We return this week once again to our study of the believer's armor. We've said that the child of God is in a spiritual warfare against the devil, his demons. We know that. But understand that God has not left us to fend for ourselves. Ain't that great? We have His very presence in our lives, and we've been provided with armor to help us withstand the devil. Our responsibility is to be strong in the Lord, as it says there in Ephesians 6 and verse 10, be strong in the Lord in the power of His might. And another responsibility we have is to put on and use the whole armor of God that He's given to us. The first piece of armor that we talked about was the belt of truth. We saw how we put the belt of truth on by staying upon, and that is by meditating on and obeying the Word of God. Stay upon the Word of God. We used Joshua 1.8. message, and then last time we talked about the breastplate of righteousness. We said that the breastplate protected the torso, was worn about the vital organs, and we mentioned that figuratively speaking or spiritually speaking, the breastplate protects our intellect, our emotions, and our wills. And we're told to put on the breastplate of righteousness, but we in ourselves, we know we weren't righteous until we came to know Christ. We were sinners. We first needed to become righteous by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We got His righteousness. And now we can practice Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I will live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Now, tonight, we're going to be dealing with verse number 15. Ephesians 6 verse 15, as we look at the third piece of armor, it's talking about the shoes. Now understand this is not talking about physical armor. It's talking about spiritual armor. And we're talking about standing. That's what we're talking about. Standing against the wiles of the devil. And so verse number 15 says, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now, if we get a picture of the Roman soldier, the Roman soldier wore sandals that were hobnailed, or you could say they were cleated. And they were that way, but it would allow them to have a firm foundation that they could If they were on a slippery hill, they would not slip. Can you imagine a soldier trying to march up a slippery hill and not being able to do so because of smooth bottom shoes? Or can you imagine also a soldier trying to fight an enemy when he can't stand firm? If he had slippery boots, the enemy could just push him down and defeat him that way. And so it was talking about being able to stand firm, being able to stand your ground, And those of you who enjoy hunting or playing sports, you know how important it is to have good footwear. Our son played baseball for a number of years, and he'd wear baseball cleats. It gave him a good foundation out on the baseball field to be able to not slip and slide around, but to be able to play the game. Understand, we as believers need to have on good spiritual footwear as well. is the preparation or the readiness of the gospel of peace. Now we know that the Bible tells us that we as the children of God need to be ready or prepared to share the gospel at any moment. There's no doubt about that. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us that. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now that's a biblical truth. But that's not what our scripture is talking about tonight. We're not talking about that. The context here is standing. It's standing. We are to be standing, resisting the devil, the attacks of the devil. That's what it's speaking of, so let's make sure that we're staying true to the context. We stand firm, resisting the devil when we are wearing a prepared foundation. A base which will allow us not to be moved by Uncertainty. Amen. Not moved by uncertainty. Not moved by anxiety or worry. We are able to stand firm when we're standing in the peace of the Gospel. The peace of the Gospel. Now, what are we talking about? Well, have you ever noticed how hard it is to do something when you're distracted? It's hard to listen to someone when the radio, television, or something else is distracting us, isn't it? It's hard to do your job well when you're distracted by something else that's going on in your life. It's hard to follow what's going on in a message being preached by your preacher if you're distracted. That's why we like it when folks have minimal distractions in the service. I mean, because it helps others not get distracted and they can hear what's being said. There's a story you probably remember. Remember the Charles Dickens story of Ebenezer Scrooge? In his younger days, Scrooge fell in love with a lovely girl. Finally, the girl broke off the engagement because Scrooge was distracted by his love for money. Remember that part of the story? Well, listen, it's also hard to stand in our fight against Satan. if worry, anxiety, fear, doubt, or any other such thing distracts us. So the Lord says here to us, here they are, put on these boots, they are the firm foundation of the gospel of peace. So I want us to look at three things regarding this tonight. I want us to see the position of peace, the power for peace, and the practice of peace. First of all, let's see the position of peace. I am glad that we have been given peace by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In the last message, we said that none of us are naturally righteous. We know that. In fact, we