of us as believers to not put on this whole armor of God every single day? day and also staying in a close relationship with God so that throughout the day as things come up we're not laying aside pieces of our armor. You may put it on in the morning but if you're not living like it in the afternoon just because you put it on that morning doesn't mean you haven't taken it off. We need the Lord's help in this area here. So I wanna start out this series here with a message just simply entitled this, the armor. of God. I want to look at some very important steps in the armor of God and ask the Lord to help us here this evening. Notice first of all, as you see there on the back of your bulletin, we are commanded to find our strength in the Lord. That's what we're commanded to do. We are commanded to find our strength in the Lord. As we look at verse 10, notice, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Doesn't say be strong in yourselves, be strong in the knowledge that you have, be strong in the things that you've learned, be strong in the Bible college education or advanced education that you have, be strong in your physical nature. That's not what it says. Before it ever gets into the armor of God, it says, be strong in the Lord. He's writing to this church at Ephesus, and as he's writing to them, he says, be strong in the Lord. Now, there's a lot of battles that are fought in man's power. Now, I know, of course, any power that we have, it's given to us by the Lord. I understand that. But humanly speaking, there's an awful lot of battles that we face that we're not relying on God's power to help us get through. We're not relying on God's strength. We go into things, we think that we can handle it ourselves. And in many battles that go on every day, mankind is always trying to get the upper hand. They're always trying to figure out a way in which they can trick their opponent, always trying to figure out how they can scheme and all of these things to come out on top, trying to overcome that enemy. outsmart them and surprise them with an attack. And there's much planning that goes into battles, temporal battles here on earth. And we know that when looking at military things and all of that, but as believers understand, as believers, we are never once told to fight in the flesh. Not one time. We're never told to just try to scheme and just try to come out on top. Do your best to trick them so that you can have the victory. That's not what we're told to do. Why is that? Because we're not to fight with man's strength. If you fight with man's strength, you'll be defeated. If you fight with man's knowledge, you're going to be defeated. If you fight with man's wisdom, you're going to end up flat on your back because we are told here to be strong in the Lord. There's an awful lot of believers today who are weak. They walk around as though the sky is falling. They walk around as though there's no hope. They walk around as though they have no answers and there's nothing to be joyful about. It shouldn't be that way in the life of a believer. But that comes from a weak Christian. And just because a person is a weak Christian, understand that doesn't mean that they're a young Christian. There's an awful lot of ones that claim to have trusted Christ as their savior many years ago, but they are weak. because they're not living or fighting in the power of the Lord. Someone that's always defeated, someone that has no joy and no peace and always upset about this or that, that's because they're trying to fight in their own power. They're not strong in the Lord. They may have been saved for X amount of years, but they're weak Christians. You know, to succeed spiritually, understand we must be strong spiritually. If we are going to live the Christian life, we must ask the Lord for His strength in our Christian life. We can't do it by ourselves. We can't do it on our own. We've tried things on our own before, but we as human beings, we are a glutton for punishment. We will go and try to do something in our own power. We'll fall flat on our face, just like the children of Israel did. They would go into battles, and God told them to do it this way. They would do it in their own power, and they'd go into that battle, and they would lose, and people would be slaughtered, and they would be weakened after that, and then they'd cry out to the Lord, and with less men, God would give them the victory, and then it seemed as though they'd go into the next battle, thinking they learned their lesson, and yet God would say, do this, and they'd do something else, And they would be slaughtered and then they'd be weakened and then they call on God and get the victory. And it's easy to laugh at that and say, how foolish can you be? But every single time we go into any battle without following what God told us to do in that battle, we're following the same pattern because we're not being strong in the Lord. We're we're trusting our own thoughts. Well, I've been saved long enough. I know how to handle this. It doesn't matter how long you've been saved. You cannot fight these battles without the Lord. Absolutely cannot do that. There's a huge push going on right now for physical strength and especially in America, of course, people in the gyms and workout programs and all things like that. In the category, if you will, called the physical activity market, the United States alone spends $828 billion a year in physical market, physical strength market. Whether that's to the gym or protein powder and all these types of things, that's what they spend. That's a lot of money. And physical strength is not a bad thing. It's a wise thing to care for your body. But there's an awful lot of believers who are strong and they will go and they'll work out every single day and