Well, today we want to look at the matter of the effective use of the armor of God. Friends, there is not a person in this world who is not involved in spiritual warfare. It is the usual course of events, experience. Adam fell, fell prey to Satan. In Adam, the whole race fell. You and I are descendants of Adam. Our chromosomes and genes came from him. The various races of the world were all present in him. And the combinations, whether red or yellow, black and white, whatever the color might be, olive, I like olive, that also came under condemnation. And the curse of physical death came directly from Adam to each individual. Spiritual death comes through the mediation of our parents. And through the events that we have, we have physical death as well. So, we're talking about everybody being involved in Adam when he fell, and everyone came under the influence and control of Satan to some degree. Ever since Genesis chapter 3, where the record speaks about the fall in the garden, the expulsion from the garden, See, not only was there falling into sin, there was the absence of God's presence. God was, well, he had to drive them out of the garden, unless they participate in the tree of life and live forever in condemnation. By the way, we find the first angels mentioned there, the cherubim, flaming swords, keeping them from entering back into the garden. Well, ever since that time, Every individual, every family, every culture, every nation has been under the influence and control of the enemy. And all are engaged either knowingly or unknowingly in spiritual warfare. God has provided a refuge and resources. for standing in this battle, that we might emerge from His oppression and stand in victory. Two major things we have. The position that we have in Christ as crucified, raised, and seated with Him. He is our substitute. What He went through, we went through. The little cross and the big cross is ours. The little resurrection arrow and the resurrection is ours. And the throne, we're seated with Him in heavenly places. By the way, when He comes again, we're going to reign with Him, aren't we? So, we're going to get back to what God designed, to rule the earth without a curse, without separation. without death, dying, or crying. It's going to be a great day, a great getting up morning, a great ruling morning. Now, we as counselors have to understand our position in Christ. A wavering counselor causes a wave in the consulate. We also have to know about the provision of the armor. And that's what we're going to talk about, provision for the armor for everyday battles. We are counseling facilitators. We don't win the battle. The Lord wins the battle, and the individual must stand in his or her own faith and relationship to the Lord Jesus. We facilitate this situation. We are not the ones who fix. We are facilitators. And our counselees, must be alert and aware of the battle and of the armor. So we must know about the armor and they must know about the armor because God has provided for us spiritual armor. Our job is to understand its necessity and nature and to use it effectively. So what we're going to talk about is the necessity of the armor of God, the nature of the armor of God, and its effective use. So, on page J1, J is for jump into it, okay? Here we go. I'd like to read with you that familiar passage, at least part of it right now, Ephesians chapter 6. By the way, there are 16 or more passages in the New Testament that speak about the believer's spiritual warfare. This just happens to be a classic and extended passage. Ephesians chapter 6. Starting with verse 10. Finally, and these are the final words of a man who's sitting in prison. He's going to be released. But he says, finally, in this letter, be strong in the Lord. and in the power of His might, or His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, that you may take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so when the evil day comes, by the way it's here, You may be able to stand your ground, and after you've done everything, to stand. There are some things to do. But the first thing we need to do is understand something about the enemy we face. You notice he's mentioned here, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. And Satan is mentioned here. So we have the personnel that's involved here, the power of the enemy, the tactics of the enemy. You know, we discussed this the other day, didn't we? We talked about Satan, the demons, and the occult. And we described Satan, remember his original state in fall? He was the honor guard, the leader of the honor guard of God. And he has wonderful, had a wonderful position, but he has names that reflect his character. And by the way, some of those names we find in here, let me just refer to them on page 129, if I can read pages. Here we are. Names that reflect his character. He is called Lucifer, that is he was called that, the bright and shining one. He's called Satan, which means opposer, and the devil, which means slanderer. In Espanol, Diabolos, same in Greek. The one who trips up, the one who throws through, trips you up along the way. The serpent of old, that is the well-known, ancient serpent, the great dragon, Revelation, the serpent's now shown as true character, he's a great fire-breathing dragon, and the evil one, Jesus called him that, and the destroyer, Revelation. There are some names that indicate his activity. He's called the tempter, the accuser, the liar, deceiver, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. And those names don't exhaust the list, but they do present the scope of his titles and present the multifaceted aspects of his power and character and activity. So it helps to know something of his names. And he's alive, not so well, but he's alive and active today. The demons, remember we talked about them as fallen angels, and they have names too. On page 164 in here, as soon as I get this here. See, I don't memorize my book. Names for demons in the New Testament. Daimon. And this means basically knowing or intelligence. Some say disruptor, distributing destiny. Daimonion, that's diminutive, like ito in Espanol. It means a little god, a little one who's always involved in hurting. Numata, spirit, that's used 43 times, and they're sometimes called angels, like the devil and his angels. And so there are some related terms, like daimonizomai, which means demonized, daimon, demon. Ids, a causative stin, omi, a passive ending, translates out to a demon-caused