"The Christian Armor (Ephesians)" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

let's go right to our lesson the christian armor lesson number 13 in our study on ephesians and i thought it would be a good idea for us to begin by reading the passage uh well first let's read our memory verse ephesians 6 13 ephesians 6 13 you have that stay with me therefore take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand when i first did this study on armor to confess i was discouraged because when i'm going to study on a subject i go through the bible i find out everything the bible says on the subject and i began to study armor well i went to the armor of ahab and it had a flaw and so an arrow found a and he died i thought well that won't help me talking about the armor of god then i looked at the armor of goliath and talks about all the armor he wore of course he died and it you know talks about various people who were the armor-bearers that killed themselves i'm going this isn't looking good and then the lord spoke to me and said doug you're studying the armor of men it is faulty the armor of men will not save you this is the armor of god and so we're being counseled not to put on our armor or man's armor but god's armor now keep in mind when you're studying the armor of god as paul is writing the verses we're about to read here in ephesians 6 13 he talks about all the specific implements of the armor of god what did paul a converted pharisee know about armor i'll submit that paul knew soldiers you know why a good part of paul's life he was handcuffed to uh federal agents roman agents as they took him from place to place he was in prison he had soldiers at his door or he was handcuffed as he was being transported from jerusalem to rome he knew something about roman armor don't you think he watched them some of them had to guard him 24 hours a day when he was in rome he saw him put it on take it off and he understand understood something about the armor of god so let's read now in ephesians 6 verse 13 through 18 therefore take up the whole armor of god that you may able to withstand in the evil day and that means the day of temptation having done all to stand therefore having girded your waist with truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace and above all taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one 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 those are the verses we're going to consider in our study today from ephesians and of course it's just tying off the last part of the book of ephesians we've been studying for 13 weeks now let's go back and talk about the first part he says take up the armor god offers this armor to us it's a gift he's paid for it but you and i must choose to don the armor of god it doesn't do you any good unless you put it on the good news is god's armor even though it's god's armor it will fit you how many of you remember when david was getting ready to go against goliath that uh king saul said hey you can't fight that giant at least without putting some armor on i mean far be it i think you can go in shepherd's clothes he said put on my armor since you don't have any of your own what does the bible say happen when david put on saul's armor well king saul was a head and shoulders taller than everybody else and i can just picture david's eyes just looking out of the nick hole of saul's armor and he's got this way oversized armor i've got this personal theory that saul was allowing david to go fight against goliath because he sort of thought he's doomed but if we send out our best soldier and he's defeated we look bad if we send out a boy and they slam they feel guilty they look bad we can always say after all we send out a kid so saul makes things even worse by giving david his armor david tries to clunk around he doesn't want to insult the king so he tries it but it says he has sayed to go that means he tried to walk and he couldn't even move in this armor great big heavy armor and he told the king no offense but i haven't proved this i haven't tested and i'm not used to it let me go with what i'm used to that verse has often been echoed everybody's given different gifts and the lord wants you to use the gifts that he's given you in ministering don't try to force somebody to use your armor to fight their battles god will tailor every person's armor for them he knows exactly what your armor is supposed to be like and how it's supposed to fit but there are certain components that all of the armor of god has in common the other thing i want you to notice we're not only to take up the armor it's armor that god has made just for you but you're to stand in the armor it says you stand in the armor what does that mean three times it's a stand stand stand and one point it says withstand standing in battle is crucial because the purpose of the enemy is to intimidate and get you to retreat as soon as an army retreats they have to turn their back and it is hard to fight running backwards you know one of the laws they teach you when you play racquetball is it is very hard to aim when you're moving and one of the keys to making what they call a kill shot is plant your feet and many times i've forgotten that rule and i'm running backwards and trying to hit a kill shot and it always dumps into the ground you can't do it you plant your feet you have control it is hard to be offensive with the sword when you're running backwards you lose half of your impact standing in battle taking your stand and holding your ground this is something that generals and sergeants have told their troops for years hold the ground don't retreat now is the devil trying to get god's people to retreat yes we need to learn how to take a stand and not give up that sacred ground i remember reading about a battle during the civil war where the north was fighting to take possession of a very important hill this high ground was very valuable and as