they're doing all they can to strengthen this physical body. But when you look at their spirituality, they're wimps. They can't stand against the wiles of the devil. Not because God's not powerful enough, but because they're not being strong in the Lord, because they're more concerned about what their friends are going to think than what God's word says. They're more concerned about how they feel and what they want than what God says, thus saith the Lord. Churches shouldn't be that way. It's easy to see the way that some people live, physical health and fitness, it's important to them. You can see it on the outside. But what a shame it is that many times you have to really get to know a person before they'll ever say anything about the Lord. If a person is a Christian, you should be telling people. They should know that it's important to us. If we're strong in the Lord, the Lord will be on our mind because we'll realize every day, all day is a battle. We're trusting in his strength. Therefore, when somebody is speaking to us somewhere in that conversation, the name of the Lord is going to come up because we know that's where our strength comes from. Many times for believers, you can't see it on the outside and you won't hear it in their speech. Why is that? Because many times we're weak. Look at Psalm 121, if you will. Psalm 121. I'm gonna read the entirety of this chapter, all eight verses of it. Notice what the psalmist says here in Psalm 121. will lift up mine eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help my help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth he will not suffer thy foot to be moved he that keepeth thee will not slumber Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forever more. Not one time in that scripture does he point in his own strength. Not one time in that scripture does he say, well, I'm the one who makes the sun rise and makes the sun set. I'm the one that protects myself from those things. No, he says in verse two, my help cometh from the Lord. He said, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. He said, I can do nothing on my own. The strength is found in the Lord. Look at Joshua chapter one, if you will. Joshua chapter one. Just to give a little bit of a snapshot of what's happening here in Joshua chapter one. In this chapter, up from verse one to verse nine, we're going to see a snapshot, if you will, of Joshua and the Lord talking to Joshua. And what had happened here is Israel, of course, had been under the command of Moses for quite a while now. There was some ups and downs. We talked about battles they had lost and battles that they had won, great victories and great defeats there. And there was heartache, there was rejoicing. But then we see, notice verse one of Joshua chapter one. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Now notice here, Joshua was the second in command. Moses dies. Now Joshua is taking the command of Israel. God is giving that over to Joshua. And here we have Joshua. We have this man that oftentimes, if you think of Joshua, you'll think of great victories. You'll think of the passage that says, as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord. You can choose whoever you wanna serve. If you wanna serve the God of the Amorites, and the ones on the other side of the flood, you can do that. But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. And oftentimes we'll think of Joshua and we will see this man that took a stand for God. And we see this man that unashamedly stood there and said, I don't care what you're going to do, my house is going this way. But we look here at Joshua chapter one and notice God is reassuring Joshua of God's strength. He goes through this and he starts telling him exactly what he is going to do for him. Why is that? Because though Joshua was a great man, though Joshua was put into command by God, he's in charge and no doubt he would be going through the same emotions that all human beings would go through. Joshua was not Superman, he was a human being just like you and I. And can you imagine if the leader of all of these people passed away and now all of that weight is on your shoulders? I think it would be a little frightening. I think you would say, wait a second here. I can no longer say, you know what? I don't know the answer to your question. Go ask so-and-so. No, the buck stops here now. And it would be foolish of us to think that Joshua never had any of those emotions. Think about what he had just been given. Now, Joshua is going to be going through some battles and he's going to have some great victories under his belt. As you read about Joshua throughout the Bible, you find God used him in a great way. But look at Joshua chapter one, verse one through nine. Now, after the death of Moses, or I'm sorry, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun. Moses minister saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of good courage, for under this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong, and of good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest." Now, I have a couple of statements there that are underlined here in my Bible in verse 5. And here's the statements I have underlined. As I was, so I will be. That's a promise from God himself. There's going to be battles that we go into. We don't know the way out of them. We have no idea. We don't know what God's going to do. We don't know how God's going to bring us through that. And sometimes the clouds are so thick with darkness, we just feel as though we're just floating along in this ship called life. And there's so much darkness, we don't know which way to go. We don't know left from right. We have no idea what's going to happen. But we can hang on to a promise from God's word that no matter what