passivity or control, not ownership. Well, demons do exist and they're very active and they oppose God and they oppose God's people. They're very powerful. No human can match them. However, humans can stand against them in the authority of Christ. There's a difference between inherent strength and delegated authority. We have delegated authority. Now, the tactics of the enemy. In general, the Bible tells us that Satan and his demons have well-developed schemes. In fact, here in Philippians, that we may stand against the devil's schemes. The word here is methodeia. Methodeia means basically well-ordered plans. Wesley and his group were called Methodists because of their disciplined life. They had laid out plans for developing spiritual life and ministry. The devil has well laid out plans for destroying spiritual life and ministry. And so the word here is methodeia, or methodeia, however you want to say that. And his purpose is to oppose God. And we need to be aware of his tactics. So when you talk about the tactics of the enemy, we need to know about that because we don't need to be taken off guard. And the people we see come out of these backgrounds and are hurt this way, and we have to understand how the enemy has worked in their lives. So this has to do with oppressing mankind in general, and then particularly opposing believers. Well, God's alerted us to these schemes. And not that we should fear and tremble, but that we should trust and resist. General Douglas MacArthur. How many remember that name? Oh, some of you young people almost remember, huh? By the way, when you come to age here, we all bow down and we respect Tim Warner. He's our elder here. And then I'm the next one. And then Mark Bubeck. And so the reason we are here training people is to pass on what we know. As Timothy is told, the things you learned of me pass on to faithful people who shall carry on as well and train others. So we want to train others, to train others, to train others right on down the line. We hope you're here for that purpose. And we won't be around too long. We might have a couple of years yet, but we want to make sure that we have a legacy of people who can minister. Well, that's why we need to be aware of the schemes of the enemy. And as I was mentioning, General Douglas MacArthur, who was Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces in the Pacific in World War II, made this statement, which I believe is very true. The most important thing in battle is to know your enemy's plans. I can understand that because you can know your own resources, schemes, and plans, but if you're caught broadsided. Remember Pearl Harbor. Remember 9-11. You need to know the enemy's plans. And I think what we need to understand is we have intelligent revelation right here. And we need to know what God has told us about these things so that we might be well aware of what the enemy does. So let's look at what the enemy does to oppose mankind in general. Most of us belong to mankind in general. All here belong to believers in Christ. But people have their backgrounds and things that we're going to discuss here. We have to understand. how the enemy works. And you can remember from the scripture several things. I've got them listed here, oppressing mankind in general, distressing through nature. You remember what Satan did to Job under God's permission. First of all, he used humans to take his flocks away. The enemy always uses humans when he can. He seems to delight in that. Then there was fire from heaven. The reporter to Job said, fire from God was really from the God of this world. Whether it was lightning or what, I don't know what it was, but fire burned up quite a bit. And then there was wind that destroyed the house and killed his children. Out in Nebraska, at a little town called Henderson, 999 people. When I joined them, there were 1,000. This is a pretty solid community and had three or four evangelical churches that supported missions. They had tornadoes that came through there, ripped up their barns a couple of years in a row. I said, have you ever prayed against that? I said, do you not know that the enemy has power over the wind and over the weather to some degree? Have you read Job? And they hadn't thought about that. So I encouraged them to pray against the enemy's intervention because here he would love to destroy the resources of these people so they couldn't support missions. Not too long ago, there was a man who was running for president, a Christian man. I wouldn't agree with all his theology, but I wasn't too far away from him on this point. He said concerning hurricanes, he would pray about them. Got laughed down. One time, Gene and I were driving along Gulf Avenue going west out toward our house, which is quite a few miles away yet. First time in my life I'd seen a tornado, and it looked like it was right over our area. Come to find out, it actually struck just less than a half a mile from where we were. But as I looked at it, I said, Lord, let your angels move that thing out of there so people aren't hurt. Immediately, it drew up like that. Coincidence? I doubt it. I think the Lord encouraged me and no one was hurt. We're glad for that. But the enemy can distress through nature. He can degrade human nature. In Ephesians chapter 2, we were formerly walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the atmosphere. were in mind those who followed his will and his way, and were by nature children of wrath. And so we were in a condition without God. And many people have a debauched life. You may not have had a debauched life. I was a good guy, but I was lost. And many of you were probably that. On the other hand, you know some of your backgrounds. Romans chapter 1 speaks about the degradation of human nature rather than evolution to its devolution. They didn't give God his proper place, didn't thank him. Instead, they made gods in their own image, first of all, and then in images of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. And God gave them over to sexual impurity and to every kind of wickedness. And if you read through that, it'll make you sick. That's what the enemy does, starts out with idolatry, forgetting God, putting idols in place of God, then putting one's own gods made in their own image up there, and then degradation of human nature. If you look at Hollywood today, I think that pretty well establishes a deep degradation of human nature. But it doesn't stop there. It's all over the