Man, it's good to be here tonight.
Ephesians chapter six is, of course, the classic passage about the whole armor of God.
That's the part that I'm going to focus on tonight, beginning in verse number 10.
The Bible reads, 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 wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places.
Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, and then he gets into the various
pieces of armor.
The first thing I want to point out here is that the Bible is telling us that the devil
is going to come at us with all kinds of attacks.
There's a spiritual battle going on.
We're wrestling against principalities and powers, and the Bible says that in order for
us in verse 11 to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, we must put on the
whole armor of God.
That means if we don't put on the whole armor of God, we will not be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil.
Now, even with the whole armor of God on, it's going to be a battle.
It's going to be a fight, but at least when you have the whole armor of God on, you have
a fighting chance.
You even have the ability to stand against the wiles of the devil.
You may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil if you have on the whole armor
of God.
Verse 13, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day.
Now, what is that talking about, the evil day?
That evil day is going to be different for everybody.
The evil day is just that day in your life where everything goes bad, everything comes
down at the same time, all hell breaks loose, or all the enemies attack you, or you're just
at the lowest point you've ever been spiritually, or someone that you love turns on you.
This is basically Jesus Christ, when he's out in the wilderness, tempted by the devil.
And he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
The devil comes to him and tempts him.
That was a key moment in his life where he had to withstand the devil, right?
And then there were other low points in Jesus' life, like when he's in the garden of Gethsemane,
and he's praying, and he's sweating great drops of blood.
You know, we're going to go through times in our life where there's extreme temptation,
a major battle, a major attack, just a spiritual low point for us, and that's when we're vulnerable.
And we need to be able to stand when that evil day comes in our life.
And we have that bad day, that dangerous time.
And in order to do that, we've got to put on the whole armor of God.
I mean, the devil is looking for that chink in the armor.
He's looking for that weakness in our life that he can exploit.
He's looking for the weakness in the church that he can exploit.
He's walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
And so we better make sure that we're ready to defend, and that we have the whole armor
of God on.
And the goal with this is to stand.
That's the thing he keeps saying over and over again.
He says that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, in verse 13, and having done
all, to stand, and then he repeats it, stand therefore.
And that should stand out to us when the same word is just repeated over and over again.
And even back to back there, I mean, two words in a row, the last word of verse 13, the first
word of verse 14, is just like stand, stand, stand, stand, stand, stand, stand, right?
We don't need to be backing down in 2018.
We don't need to get in the midst of a fight, in the midst of an attack, in the midst of
persecution, and just compromise, give in, back down, retreat, run away.
No, no, no, we need to stand our ground.
That means we need to stand in church, stand with solany, stand for reading our Bible.
You know, we need to stay where we are spiritually and not take steps backward.
You know, let's say you've grown spiritually.
You don't want to take steps backward.
You know, maybe you used to be kind of a Sunday morning only, or maybe just kind of a three
times a month type, or you kind of just barely come to church.
Let's say you started getting more faithful to church, coming to church more.
You know, keep that going.
Don't back off from that.
Or you know, you maybe have some things in your life that you had to get rid of, some
sin that you got out of your life.
You know, stand on that.
Don't let the devil reclaim that ground in your life.
Stand and don't back down on those things.
And the whole armor of God is going to protect you against the attacks of the devil.
So let's look at these pieces of armor because without them, we're vulnerable.
Without them, we don't even stand a chance, okay?
With them, we have the ability to stand against the wiles of the devil.
He says in verse 14, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.
So the first item of the armor is the girdle or the belt, right?
Having your loins girt about with truth.
Now what does this represent?
Truth.
Flip over here to 1 Peter.
Let's compare scripture with scripture.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number one.
And obviously we know what the truth is.
We know that the truth is that which represents reality, that which is not false, that which
is real, that which God has told us and revealed unto us as being true.
Look at 1 Peter chapter one, verse 13.
Here's a similar wording when it says, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and
hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus
Christ as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the form or lust in
your ignorance.
Notice that word ignorance.
But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
So what he's saying here is gird up the loins of your mind and he says, be sober.
Sober means serious, okay?
And then the opposite of that is when you were ignorant, right?
So there's people who know the truth and then there are people that are ignorant of the
truth.
There are people that are sober and have the loins of their mind girded up.
What's the opposite of that?
There's people who are kind of letting their mind just hang loose, okay?
Because what does your belt do?
What does the girdle do?
It cinches things down, doesn't it?
It tightens things up.