that battle is, because we are told to have our strength in the Lord, because we are told to be of good courage, because we are told that our help comes from the Lord, we can also see, of course, that God's word is true here, that it says, as I was, speaking of God, as his power was with Moses, as he was unable to be defeated with Moses, understand his power is just as real in Joshua's life. And when we go through things, when we allow God to put on this armor of God, when we allow ourselves to take that on each and every day, understand we are yielding to the same God that Moses yielded to and that Joshua yielded to. And so as he was with them, he will be in your life, but you have to let him be there. So as I was, I will be. He said, be courageous, be of good courage. There in verse 9 he ... repeats himself, have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage. God used this passage, I believe, to confirm in Joshua's heart that he was with him and that Moses's strength was not found in Moses. It would be easy for Joshua to say, well, Moses did that because, well, Moses would just say, he was just a great man. He was a strong man. He was a wise man. And I believe Moses was all of those things, but his strength was not found in himself. The Lord reminded Joshua, Moses did all of those great things because of the strength that he relied on me for. And you can rely on that as well. The strength that they had and the strength that they experienced and the strength that they lived out was the strength of the Lord. It wasn't in Joshua's might. It was in the Lord's might. We as believers, we are commanded to find our strength in the Lord. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power This is so important to understand because before we get into what the actual pieces of the armor are, it will do no good if we never go into battle. It'll do no good if we just sit on the sideline. It'll do no good if we refuse to do what God has called us to do. A gospel tract does no good unless it's given out. It does no good. The gospel, it is contained in that Bible that you have. Hopefully you have a King James Version Bible, amen? The inspired, preserved, and praise the Lord, translated words of God for English-speaking people. I'm thankful for my Bible. The gospel's there, but it won't do you any good if I don't give it out. It won't help the world if I'm not willing to go the way that God told me to go. But in order to go, I must be in the power of his might. And in order to be in the power of his might, I must be willing to put on the armor of God. It doesn't just happen. We must be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. The word strong there, it comes from the Greek word, Indunemo. which means to be empowered and to grow in strength. Now notice that, to grow in strength. It is a decision that we make, we're consciously going to grow in strength. We're going to be praying that God will give us the strength that we need. Too often, I think we read a passage like this, be strong in the Lord, and we will read then, and in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God, but yet we skip over the part that there's something there that we are required to do. Be strong in the Lord. It doesn't just happen because you're saved. Being strong in the Lord doesn't just happen because you said a prayer. It doesn't just happen because you've been baptized or even as a member of the church. That's not where the strength comes from. The strength comes from the Lord. You must, of course, trust in Christ. It is God's will that you be baptized and join the church. But the reality is this, you can do all of those things and yet leave God out of the rest and you will be a weak Christian. You will be. It's impossible to be strong in the Lord without God's help. Weak in the Lord, understand, has nothing to do with God's strength. It has everything to do with our rejection of God's strength. Some people say, well, I just, I don't think I can live that way. You can, if you rely on God's strength. Well, I don't think I can conform to that. You can, if you rely on God's strength. You can't do it on your own. I can't do it on my own. None of us can. But we can rely on the strength of the Lord. Notice, secondly here this evening, notice the command to put on, the command to put on. Here in Verse 11, it says this, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. As we continue through this passage, we'll find that, of course, each piece is important. And this verse is so important for us to read and to study because there's gonna be some pieces of armor that are going to be hard to hear. There's going to be some pieces of armor that Our flesh is going to say, you don't have to put that one on. You can do OK without that piece. You can do OK without that breastplate of righteousness. You say, you may feel as though it's hard to put on this piece or that piece. And we may see or think that we can handle the battle without a certain piece of armor. But understand, it says here, put on the whole armor of God. If you leave one piece out, it's no longer whole. I can remember my grandparents would put together these puzzles and they would be, I don't know, hundreds if not thousands of pieces, these little tiny things that they'd put together. Every time I go over there, hey, you want to help me put this puzzle together? No, thanks. There are too many pieces on that table. I mean, they get down to about 50 pieces. I'll say, oh yeah, I'll help you now. So I can feel like I had a part of it there. But if you had a 1,000 piece puzzle and you put together 999 pieces, it's not whole. It's missing a piece. Well, it's just the bottom right corner. I mean, you can see the whole picture there. No, you can't, because it's missing a piece. But