country. There are people who are in witchcraft and Satanism all over this country. Not long ago, well, even today, there are more witches in France than there are Christians and churches and pastors. I can understand why France is in a difficult situation. Jean and I were over there one time. Our children gave us a week over there in Paris. And the last time we saw Paris, I'm not sure her heart was young and gay. Gay, maybe. But Roman Catholicism is sort of down the drain there. Evangelicalism, less than 1% of the country would be called evangelical. When I and Gene looked at There are marvelous paintings, whether it be in the castles or in the museums. So many of them depicted war and bloodshed. That ground is covered with blood. Death, destruction, annihilation of humanity. I think God's curse is upon that type of thing. And it's no wonder. There's very little in the line of desire for spiritual things. They're the enemy. The world rulers have that under their control. The Greek word for world rulers is kosmokrator, which means they have the world under their control. They also distract from truth. The God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not. There are many brilliant people in this world, great minds. It amazes me what God has put in the minds of believers. I look at those who compose music, those who work with electronic equipment, and it's amazing what they can make out of sand or silicon these days. All the technical and personal advances here. Medicine is wonderful. Still, the God of this world is blind to the minds of those who believe not. The mind is an amazing instrument. The eye is an amazing instrument. Your hands are amazing instruments. It's impossible for them to come about by chance. Just an aside here, one enzyme which is a very fragile type of life that you figured might come about in 1 over 10 to the 20th. That's how fragile that is and how unlikely it would be. Now, it takes about 20 enzymes to make up one human protein. What you do is you add exponents. That's 1 over 10 to the 400th, somewhere around there. There aren't that many atoms in the universe. For one enzyme, that is for one protein molecule. Now you've got the proteins working together with other proteins. You've got to have all organized systems so that you have organs and you have any connection with organs and some sort of communication. People who believe in evolution by chance are out of their head. Talk about blindness. The god of this world is blind to the minds of the minds. of those who believe not. He disables the body. In Matthew 12, there's a man who is blind and mute. In Luke 13, there's a woman who has extreme scoliosis. She bent over completely, could not stand up. When she looked up, she saw the floor. Can you imagine, ladies, how difficult it would be to get yourself ready to be seen in public? But she was a synagogue worshiper. Jesus healed her. from a spirit called infirmity. The Greek says spirit of infirmity, like city of Indianapolis. The city is Indianapolis. The spirit's name was infirmity, and he was working on her back. Jesus dismissed the spirit, and she straightened up and was rejoicing. We've seen things like that happen. Gene and I talked to a young lady at Moody Bible Institute. She was told that Christians couldn't be bothered But her father had a very dark side to him. And she'd been having some disturbances in her mind even though she was studying Bible. I guess the enemy doesn't want you to study the Bible, huh? But she was a basketball player. She was one of those tall, lanky, good-looking Dutch girls. And she hadn't played basketball for five years. She had a disease which kept her in pain. If I can think of the name of it, I'll share it with you. What's it called, Jeannie? You can't think of it either, huh? All right. It's very common. Fibromyalgia, thank you. I should remember that. F, Fred, F, fibro. I'll get that. She had fibromyalgia. She came to see us. I detected there would be a spirit involved here and I checked it out and I said, are you causing or are you aggravating this disease? Later on she told us, she didn't tell us at the time, she told us she heard a spirit inside saying, let's tell him we're aggravating it rather than causing it. Her husband, who didn't believe Christians could have this because a good pastor, missionary, told him it couldn't happen to Christians. He had the privilege of dismissing the spirit from his wife. Within one week, she was back playing basketball. No fibromyalgia. Now, there are cases of natural disease. But the enemy, remember, is the counterfeiter. I will be like God. He tries to do everything. counterfeit his practices and make them seem real and natural. And here in the Western society, we just fall into that trap, don't we? They derange the mind. Here's this man, the maniac of Gadara, who's living in tombs. He's morose. He's antisocial. He's self-destructive. He has great power. And he's attacking others. Jesus dismissed the spirits from him and he was clothed and in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus and wanted to follow him. Jesus said, no, you go back and tell the people what happened to you. Man like that came into your church today, what would happen? Tie him up, take him to the ward, help see a psychiatrist, and that's what most pastors would do. They wouldn't believe the person was delivered. And if they ever ran into that, they'd shuttle him off to somebody who could handle it because they'd be afraid or ignorant of how to do it. The enemy also drives to injury. Here's this young child. Mark Bubeck spoke to us about him, probably ancestral background. The demon that caused the child to foam at the mouth, probably grind his teeth in the process, threw him down, threw him into water and into fire. Jesus dismissed the wicked spirit in the child as well. Drives to injury. Tries to destroy life. Revelation chapter 9, we read about three wicked spirits and three plagues, fire, smoke, sulfur that destroyed a third of mankind because Wicked spirits who were loosed from the river Euphrates caused this to come upon mankind. Destroyer. In fact, that's what the enemy's called. He's called the destroyer in Revelation chapter 9. Whether it's the Hebrew Abaddon or the Greek Apollyon, the word is destroyer. Let's see what he does to believers. What's he doing opposing believers? He accuses and slanders. That's what he's called in Revelation chapter 12 verse 10. The accuser of the brethren is cast down, accuses them