they fought their way up the hill under just a hail a barrage of bullets raining down on them they were falling one after the other and the other troops would come up behind them they actually had what they called a standard bearer who carried the flag of the troop the company ahead of them some of you saw that and that poor fella i don't even know if he had a weapon and what it meant whoever carried that flag it meant that this troop this company had captured the ground where this flag was as they're trying to take the hill under this hail of fire they began to fall back and retreat and they're halfway back down the hill they noticed that their standard bearer was still up there braving the bullets that were buzzing around him and they called up to him and they said bring the standard back down to where we are and he called back he said no you come up to where the standard is and they were so inspired by this courage of the young man who really didn't even have a weapon all he had was the flag that they fought their way back up the hill and ultimately took it and you know what's often happened the church has standards there are certain points of truth and principles where you should plant your feet and you don't move and the pressure of the world is always to get the church to lower their standard to where the world is i remember hearing an illustration one time i thought was it's simple but it's profound typically churches go through revivals where they raise the standard and then gradually when the revival ends it's almost like gravity and the tide going out you can see the standard slowly going down as long as the church feels like that they're higher than the standard of the world they can deceive themselves into thinking they're holy now notice this here you've got the standard of the church here you've got the standard of the world standard of the church for godliness should be higher than the standard of the world you all agree but over time what happens how many would agree the standard of the world is going down let me see turn the camera around show of hands how many agree that in the past 50 years standards for godliness morality in the world have gone down you all agree okay what do you think happens to the standard of the church at the same time as the standard of the world is going down the standard of the church is following and lo and behold you know what happens eventually the standard of the church gets to the same place or even lower than what the standard of the world used to be case in point i went to public school public school in new york city and i remember one of the girls i went to school with she and her sister vicki and kathy orenstein lived upstairs my brother and i knew them for years went to the same school vicki was sent home one day for immodest apparel in public school they thought her clothing was too revealing today she could wear that clothing in a christian school isn't that interesting that but that ought to just tell you something so when god tells us to stand with the armor we should not be retreating if anything we're going forth conquering and to conquer you go forward you get the enemy to run and as we talk about the breastplate you'll understand how important this is all right let's move on here and there's several examples in the bible of standing and watching god work miracles exodus 14 13 moses said to the people do not be afraid stand still and see the salvation of the lord that he will accomplish for you today they wanted to surrender to the egyptians he said you stand still trust the lord take a stand jehoshaphat or the lord told prophet uh to jehoshaphat you will not need to fight in this battle set yourselves in other words plant your feet stand still and see the salvation of the lord if we will take our stand even though it thinks you think i'll never be able to take this hill i'll never be able to hold my ground god will fight for you if you know something as a principle of truth did shadrach meshach and abednego take a stand did god fight for them that day did daniel take a stand you will be criticized sometimes even by your own when you take a stand but god will honor those that honor him don't be ashamed to take a stand for what is right and true and holy now as they um fought one of the most important implements was what they called the belt of truth and that belt went around the waist and it was very important because it held everything together they were to be girded with the belt of truth there's a few verses here matter of fact let me pass something we've got microphones i just want to identify where they are got a microphone right here and a pancho has one here all right who will read for me proverbs 3 3. that shouldn't be too hard to find and someone else find isaiah 11 5 isaiah 11 5. all right who has proverbs 3 3. got a hand right here and someone over here maybe we got a hand right here pancho hold your hand up jason isaiah 11 verse 5. jason now first let's let's go with bertie you do proverbs 3 3 please let not mercy and truth forsake you bind them around your neck write them on the tablet of your heart bind truth around you now here it says the neck and obviously you don't want to put your belt around your neck but it's just talking about have it been attached and jason you go ahead and read isaiah 11 5 and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reigns all right here and some versions say faithfulness the belt of his waist now when paul is talking about the armor of god you can look at a number of old testament scriptures and prophecies and see that paul really isn't saying anything new and original paul is really coalescing a lot of these prophecies about the armor of god into one discourse there in ephesians that we are to put on for defense these elements of truth the belt is very important because the sword hangs on the belt and when they would fight they often wore robes especially in