it's just a little piece. It's missing a piece. See, we cannot allow ourselves to think that when the Bible says, put on the whole armor of God, that it really means put on the pieces that are comfortable in your life. We can't allow ourselves to think that when the Bible says this is the way that a believer is supposed to live, well, that's all fine and good except for me. That doesn't apply to me because God knows what I'm going through. God also knows that he's strong enough to take us through anything. He also knows that we're weak, but He is strong. He knows those things. We are commanded to put on the whole armor of God. We see the entirety of the command there, the whole armor of God, the preaching of the armor of God when it's laid out the way that the Bible teaches it. Understand it will not be heeded by a carnal Christian, a Christian that feels as though they have arrived, they will not be interested in the armor of God because they feel as though they live in the armor. Some will feel as though they always have it on, but just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you're wearing the armor of God. The reality is we are commanded here, put on the armor of God. This book of Ephesians was written to the church at Ephesus. This is believers that he was writing to. This was ones that had trusted Christ as their personal Savior. And in this letter he says, you are to put on the armor of God. If it happened at Salvation and you always had the armor of God on, then he could have said, the armor of God that you got at Salvation, thank the Lord for that. You're living in the armor of God. But he didn't say that. He said, put it on. Doesn't matter how long you've been saved. Doesn't matter how many people you've led to the Lord. Doesn't matter what you've done for the Lord in times past. Every single day, every moment throughout the day, we need to understand we are to have the whole armor of God because we're in battle. We're in a battle. We are to put it on. It must be a conscious decision. Think of the culture of that time. There was much Roman oppression, and the Jews and Gentiles alike, they were very aware of the armor that the Romans wore. It was a uniform, it was a requirement, yet it was mandated by the government, but it was also for the soldiers' own safety. How foolish would it have been for a Roman soldier to run into battle in jeans and a t-shirt? People would have laughed at it. People would have said, are you crazy? Why are you going out there? Don't you know they've got these arrows and they've got these swords and these spears and all of those things. You need to put your armor on. They would be foolish. Because there would be no protection there. They had to wear the armor. But understand this, a soldier, when he was on duty, he had to have every piece of his armor on. because he was on duty. Was it because he was in battle? No, but because at any moment he had to be ready for battle. He had to be ready to go. At the drop of a hat, a battle happens, he's gotta be dressed. He's gotta be ready. He's gotta go and fight. How much more should we be ready? There is a battle going on. We're gonna talk more about that battle, Lord willing, next week, but as Christians understand, there's never a point at which we're off duty. As believers, there's never a point at which we clock out for the Lord. When our clock out is punched, it's when the last breath leaves our body. We're in a battle. Every day, we need to be ready. armor of God, the whole armor of God. Be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. Understand, we're always on duty. We shouldn't clock in on Sunday morning and clock out on Sunday night. We are on duty. We must be ready to fight. We must be ready to battle. That means all day, every day, making a conscious effort to put on the whole armor of God. What if a Roman soldier would have said this? Well, I'm just not going to wear my helmet today. You know what would have happened? He probably would have got an arrow through the head because the enemy could see that there was a weakness there. The enemy could see, wait a second, that person there, they don't have all their armor on. I see a weak spot and the enemy will aim at that. Understand when we go into our everyday life and we think that we're justified, that we're strong enough to just lay that piece of armor to the side for now, Sometimes throughout that day, Satan will attack that weak spot. He will, because he sees that it's there. He sees that it's weak. He sees that we're not trusting the Lord in that way. We must see that leaving off a piece of armor, just as it would have left a Roman soldier susceptible to violence from the enemy, we must connect the dots here. We must see that we are in the battle and we must stand and fight. We are told to put this command is given to an individual. Understand, and this is something that is so important because many people think, well I go to a Bible preaching church so I must have the armor of God on. You can walk through that door as much as you want, the armor of God doesn't appear on you when you walk through the door. How many in here have ever seen the old cartoon Wallace and Gromit? Yeah, okay, good. Some of us are on the same page, amen. When Wallace would get up in the morning, he would wake up and his bed would stand up and he would fall into his overalls. I said, this is great. Laziness at its finest, but this is great. He didn't have a choice. He woke up and the bed goes like this and he falls into his overalls, everything he needs for the day, his teeth brush, his boots on and all of those things. And he falls downstairs right to the kitchen table to eat his food. Now that's a cartoon. And we would say, well, that's a funny cartoon, what they did there. We know in the human