day and night before God through deception, making men look bad in the sight of God, making God look bad in the sight of man. Not only does he accuse and slander before God, but he'll bring all sorts of shame and accusation against you. People don't feel forgiven when they are forgiven. People don't feel crucified, raised, and seated with Christ in heavenly places when they really are. You don't have to feel it. That's your position, friends. Lay hold of it. Slandering. He really is not for your good. He knows that when you eat that fruit, you become like Him, knowing good and evil. You become little gods. That's the New Age idea. We are all gods. He attacks confidence and commitment. Genesis chapter 3, yea hath God said and so forth. But in 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5, Paul said, I sent Timothy to check out how you Thessalonians are doing, lest the tempter had deceived you with his lie and our labor had been in vain. He tries to attack confidence and commitment. You can't give yourself over to the Lord because you really can't figure out what He's going to do with your life, right? You better stay in control, and that's the essence of pride, as we were reminded in the last session. He also tempts to sin, and I have about seven sins here that He tempts us to, and there are probably more, but He tempts us to lie. Now, the lying is not always for hurtful situations. in an attempt to present ourselves in a different light than we really are, modifying things, twisting things. You remember that dynamic duo, Ananias and Sapphira? Well, they saw what Barnabas got in the line of adulation, congratulation for selling his property and giving his money to the community that was still hanging around in Jerusalem after Pentecost. They didn't have the nation's innkeeper in those days, Ramada Inn. or anything like that, not even Holiday Express, or Holiday Inn, or what's the other one? Express, something, you know where you get smart. So they had to have some sustenance while they were there. Ananias and Sapphira said, well, we can do that, but we'll keep back part of the price and tell them we've given our all. Peter said, you had within your possession to do what you want to do with it. He said, but you've lied. You've lied not only to men, but you've lied to the Holy Spirit. You lied to God. And Ananias fell down dead. His wife came in. Is it so? Yeah, it's so. She dropped dead too. Aren't you glad that God doesn't deal with all liars the same way today? I wonder how many of us would be here. We need to be honest with ourselves, with God, with others. That doesn't mean you let it all hang out. It just means you don't try to deceive or put on a front. It tempts us to sexual deviation. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. These people wrote Paul concerning marriage and sexual relationships because Corinth was a place of sexual debauchery. There were a thousand prostitutes dedicated to the worship of Aphrodite, and a man wasn't a man unless he had all this sexual experience. So Paul writes, it's good for a man. It doesn't say not to marry here. It says not to touch a woman, which means not to have sexual intercourse with a woman. Euphemism. But since there's so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, isn't that dear? Each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive one another or each other except by mutual consent for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, then come together again so Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." You know Satan uses sexuality. We all have sexual drives. We're social creatures. We're sexual creatures. Angels aren't sexual creatures. We are. God made us male and female and said it's good. God invented sexuality. It's a good thing. It's restricted to marriage. And that's what God will bless. Hormonicers and adulterers God will judge. But He tempts to sexual deviation. How many Christian leaders have gone down the tubes because of this? It means that husband and wife need to have regular sexual relationships, satisfying experiences as a matter of love and devotion and separation because that will cut the enemy's occasion. He also attempts to rely upon human wisdom and strength. David wanted to number the fighting men of Israel. Joab was not exactly the paragon of virtue and of spirituality. He said, No, David, it's okay. God's for us. Don't do that. Oh, I want to do it, says David. So he numbered Israel, and God gave him the choice of three plagues, and the last one was I'll fall into your hand." And he lost some of his fighting men in the process because he depended upon his human wisdom and strength. Check out my troops. Peter was of that mind when he said, Lord, this will not happen to you. When Jesus said, I'm going to die, they never caught that rise again business until later. Glad they finally caught on. I hope you've really caught on. Jesus is alive and well in heaven and in His human nature, but in His eternal spirit, He's with each one of us. By the way, He doesn't inhabit you through the Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all three abide in you. John 14 will clear you up on that. John 14, 16 through 23. John 14, 16 through 23. Get it down. You are the temple of the triune God. So He tends to cause us to rely upon human strength. He tends to occupy us with worldly pursuits. All that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, pleasure, the lust of the eyes, possession, pride of life, vainglory, pride, all are of the world, not of the Father. He tempts us to spiritual pride. If He can't get us in gross sin, He'll get us in spiritual pride. Paul writes to Timothy saying, as my apostolic legate, you need to ordain men who are qualified or blameless. And one of the things he says, not a neophyte or a young convert, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation incurred by the devil. Pride. The devil is occupied with his own beauty, his own position, and to put a young man in that position, Well, I must be pretty well recognized, that type of thing. And we need to watch pride. Pride isn't only with the young men, it can be the old men too. So we need to understand that. And he has to have a good reputation on those outside lest he fall into the snare of the devil. The devil has traps. He tempts us to discouragement and despair. 1 Peter chapter 5. Yeah, let's turn there and take a look. 1 Peter chapter 5. You know that well, but I want you to see the connection here. 