EPHESIANS 6 I WILL BE DILIGENT TO WALK IN VICTORY2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Ephesians 6 I Will Be Diligent To Walk In Victory

Well,

Well, this evening we're continuing to work our way through the book of Ephesians and talking about the foundations for Christian living with all of the instruction that Paul gives us here in his letters and some very practical things that are built upon some powerful doctrines to help us live out the life that God has called us to live and not from our own resources, but based on all that God has provided us.

to us. And so some great and powerful things that the Lord has been speaking to us here in the book of Ephesians. And now as we continue on, we're going to be looking at verses 10 through 18 this evening and talking about this well-known passage about the armor of God. And so we'll start by reading through the passage and then dive into the message that God has for us. Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 10, says this,

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Here we have an incredible passage in front of us.

talking about some spiritual armor for the spiritual battles that we face. I've titled the message this evening, I Will Be Diligent to Walk in Victory. I will be diligent to walk in victory. And there's a couple of thoughts that we need to kind of grasp hold of as we're thinking about this and beginning to consider this subject. Many times victory for us can seem so elusive and

Like victory, it feels like is something that we experience when it happens and we don't always experience it. And it's kind of hard to tell when we're going to have victory and when we're not going to have victory in our lives. And when it comes to spiritual battles, when it comes to circumstances and situations in life, that it can kind of feel like sometimes we win.

And sometimes we lose, right? That sometimes we have victory and sometimes we don't. And it's not always obvious to us what's the reason for which. You know, what was the reason for that victory or what was the reason for that defeat? Victory can seem so elusive. Not guaranteed. Not for sure.

And yet, all through the book of Ephesians, Paul has been speaking to us some really important truths. As we began in chapters 1, 2, and 3, we saw the doctrine of all that we are in Christ and all that we have in Christ. And you know, one of the things that we have in Christ? It's victory. Victory.

As we looked at the previous couple weeks and the previous chapters, chapters 4, 5, and 6 here in Ephesians, we've been looking at the kind of the application of how to walk, right? Now that we know who we are in Christ and we know what he's done for us and our position in him, well, now here's how to walk. And so as husbands and wives, we relate to each other this way because of who God is and what he's done in our lives, right?

Here's how we relate to one another as believers in the body of Christ. And so we walk in unity, right? We walk in humility. We walk in love as he is love. And we walk in the light as he is the light. And because of who we are, because of who he is, because of what he's done, we walk. Well, in a similar way, when it comes to this subject of spiritual battle, spiritual war, right?

We need to understand that it is not different than the others, that we walk from a position of victory. We have victory, although maybe it doesn't always feel or seem that way, but that's why we are instructed to walk by faith and not by sight. We have victory in Christ because of what Christ has done for us. And our responsibility is not so much to win victory,

But as Paul will emphasize throughout our time together, our responsibility is simply to stand in what God has done. And so here I titled the message, I will be diligent to walk in victory because he's been talking about the walk based on what we have in Christ and who we are in Christ. Going back to Ephesians chapter five, verse 15, Paul says, "'See then that you walk circumspectly, "'not as fools, but as wise, "'redeeming the time because the days are evil.'"

Knowing what you know about who God is, about who you are in him, about what he has done for you, Paul says, make sure then that you walk circumspectly. And that word circumspectly, it means carefully or diligently.

And I've been kind of describing it in the way that when you're driving and you're being careful to pay attention to what's happening around you. You know the cars that are coming up behind you and you know what's happening in the lanes on either side of you. And you're looking ahead at what's changing ahead and what areas might need to be paid attention to. And there's this diligence to understand what's going on around you. This is the way that Paul calls us to walk.

And that flows into husbands and wives and how we relate to one another. That flows into walking in the spirit and not being drunk with wine because then we're not able to be walking circumspectly and being diligent. And now that comes to this idea of spiritual battle and it's still in that same subject that we are to walk circumspectly, that we are to walk diligently. We have victory. It's there. It's available now.

but sometimes we don't walk in it, and we're not diligent to stand in all that God has provided for us. We have victory. This week, as we've been reading through the Bible in three years, if you're joining along with us, we're in the book of Isaiah right now, and this week we read chapter 54 as one of the chapters, and

There's a verse in Isaiah 54 that always encourages me and reminds me of who we are and what we have in Christ. It's Isaiah chapter 54 verse 17, where there the Lord declares, "'No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me,' says the Lord."

Here's the heritage of the servants of the Lord. If you're a servant of the Lord, if you serve the Lord, here's your heritage, your inheritance. This is what God provides for you. And it's this protection that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. You see, we have victory. Christ has already accomplished the victory. We are already seated in the heavenlies with Christ, Paul explained earlier in chapter 3 of Ephesians.