cooler weather but when you're fighting you can't be stumbling over a long robe and so they would actually tuck or gird their garments up into their belts and cinch everything down so that they weren't tripping as they ran or climbed up a hill and it's you know i suppose ladies can understand how awkward that is sometimes if you've got a long dress on you're trying to ride a bike or climb a mountain it can be difficult well they were girded up in their belts and the belt held everything together the belt also kept the sword in place and what's the sword the word of god some people have the sword without the belt and that means you can have a bible without truth are there people out there that have the word of god but they don't have the belt of truth one time when joab assassinated an adversary he leaned over as he was walking and he deliberately made his belt fall out he's a soldier he knew how to do that so that his opponent would not notice when he picked it up to put it back in its sheath he really picked it up to stab him but he deliberately dropped his belt or dropped his sword from his belt have you ever been on an airplane and the turbulence picks up and they flashed the seat belt sign and they tell you better fasten your belt we're getting into some turbulence especially in the last days we need the belt of truth because we are being buffeted by every wind of doctrine and you need to know what the truth is it can also be embarrassing if someone asks you what you believe and you don't know i remember when i was a camp pastor oh this must be 15 20 years ago at leone meadows they had a good deal that if you would be a camp pastor your kids got to go free and i thought this is great i'll take the kids and i get to be a camp pastor and they get to go to camp for free and so two three years i did that and they had a variety of camps at leone meadows they still do and i went to what they call the aquatics camp that means the camp where you sail and you water ski and you do the boat stuff and it's a blast because i love the water but i remember one day at the end of the day we were teaching boys to ski barefoot you have to wait until the water is really smooth to do that and when they're first learning to do it you get the boat going 35-40 miles an hour because you got to go fast because instead of having a big ski you get a little foot now i don't have to go very fast because i got a big foot but and if you're skiing barefoot you fall because you're going so fast it can hurt and at the end of the day this one little boy had really wanted to learn to ski barefoot they've got this boom what it is it's it's a big aluminum pole that sticks out perpendicular from the boat and as the boat is going 35 miles an hour you hang on to this pole you put one foot out you feel your weight on it you cinch work your way out the pole you put the other foot down kind of support yourself on the pole instead of a ski rope and it makes it easier to learn then ultimately you do it with a rope so we're teaching this boy how to ski barefoot he had been wanting to learn he was a little bit chubby and um as he was going out on there he he tried a couple times and finally he got the courage he got all the way out of the boat for a moment there he was skiing barefoot and then he hit a little ripple or something it doesn't take much you get one toe under it takes your whole foot with you and you just and when you fall and you're skiing barefoot because you're going so fast you don't just submerge you skip along the surface like a stone for a little while and roll and this poor fella he fell and he went and then disappeared beneath the surface he had a life jacket on so pretty soon he bobbed back up and we came over and said would you want to try it again he said no and we said well okay climbing the boat he said no and we said you want to go again no are you okay yes you want to get in the boat no and we were saying well what's the issue here he said i lost my suit you know that little string they got inside the bathing suits from boys you're supposed to cinch that down when you're diving and things like that and he had neglected to do that and after a while we found his suit and brought it to him it wasn't hard because it looked like what do you call a checkered flag on a racetrack and but some people have been embarrassed because they don't have the belt of truth and someone will say why do you believe this and they don't know how to give an answer so you need the belt of truth and you need to fasten your seatbelt what's the next thing breastplate of righteousness ephesians 6 14 having put on the breastplate of righteousness who will read isaiah 59 17 for me got a hand right here hold your hand up so the microphone guy can see you isaiah what did i tell you 59 17 someone else read luke 15 22. maybe you've got a hand right here luke hold your hand up harold so punch us easy luke 15 22. all right let's hear isaiah first you got it isaiah 59 17. for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation upon his head and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was glad with zeal as a cloak all right do you notice right there in isaiah who is paul quoting he's quoting he knew his bible didn't he he's quoting these old testament uh prophets now with the breastplate it was the breastplate was the part of the armor that protected your vital organs in the front some of you know that when soldiers and policemen go into a risky situation what do they put on kevlar bulletproof vest and uh recently some contractors for the military took some heat because they said there was some defective kevlar that had gone to the marines any of you heard about that controversy and it wasn't withstanding the test but they principally wear it here and it covers mostly the torso in the front the breastplate did not cover the back you know why because you're not supposed to turn your back to the enemy it says