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter is speaking to the elders as a fellow elder. He never considered himself the papa of all the elders. He's a fellow elder. A witness of Christ's suffering, one who will share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of the flock. Well, he tells them what to do. Back in, as he goes on here, in verse 6, he says, "...humble yourselves therefore," to all the group, "...under the mighty hand of God, that He may lift you up in due time." Notice this, "...casting all your anxiety," not just some, "...all your anxiety unto Him, because He cares," or constantly cares for you. Be alert. Be self-controlled. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." Notice the connection, casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about. He tries to catch us so that we are occupied with our own concerns, anxieties. Anxiety is the opposite of trust. We can trust the Lord to take care of us. The Lord is our shepherd. We will not lack a thing we need. He provides us table even in the presence of our enemy, defense against the enemy, green pastures, rest, restoration, all that we need, fellowship with him. And we don't have to be discouraged, despair. Casting all your care upon Him because He cares for you. So who's going to care for your cares? You have to recognize them, then you need to cast them on Him. Psalm 55, 22, cast your burden upon the Lord, He shall sustain you, He shall never allow the righteous to be shaken. He tempts us to anger and bitterness. Ephesians chapter 4, be angry but don't sin. Without anger, I don't know how we get along. You who love the Lord hate evil. Psalm 97, 10. How's your hate life? You really hate evil? I mean, evil within as well as evil without, and the enemy. One of my counselees said to us the other day, said, I hate the devil. I said, that's very, very good. You keep right on. And make sure you love the Lord, but hate the devil, and side with the Lord. Now, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 4, which says, be angry, don't sin, don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. Actually, what this means is don't harbor anger, lest it become bitterness. cause a root of bitterness within and destroy you in the process. So you have to acknowledge your anger, express it properly, and resolve it with the Lord and with someone else if you need to. So watch out for anger. Don't let it become bitter. Keep short accounts on that matter. Forgiving one another, just as Christ forgave you, all in Ephesians chapter 4. He incites persecution. You see this all around the world today. There are more martyrs in the last century than there, in fact, in the last few years than there were through all the centuries of the ages. And some people are very glad to take Satan's part. But Revelation chapter 2 verse 10 says, Satan shall throw some of you into prison shortly, but be faithful unto death. Be faithful unto death. Satan is involved in the opposition of Christians in general and especially of Christian missions. He hates what we're doing here. He hates you. Don't be surprised. But you can hate him back. Your hate counts because you're on the right side. So he incites persecution. You got to watch for that. Don't be surprised. He prevents service. Paul says, I tried to come to you Thessalonians twice, but Satan hindered me. If he can hinder apostles from service, he can hinder you too. Don't be surprised. Don't expect everything to be sunshine lane. No showers, no clouds. Everything should go well because I'm walking with the Lord. The Lord is not a cosmic butler. He doesn't serve you. You serve Him. In any circumstance, you need to serve Him. He can hurt you and hurt your family if God so allows. handle it, but learn to set up a wall of defense. Pray to prevent his attacks and to protect your family. Mark Bubeck's book, The Adversary at Home, it's very important, Raising Lambs Among Wolves, it was called. Learn to protect yourself and the family. He infiltrates the church, false teachers. Paul said that in 1 Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 3. There are false teachers who come in. Peter spoke about that. False teachers who deny the Lord that bought them. They pervert people. So you can expect false teachers. One time when I was in Oklahoma, I was going to Dallas Seminary and we went up to Hugo, Oklahoma. They had a big circus there, a wintering place, but I went to a rural schoolhouse and had Sunday school and church service and so forth. One time around Halloween, I came, I went down like this behind the pulpit and put on a horrible satanic mask and I came up and they gasped. I said, well, where else do you expect to find Satan except in the pulpit? And that's true. There are religionists out there who hate Christ. People who call themselves Christians who don't know Christ. who don't believe the basic things about Him, and they're leading people in a humanistic, moralistic type life. They're false followers. Satan has his sowing as well as God's sowing. Remember the wheat and the tares? Matthew 13. He promotes division, likes to break people up, set Christians against one another. During World War II, the Germans developed what they called the Pinscher's Movement. They take two heavy armor divisions, like with Panzer's tanks, and they break through the allied lines, meet behind the lines, then the major body would mop up in between. Divide, conquer. That's what the enemy wants to do. He wants to get Christian against Christian, leader against leader. A lot of problems in churches are personality problems, not doctrinal problems. Occasionally the doctrinal problems become personal problems. But he promotes division wherever he can get it. He wants to break up your united stand, whereas Philippians chapter 1 says, when they notice your united stand in love and truth, the enemy will be discouraged. Well, friends, besides all this, there's invasion of people, demon possession, which we'll talk about in course number two, I believe now, if we have it set up properly. Talk to my boss here. We must realize that God has enlightened us about our enemies and their tactics. And we have to stand in the power of the Lord and the provision of His armor. And this involves confessing our sins, renouncing our evil habits, mending personal relationships, living in dependence upon Christ, developing a spiritual walk. If we don't do that, we won't stand. We'll flop. So we make our choice. We