And so when the Bible's saying, gird up the loins of your mind and be sober, what's he
saying?
Take control of your mind.
Take your mind, tighten it up.
Don't just let your mind just run free and loose and sloppy.
Think about when you have no belt on.
Things get a little sloppy.
Your pants are kind of loose.
Your shirt gets kind of untucked.
The belt kind of holds it all together, right?
I had to take my belt off to go through the metal detector and then it's like I really
wanted to get my belt back on because I felt vulnerable to the devil's ... No, I'm just
kidding.
I wanted to put on the whole armor.
So I wanted to get my belt back on because I felt sloppy just not having a belt on, right?
So the belt tightens things up, holds it all together.
So God likens that to having a sober mind that knows the truth.
See the opposite of that is the way the typical American lives their life in 2018.
They don't really take control of their own mind.
Just whatever the TV tells them is going on, whatever the radio tells them, whatever magazines
tell them, they're just kind of this passive listener that just kind of lets it all come
in and somebody else is almost controlling their mind like a puppet.
That's why you talk to so many people and they have the exact same opinions, but those
opinions don't make any sense.
It's like, why do I keep hearing the same thing?
It's because they're being programmed by someone else, whether it's TV, radio, magazines.
So a lot of people, if they're just weak minded and they don't have the belt on, if they don't
have the truth in their mind and if they don't have a sober mind, their mind is just kind
of pliable and that's where they can get tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
That's where people can put ideas into their head because they're just so easily suggestible.
They're not taking control of their own mind.
They're letting other people think for them and give them the ideas for them.
And that's what the world wants to do, right?
Program you, control your mind, get you to think the way they want you to think.
God wants us to take control of our mind and bring it into conformity with His word.
Go to Romans chapter 12.
He also tied that in with living a clean life, living a holy life, because obviously
you don't live a holy and a clean life by accident.
You put thought into that and you decide to tighten that up as well, but it all starts
with having your loins girt about with truth and we're not talking about your physical
belt.
We're talking about the loins of your mind.
He said, gird up the loins of your mind to be sober.
Look at Romans chapter 12 verse one, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service and watch this and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed.
How are we going to get transformed?
How are we not going to be conformed to this world?
By the renewing of your mind.
It starts in your brain.
It starts in your mind.
And then he says that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God.
So you've got to renew your mind.
You've got to gird up the loins of your mind.
You got to push a reset button in your mind.
You've got to tighten that thing up.
You got to take the reins of your mind.
You got to gird up the loins of your mind and decide, I'm not just going to think about
whatever the world tells me to think about.
I'm going to decide what I think about.
I'm going to meditate on God's word day and night.
I'm going to think about wholesome things.
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if
there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I'm going to decide what I think about.
I'm going to gird up the loins of my mind.
I'm not just going to be this passive conduit for the world's garbage to just control my
mind and give me all these weird opinions and things that are contrary to God's word.
So that's a pretty key part of the armor.
I mean look, already you can see how this is going to defend you against the devil.
I mean if you could just, even just that one thing, even just the belt alone, just
to gird up the loins of your mind, just to have the loins gird about with truth, now
the devil's not going to be able to put all this junk in your mind because you've taken
control of your own mind, right?
So you can see how this is a strong defense against the wiles of the devil.
So you can see why that's the first piece of armor mentioned.
It's very important.
So back in Ephesians 6 he said, stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth and
having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate of righteousness.
So of course the breastplate is this protection right here that would cover the front of your
body, it would cover your chest and your stomach and that's a key part of the armor because
obviously you've got all these internal organs here.
You've got your heart and your lungs and all your guts and everything like that.
But the breastplate of righteousness, what does righteousness mean?
In this context, righteousness simply means living the right kind of life, just doing
the right things, living right, okay?
So first of all, you want to number one, get your mind right.
Gird up the loins of your mind.
Get your loins gird about with truth.
Replace ignorance with truth from God's word.
But then secondly, you don't want to just be a hearer of the word.
You don't want to just be somebody who understands everything and has it all right in your head.
You got to put it into practice.
Be a doer of the word.
That's the righteousness, right?
Having the breastplate of righteousness, doing the right things, following God's commandments,
being a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
That's the breastplate of righteousness.
Next he says, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Now this has to do with soul winning.
This has to do with preaching the gospel.
Now this is such a profound verse, even though it's just a short little thought, because
there are a few elements listed here.
He talks about the feet being shod, and then he says the preparation, and then he says
of the gospel of peace.
So there are a lot of elements there to understand just in that one little verse.