We're already there. We're with Christ. We have victory. And our heritage is this, as servants of the Lord, as those who walk with the Lord, we have this promise, no weapon formed shall prosper. It's a great promise for us to go back to and remember so that we are diligent then to walk in that victory, to not then behave as though we don't have victory, but to press on in faith and

No matter what we see before our eyes, no matter, you know, how we feel about the situation, no matter how we feel about what's going on. I think the example of Job is a good example to think through and to parallel with your own, you know, experiences as you work through this idea of spiritual battle. Because Job, you can see it many times, he didn't feel like he had victory, right? But he had victory. From the very beginning all the way through to the very end, he had the victory, right?

The victory wasn't realized in front of him yet. It wasn't, he couldn't see it yet, but he had the victory from the beginning. All he needed to do was to walk, to stand. His wife wanted him to give up, right? She said, just curse God and die. He said, no, I'm going to stand. I'm going to be diligent to walk in victory.

And that's a great example for us to follow as we consider this. Well, there is a lot that we could cover in talking about the armor of God and spiritual battles. We're not going to try to cover every detail. And so forgive me if I leave some things lacking or wanting. And that's okay. You can dig into those things and the Lord can minister to you. But I want to walk you through four things this evening talking about our diligence to walk in victory.

And really, even though they're kind of like contrary in our minds, but it centers around what Paul instructs us to do here in this passage, and that is to stand. So we're to walk circumspectly, and the way that we walk circumspectly is by standing. And maybe that doesn't make sense physically, but it does make sense spiritually. So point number one this evening is I will stand in the strength of the Lord.

Here's how you be diligent to walk in victory. First of all, you stand in the Lord's strength. Looking again at verse 10, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. As Paul begins to kind of wrap up his thoughts here in the book of Ephesians, he says, finally, here's the kind of closing thought, the main closing subject for the book. And that is to be strong in the Lord. He instructs us, he commands us,

to be strong in the Lord. And I would just encourage you to consider that a little bit. Would you call yourself a strong Christian? Would you say that you are strong in the Lord? Whether or not we are strong in the Lord is not about, again, like victory. It feels like it's just something that happens to us and we don't really know if it's going to happen or when it's going to happen or if we have any part of it at all. But being strong in the Lord is...

Well, really like our real victory. And that is we have it. We have strength from the Lord if we will walk in it. It's available to us. You have strength in the Lord that, well, that is available for you for whatever you might face, for whatever you deal with, for whatever situations you're encountering. We're commanded to be strong in the Lord. And how do we do that? How do we be strong in the Lord?

I think we could, you know, build up a whole system around it and have all kinds of ideas, but I would like to just maybe make it a little bit simple and just say, ask God for strength. Frequently, often, repeatedly, continually, over and over and over again, with situations that you face, with conversations that you're having, with pain that you're dealing with, with difficulty that you're facing, over and over again, ask God for strength.

Think about the famous proverb, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. In all your ways, acknowledge him, the proverb says. I think that's an important key for us, for victory.

And that is to, in all that we're doing, in all that's going on in our lives, in all that we're facing, and again, the multitude of decisions that we're making, conversations that we're having, and things that are going on, that we would, throughout the day and moment by moment, be acknowledging the Lord and putting the Lord in front of us and putting the Lord at the forefront of our minds and our hearts to trust in Him.

to not lean on our understanding, or again, what we see and how we feel, but to look to the Lord to work in the situations and in the things that we face. Frequently, repeatedly, continually, ask God for strength. You can think about the Apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 12, he describes this period in his life where he had what he described as a thorn in the flesh.

And it was painful. It was hurtful. It was weakening him. It was causing him to, well, he thought, be in a position of failure or defeat instead of victory. And he called out to the Lord. It says he called out to the Lord three times or that there was three seasons of him crying out to God. He's desperate. God, please remove this from my life. And the Lord spoke to him in that time and said, my grace is sufficient for you.

He said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. God says, I got you covered. You're feeling so much pain. You're feeling so much over these, what you would consider defeat, what you would consider failures. And you're thinking about how weak you are. God says, you know, my grace, it's got you covered. I can give you strength and it's enough.

It's made perfect. My strength is shown. It's completed in you, in your weakness and in those areas where you fall short and are weak. That's where I show my strength. And so Paul concludes there in 2 Corinthians 12, he says, I will most gladly boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I will boast in my infirmities, he says. I would say that's another way of saying in all your ways, acknowledge him.

I will gladly say, yes, I need the Lord in the workplace. I need the Lord in the home. I need the Lord on the freeway. I need the Lord in church. I need the Lord, you know, in having a time with the Lord and a devotion life and a walk with the Lord. I need the Lord wherever I am and whatever I'm going through.

I need to acknowledge the Lord, acknowledge my need for the Lord, boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Forgiveness, it's promised of God, right? To what? To who? To those who confess. In a similar way, power, strength, might is promised from the Lord. To who? To those who confess. I need the Lord's strength.