get informed. We do our job. When we get together next time, we'll talk about the nature and the use of the armor of God. The nature of the armor of God is what we want to look at next. And we have a general description here in Ephesians chapter 6. We go back there because that's where it's mentioned. It's the only place where it's all put together for us like this. Now, let me just say that Ephesians was a book that was a circulating letter. It has no personal references, no local scene type of thing, except the type of thing that was in Asia Minor. These people were afraid of wicked spirits. That's why he writes them about their marvelous position in Christ and how Christ is far above all principalities and powers and how they have a position in Him that's far above them, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6. Now he talks about the armor of God, position, provision. So we're on the provision of the armor of God, and we're looking at the nature of that armor right now, and his description in Ephesians chapter 6 is rather interesting, because he talks about the armor of God. Stand firm, therefore, says in verse 14, with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. We'll read the rest in a little bit, okay? But you know, I don't know, I think we got better going with this. In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying for all the saints. Outside of Paul's house, where he was in arrest in Rome the first time, there was a A Roman guard, who was dressed as they were usually dressed, had on his helmet, he had on his breastplate, he had on a big belt, he had a sword, he had his feet there laced up with hobnail shoes, and there he stood. And that reminded Paul of some background material. Paul, being a Hebrew that he was and a Bible student, Thought about, I think, Isaiah 59. Listen to these words. I'm not going into any detail, but just listen to these words here, okay? You can hear the connection. God saw that there was no one to intervene. He was appalled about that. So His own arm worked salvation for Him. His own righteousness sustained Him. He put on righteousness as His breastplate, the helmet of salvation on His head, put on garments of vengeance, wrapped Himself in seals of cloak. According to what they have done, He will repay to His enemies, retribution to His foes. Listen to Psalm 18. Psalm 18. Or it has some of the same sort of references. There are other places in Scripture where these two come to mind. And in Psalm 18, As for God, says verse 30, His way is perfect. The word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. Who is God but Yahweh or the Lord? Who is a rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength, makes my way upright, makes my feet like the feet of a deer, enables me to stand on the heights, trains my hands for battle. My arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me the shield of victory. Your right hand sustains me. You stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me so my ankles do not turn. Paul was acquainted with armor from the Old Testament. The man at his door merely reminded him of that. But he picks up on these pieces of armor and he tells us about them. Three pieces are there which are due to our position in Christ. Position means something that you have graciously given you as a gift the very moment you trust Christ as your Savior. The first of those is the belt of truth. This is not truthfulness on your part. This is the truth as it is in Christ. We are in the truth system in Christ. There's no need to search for truth outside of Him. We can say no to temptation to look elsewhere. So we don't have to look at world religions or the cults of Christianity. Today people are being swayed to believe in every sort of thing. The worst sin in the world is discrimination. But it's interesting how many of those people who don't like discrimination are very discriminatory when it comes to food. New age people are very careful. Gene and I sometimes shop in a store, a whole food store, which is sort of a new age place. They have good food there, sort of like the market. We give thanks for it, right? That's all right. But discrimination is a terrible thing. But truth is always discriminating. The principle of non-contradiction is found in the Hindu faith. There's a man who's a Hindu who's an engineer in Chicago. I rode in the bus with him. I said to him, sir, is it difficult for you to practice your faith away from your homeland? He said, oh, no, God is everywhere. I said, well, that's quite interesting. We hold that God is everywhere, too. I'm a Christian theologian. We hold that God is a person who created the world to whom we're responsible. Oh, no, no, no, he says. There's no difference in religion, he says. All is the same. Oh, no, no, no. Uh-huh. Contradiction came in handy for him at that particular point. And, you know, we need to understand that there are absolutes, and there is the matter of non-contradiction, which we must understand as part of the truth. And we have to understand, when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me. That's an absolute statement. It's discriminatory, isn't it? That's the trouble with Jesus. He claims to be unique, and he is. By the way, don't say almost unique, very unique, quite unique. It's either unique or it ain't. Let's use good English, okay? He's unique. The truth is in Christ. The breastplate of righteousness. Believers have the righteousness of God in Christ by justification. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, He became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Justification declares you righteous before God after it imputes righteousness to your account. It's put on your account, then the statement immediately follows that. It doesn't take a month later like in the banks. Immediately, He declares you righteous. Fully accepted in the Beloved, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6. Accepted in the Beloved. Believers have the righteousness of God in Christ. This assures of acceptance and defense by God no matter what the enemy says. Who do you think you are? Why do you think you're special? I had a man say that to me when I first came to the Lord. Who do you think you are? I've had a demon say that to me. Who do you think you are? I said, I'll tell you who I am. I am in Christ and I'm legal representative of Christ. He's an ambassador here and I have his authority. You got that straight? Okay, just checking you out. I actually got that remark. Breastplate of righteousness. We have shoes of peace. Friends, misunderstood. This is not evangelism. These are shoes that allow you to stand in peace in the midst of the battle. The preparation for the battle. by the shoes of peace. This soldier wore hobnail shoes which were laced up over his calf so he would not lose his standing in the battle. Can you imagine wielding a heavy sword and holding a heavy shield in the battle? He slips because he has no cleats. And he's down on the ground and the enemy has his sword at his throat. Excuse me, sir. Lift me up and we'll start again. Oh, yeah? Boom. That's it. Didn't want to slip. Tremendous disadvantage. So, these non-slip shoes in the midst of battle. God loves us. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to do battle with the devil. People don't need to think that just because they're in difficult straits and because the enemy is at hand and because he's persecuting that something's wrong with their stand with God. You have peace through the blood of the cross. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God and we exult in the hope, the certainty of being present in the glory of God. Now, those are three pieces granted to us by our position. Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes that allow us to stand in peace in the middle of the battle. Three pieces are given for our practice. How do I figure that? Well, first of all, you notice the kind of things they are. kind of things like faith and hope and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. And he says here, in addition, in addition, so we've got something else here, taking up, taking up. So this is something that requires action on our part, other than trusting Christ, which gives us truth and righteousness and peace. Now we're to take up the shield of confidence. Faith is something you exercise. You have to exercise confidence in God, His character, and His Word. He is for us and no one can be successfully against us. We can ward off the deadly lies of the enemy by trusting God with the shield of faith. What kind of God do you trust? He is the creator of the vast universe, my guess is the most of which we haven't yet seen. millions of light years away. I think God created the universe with an apparent age just like he did Adam. I don't think we have to say he was here for millions or billions of years. It didn't start with a big bang, it started with a big creator. My friends, he's the creator, he's the sustainer. By him all things cohere, it says about Jesus, or hold together. Even the tongues that deny him are held together by his grace. He is the sustainer, the providential controller. He bears all things along according to His powerful word. Not one thing out of His control. Can you trust Him? You bet your life. We also have the helmet of salvation. Now, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, it's called the helmet of the hope of salvation. I have to explain the word hope. means confident expectation, elpis in Greek. It's not, I hope someday to score a hole in one. I rimmed a cup, stayed within six inches one time. That's not good enough. That's not a hole in one. I still have hope, but that's not kind of the hope we're talking about here. This is confident expectation, like the hope of glory. That's a certainty. And this hope can be understood as a hope of salvation. Now, the word salvation, whether it's in Hebrew, yashah, or in Greek, sozo, always means deliverance. But it depends upon its meaning for the context. Depends upon the context for its meaning. I think I got that one straight that time. Because it can be deliverance from a bed of sickness, James. The prayer of faith shall save the sick. It can mean deliverance for Israel. God will save Israel, return her to her position of preeminence. It can mean salvation in a battle. That's what it means here. It can mean eternal salvation. That's what we have when we trust Christ. And salvation is actually the word deliverance. What deliverance do you need in the battle? You need to win. You need to understand you're on the winning side. And you don't need to flounder or flop. You are on the winning side. Okay. So how many from Indianapolis here? So you're for the Colts? Go Colts. Okay. Anybody from Texas? Hook them. There she is over there. You gotta watch that, it's also a satanic sign. I grew up cheering for Nebraska Cornhuskers. You too, brother? Amen. Down to Lincoln to see those guys in red. All right. But that's when, I won't go into the stories. During halftime, they're behind two touchdowns. Coach says, well guys, you're just not playing. Let's go out to the second half and just put in our time. Oh, no, he doesn't. He says, listen, men, we've got a good game plan. We've got good personnel. We need to execute. Remember to do your job, follow through on the plays, make the blocks, cut your patterns. We're going to win. That's a hope so. But God never says hope so. God says it's certainty. He's going to see you through. He's going to see you through. Moses. got his hands propped up so they could win, fighting the Amalekites. And prayer will win the job. And that brings us to understanding the idea that we are on the winning side and we will not, we will not lose. We may lose some skirmishes, but we'll not lose the battle. The sword of the spirit. This is the sayings of the word of God. The word here is not logos, which means the whole message, but it means the sayings, logos. It's not the word. It's the word rhema. This is not a word spoken by a charismatic person. Rhema, the word of God to you. This is the word of God in the Bible, the sayings of the word of God. Jesus did it. Turn these stones into bread. Man does not live by bread alone. I'm a man under law. I will not make these stones into bread. I won't satisfy my appetite according to your desires. Cast yourself down. Scripture says, He twists the Scripture. I will not put God to a test. The Bible says the man of God does not put God to a test. Well, fall down and worship me. Scripture says, worship God and Him only shall you serve. Three quotes from Deuteronomy. Jesus used the sayings of the Word of God to counter Satan, the sayings by which he lived, not just he lipped, but he lived by these things. And so he used the sayings of the Word of God appropriately applied to the issues at stake in the battle. We must top this all off with praying in the Spirit. We can claim and put on this armor of