First of all, we notice that this piece of armor goes on our feet.
And obviously going into battle barefoot would be one of the worst possible ideas, because
if your feet are out of commission, you're done.
And if you're on a battlefield, I'm sure there's going to be all kinds of shrapnel and all
kinds of sharp objects and things that could damage your feet, and then you're not going
to be able to run.
You're not going to be able to walk.
You're not going to be able to move.
If your feet are messed up, you're not going to be able to continue fighting.
So your feet need to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
First of all, preaching the gospel in the Bible is always associated with your feet.
Now when we think of preaching the gospel, we would associate it with the mouth, because
the mouth is what's doing the preaching.
But the reason God always associates it with the feet is the most important part of this
is going to the lost with the gospel, and your feet are what take you to them.
Now a lot of churches have this wrong.
They think we're supposed to get the lost to come to us, try to entice them to come
to us, when in reality, we're supposed to go and seek and save that which is lost.
Jesus said he came to seek and to save.
Seek means to go out looking for, to seek and to save that which is lost.
That's why he said, go ye therefore and teach all nations.
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.
Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that God's house may be filled.
So we've got to go.
I mean, that's the main command about the gospel is go.
We've got to go soul winning, right?
What's the hardest part about soul winning?
Getting out there and doing it.
The hardest part is showing up, right?
I mean, once you show up, it's all downhill from there.
It's just getting out there and doing it, especially when you can just get paired up
as a silent partner and just, that's how you get started, right?
You go out, you're a silent partner.
What's the hardest part?
Just getting people to show up and be a silent partner.
I mean, once you're a silent partner, you're going to have fun.
You're going to enjoy it.
You're going to see the blessing of people being saved and you're going to see God at
work.
You're going to want to keep going and you're going to learn how to do it over time.
That all comes with time.
Even for an experienced soul winner, sometimes the hardest thing is just getting out there
and doing it.
And then once you get out there and knock that first door, then you get into it.
You know, I can't even imagine, I can't even count how many times I've thought, I don't
feel like going soul winning, but I drag myself out there.
And then once I knock the first door, then I start enjoying it.
And I'm like, man, I'm glad I came.
I'm glad I'm here.
But it's just getting out there that's the hardest, okay?
So that's where the feet come in.
The feet are what gets you there.
So he said your feet shod, but then he said with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Why the preparation?
Because you can't give people the gospel if you're unprepared.
Think about it.
Let's say I am a new Christian and I have somebody that I really want to give the gospel
to and the perfect opportunity presents itself.
What do I need to do?
I need to know what I'm doing.
I need to know where do I turn in my Bible?
You know, I need to know that I'm going to go to Romans 3 23 or Romans 6 23 and I need
to know and have some kind of a plan.
Now let me tell you a testimony from my own life why this is so important.
You know, I got saved as a six year old boy and ever since I was six years old, I had
a burning desire to get people saved.
I just realized, hey, if there's heaven and hell, we got to warn everybody and give everybody
the gospel and get as many people to heaven as we can.
I mean, that was just obvious to me.
So I always wanted to get people saved, but you know what I didn't have?
I didn't have the preparation of the gospel of peace.
So what I mean by that is that I did not know how to win somebody to Christ.
I didn't know how to give someone the gospel effectively.
So as a child and you know, being timid and shy as children are, there were a few times
in my life when I was 10, 11, 12, 13 years old when I'd muster up the courage to give
one of my friends the gospel, a neighborhood kid, a kid at school, and I was nervous.
My heart's pounding.
I'm scared.
And I would work up the courage to give the gospel.
But here's the thing.
I was ineffective because I didn't know what I was doing.
So I didn't use any Bible verses.
I just kind of explained it in my own words.
I didn't really explain it very well.
I didn't do it in a way that made sense because I was just kind of shooting from the hip.
I had no preparation.
No one had ever taught me.
No one had ever taught me, uh, this is how you win someone to Christ.
You know, here's a, here's an effective plan.
Here's a way to get it done.
So because I wasn't prepared, even when I did work up the courage to give someone the
gospel, I failed.
You know, then when I was 14, 15, 16 years old, again, there'd be times when I'd have
an opportunity to present the gospel.
I never won anyone to Christ, not even one person.
The closest thing was once when I was a little kid, my brother and I kind of double teamed
it on this, this neighbor kid where we kind of both took turns talking to him and the
kid got saved.
So that was like a half salvation that I participated in.
But other than that, by the time I reached my 17th birthday, I had not won a single person
to Christ.