We insist on our own resources. We insist, no, no, I got it handled. I got it covered. I've done this a thousand times. And now we're trusting in our own selves and our own experiences and our own, but no, no, no, I need the Lord. Even though I've done this a thousand times, I need the Lord. And God, I need you. Would you help me? Would you give me strength? Would you lead me?

I will stand in the strength of the Lord. This requires some diligence. Again, this walking circumspectly, this doesn't happen just by us being careless and nonchalant and not paying attention to anything around us, right? This happens by being careful to step by step throughout our day, throughout our week, being kind of re-centered and refocused and coming back to this place of God. I need you. I need your strength so that I can stand.

Well, moving on to verses 11 and 12, we get point number two this evening, and that is, I will stand against the wiles of the devil. Walking circumspectly, walking diligently in the victory that we have requires that we stand against the wiles of the devil. We need to recognize that there is a devil, that there is a spiritual battle, that there is a deliberate attack. You are in the midst of war. He tells us in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God.

Paul is telling us, he's instructing us, look, whether you're familiar with it or not, whether you're conscious of it or not, we're in a wrestling match. We're in a battle. We are in a war. We are in a war.

So often, right, we get confused about who that battle is with. The person right in front of us is the person that we think we're battling, right? It's that person that's frustrating me. It's that person that's causing so much harm and pain in my life. It's that person that is, you know, causing these issues. This is why I can't have victory. It's because I can't overcome this person, right? And we have, because we're walking by sight instead of by faith, we have this person in front of us

And we're convinced that's the enemy. And consistently throughout the scripture, we see that that's not the enemy. Paul here says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. The reality is there's a spiritual battle that's raging. And so to prepare for that, he says, put on the whole armor of God. You need to prepare yourself for the spiritual battle. You can't fight this spiritual battle in the same way that you would deal with an encounter with flesh and blood.

And this isn't like, you know, just some random chaos in the spiritual realm. He says specifically, we are to stand against the wiles of the devil. The devil, Satan, he hates you.

He wants to destroy your life and he wants you to spend eternity with him in hell. That's his goal. That's his objective. And he's not a nice guy. He's not a gentleman. He doesn't, you know, oh, you're having a hard time. You know, let me kind of let you catch your breath. And no, he is intent on doing his best to destroy you. And it's not randomness or sloppiness. No, the wiles of the devil are

When I hear the word wiles, I think of like Wile E. Coyote, right? Like silly, foolish, senseless attempts, you know? That's not the picture that you should have when he describes the wiles of the devil. The word wiles, well, it's described this way by the Greek scholar Spiros Zodiatis. He says, it's a method. It's the following or the pursuit of orderly and technical procedure in the handling of a subject.

Think about like a technical manual, right? And you're following these directions and here's step one and here's step two and here's the analysis and here's the diagram and here's from all different angles and here's all the different parts and here's how it all goes together. Here's how it comes apart. Here's the areas of weakness. This is what the enemy has when he looks at you. He has these diagrams, not literally, but just to kind of help us understand what's going on here. The enemy can see.

Now we don't have the indication in the scriptures that the enemy can read our thoughts or that kind of thing. You don't have to be like freaked out about that. But at the same time, there's so much that's happening in the spiritual realm that the enemy knows a lot about us. He knows how we're feeling. He knows the kinds of things we're working through and going through, the way that we're feeling. He knows what's happening around us. And he is implementing strategies, methods, strategies

in an orderly, technical fashion. Think about, you know, like a battle that's taking place and, well, there's this fortress, right? And so...

The general, the one who's in charge of the attack, is like looking for, okay, I can see this angle here. I can see this wall. It's this height. It's this dimension. It's that thick. And over here, it's this dimensions and these, you know, things. And over here, there's this maybe opportunity. There's this, you know, water that goes underneath. The city of Babylon was defeated in such a way that King Cyrus was looking at it and said, you know, the water, the river that flows into Babylon, if we just divert the water, you know,

The water level will drop and then we can just go in under the gate, the water gate there and get into the city that way. And they had a victory over Babylon in that way. In a similar fashion, the enemy is working out his methods.

I don't know if it's a little bit crazy perhaps, but, you know, I kind of picture in my mind like the Terminator, you know, like, you know, you see the red screen and it's like, boom, and, you know, the size, the weight, the hair length, and, you know, all of that. It's just, you know, all these diagrams and data is right there, right? The enemy is looking at us in that way to figure out.