God in prayer. We can also pray for God's intervention, defending us, defeating the enemy, protection, progress. We can, with this God-given armor, With effective prayer, advance against the devil and his host, tearing down his strongholds, winning the battle for truth. Now, how do we use this armor? Bottom of page J3. Effective use of the armor. First of all, we have to properly define it. What in the world are you putting on? Well, first of all, an improper understanding of these provisions will confuse us and defeat us. I think I've given you what I estimate is the true understanding of these pieces. We must distinguish between position and practice aspects. We're not talking about living in truth, living in righteousness, living in peace. These are ours by our position. We have to understand that. We don't have to confuse these proper concepts with popular concepts like, for instance, the helmet is guarding your mind. Every one of these things is mind. There's nothing here that's not in your mind. The mind is the citadel of the soul. The enemy tries to control your mind. Your mind needs to be renewed, and these things are all mental concepts. You find one that isn't, please. Let me know afterwards, okay? Don't bother me now. We also have to have a proper understanding of these provisions so that they'll enlighten us and help us, and we can take a firm stand against the enemy. and take a confident approach to victory. Let's go to J4. How do we put it on? The proper donning. You see, I had to alliterate that, proper definition, proper donning. That's an old English word for putting it on. How shall we put on the armor of God? Well, there are three, there are different opinions, I should say. But consider the following suggestions. There's a parallel with Romans chapter 6. One talks about our victory over our sin nature. The old man has been crucified with Christ, being baptized into Christ, not by water. It doesn't say baptized into water. It says baptized into Christ by the Spirit, as Paul clarifies in Galatians chapter 3. In Ephesians chapter 4, there's one baptism. and in Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 12 for about one spirit where you're all baptized into one body. This is placing a person into Christ so that when Christ died, we died. When he rose, we rose. When he ascended, we ascended. In Christ, we have his righteousness. Never think of yourself apart from Christ. So how do you put it on? Reckon yourselves to be dead and deed to sin, but alive unto God. How do you put on the Armor, reckon yourselves to have it on. Thank the Lord for it. And move ahead in the battle with this realization. What are those three that you're supposed to know that are on already? Well, you have the belt of truth. By the way, the belt of truth is something that the soldier carried his short sword on and supported his back, much like a weightlifter or UPS man guarding his back. Holding a heavy sword and a heavy shield, he wanted to make sure his lower back was being supported. And we have support there. We have the armor already on. We can thank God for its provision and move ahead with the realization and the confidence this inspires. Now, putting on the armor of God for our practice. In addition, taking up indicates a needed action. Notice my typos there. But make no mistake, you have to put them on. A needed action on our part. The nature of the armor suggests these are related to our faith and obedience, so we are prepared for the battle. And what are these three things? They're the shield of faith, the helmet of the hope of deliverance, and the sword of the spirit. We need to recognize our personal needs, as these three pieces suggest. You must know where your weaknesses are. You must bolster yourself in that area. Bolster your armor by knowing God's truth involved and pray with thanks for their provision that God would enable you to put them on and keep them on in the battle. Easy to slip. Friends, how is your arsenal of the sword? Do you know the scriptures well enough to be able to paraphrase them if you don't quote them exactly? You don't have to quote them exactly. Know them. Live by them. Use them. Because the scriptures are God's truth. It's forever settled in heaven. It needs to be settled in your heart. God's truth is God's truth. It can become your truth as you memorize it, as you understand it, as you apply it in your life. the sayings of the Word of God. Now, God has given us all the armor that we need to stand in the battle and to gain the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to fear the battle, nor do your clients. Fear is an enemy's major tactic, the enemy's major tactic, fear and ignorance. The Lord is by our side. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have His granted power. We have his delegated authority. We have his complete armor. If we do not follow on this, we shall certainly fall. The battle is set. The stakes are high. You're personally involved. So are your clients. If we do follow through on this, we will stand victorious in the battle, and we will end up when the evil day is over, not only with a well done, a faithful servant, but also enjoying the glory of our victorious Lord. We're going to see him. And he's the victor, the risen victor. That's why I often sign my notes in the risen victor. That's who he is. And you are raised and seated with him in heavenly places. You have the position that you need, position of authority, and you have the provision of the armor. Put it on. Keep it on. Not just at the beginning of the day. All through the day. The battle never ends. But your provision is sufficient. Let's praise. Father, we thank you for all that you've done for us. Thank you for sending the Son with power to save from guilt and darkness and the grave. Riches of grace to you belong. We repeat your mercies in our song. Thank you for making things so clear from the word of God. Help us neither from fear nor ignorance to fall. Help us to stand in the power of the Lord. You said, allow yourself to be strengthened in his power and his might. So we offer ourselves to you. Strengthen us, help us, remind us, Stand beside us. If we slip, pick us up, dust us off, send us on the way. Help us to keep our sword sharp and to keep that shield high. Thank you for all that you've given to us. We commit ourselves to you and ask you that you teach us to pray as we should and to walk as we should. In Jesus' name, amen. Y'all come again, you hear? Thank you.