I didn't want anybody to Christ.
So I'd been saved from age six to 16, no salvations.
Not because I didn't want to, because I did want to.
Not because I didn't try, because I tried many times, but I didn't have anyone mentoring
me, training me, helping me, taking me out and showing me the ropes.
I wasn't prepared.
I didn't have the preparation of the gospel of peace.
That's why I didn't win the battle.
Then right around my 17th birthday, I got in a soul winning church and right around
my 17th birthday, within like a week or so of my 17th birthday is when I went out door
to door soul winning for the first time.
So this is a special birthday for me because this is actually my 20 year anniversary of
soul winning.
So I've been soul winning consistently pretty much every single week for the last 20 years.
But before that, I had not seen anyone safe.
So then I went out as a silent partner and I went out soul winning with a guy, his name
was Dan Deon, and he took me out for like two and a half hours and I watched him do
soul winning and I loved it.
And I observed him successfully win people to Christ.
And I said to him after a couple hours, hey, let me get the next door.
And I didn't know how to give the gospel, but I was just going to start it off and then
pass it off to him.
I was just going to start out by saying, hey, we're from Regency Baptist Church, give them
an invitation, ask if they knew for sure.
And then what I was going to do, if they said yes, I was going to say, well, here, brother
Deon here is going to explain that to you.
Right.
And then, by the way, that's a good way to start talking.
If you're, if you're, if you're scared about becoming a talker, that's one thing you could
do is just, you could kind of do the intro and then pass it off to your partner.
So I did that at a door.
He thought I'd been soul winning before, so he's like, sure, take the next door.
He didn't realize it was my first time, but I, you know, I was confident with that first
little spiel, you know, we've been at it for two hours.
So I just invited this, this young child to church, but she didn't have time to hear the
gospel.
So anyway, we went on to the next door, but the encouraging thing was the next day at
church, her and her family came to church from that invite.
So that was a blessing.
That's encouraging.
I think God was giving me a little encouragement on my first time since I just barely invited
one person and they showed up.
So that was pretty cool.
But as I went out over the next few weeks, the second time I went soul winning, I was
Pastor Nichols' silent partner.
The third time, I don't remember who I went with, but I just kept getting trained.
Then I got prepared, right?
Because I'd been out soul winning with some guys who knew what they were doing.
I got the training.
I learned how to do it.
And within a couple months, I was winning people to the Lord at my job.
I was winning family members to the Lord.
I mean, it was just, why?
Because I was prepared now.
There's just night and day difference between knowing what you're doing and not knowing
what you're doing.
So how do you get the preparation?
Well, you go out soul winning as a silent partner and you learn how to do it.
You memorize some key Bible verses.
You learn the Romans road.
You learn a basic salvation plan of A, B, C, D, you know, that says, Hey, you know,
everybody's a sinner.
The punishment is hell.
Jesus loves us.
He died on the cross for us.
Everybody's buried.
He rose again.
Salvation's by faith.
You can never lose your salvation.
You know, kind of learn that basic outline of a logical way to explain the gospel to
someone using the Bible in a way that they're going to understand.
And you know, if you can go to a soul winning conference or something, that sharpens up
your sword.
You get out soul winning with different partners and, and, and observe different people.
You're sharpening your skills.
You are working on the preparation of the gospel of peace.
The apostle Paul said in Romans chapter one, verse 15, as much as in me is, I am ready
to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome.
Let me ask you this.
If God were to put the perfect opportunity in your lap right now to win that loved one
to the Lord.
I mean, what if your loved one called you on the phone tomorrow and said, brother so
and so, or sister so and so, Hey, I don't know where I'm going to go when I die.
And I want to know, can you tell me how to be saved?
Are you just going to be like, Oh, well, come to church with me.
Are you going to be able to actually articulate to them?
Yeah.
Let me explain to you exactly how to be saved.
You know, if that perfect opportunity comes up and by the way, here's a good opportunity
to give someone the gospel.
Here's a rule of thumb.
Anytime you're alone with someone, give them the gospel.
If you're alone with someone, that's an opportunity to give the gospel.
Okay.
Sometimes in a group or a crowd, it's, it's not always going to work out, but when you're
alone with someone, you're on a long drive or you're just sitting together and it's just
the two of you alone, that's usually always a great opportunity to, to talk about spiritual
things.
Amen.
So you want to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Why is it called the gospel of peace?
Because the Bible teaches that before a person is saved, they're at enmity with the father,
right?
And Jesus Christ is that mediator that brings peace between man and God.
