Good to see you tonight. Let's turn to Ephesians, chapter number 6. Ephesians chapter number 6, and the Lord did direct me to this area to talk about the whole armor of God on the heels of what we just took a look at in our Sunday evening services. I want you to understand this truth. Spiritual warfare is just as much a reality in this world as physical warfare, if not more so. Even when our nation isn't fighting a war against some other nation, that doesn't mean there isn't still war going on. There's pretty much war going on somewhere in the world all the time between different nations, and there are also smaller wars of things such as gang warfare, drug warfare, war against terrorism, and then there's the war between political parties. It's a real spiritual warfare is what it is. All the wars and fighting happen because of sin, especially lust. Jesus' half-brother James said as much. In James 4, we said, So it should not come as a surprise that believers in Christ are also at war spiritually. We're not at enmity with Him as the way the Scripture talks about. Before we came to know Christ, we were at enmity with God. But now we've been justified by faith. And of course, based on what Romans 5 says, we're therefore being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know about you, but I like that word peace. Don't you like the word peace? Peace is a lot better than conflict. Never have liked conflict. I like peace. Praise God, we as believers can also have the peace of God. We can have. Philippians 4 verse 6 and 7. Be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We can have that peace, but we got to go to the Lord to get that peace. Then, praise God that other places of Scripture talk about that. Colossians 3.15 says, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Do you realize that God wants His peace ruling in your heart and life? And He said, to which you are also called in one body and be ye thankful. Isaiah 26 verse 3 and 4, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. It has a lot to do with where our trust is at. If your trust is in the things of this world, you're going to be disappointed. If your trust is in the Lord, that's the proper place for it, and you can trust in the Lord, so trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength, and He's got the strength to give you that perfect peace in your life. But don't forget that we believers should be at peace with other believers. Amen? This is a thing that is lacking in a lot of churches. We are to be at peace with one another. Oh yes, Jesus said in Mark 9.50, He said have peace one with another. Paul reiterated that very same thought in 1 Thessalonians 5.13 when he told the Thessalonian church, be at peace among yourselves. If you've got a tendency to have a problem with somebody, you need to take a close look at that. Because that's not where God wants you at. He wants you to have peace with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Then one day, Soon, I believe, praise God, we believers will be at peace throughout all eternity. Amen? There's not going to be any struggle there. There's not going to be any strife there. All of those days will be over, and everything the Bible says about our life in the hereafter speaks of peace, and that's the peace that Christ purchased for us on the cross of Calvary. So as believers in Christ, We must be aware of the fact that we are involved in a real war. It's a spiritual war against the forces of evil. So, according to what we're going to read here in just a moment, we need to be clothed in God's armor and ready to fight. Look at verses 10 through 13. We're just going to get that far tonight. Look at some things here. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord That's where our strength lies and 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 taken to you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." And this brings to mind also Romans 13 verse 11 and 12. It says, knowing the time, that now is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. And Paul goes on to say, 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. So we have the whole armor of God, which is armor of light. As the Apostle Paul concluded his letter to the Ephesians here, he gave them and us, the word of God is for us too. He gave them and us a reminder that we indeed are involved in the spiritual warfare and we are to be ready for battle daily. Daily. Now the great news is that we are guaranteed victory in the war and the battles that we face if we simply do what we're told. Obedience. Let's notice three things here tonight. First of all, we notice in verse 10, we notice the real potential for us. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Can I tell you, the Lord never intends for any believer to live a defeated spiritual life. If you're living in spiritual defeat, you're going against God's purpose for you in your life. Our Lord, who has saved us, expects us to be victorious as we serve Him. And as we serve Him, He said that we could have that abundant life that He promised in John 10. I've come that they might have life and might have it more abundantly. Well, when I view an abundant life, that's not a life that's spent in defeat, is it? It's a life in victory. Now, the Lord never asked anyone to do anything that's impossible. But He does ask us to do things that are impossible without His help. I'm going to say that again. The Lord never asks us to do anything that's impossible. But He does ask us to do things that are impossible without His help. And so, here in verse 10 is the real potential for success and victory in the spiritual battles we face as believers. All the resources the Christian soldier needs are drawn from Christ and the power of His might. Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Listen to 2 Peter 1 verse 3. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things. What does all mean? All means all and that's all it all means. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Now one difficulty we have as believers is that sometimes we don't realize just how much power is available to us. for the express purpose of living a victorious Christian life. The power is available. Now, I want you to flip back to Ephesians 1 for just a moment. And here in Ephesians 1, I know I've got verses 19 through 23, but I want to back up to verse number 15 there. Verse 15, when we see that this is a prayer actually, he's talking about his prayers for the saints here. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. He's talking about his prayers for the church at Ephesus. Here's what his prayers involve. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know. Part of the problem is a lot of times we just don't know what we have. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Now verse 19, and this is part of the prayer that Paul prayed for the Ephesus believers here. Let's read it here. It says, And what is the exceeding greatness of His power? He wants them to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power. He wanted them to grasp or understand the great power that had already been expressed in their behalf and that was available for them to take advantage of. And this was the power that's found in Christ Jesus. And he further elaborates in verse 20, which he wrought in Christ. God wrought this in Christ. When He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. So this great power was wrought in Christ by God, raising Him from the dead, we know that, and then seating Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Folks, that's power. That's power. Now verse 21 through 23 gives us a description of how tremendous an accomplishment this seating of Christ in the heavenly places really is. Look at verse 21. And I want you to remember these words here. Far above all principality. And we saw that word principality a while ago, didn't we? Against principalities and powers, right? Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. and hath put all things under his feet." All things. The things we wrestle against. All things. He gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Here it gives us a description of how tremendous an accomplishment the seeding of Christ in the heavenly is. And I hope you saw that here. Because this power is available in us. We have the ability to be victorious in any situation, facing any trial, and taking on any unexpected challenge. Just like Paul told the Philippians in Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 1 John 4, verse 4. It's the year of God's little children. The Apostle John wrote, the year of God's little children have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And then from the Old Testament, there was encouragement to God's people there in Zechariah 4, verse 6. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. It's not in our power, it's not in our might, but it's in the Lord. We have the potential to be victorious at all times simply because of the great power that is within us. You're saved. You have God's presence within you. In spite of the great problems we will face in spiritual warfare, the power of the resurrected Christ sitting in glory with everything under His feet is greater than any power in the world. Amen. Hallelujah. What a blessing that is. Back to our text here. We notice not only the real potential, and that real potential is found in the Lord and the power of His might, but notice the real battles against us. Verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God that ye 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 the high places. Now, I want you to note that we are warned against the wiles of the devil. The faithful Christian life is a battle. It is warfare on a grand scale because when God begins to bless, Satan and all of his forces begin to attack to try to thwart that blessing. We try to do something for the Lord. The Lord will give you the blessing to be able to do it. But expect an attack from the enemy. The word wiles has also been translated in some places as schemes. And we know the devil is a schemer. Jesus said also he's a liar. John 8.44 called him a liar. the father of lies, to be true. We get our English word method from that Greek word that is translated wiles. So we must be aware of the methods of the devil. The word carries the idea, think about this, when we think of wiles it includes the ideas of craftiness, cunning, and deception. Satan's evil schemes are often built around stealth and deception. Now, I grew up learning how to fish from my granny. She was my fishing buddy who taught me how to fish. And she showed me how to deceive the fish and get them to bite the bait. And I would get them on the hook. That's a good thing. Because the devil entices us in a similar way. He baits us with some seemingly harmless pleasure and disguises the ugliness of sin with something that looks or sounds appealing. And then when we've succumbed to the temptation, he hooks us with his deception. That's the way it works. I don't know how much you know about the devil, but you ought