life that doesn't really happen. If you have a bed that does that, I wanna watch it work. But we're guilty many times of thinking that the armor of God's just going to happen that way. Well, I got up this morning and I know I trusted Christ back in 19 whatever, so I know I've got the armor of God on. It doesn't happen that way. We are told, put on. the armor of God. We are commanded to do that, put it on. Why are there so many Christians that walk around defeated? Why is it that we have so many half-hearted Christians today? Why is it that so many believers are just going through the motions? It's because they're going into battle with no armor or just half the armor and they're disabled by the enemy. because they refuse to give God the preeminence in their life. And that leads us to the last thing this evening, and that is this, the certainty of attacks. The certainty of attacks. Can I help us here this evening? Satan is going to attack. He's going to. It's coming. There were attacks, no doubt, in our life today. Satan's going to do that. But there in verse 11, it says, put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. It doesn't say just in case the wiles of the devil come. No, put it on because they're coming. Put it on because you're in a battle. Put it on because 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. Put on the whole armor of God because an attack is certain. Notice the armor that we are commanded to put on. It's for our own safety. We're not putting on the armor of God to keep God safe. We're not putting it on because God needs our help fighting a battle. God tells us there's armor that you are to put on. There's a battle that's coming and I know exactly what you need to keep you safe from that. And he's going to go through a list and say, these are things that you must put in place in your life. But many times we leave the armor hanging in the closet spiritually. We go out into battle and many times we'll come home and the devil's battled us all day and we feel like we've just been beat up, we feel like the world just chewed us up and spit us out and God says the armor was there. It's there for the taking. You just didn't put it on. You just didn't use it. Attacks are coming. We as God's people, we are commanded We are commanded to stand against evil. We are commanded to stand against wrongdoing. We should not compromise. We should preach the Bible. We should live what we believe. We should allow ourselves to conform to what the scripture says. We should allow ourselves to realize that God's word is the authority. But many times the reason that we leave the armor hanging in the closet is because we're carnal. Because, well, if I put on that piece of armor, that means I have to change something in my life. Change it. Allow God to do a great work in your life. Obey the Bible. But a carnal Christian won't do that. A carnal Christian will not desire to live for the Lord. A carnal Christian doesn't care what music is right and wrong. A carnal Christian doesn't care about how a Christian should dress and how a person should act. And they don't care that the Bible gives those standards as far as dress standards and those types of things. They just say, well, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm just going to be comfortable. This is what I've always done, so that's what I'm going to do. It never crosses the carnal Christian's mind that when a man has long hair, they're in disobedience to God's word. It never crosses a carnal Christian's mind that when they're drinking alcohol, they are in disobedience to God's word. It never crosses their mind that when they're taking part of cigarettes, and when they've got curse words coming out of their mouth, and when they're unfaithful to church, and when they're not being a soul winner, that they're disobeying God's word. the carnal Christians mind because they're living for themselves but the carnal Christians also going to be completely disabled because they don't have the armor of God on they're going through life like they've been defeated it doesn't have to be that way attacks are going to come but carnal Christians just don't care about those things Carnal Christians refuse to say the Bible is the authority. They refuse to say what the Bible says is what I'm going to do. They're not going to say that. Carnal Christians won't care that they cause heartache in the church with their disgruntled attitudes. Carnal Christians will look at the pastor and the church of the taskmaster rather than what they are truly listed as in the Bible with a place of safety and a place of help and a place of rest. Listen, if we desire to stand against the wiles of the devil, we must put on the whole armor of God. But when we willingly look over the sin in our lives, we're going to overlook the armor of God as well. Church attacks are certain. We need the Lord's help. We need his protection. But rather than complaining about what the Bible says we can and cannot do to be right with the Lord, it's about time we allow the Lord to adjust our attitude. It's about time that we make the decision that Joshua made when he said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. I don't care what I have to change. I don't care what friends I cannot hang out with anymore because of the influence there. I don't care what things in my life need to be gotten rid of. I'm going to serve the Lord because I don't want to be a carnal Christian. I want to have the Lord's protection. I want to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might because I know these battles are coming and I would rather go into battle with the armor that God told me that I can have as a believer than go into these battles that I know that's coming and only have half of the armor Because we know