And the Bible tells us, for example, in Romans five, you don't have to turn there, but this
is a great verse.
Romans chapter five, verse one, it says, therefore being justified by faith.
That's another way of saying being saved by faith, right?
Being justified by faith.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, right?
So the Lord Jesus Christ makes peace between us and God, the father.
And so it's the gospel of peace.
The good news is that you can have peace with God.
You can be at peace with God because you have the mediator, the man Christ Jesus, right?
So you can have peace.
Cause right now, if you're not saved, the Bible says you're at enmity with God.
So it's the gospel of peace.
So let's just back up and review quickly.
We said you got to have your loins girt about with truth.
That means you take control of your mind.
You sober up your mind, you girt up the loins of your mind, and you don't just let the world
control your mind, but you let the Lord renew your mind.
That's number one.
Number two, the breastplate of righteousness.
That's where you put those principles into action, where you're not just a hearer of
the word, but you're also a doer.
You know, there are a lot of people who they know all the ins and outs of Bible doctrine,
and they know all about Bible prophecy, and they know all about the tribulation and the
end times, and they know all about that stuff, right?
But they're drinking alcohol, smoking pot, you know, fornicating, whatever.
It's like, oh, you're so smart, but what good does that do if you're not putting that knowledge
into action in your life?
Where's the holiness in your life?
Where's the righteousness?
You know, you're living exactly like the world, but you're an encyclopedia of Bible knowledge.
You know, that's not good enough.
You know, you want to get your mind right, but you need to also get your actions right
if you're going to be an effective warrior, otherwise the devil is going to exploit that
vulnerability.
Think about it.
You've got your feet shod, you've got your loins turned out, but what if you have no
breastplate of righteousness?
You know what you are?
You're just wide open right here.
And if you're drinking, if you're smoking pot, you know, if you're watching a bunch
of filth and garbage, if you are doing whatever the sin, you know, gambling or, you know,
if whatever, insert your sin here, if you're not living a righteous life, you know what?
The devil is just going to be able to throw those darts at you and he's going to use that
drinking to take you down.
He'll use the pot to take you down.
He'll use gambling addiction to take you down.
He'll use porno to take you down.
Whatever you leave open here, he's going to exploit that weakness.
Okay.
So you've got to put on the whole armor of God and have the breastplate of righteousness,
right?
And that's why the pastor will preach hard against sin, you know, because he's trying
to, he's trying to get you to tighten up that chink in the armor.
He wants that breastplate to be secure so that you're not exposed.
So he says here, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace.
And then he says in verse 16, above all, meaning that this is even more important because above
all means it's the most important thing.
So even more important than the other three things, as important as they were, he says
above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts
of the wicked.
So the shield of faith is critical because there are going to be so many darts coming
at you.
You're going to need to hold up that giant shield of faith in order to absorb those things.
Now what does faith mean?
Faith simply means believing or trusting.
Now we all have some degree of faith or we wouldn't even be saved because faith is what
saved us in the first place, right?
We got saved by putting our faith in Jesus, right?
But that's not the end of faith in our lives.
It's not like we just put our faith in Jesus one time and that's the last time we need
faith.
Romans 1 says that we go from faith to faith in our lives.
So we need to increase our faith.
We need to go from faith to faith.
The Bible has a lot of promises.
It has a lot of things to say, not just about salvation.
So first we got to trust God with our soul.
We got to trust him with salvation, but that's only the beginning.
We have to trust him in other areas of our life.
Now what the devil's going to do, he's going to throw these fiery darts at you that are
basically going to be saying, hey, you know what?
The promises of God are not really true.
There's something better for you out in the world is what, you know, what's he trying
to do?
He's trying to get you out of the battle.
He's trying to get you to go back to the world.
He's trying to get you back into sin, out of church, to quit serving God.
Isn't that what he wants to do?
So he's going to throw these darts at you, basically trying to get you to doubt the Bible
or maybe doubt the church that you're in or just kind of doubt that soul winning even
works maybe.
And you start to think, I don't even know if soul winning even works.
Maybe I'm just wasting my time.
He might try to get you to doubt the King James version and think, oh, you know, maybe
that's not really what it says.
I got to go back to the Greek and Hebrew and I don't know Greek and Hebrew.
So I think I'm just going to, you know, just not worry too much about it.
And you know, you know what I mean?
Just, just trying to put this little doubt in your mind of getting you to doubt the Bible,
doubt church, doubt the preaching, get you to doubt that living for God is where the
blessings are and get you to think that maybe it really is funner down at the nightclub.