to take some time to study the background of Satan. He has many names, including Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebul. If you want to see his history, I've given you the verses there. Look up there in Ezekiel 28 and also Isaiah 14. And of course, you can always go back to where we've been. We've been in Sunday mornings back in the book of Genesis and we saw that Satan is the enemy of God and the enemy of God's creation. And he's been that way since the Garden of Eden. He's been that way. The good news is that Satan is not all-powerful like God. Now, he wants you to think he is, but he's not. The good news is that Satan is not all-knowing like God. He doesn't know everything. The good news is that Satan is not present everywhere like God. Now there's evil present all over the place, but he's not. He's not present everywhere like God. Ephesians 6 verse 12 gives us the bad news. The word wrestle here means fighting or struggling against, battling against. It talks about the struggles we have. The struggle the believer has is not with flesh and blood. Now sometimes the flesh and blood battles manifest themselves, but I can guarantee you what's behind the flesh and blood battles is a spiritual battle. For most of us, a flesh and blood battle is bad enough. But the real struggle is against what is behind the flesh and blood battles. The struggle is not with Satan alone, but with his host of demons or fallen angels who helped make Satan such an effective enemy. A third of heaven's angels fell with him when he fell. Evidently, there's orders of demons. Looked up these words, principalities. That word is used. Christ is far above all the principalities. We see that one of the things we wrestle against is principalities. Praise God, Jesus is far above them. But principalities would refer to high-ranking demons, spoken of as the princes or chiefs among demons, created by God, but they fell with Satan. Powers. It speaks of those who have been given authority and power in some respect, I want you to think about the rulers of the darkness of this world. It speaks of those directly involved with or in control of specific sins or sinful enterprises. Let's think about this. Drug trafficking, sorceries, that's what the Bible calls them, sorceries. Pornography and sex trafficking. Satan's behind all of that. What we spoke of this morning, abortion. He's behind that. Death rings. Terrorists. Many other sins which chain people in darkness and help keep them in unbelief. Those are controlled by rulers of the darkness of this world. Spiritual wickedness in high places. Speaks of those who who empower many different evil influences and acts in government. The word translated wickedness there speaks of their malicious nature. Malicious. Those in charge behind the acts of the wicked leaders of this world and this nation and Sometimes we see the flesh and blood part of it, don't we? It comes out on the TV screen. We read about it and understand that Satan is behind a lot of the attacks that are going on against that which is good and right that we see. Satan's army is crafty and deceptive. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 14 and 15 talks about that. transformed himself into an angel of light. And if he does that, it's no great thing that his ministers, to find that they're transformed into ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. Now how does Satan and his forces attack the believer and the Christian community? Satan influences us to do what he knows displeases God. That's what it is. We mentioned this morning, Proverbs 6, 16. These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. A proud look. How many times does some pride get in to our own area in our lives? God's not happy with that. A lying tongue. We're to be people of the truth, aren't we? Hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked imaginations. Feet that be swift to run into mischief. A false witness that speaketh lies. Make sure you've got your facts right before you call somebody a liar. He that soweth discord among the brethren. We ought not to be a part of that. Satan influences us to do what he knows displeases God. And listen, we must not take lightly the words that Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5, 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walked about seeking whom he may devour. So let's remember that we have the potential for us to overcome by Christ's power working in us. Let's also remember that we have a real battle against us and Satan's opposition to God. Although Satan is a defeated enemy because of the cross, he is still allowed to work until the time Christ comes to set up his earthly kingdom. Here's the final thing I want us to see. I want us to notice, last of all, the real participation required of us. Yeah, the Lord is strong. Yeah, the armor is good. We wrestle not against these flesh and blood. Thankfully, we've got the help from our Lord in that battle of the wrestling, but we are called there in verse number 11 and also verse 13. The first part of verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God. You've got to do that. Verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. Yeah, all the things that we battle against in the world, it's bad what we have to put up with, what we've got to battle against, but you better take up the whole armor of God. Why? That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Listen, we can stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 11 tells us that, right? It just does. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We can be victorious over his vicious attacks. It's possible because God has provided special purpose armor for believers. God's provided these things, these pieces of armor that we're going to look at in the weeks to come. It's going to be the subject of several messages to come. We know it includes a belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, sword, and prayer. communication with the high command. The purpose of each of those armor pieces is to protect us from the attacks of Satan. We know that that's what it's for, right? And to help us to stand. But it's our responsibility to make sure that we are fully clothed in His armor and to stand against the wiles of the devil When we stand, we're holding firm. You're not giving ground. When the Lord tells us to stand against the wiles of the devil, He has provided all that we need in order to do so. He's provided us with His strength. Our Lord never puts us in a battle that we will lose as long as we do what He says. As long as we're obedient to Him and we go in fully clothed, putting on the whole armor of God, we've got victory. Our Lord tells us. to use the whole armor that He has provided in order to resist Satan. So we've got to do it. That's a participation required by us. Verse 13 also says we are to take up and use the whole armor so that we can stand against Satan, having done all to stand. Listen, our defense is not to be half-hearted. Our defense is not to be partial. We must be totally committed and the war against Satan. And we are to take unto us the whole armor of God so that we can stand in the evil day. And remember that Satan is at work every day. There's not a day that you can go without being fully clothed, fully armored. We know that in these last days, perilous times shall come. We know that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Paul warned Timothy of that in 2 Timothy 3. Why does the devil want us to fail? Well, you know, when we don't do what we ought to do, when we go out less than fully clothed and we fall, we fail in a battle, He's won a battle victory. Now, thank God he's not going to win the war. But he's won a battle victory. When we fail, God is not glorified, is He? Whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, you do all to the glory of God. We're to make sure that we are glorifying God in our lives. And when we fail, God is not glorified. When we fail, we've got to remember, our lives touch other people's lives. When we fail, other believers can be hurt too. Somebody's watching you. And maybe somebody's even looking up to you. Don't be the one that gives them cause to go the wrong way. When we fail, we're not a good testimony even to the unsaved. Those that Satan wants to keep out of heaven. He loves to get a Christian to fail. For the Glossary, we'll go see that right there. It's not real. It's not real. Now, understand that none of us will be perfect. And that we will all most likely fail at some point. But there is forgiveness as we confess and forsake and get back on the right track. Now, the cause of Christ is hurt every time Satan has a victory in our lives. That's why it's so important for us to stand, having put on the whole armor of God. That's why it's so important that we do all we can by the Lord's power and provision to stand. Putting on the whole armor of God is a choice. It's a command, number one. It's a command, but it's a choice. You choose either to obey the command or not obey the command. You don't obey the command, you leave yourself open, vulnerable. It should be a once and for all choice. It should also be a daily choice. Each day we should renew our commitment to wearing this armor. It also needs to be a complete choice. The whole armor, amen? We must wear the whole armor. For when we fail to put on the whole armor, we are giving Satan an edge. He will attack at the weakest point. If you've ever played baseball or softball, When you're up there trying to hit, where do you want to hit it at? The weakest point of their defense, right? Mostly right field. That's where they put everybody that's weak and then don't know how to play is in the right field. That's where you swing to try to get into what to right field. If you're pitching, you want to pay attention to what Folks are hitting what they're not hitting. Somebody's vulnerable to a curved ball, guess what? They're going to be fed curved balls. And that's the way Satan is. He will look for your vulnerability. He'll look at the weakest point. Now, before we actually get into the actual armor, next week, Lord willing, I want you to take a look at nine specific ways that Satan attacks the saints. We're going to look at nine specific ways. And then for several weeks after that, we'll look at the armor pieces and how to put them to use. And in the meantime, let's stay near the cross. Let's pray. Father, we thank You tonight for Your Word. Thank You for the armor. that You have provided. We thank You for the victory that You have afforded us. We thank You for the fact that we are in You. We are in Christ. And being in Christ, He is in place in the heavenlies far above all principalities of power. They are under His feet. And us being in Him, Lord, when we are clothed in His righteousness and we are clothed in His armor, We have His power working on our behalf. Help us with these things, Lord. We all need help. And Lord, may we be victorious in our daily walk and daily battles in this wicked world. Bless the invitation. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.