He's testing this, testing that, testing this, testing that, looking for opportunity, again, to accomplish his objective, which is to destroy you and keep you away from God. He has some serious strategies, some sophisticated techniques. We could think about some of the tactics of the devil, the wiles of the devil. Here's just some to think about, right? Temptation,

That's an obvious one. We're familiar with that one, right? Putting the apple in front of you and saying, hey, you know, doesn't it look delicious? And it's going to give you wisdom and so on and so forth. Obviously, I know it wasn't an apple. You don't have to worry about all that. But anyways, so temptation. He knows what we're weak in and he sets before us temptations, lies. The enemy loves to lie. Jesus said when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own resources. He's the father of lies. He's the father of lies.

And the enemy seeks to convince us of his lies. Intimidation. Satan wants to convince you. He's a big bully. He has no real power. You have the victory. I've often shared this quote, and I don't remember who originally said it, but some pastor sometime was saying that the enemy can never take anything from you. All he can actually do is try to convince you to give it up yourself. The enemy can't destroy your marriage, but he can.

His intention is to intimidate you, to convince you, you just give up. He can't take God's blessings from you. But, well, if he can convince you to give up on the Lord, to throw away God's blessings, then he accomplishes that purpose anyways. Intimidation, discouragement. Again, just give up. Just quit. It's too hard.

I don't know if it was last Sunday or the Sunday before, but I was sharing that there's those things sometimes that I'm like, I don't even bother praying for that, right? It's like, it's not even, it's too far out. It's too far. Whereas Kim was like, no, I think God wants to do this in our lives. And so I'm going to pray for it. I'll be like, you know, I don't know. I can't see God ever doing that. You know, like I begin in the place of discouragement and then she pulls me out. So work of the enemy to discourage us. Frustration. Frustration.

Oh, the enemy loves to bring that frustration into our lives. That, that, that, oh, that angst, that anger, that confusion. Maybe he can't get us to believe directly the lie, but if we can start to be confused about some of the things that God has said, if we can be confused about the promises of God or what God wants to do or the work that God is doing, it's beginning the victory that he wants to accomplish. False doctrine, of course, that's an obvious one. Circumstances,

This is an interesting one to consider. Again, looking at the example of Job, he experienced some circumstances, right? Sometimes we think of spiritual war and it's just, you know, it happens kind of in the ether. It's just in the air, you know, you kind of feel it, but it's not like real. But no, you know, circumstances, flat tire, houses fall down, wind and waves. And the enemy, he uses whatever he has access to, whatever resources he has to try to bring peace

us to a place of defeat, to bring us to a place where we give up, stand against the wiles of the devil. Accusation, condemnation, distraction, we could go on and on. These are tactics of the enemy. And I would add on to that, don't forget about the combos, right? I mean, hey, a mean jab is one thing, but if you can do a jab, boom, and then, you know, I don't know anything about boxing, but hopefully I pulled it off and tricked you into that. But

But you get the point, right? You do a combo and it's like, bam, bam, you know? And oh, I didn't see that coming. Like, oh, I blocked that, but boom, here comes the other one, right? That this is something that the enemy does. He has like huge con schemes, you know, in place in our lives, trying to get us to give up, to not stand, to not walk diligently in the victory that God has for us. And one of the ways that he distracts us from the real battle, again, it's by the flesh and blood, right?

It's by the people around us that can be, whether they know they're being instruments or not, that can be instruments of, well, the work that the enemy wants to do in our lives. Again, he was probably not using Job's wife directly, but she played into his plan when she said, why don't you just curse God and die? Job's friends were not the enemy, but I'm sure they felt like it to Job personally.

As they just pounded on him, pounded on him, pounded on him. You must be in sin, you know. And it was all wrong. It was all, they were off base. They didn't expect to be used by the enemy. They didn't think they were being used by the enemy. They didn't intend to be used by the enemy. Oh, but he fell into their plan. Their bad doctrine made them his instruments to work in Job's life. Listen, we're going to have all of these kinds of attacks and more. And we need to stand against the wiles of the devil.

We need to be aware. Paul, in a different portion, says, look, we're not ignorant of the enemy's devices. These are tactics that he uses against us. Don't be ignorant, but stand. Stand against these tactics and plans of the enemy. Well, moving on to verse three, we get point number, I'm sorry, verse 13, we get point number three, and that is, I will keep standing to the end. I will keep standing to the end. Here's really the key for us.

The way to have the final victory is to just be the last one standing. Listen, Satan's days are numbered and he is, well, for a limited time, he has some freedom to work his work and to accomplish his wiles and schemes, but his days are numbered. He will not be victorious in the end. That is guaranteed. He will be defeated. All you need to do is just outlast him to keep on standing till the end because Satan won't be standing at the end.