resist the devil and he will flee from you and so you take a stand you resist them and it protects your vital organs and you can get cut on the hand indeed you can get a hand cut off a leg cut off you can still live but if you get stabbed in the heart even one little arrow there was a crack in ahab's armor and an arrow got through his breastplate pierced a vital artery near his heart or something he bled to death and so it protected the vital organs it was often made up of because you needed mobility sometimes it was made of a solid piece or a couple of pieces that moved something like armadillo armor sometimes they made it out of like uh fish scales where you might have 700 to 900 of these that were sewn onto a piece of leather now the point yeah it was like chainmail except they didn't develop that until england during bible times it was more like little fish scale things uh that the philistines and the israelites were but one of the problems with that is if you were that stuff right on your body on a hot day it burned you or if you didn't wear anything under it it pinched you it was very uncomfortable to wear that without they had a robe they wore underneath it now who is going to read for me harold read for me luke chapter 15 22 but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe put it on him and put on the ring on his hand and the shoes on his feet all right so when he was saved the prodigal son came home what's the first thing the father put on a robe that robe represents the robe of righteousness they always wore some form of a robe or a garment under their breastplate of righteousness so when you think about the robe of righteousness and the breastplate of righteousness they're really one and the same and it was to protect them all right the next thing is the shoes for our feet ephesians chapter 6 15 having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace now what a feat represent in the bible it represents your walk the direction of your life we are to have our feet guided by the lord where he wants them to go now typically you tell your feet where to go right your feet don't tell you where to go can you imagine having shoes that had a mind of their own and i've heard a couple of fanciful stories about someone who didn't know how to dance until they put on these special shoes and the shoes did the dance and all they had to do was wear them but with the gospel shoes you put them on and it keeps your priority in life your mission in life is to share the good news with others someone read for me isaiah 52 verse 7. i have a volunteer isaiah 52 verse 7 someone else look up why you're finding that deuteronomy 29 5-6 and deuteronomy 33 25 i've given you three verses got a hand right here which one you have quan boka isaiah 52 verse 7 right here go ahead how beautiful upon the mountains at the feet of him who brings good news who proclaims peace who brings glad tidings of good things who proclaim salvation who says to zion your god reigns very good the gospel shoes when the children i'm sorry when the apostles preached in a town and their message was not received what did jesus tell them to do as a sign when they left that village shake the dust off your feet and at the last supper what did the lord do as a symbol of humility in a cleansing he washed their feet now not too often does a girl tell her girlfriends i found the man i'm going to marry so and so what do you like about him his feet what really drew me to him he's got beautiful feet has that ever been the criteria or man have you ever said you know that's the girl just look at her feet but yet it says how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet that's typically not we think of as beautiful feet right why would the feet be called beautiful because it represents the direction of the life when the god when they shook the dust off their feet when the gospel was not received it's symbolizing that we are to take the good news to others not only that but this is armor these are shoes that are used in fighting my brother and i when we were growing up periodically my mom would take us to rockefeller center we go ice skating and being brothers sometimes we would get into arguments or we'd tackle each other while we're skating and i remember once we got into a fight with skates on have you ever tried to fight with hockey players do it all the time but it's not very easy you're sliding all over the place i remember i got into a fight with a kid at our gym one time i'm not endorsing fighting but we are talking about battle scenarios here and when i went to this school in new york city i got into a fight with another young man and i had my shoes on and they had just waxed the gym floor and i'm sliding all over the place while we're swinging at each other and i thought this isn't working so while i'm fighting i kicked off my shoes then it was worse now i've got socks on and i know that they were laughing at me those that were watching because i was just all over the place you i couldn't plant my feet and fight you can't box when you're skating then i took my socks off and just something about the nature of the bottom of your feet on the floor and again i had really good traction and i won because i was finally able to get my feet down well you need to have traction good news called on my way to church this morning my daughter-in-law daniel in the marines is supposed to come home today he's delayed a little bit he's coming home this afternoon from the army i'm so thankful making it home he'll be mustered out of the marines after four years in a couple of days and so we're so excited they got a new baby and i know they're excited but he showed me his shoes and they're different from the shoes i had in the military they got really good boots now they breathe you know in vietnam the soldiers had a lot of trouble with the trench foot because the feet just stayed wet all the time but now they got these