were very much unrighteous because of sin, from being born with a sin nature. But more than that, I want you to think about this. Before we came to Christ, we were at enmity with God. We were at enmity with God. That word means being in opposition to. Being an enemy. Enmity relates to being an enemy. Now understand that God loved us even when our sin separated us from God. And made us, that sin made us at enmity with Him, but He still loved us. He sent His Son to die for us. You know, He didn't hold our being in enmity against us to the fact that He just said, okay, well, just so let them all go to hell. He didn't say that. He wanted to save us. And so He sent a Son into the world. And listen to Romans 5 verse 10. It says, For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. We could not have peace in our lives without Christ because we were enemies of God and Christ reconciled us to the Heavenly Father. A person who is under the bondage of sin in service to the devil cannot have peace. Somebody that doesn't know the Lord, they really don't have true peace in their life. Think about it for just a minute. Think of what the Old Testament tells us in Isaiah 57 verse 20. Listen to this verse. But the wicked are like the troubled sea. Have you ever been out at the beach whenever there's a storm going on? and see the troubled sea? The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. So, apart from Christ in one's life, there is no peace. When we were God's enemies, God sent His own righteous Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die the unrighteous, the just for the unjust. And Christ died so that we could have peace. And I love Romans 5.1. It says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the key right there to getting that peace for the first time. The moment we trusted Christ as Savior, that battle was over. It was over. We changed sides. No longer an enemy of God. We were on God's side. We were no longer God's enemy. We became part of His family. In fact, John 1.12, "...but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." In order to have any peace at all, we had to take the position of peace with God. God provided that position of peace. He provided it. We had to take it. You cannot have peace unless you and God are on the same team. If you've trusted Christ as Savior, please remember that you have been given the position of peace. You are at peace with the Heavenly Father. God is no longer your enemy. He is your Father. God is not out to get you because He loves you now as His child. That's kind of comforting. It just really is. And if you've not taken the position of peace, you need to. Simply turn from your sin of unbelief to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. Trust Him as your Savior and you will have a position of peace. So that's the position of peace. Second of all, let's see the power for peace. Now see, God wants us to have two kinds of peace. He wants us to have peace with Him. That's the position. That happened the moment we believed the gospel. But God also wants us to have His peace rule in our hearts. He says it much. In his Word, Paul said in Colossians 3.15 that we are as believers to let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful. Now the problem is that it's possible to actually be at peace positionally and not feel peaceful. I'm going to say that again. The problem is it's possible to actually be at peace positionally and not feel peaceful. And this is where Satan likes to trouble us. This is where some of the attacks of Satan come from. If Satan can stop us from experiencing God's peace, he'll do it. He loves to keep you defeated. He loves to keep you worried and anxious and fearful and all those things. God in His goodness wants us to experience the peace of God. And God has provided a very special person. We talked about that person a little bit this morning in the message. That person lives inside of us, gives us the power to have peace. Look at John 14. John 14, let's look at verse number 16 through 18 here, and then we'll drop down and read verse 26 and 27. Look at verse 16. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever. Now get the picture here. The disciples have been used to having Jesus being their comforter. You get that? Jesus has been their comforter. But Jesus is fixing to go away. In fact, He told them as much. In verse 1, 2, and 3. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. And He talks about He's going to go prepare a place, but He's going to come back. He is trying to provide comfort to these disciples that are really, when He starts talking about going away, they're getting a little anxious about this thing. And He says, I'll pray the Father. He will give you another. And listen, that word another means another of the same kind. In other words, another just like Jesus. Another comforter that He may abide with you forever. He's not going to abide with you until you sin. He's going to abide with you forever. There are some folks who say, well, when you sin, the Holy Spirit will leave you. No, that's a different dispensation. In this dispensation, He comes to abide in our hearts and He comes to abide forever. And if you don't believe that, you don't believe the Word of God. Jesus said it Himself right there, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. You could say the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, it's God living in our life. God in your