He's going to be destroyed, defeated, and cast into the lake of fire by the Lord. Having done all to stand. Look at verse 11. We'll back up for just a moment because he uses the word stand a few times here. Verse 11, he says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

So we're standing against, and you kind of see that posture, right? You're on defense, right? I'm standing against. I'm standing up. I'm prepared for the attack. But then verse 13, he says, And so here you are in this posture, this stand, this defense, right? And that you're able to withstand, that is,

Well, here comes the battle now. You've prepared yourself. You're standing against. And here it comes. And you endure. You persevere. You withstand. You stay standing even in the midst of the storm. As we've been talking about the foundations for Christian living, we've been going back to Luke chapter 6 where Jesus gives that parable of the wise and the foolish builder. They both experienced the storm, right? But one stood, one withstood, and the other did not. The wise man, well...

He was able to withstand because he dug down deep and his house was founded upon the rock. And so when the storm came, he withstood the storm. He was left standing after the storm. This is how the Lord calls us to be, to dig down deep. It's not some great, like mysterious, mystical thing

Here's how you win, you know, spiritual battle. You got to hum and put your hands in these positions and, you know, learn to karate chop the demons away. You know, it's not some... Jesus says in the parable, he says, look, the person who hears the words that I give, that I command, and then puts them into practice, that's the wise man who builds his house upon the rock, who withstands in the evil day, who withstands the storm that comes.

He goes on in verse 13 to say, and having done all to stand. And the idea there is that after everything has gone on, after all the battles have been fought, after all the wiles have been wild, you know, that there you are standing, still, enduring, persevering through the storm. And then in verse 14, he says, stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth. And he'll begin to work his way through the different pieces of the armor that he'll be describing.

So stand, he says, because that's the victory, to be withstanding, to be standing at the very end after all of the battles have been fought, after all of the attacks have been thrown at you, that you would endure through that. We need to purpose now and kind of settle in our hearts now. Sometimes we would like for this life to be, you know, the vacation zone, but it's really the battle zone. It's really a battlefield.

And as long as we're in this life and in this body, there is going to be a battle that is going on because, well, it's still the enemy's opportunity to bring destruction and to cause us to turn away from the things of the Lord. And so as much as we want to relax and just kind of chill and just have a good time and just enjoy life, not that God doesn't have lots of great joy and things for you to enjoy and times of relaxation for you, but at the same time, we cannot ever forget that

Our main objective and what we're called to do is to stand until the end. We need to be diligent, to walk in victory, and to be prepared to be standing to the very end. It doesn't always happen. There's a man in the Bible named Demas. You might have heard of him. He was along with the Apostle Paul through a couple of his missionary journeys. For several years, he was with Paul. He was part of the missionary work.

But then there's a tragedy that takes place in 2 Timothy 4, verse 10. Paul tells Timothy, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica. Other guys went other places on the mission for the Lord. But Demas, well, he was one of those amongst Paul's friends who said, you know what? I love the world more than I love the Lord. There were tactics. There were wiles. There were

that the enemy was using in the life of Demas. And Demas came to a point where he decided to fall into those things, to cave into those things, to not continue to stand. But he caved, perhaps under temptation or under great pressure or under great disappointment or under great discouragement or whatever the circumstances in his life were. He came to a point where he said, you know, I'm not going to keep standing. I'm not going to keep relying on the Lord for strength. I'm not going to continue standing.

and the power of the Lord, and to fight against the things that the enemy desires to and is bringing in my life. No, I'm going to just go with it. It's easier. You know, sometimes people say that, like, oh man, things were easier before I became a Christian, right? That's not really a surprise, if that's your experience, because, well, you were on the enemy's side, so he wasn't fighting you. And when you're walking with the Lord, when you're standing in the Lord's might, there's going to be battles, right?

Because the enemy wants to keep you away from the Lord. Withstand, endure, persevere. Don't give up. You have the victory. All you got to do is keep standing. Stay with the Lord. Stay close to the Lord. Stay in a place of seeking the Lord and trusting in the Lord. I will keep standing to the end. Well, moving on to the final verses, verses 13 through 18, we get point number four, and that is, I will stand with the whole armor of God.

Again, as I said, we're not getting into all the details, right? Obviously, there's a lot here in these verses talking about the different elements of the armor. We're not going to try to cover every aspect of all of them, but to kind of get an overview, a grasp of the whole armor of God. Paul says in verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand. How can we withstand all these attacks and make it to the end? How is that possible? How can we do that?

Paul says, well, we have some tools from the Lord for this, for this very purpose, to help you stand to the end. God has given you everything that you need. Take up the whole armor of God. And he gives these different elements. You can picture it in a variety of ways, but you have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the spirit, the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace. These elements God has given to us. Now,

I think in my mind, my tendency is to overemphasize the piece or the placement of each part, the belt of truth. And I begin to think, okay, here's what a belt does. And here's how a belt works. Here's Roman soldier. Here's how a belt worked in his life, right? And for his uniform, for his armor, this is what the purpose of the belt, right? And I don't know if that's exactly what Paul intended for us to do.