boots that they breathe and they got this waffle stomper traction so they got good traction in the ground and when you're fighting you need good traction so you can charge remember hearing about two brothers that were hiking through the sierras and um way out in the mountains doing some wilderness hiking and they came upon a great big mountain lion sitting in the middle of the trail looking at them and its tail was twitching that's not a good sign and the younger of the two brothers slowly got down his pack his older brother was just in front of him frozen with fear and he began to take off his shoes his hiking boots and put on his sneakers and his brother whispered back to him as he was watching the cat he says you out of your mind you can't outrun a mountain lion said i don't have to outrun the mountain lion i just gotta outrun you and so he wanted to make sure he had running shoes on well when we're preaching the gospel we want to be able to run uh someone read from me matthew 3 verse 11. matthew 3 volunteer verse 11. we're still talking about the gospel sandals volunteer somewhere matthew 3 11. come on that's not too hard to find brad right up here pancho hold your hand up brad so uh poncho can see you matthew chapter 3 verse 11. i indeed baptize you with water under repentance but he who is coming after is mightier than i whose sandals i am not worthy to carry he will baptize you with the holy spirit and fire thank you when john the baptist identifies jesus having a spirit-filled life and he compares his ministry his message his gospel to that of jesus he said i am not worthy to bear his what i can't i'm not even worthy to bear his sandals his shoes because who had the best gospel shoes of anybody jesus the one who our cobbler so to speak i asked someone to look up for me deuteronomy 33 25 did you got that andrew yeah right over here hold your hand it's okay read that one that doesn't matter either one read whichever one you have which verses in five you want deuteronomy 29 5 and 6. you want to start with that one deuteronomy 5 which one no i don't have that i've got deuteronomy 33 25 and deuteronomy 29 5 and 6. so 29 5 and 6. tell you what why you're finding that i'll read deuteronomy 33 25 your sandals shall be iron and bronze as your days so shall your strength be how many of you remember the verse as your day so shall your strength be people have memorized that god gives you strength as you need it from day to day but not everyone remembers the first part of that your sandals will be ironed and brought how many here have a lead foot [Laughter] is this moses talking about the first lead foot no he's talking about that their shoes would be strong for battle and that goes along with this next verse here do you have that andrew deuteronomy 29 5-6 i have led you forty years in the wilderness your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn out on your feet you have not eaten bread nor have you drunk wine or similar drink that you may know that i am the lord your god one of the miracles about the children of israel when they went through the wilderness is god did something miraculous with their shoes they did not wear out and i wonder if there's a correlation you know when they left they were supposed to eat the passover meal the last thing they did the last ritual before they left how are they supposed to eat that meal with their staff in their hand what's the rest of that their shoes on their feet when the angel came to peter in prison he said put on your shoes and when the children of israel went through the wilderness god miraculously for 40 years preserved their shoes now it's interesting i didn't plan it this way let me show you something see these boots i've been wearing these boots for 25 years everyone wants to see my boots i now i'm not bragging about them they're not very stylish they're actually coming back into style i wear them when the weather's cold you've seen me almost every winter for years wear them the story is they were given to me when i worked for a mission matter of fact dave boatwright and i stopped in fresno we picked up all these clothes to take the la vida mission and they said you know if you see anything here that fits you you can pick through i've got a big flat foot these fit me they're comfortable they actually give me another half inch which i need and they won't wear out now for a while there they were way out of style but they're coming back and so i just think it's a little thing between me and the lord they're probably going to bury me in these boots but god just you know i only wear them on sabbath that maybe is why they don't wear out i suppose if i was out hiking with them but if you're preaching the gospel does he sustain your walk he will preserve your walk if you are preaching the gospel any of you have savage shoes like that they just won't wear out you've been wearing them for 20 years see it's a miracle no one else has shoes like that that just goes to show you free and how much do our shoes cost that jesus offers you put on the armor of god he's paid for it it's expensive armor i remember going through paris a couple years ago when we went to cameroon we went looked at some of the armor of the soldiers and people in napoleon's ranks some of them had some really nice armor and if you've been to england you can see some of the armories that they've got there and the ornate elaborate armor that they wore very expensive crafted by hand not by machine and some of it had beautiful insignias like on the breastplate that had pictures of a cross and actually had christ on the breastplate because they drew that from the bible it was the breastplate of righteousness and they would have jesus on their breastplate but this armor has been purchased by a king for you why wouldn't you want to put that on amen amen you know sometimes the fbi when they're transporting dangerous criminals are volatile criminals they make them put