life. And in verse 18, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Now, there was a little period of time there where, boy, the anxiety really got high. I mean, when Christ went to the cross and the disciples scattered. It was before the Holy Spirit came down in Acts 2. It was kind of an anxious time. It just really was. It was not as anxious after Jesus arose from the grave and began to comfort them and tell them, hey, what I need you to do is go to that room and I need you to stay there until you be endued with His power from on high. And all they had to do was be obedient and they could still have the peace that the Lord gave. But for three days anyway, Their peace was disrupted while the Lord was in the grave, while He was on the cross and in the grave. And He said, I will not leave you comfortless. He knew they were going to be comfortless for just a short period of time, but He was not going to leave them that way. Look down at verse 26 and 27. But the Comforter, and here's where it tells us who the Comforter is, which is the Holy Ghost. whom the Father will send in My name. He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." Verse 27. What's that first word? Peace. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So don't forget that we have been given the power for peace when the Holy Spirit moved into our life. We can have peace. Don't forget that the list that is given of the fruit of the Spirit, that Holy Spirit that lives within you, He brings forth fruit in your life. What's that fruit? Love, joy, peace. So the power for peace is the Holy Spirit of God who lives within every child of God. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Then number three, let's see the practice of peace. How can the believer put on these spiritual shoes, the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of Peace? Well, I found that it can be summed up in three words. Filling, focus, fellowship. I'm going to take them one at a time and then we'll be done, okay? Number one, we must maintain our filling. You know the Lord wants you to be filled with His Spirit, not just indwelled by His Spirit. When you got saved, the indwelling happened. He came in to indwell your life. He wants you to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5.18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. It's a command. How can we be filled with Spirit? Well, it means you've got to be empty of everything else on you. What I'm getting at, we have to keep short accounts with God. We know what goes contrary to the Holy Spirit. Sin does, right? And so we need to confess and forsake our sin. Keep short accounts. You sin? Well, we're all going to sin at times, aren't we? We are. We just are. Because we're still sinners. We are. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We still come short each and every day. At least I do. But we confess and forsake our sin. so that we can maintain that filling of the Spirit. Proverbs 28 verse 13 says, and the Old Testament says, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. God's peace in our life is His mercy in it. It's His mercy. 1 John 1-9, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I've said before that the word confess there means to say the same thing. That's what it means. To say the same thing. If we confess our sins, say the same thing. Say the same thing as what? The same thing as what God says about your sin. That it doesn't need to be in your life. You need to get rid of it. That it's wrong. It's more than just saying, I sinned. That's not true confession. Confession is saying the same thing about your sin that God says about it. Well, so we keep short accounts by confessing and forsaking our sin. Here's a good one here. Ask to be filled. When you get up in the morning, and you're getting ready to head out on your day, Lord, help me to be filled with your Spirit today. Look at Matthew 7. In fact, Jesus encouraged us to ask for good things. Is the Holy Spirit a good thing? Is being filled with the Holy Spirit a good thing? It is. I think it would apply in this instance. Matthew 7, verse 7. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth. He that seeketh findeth. And him that knocketh it shall be opened. What man is there of you whom if his son asks bread, will he give him a stone?" In other words, if you ask for a good thing, God's not going to give you something evil. Did He ask a fish? Will He give him a serpent? If He then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him? So, it's a good thing to be filled with the Holy Spirit. In fact, it's a good thing because we've been commanded to be filled. Right? So, it has to be filled. Each and every day. Then yield our lives. to the Spirit's control. We saw this last week when we were in Romans 6, verses 12 and 13, talking about the matter of how we are dead in Christ, buried in Christ, we're alive in Christ. So we're not to yield our members, our body, as instruments of unrighteousness, but we're to yield them to God. So yield your life. during the day, through the day. I want the Holy Spirit to control my life. What does the Spirit want me to do in this particular instance? This I'm talking about, is the Spirit pleased with my thoughts? Is He pleased with what I'm saying? We ought to be concerned with yielding our life to the Spirit's control. How can we tell if we're filled with the Spirit? Look at Ephesians 5. There's just some verses that come right after