Now, each piece of the armor is an illustration and he named the different parts of the armor and attached, you know, different characteristics to it. The belt of truth, the helmet of salvation. And it has value in that, in illustrating some things. Also, I would encourage you to remember and think about that in different portions, that different pieces of armor were given different labels. In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8, he talks about the breastplate of faith and love.

So here you have the breastplate of righteousness. In 1 Thessalonians, it's the breastplate of faith and love. Here you have the helmet of salvation. In 1 Thessalonians 5.8, he talks about the helmet of the hope of salvation. And so it's not so much the salvation, but the hope that is the helmet, right? That he's talking about there. So it can be described in different ways or attached to different things. I would say, you know, he could have just as easily said the helmet of truth or the shoes of righteousness, right?

And we'd be like, you know, it messes up all my doctrine when they're not in the right exact order, right? Look, I think they serve a useful part in the illustration and looking at the different elements. And I'm not going to dig into the specifics of the illustration of each one, but...

I think the emphasis that the Lord wants us to consider this morning is not so much you have to know exactly, because here's what happens to me anyways. And I can vividly remember this, especially in my younger years, kind of growing up and trying to figure out, you know, spiritual war and spiritual battle. And it sounds so mysterious and it's so like out there. And okay, and then you kind of like visualize, okay, helmet of salvation coming on, you know, you know, how do you do this? How do you put on the armor of God? Paul says, take up the armor of God, right? And he says, take up the armor of God.

And so it causes, caused me anyways, to be like, I'm very literal in my mind. That's like my first thing, right? So I'm like, how do I do that? And I'm trying to figure out, and I'm, I'm picturing, I'm thinking literally. And, and there are those who would kind of teach it that way. Okay. So you have to pray. Okay. Lord, help me to remember that I'm saved and have the helmet of salvation. Lord, help me to put on the belt of truth. And here comes the belt, click, it's in place. Okay, good. You could pray through that. And I'm being silly. I'm not,

Making fun of you directly. Maybe I am a little. I apologize. But these are all good things. These are things we need. But I would encourage you this evening to think about it a different way. What Paul is saying here is make sure that each of these items, not so much the belt, but the truth is a major characteristic of your life. Make sure it's a major part of your character and who you are. You don't have to necessarily know exactly or, you know,

Go through this process. Paul wasn't necessarily giving us a prayer routine. Here's what you need to pray every day. What he's saying is, here, structure your life this way. Make sure that truth is a major component of who you are and the life that you live. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth. The belt, the girding your waist, that's an illustration of

Don't get distracted by that and caught up and I can't figure out how to gird my waist with truth so then I kind of just don't even worry about that, right? No, no. Let's put aside the illustration for a moment and just think about truth. Truth. Is truth a major part of your character? And you can think about truth in a couple ways. First of all, believing the truth.

What God has declared, believing the promises of God, believing the truth that God has revealed about who he is. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, right? But there's a lot of people who are confused by that, who even say they believe the Bible, but don't believe that. They deny the truth. Paul talks about the false teachers who deny the truth. There's the need for truth in our lives. And there's a battle against that within ourselves, right?

We don't really want the truth many times, right? Why is it that we don't like to go to the doctor? Because if something is going on there, I don't want to know, right? I don't want to hear the truth. I don't want to be told the truth. You know, sometimes there's people that you avoid because you know they're going to tell you, I won't ask them about this situation in my life because I know they're going to tell me the truth. It's not what I want to hear, right? I want to hear what this person, Roman, you tell me, soft little lies. I like that, right? That's nicer. Is the truth a major part of your life?

You believe the truth. You're not deceived. You're not confused. You're not led astray. But you can also look at truth and understand another aspect of this is speaking the truth. Is that something that is automatic for you? That you speak the truth? Listen, the way to put on the armor of God and protect yourself from the wiles of the devil is to speak the truth.

And that can be a challenge sometimes because, well, maybe there's a situation where lying would get you out of trouble, you think. And telling the truth would get you in more trouble. And so there's this decision to be made. There's this battle being fought internally. I just leave this part out. If I just give this little white lie, right, then it helps me escape the immediate, you know, thing that I'm trying to get out of. But if I decide not to speak the truth, right,

It's like leaving my belt unbuckled and then my pants fall down. It doesn't work very well when it's unbuckled, right? No, no, it doesn't work that way. No, no, speak the truth consistently, diligently throughout your life. Make it a major characteristic of who you are that you speak the truth. You may have more difficult results immediately, but

But listen, you'll have the protection of the Lord. You'll be wearing the armor of God because you speak the truth. Make truth a major part of your character, a major part of your life. He tells us to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Again, it's an illustration. It pictures, you know, for us this protection. But the characteristic that's needed for us here is righteousness. Righteousness.