Maybe it is going to be more fun down at the bar.
Maybe I should call up that old, wicked, worldly ex-girlfriend or whatever.
Maybe I should do that.
You know, and he's going to try to entice you with whatever, or he's going to try to
get you to think you're in danger.
You're in danger.
You know, you're going to get persecuted.
You're going to get in trouble.
You're not supposed to be preaching like that.
You're not supposed to be going to a church like that.
You know, or my family's going to kill me, you know, when they find out what church I
go to or whatever.
He's going to try to scare you with these things.
Now how does the shield of faith quench these things?
The shield of faith is where you believe and know that the promises of God are true.
So you know that the world and all of its joys are just the pleasures of sin for a season.
You know that the end thereof is death.
You know that those things are vanity.
You can read the book of Ecclesiastes and you read about King Solomon, how he indulged
in all of the carnal pleasure.
He had all the women and the music and the riches and the food and the power and all
that.
And he said, I hated life.
It was all vain.
And you know the Hollywood stars show us that every day because they have all those things,
but are they satisfied?
Are they happy?
They're on their fourth spouse.
They're shoplifting, even though they're a millionaire, right?
They get in trouble for shoplifting.
They're driving drunk.
They're going a hundred miles an hour drunk because they don't even care whether they
live or die.
They're attempting suicide.
They're doing all these things.
They're on drugs.
They're miserable.
They're unhappy.
Why?
See, God tells us that those things don't bring happiness.
The shield of faith, when the devil says, oh, look at all this fun stuff out in the
world.
Man, let's party.
The shield of faith says, no, I believe God when he said that that stuff's all vanity
and it's going to give me an empty feeling and I'm not going to enjoy it as much as I
think I will.
And I'll enjoy it for a little while, but it's going to be suffering after that.
And it's pleasure for a moment and pain for a lifetime.
And so the shield of faith tells you, no, no, no, the devil's lying.
God's right.
Living for the Lord is where there's pleasures forevermore.
Joy comes from serving God and you believe that, right?
Or let's say, you know, you start getting nervous and scared about persecution for serving
the Lord.
Well, the shield of faith says, no, God promised he's going to protect me.
God promised that the angel of the Lord, it campeth round about them that fear him.
God promised me that he will watch over me and protect me and that he's given his angels
charge concerning me and that no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper.
And then when the devil comes at me and persecution comes, I just said, bring it on because I
know that God's promises are true.
Greater is he that is in me than he that's in the world.
And then, you know, all the promises of God that tell me that the world has nothing to
offer, that all joy and real peace and love is found through serving the Lord, right?
So shield of faith is where we actually believe the promises of God and where we think about
what the Bible says and say, that's true.
I can trust that.
I can rely on that.
So I'm not going to listen to the devil's garbage, whatever it is.
So you can see how the shield of faith is pretty versatile because you think about a
shield is something you can move around, right?
You know, the breastplates covering one part of your body, the shield is something you
could move and cover any part of your body with the shield, right?
The shield could theoretically cover anything.
That's why it's the most important piece of equipment.
That's why he said above all, taking the shield of faith, because look, at the end of the
day, if you believe the promises of God, if you know the promises of God, because you've
got the belt of truth, you've got your loins going about with truth, right?
You know the truth, you know the promises, but do you believe the promises?
Are you willing to trust and rely on the promises?
Are you willing to step out in faith, right?
That's what the shield of faith is.
You're willing to step out on a limb and say, Hey, God's going to come through for me.
And that's so versatile that can quench any of the fiery darts of the wicked, just that
thing alone right there.
So he says, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God.
Now, this is one that always kind of perplexed me a little bit as I was reading this.
And you know, I knew this passage as a child.
The helmet of salvation.
Now, here's why this kind of perplexed me.
We're already saved.
So why do we need to put on the helmet of salvation?
Isn't it already on?
I mean, if we're saved, right?
I mean, he's talking to people that are saved.
He's talking to Christians.
Well, let me shed some light on this.
Go to 1 Thessalonians 5.
Keep your finger in Ephesians 6, 1 Thessalonians 5 will actually make this more clear because
it kind of confused me at first.
Why would I need to put on the helmet of salvation?
Because I'm already saved, so wouldn't it just automatically be on?
Why would I need a commandment to put it on?
Okay.
That was my thought.
I don't know.
Did anybody else kind of wonder the same thing when you thought about that?