on kevlar because i think somebody might want to do to them what ruby did to oswald and assassinate them between courthouses and um some of them have refused to wear it and they make them wear it all right shield of faith ephesians 6 16 above all now the very fact he says above all means give this priority taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts fiery darts is another way of saying flaming arrows of the wicked one those flaming arrows the bible talks about paul talks about better than mary than to burn talks about the fires of passion and so that represents temptation and the devil is constantly looking for an opening where he can hit you with a flaming arrow not just an arrow a flaming arrow was the idea that you were to have some kind of gospel tongue so you could extract the arrows or don't even let them make contact you want to hold that shield up so the arrows never reach you there was to be a barrier and by the way those shields they weren't like the little roman shields that you sometimes see the greeks the persians they actually had shields that were a combination of leather and basket weaving and they were very tough and they would cover when they crouched their whole body could get behind the shield if a hail of arrows came after them and this is one reason that the greeks were able to defeat the persians the greeks and the spartans in particular they had a shield that when the archers fired they could crouch and lean back and the arrows would be deflected and darry is fired at alexander's troops again and again and again and the the bronze shields of the greeks it deflected the arrows and when they'd spent their archers then they came in you want to be able to protect your body during that time when temptation comes don't even let it get near you if you know that your problem is alcohol for example and you have to go to the supermarket to get your vegetables do not push your cart through the wine section on your way to the vegetables keep the shield up don't let it get anywhere near you you want to it's true resist the devil he'll flee from you but there's also a verse that says flee temptation what did joseph do when potiphar's wife tried to tempt him he would not even be near her the bible says finally because she noticed how he was avoiding her she took hold of him and he fled and i don't think we we ought to extol that virtue of joseph a little more a lot of men say oh you know we're all so weak and we're so helpless and they talk about how weak men are and joseph is a good glowing example of somebody who knew how to resist and flee temptation it is possible to live a holy life but you don't want to let it even get near you so you hold the shield up the enemy can't see you when you're behind the shield psalms 91 verse 4 someone read that for me volunteer jolene right up here microphones right at your shoulder psalms 91 and verse 4 he shall cover you with his feathers and under his wings you shall take refuge his truth shall be your shield and buckler now what is it that we use to resist temptation it's also the truth of god in the word of god don't take some of these illustrations too far they are symbols as you know but god himself is your shield matter of fact it says the glory of the lord shall be your rear word some people think that says reward in isaiah chapter 58 it's it doesn't say reward it says rear word and that means he is your rear guard god will protect you then we've got the helmet of salvation i'm running out of time and i've still got armor left and take the helmet of salvation that's even mentioned by isaiah and have you ever gone by a construction area and it says the big sign hard hat area why did they tell you that you got to protect your head why your head why don't they say hard shoulder area or hard knee area because you know why they have helmet laws for motorcycles in a lot of states now because not only do you get dane bramage if you get hit on the head too hard but the problem is that this is one of the the most vital organs of all you can suffer all kinds of injuries and surgery can often heal it but the brain is pretty sensitive and people who work in the hospitals sometimes call motorcycles donor cycles because before they have the helmet laws you need that protection i remember when some of you remember corazon aquino the president of the philippines one way she became president her husband was coming back and ferdinand marcos basically had an assassin kill her husband when he was coming back into the country he knew there was a threat on his life and so he wore a bulletproof vest but he didn't get shot in the torso they shot him in the head and so if he had a helmet he might have had a chance you remember abimelech the king he's actually the first king of israel even before saul he was killed because he went to attack the wall and the woman threw a piece of millstone down from the wall bonked him on the head and he actually told his armor bear he said kill me says i don't want them to say a woman killed me and so his armor bearer thrust them through but he received a mortal wound on the head because he didn't have his helmet on how did goliath die i mean it goes to great lengths to tell you he had this great big old helmet on probably looked like a punch bowl because he was so indignant that david came evidently when he said you come against me with a stick right when he was saying that says he doesn't even have a sword he pushed his helmet back he was out there in the valley in the hot sun and david saw his opening right then pushed back his visor and he exposed his head now i like to think of the helmet that god offers us as even more like the the helmets that the astronauts wear in space it's a complete helmet it not only covers the back it covers the front and it has its own atmosphere i think christians ought to live in an atmosphere of heaven you've got seven sacred openings from the neck up seven okay