we're setting ourselves up for defeat at that point. These attacks are certain. It's about time we allow the Lord to stir up the ground that we heard about on Sunday. And turn over the reins of our life to the Lord. Let's put on the whole armor of God. Let's stand. Understand the word wiles there in this. In the end of verse 11, it says, be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That word wiles, it comes from the Greek word methodia. Of course, the English root word there would be method. The methods that Satan uses. And when it says they're the wiles of the devil, of course, with being the method, the things that he uses to attack us, but it's even deeper than that. If you study this word, you're going to find it doesn't only mean a method, it means a method of trickery. That's what it means. Kind of like all the way back in the book of Genesis, when the serpent came to Eve and said, yea, hath God said, what was he doing? He was tricking her. He was beguiling her. That's what he was doing. Satan will do that. You know what Satan will do to a person that was an alcoholic and God gave the victory over that? You know what Satan's going to do? He's going to come and he's going to say, just one won't hurt. Somebody that was smoking cigarettes, he's going to come and say, well, you had a long day. I'm sure God will understand. Just one. Tricking our minds. That's the way that Satan works. It's trickery. It means beguiling. I can guarantee you, beyond the shadow of a doubt, Satan will never fight fairly. He won't do it. He's going to try to trick you. This word, there that we find wiles of the devil it also carries with it this meaning to lie in wait just waiting what's he waiting for well in the context of this passage he's waiting for us to leave a piece of armor at home he's waiting for us to say you know what I I'll tell you what I'm gonna I'm gonna put on the stuff that's gonna keep me safe but I'm not taking my sword today know what I'll put on the breastplate of righteousness and I'll put on that helmet and you know what I may even gird my loins with truth but I'm not going to shod my feet with the gospel of peace today. He's waiting. The Bible says that Satan is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. He's waiting. Satan desires to sift us as wheat. And we at Grace Baptist Church are not immune to that. Just because God's doing a great work, just because we're seeing people saved and baptized and added to the church and many new visitors and just because of that, that doesn't mean Satan's not going to attack us. It means he is going to attack us. If there's a church that's not doing anything for God, and they're not out trying to win souls for Christ, Satan doesn't want to bother them. They're not interrupting His agenda. But a group of believers who are sold out to God and His Word, they say, you know what, we're going to put on the whole armor of God. We're going to go in God's strength. We're going to be sold out to God. We're going to go in the power of His might, put on the whole armor. Satan's lying in wait. He's waiting for you and He's waiting for me. He's waiting. God's growing His church. It's a wonderful thing to watch the Lord work through the faithfulness of His people, but Satan's waiting. He's lurking. He's waiting for us just to leave out a piece of armor. He's waiting for us to leave ourselves vulnerable and He will attack. He's going to pounce. we must put on the whole armor of God. A group of academics and historians has compiled some startling information since 3600 BC. The world has known only 292 years of peace. During this period, there have been 14,351 wars, large and small, in which 3.64 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed is equal to a golden belt around the world, 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Since 650 BC, there have also been 1,656 arms races, only 16 of which have not ended in war. The remainder ended in the economic collapse of the countries involved. You may say, what in the world does that have to do with the armor of God? It's easy for us to see the casualties when it comes to wars on this earth. It's easy for us to go online and pull up how many people were killed in this war and in this war and how many of our soldiers were missing in action and all of that. You can pull up all of those statistics. We see it because it's real, because it's a physical life. But many times we look over the fact that there's an awful lot of believers. that are injured in battle. And we think to ourselves, it'll never happen to me. Why are they injured in battle? They left a piece of their armor behind. Now listen, I understand hard things happen. We go through some trials and we need the Lord's help to get through those things. But the word of God is true no matter what we're going through. says, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord. That means we can be strong in the Lord no matter what we go through. Why? Because we are in the power of His might, not in the power of our might. The cost of war is high but it is nothing in comparison to the cost of living in carnality and refusing to make the conscious effort every day to put on the armor of God. When we refuse that we will live a life of defeat. When we live a life of defeat, it will cause your spouse to live a life of defeat. It'll cause your children to live a life of defeat, your grandchildren, your church, your coworkers, and on and on we could go. Let's put on the whole armor of God. Let's realize the battle is real. Let's realize the battle is tough, but we can be victorious. We're already on the winning side if you've trusted Christ as your Savior. Don't allow Satan to cause you to be defeated in this life. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. Amen.