Now, one thing that I thought about was, well, you know, your helmet's protecting your head,
so if you don't have your helmet on, if you get hit in the head, you're pretty much going
to die.
I mean, that's pretty much the most important thing to protect, if anything, right?
So if you're not saved, you're doomed.
But I just thought there must be something more to it than that because otherwise why
would he tell you to put it on when it should already be on, if anything?
But look what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5.
A lot of times when something confuses us, the answer is somewhere else in the Bible
if we compare Scripture with Scripture.
So look at 1 Thessalonians 5, it says, but let us, verse 8, but let us who are of the
day be sober.
What does that remind you of?
Loins gird about with truth, right?
Gird up the loins your mind, be sober?
He says, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, and see
how it's a little different here?
The hope of salvation.
For a helmet, the hope of salvation.
And then he rolls right into the next thought.
For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ
who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
So when the Bible says, put on the helmet of salvation, he's not just saying be saved,
because we're already saved, we already knew that, or we wouldn't even be the church at
Ephesus or whatever that he's writing to.
He says, put on the helmet of salvation, he's talking about the hope of salvation.
And what that means is, not just being saved, but remembering that you're saved.
Remembering that you're saved.
Why is that important?
The hope of salvation, what does it mean to have hope?
Hope is when you realize, you know what, there's brighter times ahead.
Isn't that what hope is?
Hope is when you realize that weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the
morning.
See, a person who's hopeless is one who feels that their situation will never improve.
I'm hopeless, I'm doomed, right?
There's no way out here.
Hope is when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you see a way out, right?
What's the hope of salvation?
The hope of salvation, look down at your Bible there in verse 10, it's that whether
we wake or sleep, and sleep there is referring to death, whether we wake or sleep, we should
live together with him.
What's he saying?
Hey, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
The hope of salvation is when you realize that look, even if I die, I'm going to heaven.
No matter how bad my life gets, it's going to be over.
There's going to be an end.
There's going to be a brighter day.
I'm going to go to heaven, and the Bible says that the sufferings of this life are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
So the hope of salvation is when we realize, hey, no matter how bad things get, no matter
how, even unto death, even if we die, it's okay.
Everything's all right.
This gives us peace.
Now what's one of the worst things that could happen in battle?
If you've read any kind of military histories or any historical documents that have to do
with battles, if you know anything about warfare, the worst thing that could happen on the battlefield
is to panic.
When the enemy panics, you win.
Why?
Because then it's a rout.
They start running away.
They start breaking ranks.
It becomes confusion.
The army that keeps it together and doesn't break rank, they win.
And the people who run away and get confused and panic, they're doomed.
That's one of the most basic principles of warfare is that you've got to keep it together.
What's the hope of salvation do for you?
You don't panic.
You don't freak out when things go bad because you realize, you know what?
God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And whether we wake or sleep, we live together with him.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord for me to live as Christ and
to die as gain.
I mean, that's the hope of salvation.
You know, that helmet on your head, that's going to protect you from a lot of the devil's
attacks where he tries to get you depressed, hopeless, feeling like there's no way out
or scared of physical death.
But the hope of salvation tells you, hey, nothing can destroy me because I have eternal
life.
So it's not just being saved, it's having the hope of salvation.
It's actually thinking about the fact that you're saved, realizing and understanding
what it means to be saved, because think about it, we're all saved here, at least, you know,
except Judas, you know, whoever he is, but you know, we're all saved here, you know,
or at least the vast majority of people are saved.
There might be a couple of people here that aren't saved, but the vast majority of us
are saved.
But you know what?
That doesn't stop us from maybe getting caught up in the things of this world and not really
thinking about the fact that we're saved.
Don't you think it's possible for even us as saved believers to maybe go a couple weeks
going by without even thinking about the fact that we're going to go to heaven someday?
Just we're not even thinking about that, we're just thinking about our job, we're just thinking
about our spouse, our kids, our bills, and maybe we just get caught up in those things
and we don't even realize, hey, we're going to heaven.
But that's something we need to think about and keep our conversation in heaven, the Bible
says.
We need to think and have our mind and our thoughts on Christ and on heaven and so forth.
So that's what it means to have the helmet of salvation.
Doesn't that make a little more sense with the helmet of salvation?
Why you need to put it on?
It's not already on, even though you're already saved.
Okay, and then let's go back to that passage.
And he gets to the weapon, Ephesians 6.
So he listed off the defensive armor, we had the girdle, we had the breastplate, we had
the shoes, we had the shield, and the helmet, but then he says the sword of the spirit.