And there's, again, two aspects to this to consider. Righteousness that comes by faith. That the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to me. That I don't approach God. I'm not forgiven. I'm not, you know, receiving the blessings from God by my own efforts or works. But by faith in Jesus Christ, I am righteous. I'm declared righteous. I don't have to work to become righteous in that sense. I am righteous by faith in Jesus Christ.

And so accepting that, believing that, holding fast to that, because, well, one of the wiles of the devil is accusation. And he's trying to convince you that God's out to get you and God's out to judge you and God's out, you know, he's given up on you. He's out to get rid of you. But you need to put on the breastplate of righteousness. And it's not through some ceremony internally, but it's by coming back to the reality, to the truth. I am righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. He says so.

That's what God has declared. But the other side of righteousness that we need to consider is, well, it also means to do the right thing. To do the right thing consistently is to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Make righteousness a major part of your character. Is that what you're known for? People have, you know, questions about a situation. They say, hey, what's the right thing to do here? I know you always do the right thing. Righteousness.

When we do not do the right thing, when we know what is right and we don't do it, it's called sin. And you know what it does? It leaves a gap in our armor. It leaves us open and vulnerable. We're susceptible to the attacks, to the wiles of the devil. And we have then, well, an opportunity, a vulnerability to be hurt, to be leveraged against us.

And doing the right thing sometimes is really hard and difficult. But if you do the right thing consistently, listen, you have the protection of the Lord. Even if it makes enemies of people around you and they turn against you or they, you know, fight. Doing the right thing protects you. It's putting on the armor of God. He also says in verse 15 to put on or having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The gospel or the message, the good news of peace.

Now again, typically, like we think about these things, we emphasize the word gospel. We think about evangelism. Blessed are the feet, you know, who bring good news. That's a biblical thing. And so there is that aspect to it. But the message is peace. Peace with God. Peace from God. Later on, Paul says, peace that passes understanding. Listen, putting on the whole armor of God

Means that we become men and women who are characterized by peace. Make peace a major aspect of your life. Again, you could think about, just kind of do a little test, how are you known? Are you known as a person of peace? There's different aspects of this, that we have peace with God, so that

We know God's not against us. There is that peace that he's on our side, we're on his side, that there's that peace. But we also have peace from God that passes understanding so that we can go through crazy, hard, difficult, painful situations and not be all freaked out and our hair on fire and like, oh, I can't believe that guy's running for president. And it's like, it's the end of the world, you know? That's not the armor of God. That is leaving us open and vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, right?

Not that we can't be upset by things, not that we can't have those things that we're passionate about, but at the same time, we have peace. We have rest in God and from God. That's what chapters one, two, and three of Ephesians is all about, right? We have peace. There's peace between the Jews and Gentiles, which seemed impossible. There's peace with God and the righteousness that we have from him.

We were once dead in our trespasses and sins, but he's made us alive that there is this radical work of peace that God has done. Jesus told his disciples in John 14, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you from the Lord. Well, we need to receive it. We need to walk in it diligently and make it a major characteristic of our character in life. He goes on in verse 16 saying, take up the shield of faith.

Faith. Believing God at his word. Believe God. Make it your practice. When you read the Bible, perhaps you need to just take a moment and say, God, here's what you said. I believe you. Make it your practice to believe what God says, to deliberately, to purposefully take God at his word. And when he gives a promise, believe it.

Not just, well, I hope, you know, that might come true or come to pass. I hope that God will do that. No, when God gives a promise, believe it. Hold fast to it. Cling to it. Don't give up. Don't let it go. Don't give up on those promises of God. Take God at his word. Value it. Value it greatly. It quenches the fiery darts of the evil one because, well, the enemy wants to throw doubts. God doesn't love you. What do you tell Eve? Did God really say that?

And here's Eve going, I don't know if God said, I don't know what to believe. I don't know. Left her open for attack. Make faith a major characteristic of your life and your character. Verse 17, he says, take the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation. Again, the doctrine of Ephesians is all about the doctrine of salvation. The finished work that it is. The spiritual blessings that we have in Christ.

The completion that was accomplished on our behalf so that, again, we are seated in the heavenlies with Christ. It's a finished work. It provides great protection for us to know that we're saved, to remember that we're saved, to remember how that we're saved, that we don't work for salvation, that we don't get sucked into legalism, that we don't get sucked into trying to earn and deserve God's favor, but to come back to God's plan of salvation, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, where he finished the work.

But he also says to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Word of God needs to be a major part of our lives. It's effort. It requires effort. It requires work. But be a student of the Word of God. It happens regularly around me. I hear conversations in the workplace and within families and amongst the church. People discussing theories, doctrines, ideas, and

without really consulting the word. And the conversation is based on concepts heard from Bible studies and teachings. It's kind of, you know, somewhat tied to the things of the Lord or things that are taught, but it's third hand. I heard Richard say this about this passage one time. And then now I'm building some thoughts about, okay, so now what if, if that's true, okay, so now what if then this over here is true and we're kind of like building this house of cards and

without any solid foundation, but based on what other people have told us or what we've heard or kind of concepts that we believe without any real foundation, it's like the telephone game, but much worse because much more is at stake. You need to know the word of God. You need to be a student. You need to be reading through the scriptures. And listen, if you don't know the word of God, when you don't know the word of God, it leaves you vulnerable to the wiles of the devil because you don't know what God says.