where it talks about being filled. Ephesians 5 and verse number 18. Ephesians 5 verse 18 here. So, "...be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in songs and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I love to sing throughout the day. I love to remember some of the psalms as I'm walking. Speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So you'll have a new song if you're filled. You will have a new satisfaction, giving thanks always, verse 28, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a new satisfaction or a new attitude, I guess you could call it. We ought to have a thankful attitude. And then you'll have a new submission, verse 21, submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. And so the fruit of the Spirit, as I said, the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in your life. It's not just love, joy, and peace, but it's also the rest of the fruit of the Spirit. Long-suffering. We need to make sure that we're... Is the Spirit in control? Well, you can tell if you're being long-suffering with somebody or whether you're kind of short-tempered. long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such there is no law. The fruit of the Spirit will be evident if you're filled. So we must maintain our filling. We must maintain our focus. What should we be focused on? Isaiah 26, verse 3 and 4, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. Is that where we want to be at? Perfect peace? Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on Thee. Pretty clear, right? Pretty clear. Because He trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Now, as the Holy Spirit fills us, He guides us into all truth. We read that in John 16, 13 a while ago. And He guides us into all truth. As He does that, He speaks to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. He teaches us what we need to know about Christ through the Word. He's the author of this book. The Holy Spirit is. And He uses this book to teach us. As we keep our focus on Christ, we can't help but be at peace because He's the Prince of Peace. Amen? Look with me at Hebrews 12. The first three verses here. In the first verse, when he says, wherefore, it's looking back to chapter 11, which is the hall of faith. People that showed by their lives, they lived pleasing lives by faith with the Lord. They're witnesses to what life of faith does in your life. And he says, wherefore, seeing we are also compassed to bow with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us." And that's what I was talking about a little while ago. Let's make sure we confess and forsake the sin, right? So let's lay it aside. and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus. That word looking there is the word focusing. When you're looking at something, you're focusing on it. Focusing on Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Him, talking about Jesus. Consider Him that endures such contradiction of centers against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Now who wants you to be wearied and faint in your mind? Satan does, right? That's part of that standing that we do. And when you are focused, when you maintain your focus on Christ, that will help you to not get wearied and faint in your mind. It will help you with that peace. We maintain our filling, maintain our focus, and then maintain our fellowship. I'll have you turn to one more place here. 1 John. We've already shared one verse out of here, but I want you to see some others. 1 John 1. Verse number 4. The Apostle John gives the purpose of this He said, these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. Wow. You think the Lord wants you to have full joy? He wants you to have abundant life. I think full joy would be in there too. You know, right? The Lord Jesus said, I've come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly. I would think that it would include joy. that your joy may be full. So this is a good thing. This then is the message which we have heard of Him. And declaring to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. We should know that. That's one of those moments. God's light. There's no darkness in Him. And so, if that be the case, verse number 6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, He is in the life. We have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ. His Son cleanses us from all sin. We say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say we have not sinned. We make Him a liar. His Word is not in us. Walking in fellowship, maintaining that fellowship with walking in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that goes with the focus. If you're going to focus on Christ, make sure you maintain that fellowship as well. So how do we do all this? Philippians 4, verse 6-7, be careful for nothing. You know, it's easy for us to get anxious about things. He said, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Remember, it was talking about asking and receiving in Matthew 7? Well, Paul reiterates that. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And what? And the peace of God, which paths all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Keep your hearts. That means you're not going to slip. You're not going to slip. So stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Amen. You know, tonight we're talking about not being moved. And that's what I want us to sing as our invitation hymn. I shall not be moved. Amen.