two eyes two nostrils two ears one mouth and it is through these are the avenues to the soul yes you are influenced by what goes in and comes out of your mouth and your ears and your eyes and even your nose and you want to guard those things from temptation and have that atmosphere that helmet of salvation say amen all right then i'll move on to the last point the sword ephesians 6 17 and the sword of the spirit that is the word of god this is the only offensive weapon most everything you looked at unless you fight with your shield a little bit kick with your gospel shoes really the main offensive weapon is the sword what kind of sword is it it tells us that it is a two-edged sword not there in ephesians but other verses the word of god is like a two-edged sword why two edged represents the law and the prophets represents you could say faith and works the old and new testament moses and elijah two witnesses the word of god is the two witnesses that symbolize with this dual application it's also used not only for offense but for yourself you know sometimes soldiers not only use their swords in fighting they used it in food preparation sword was everything it was their swiss army knife when they were on the field and it's this is our food they cut their bread with their sword so to speak a double-edged sword what is jesus pictured with coming out of his mouth in revelation chapter 1 verse 16. somebody read that for me do we have time yeah we do revelation chapter 1 hold your hand up if you want to read that revelation 1 got a hand back here verse 16. and this i think helps make it even more clear and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth when sharp to ed sword and his countenance was as the sun shine it in his strength jesus is pictured in revelation with a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth now i've seen pictures of those in circus and freak shows that swallow swords but that way the sword is going down in this picture the sword is coming out how many of you think that through eternity jesus is going to walk around in heaven with a big old sword protruding from his face or is that a symbol what was in the mouth of the lord the word of god was in his mouth this is how we go forth conquering and to conquer and the beast in revelation 13 receives a deadly wound what wounds the beast a sword what was it that wounded the beast during the dark ages the word of god when the word began to be published on the printing press and given to the people the beast received a deadly wound from the word so what do we use to fight the devil and his minions the word of god thy word i've hid in my heart that i might not sin we need to be acquainted if you toss a sword to somebody that's never done fencing before can they defend themselves or do we need to become competent in using the bible talks about being skilled in the word you need to learn you need to be skilled with a sword as with any sports apparatus it takes practice whether it's a tennis racket or a fencing sword we need to take time using the word to know how to apply the word of god you know before i run out of time i also think it's important to look at this the last implement is not really the sword when you think about it if you read in ephesians 6 here praying always with all prayer that's communication with your general when soldiers were out on the battlefield as long as they could see and hear from their general they knew what orders to follow if they couldn't communicate with the general they were in trouble that's why paul says if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound who will prepare for the battle the general usually had a trumpet blower next to him a bugler during the civil war and these signals told them what to do charge retreat flank left flank right so forth they had a lot of specific signals because they didn't have radios back then but you want to be in communication with your general to know the specifics of the battle plan what is that that's prayer constant communication send in support send in reinforcements right if your radio's cut you're in trouble what kind of prayer paul says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance notice stand stand stand all all how much emphasis is paul putting on taking the spiritual armor that god offers you and me that we can live the christian life people ask this question all the time you know pastor doug is the bible just the theory or can i really know how to win this battle we talked last week in our study about christian warfare how many will agree that there is a war raging there's a great controversy do you feel the battle the devil is fighting for possession of our hearts and minds our hearts are the battlefield and if we're going to be victorious in this battle we need to know something about how to it's not just spiritual very real put on that breastplate of the righteousness it's a gift to you like the father gave the son accept it by faith take up the shield to resist temptation avoid those places where you know you're going to be weak flee from temptation put on the helmet think on take in those things that are holy pure just noble good virtuous become acquainted with the word spend time every day reading the word this is the sword and sharing your faith that's the gospel shoes right you want to be going out sharing the gospel with others the three disciplines in the christian life read your bible pray share your faith witness in the temple there was the bread there was the lamp there was the incense this is all part and parcel of the arm of god and for our friends don't forget the free offer 173 call the number on your screen we'll send it to you and you can tell by the way i raced to my last words here that i ran out of time

Channel: Aaron

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Id: 8R7ME4W07EY

Length: 46min 11sec (2771 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021