Because you haven't been fortified. It's not just about information, spending time in the Word of God, but it's also about the work of the Spirit of God in our lives. There's a strengthening, there's a fortification, there's a work that the Holy Spirit does by His Word in us, in developing us, in growing us, in maturing us, as well as informing us. And so we're immature without God's Word. We're uninformed without God's Word. And both are

Well, leave us really vulnerable to the wiles of the devil and the attacks of the devil. Then he goes on to say in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Here's the last thing we'll touch on tonight, and that is prayer. Prayer needs to be a major characteristic of your life. Praying always, Paul says, with all prayer, all kinds of prayer. Pray in this way, pray in that way, pray in all kinds of ways. Prayer and supplication, which is specifically praying for others,

I think, you know, a lot of times we don't have a hard time praying for ourselves. But here's what I need. And I can spend an hour talking about all the things that I need and all of what I want, all the things I wanted to do in my life. And supplication though, is that making requests on behalf of others. He says supplication for all the saints there at the end of verse 18, right? When you pray for others, you're putting on the armor of God. You're putting yourself in the protection of God.

Paul says, persevere in that. Persist in that. Pray always. And the emphasis here that Paul is giving is the whole armor of God. He repeats it a couple times. So here's the picture. Look, if you put on half of this, you might think, hey, I'm in good shape. You know, I'm known for truth and I'm, you know, known for knowing the word of God, but I just, you know, really don't spend any time in prayer. Hey, listen, you're vulnerable. You're open. You're open.

Paul says, put on the whole armor of God. Remember the strategies of Satan. He's got all the diagrams. He's figuring out the weakest spot. We need the whole armor of God to be fully protected, to keep ourselves squarely in the protection of the Lord. I think the prophet Daniel is a great example of this. I always liked the prophet Daniel because he, for me, speaks of those situations where he's in the workplace, right?

He wasn't like in some religious center. He wasn't at the temple. He was in Babylon doing his job, but he was known. You know what Daniel was known for? He was known for having on the full armor of God. Now it's not termed that way, but in Daniel chapter six, his fellow rulers around him were jealous of him. They wanted to get rid of him. And so they investigated his life. They wanted to dig in. So they called up TMZ and they said, hey, can you check out Daniel and dig up all the dirt, right? They did.

They did it. They dug it up. They tried to find whatever they could and they decided, you know, we can't find anything. There's nothing. The only thing that we can come up with is if we make walking with God, putting on the full arm of God, pursuing the things of God, if we make that illegal, specifically prayer, then we got it. Because man, he is diligent and he is consistent and he always prays. He was characterized for his truth, for his righteousness, for his wisdom, which came from the Lord.

for his prayer. This was major characteristics of his life. It's a good example for us that even in the workplace, hey, it's one thing to be a Christian here, right? You're probably hardly tempted at all to curse, you know, while you're here, but out there, probably not tempted that much to lie. Maybe you are tempted to lie here, but, oh, out there, you know, much more so. This is meant to be a sanctuary from that battle, right? But we got to go back into the battle and the way we protect ourselves, right?

It's by putting on the whole armor, not just a piece, not just a little bit, but that we're fully committed to salvation. And we've taken up the word of God and we are doing what's right and believing in the righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ, believing God at his word with the shield of faith and speaking the truth in love, but the truth settled, rooted, grounded in the peace of God that passes all understanding.

I will be diligent to walk in victory. It means that I will stand in the strength of the Lord and I will stand against the attacks and the wiles and strategies of the devil and I will keep on standing until the very end. I'll endure and I'm prepared for that long haul, the battle that I will face until I enter into eternity. I'll be able to do that by putting on the whole armor of God, by taking these characteristics and making them

a major part of my life. In that, I'm protecting myself from the battle that rages on. Let's pray. God, I pray for each one of us that you would help us to take these things and to put them into practice in our lives. Lord, that you would help us to see ways that we're able to take these truths and make them realities. God, I pray you would also open our eyes and show us where these characteristics are lacking, Lord, where elements of the armor are falling off and falling apart, Lord, that

We're unprepared and vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. Help us, God, to be able to see those things, to turn back and correct them, to fortify those walls. Lord, help us to be men and women like Daniel who would be characterized by our loyalty to you, by our love for you, and by our diligence in walking with you. And Lord, as the enemy attacks, help us to remember that we have the victory to stay settled and strong in peace.

in all that you've promised to us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.