Now the sword of the spirit, although it is an offensive weapon, it could also be used
for defense as well, right, because the sword could also be used to defend, to parry blows
that are directed at you.
So the sword of the spirit is the word of God, obviously the Bible, reading the Bible,
memorizing the Bible, thinking about the Bible.
We need to have the word of God in our heart.
We need to hide God's word in our heart that we might not sin against him, right, getting
God's word in our heart.
So the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, verse
18, praying always with all prayer and supplication and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints.
So at the end of the day, even once we have all the armor in place, we're ready to do
battle.
We've got the sword in hand.
We're ready to take it to the enemy, and we're ready to stand our ground and withstand.
At the end of the day, we're going to need divine intervention, right?
The battle is the Lord's.
We need to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, so prayer is where we invoke
the power of God, right, for him to come in and supernaturally protect, because no matter
how good our armor is, no matter how good of a warrior we are, we can still make a mistake,
right?
We still might make a misstep.
So we need to be praying for God to protect us, praying for God to not lead us into temptation,
praying that he will deliver us from evil.
So prayer will make up for the errors and mistakes and slip ups that are inevitably
going to happen because we are human.
So we need to pray always with all prayer and supplication for all saints.
He says in verse 19, and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth
boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that
therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
So when it comes to preaching the gospel, we do it with our mouths.
It says, open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
What's the sword of the Spirit?
The sword of the Spirit is what?
The Word of God.
Okay, Word.
The Word of God.
The words come out of our mouths, right?
So basically, how do we do battle in this warfare?
We got all the armor on, we're out on the battlefield, we're protected, we're all prayed
up and ready to go, the Lord's with us, the Spirit of the Lord is upon us.
Are we going to swing a physical sword?
We're going to swing the sword of the Word of God.
How do we swing that sword?
We open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
So we don't want to just go out there and just be the ultimate defense.
I mean, you can't win a war with defense only, right?
We just get out there and we are just real strong on defense.
And you know, I mean, think about it in a sports game, every game ends zero to zero
because we're that good at defense.
No one scores on us ever.
Yeah, but you're still not winning.
You got to have the offense, right?
What's the offense?
The offense is when we open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
That's where the sword comes out of the sheath and where we even engage in battle, okay?
So when we go out and we knock on somebody's door and we tell them about Jesus, you know,
that's the battle right there.
And that person that we're talking to is not our enemy.
So don't treat them like your enemy.
They're not the enemy.
The enemy is the devil.
The enemy are the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world,
the spiritual wickedness in high places that has brainwashed that person.
And we're trying to get through that.
We're trying to cut through that with the truth of the gospel, with the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God, right?
So the battle is to rescue that person, to save that person, right?
To deliver that person.
So we're not fighting that person, but we're preaching the word of God.
That's the weapon that we can use to cut the cords that are holding them in bondage, right?
And to get them to see the light and get them to see the truth.
So when we go out soloning, we're in the battle.
Not only that, but just when we teach the word of God to someone who's already saved.
You know, let's say someone's already saved, but we can teach them the Bible.
We can edify them.
We can build things up.
The Bible says, let not corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that was just
good for the use of edifying, right?
So if we can take aside our Christian friend and edify them, then you know what?
We're fighting a spiritual battle there.
We're in the Lord's army at that point.
You know, and soloning is great and it's important and it's a key thing, but soloning is not
the only thing we do for the Lord.
And you know what?
When you get together with your Christian friends, I'm talking about people that are
already saved.
When you get together with your fellow church members, what do you talk about them with?
What do you talk about with them and are you edifying them?
Do they walk away from that conversation a little bit more spiritual or a little bit
more carnal?
And especially, you know, young people, teenagers that are listening to me, you know, teenagers,
young men, do you just get together and just talk about the latest movies?
And do you just get together and just talk about sports?
Do you just get together and just talk about only just worldly things?
Or do you ever get together and say, hey, here's something I read in my Bible recently.
You know what?
I was thinking about that sermon and I thought of another point or, you know, I was thinking
about this spiritual thing or I was thinking about this from the Bible.
You know, what I love is to hear people talking about the Bible, you know, before and after
church when people just, they love the Bible and they talk about the Bible and they go
out to eat and they talk about the Bible and with their family they talk about the
Bible.
And look, I'm not talking about being a holier than thou where you're all laying it on all
thick how you're so spiritual all the time.
And I'm not saying that there's never a time to have some fun and play sports and goof
off a little bit, but I'm telling you, you know, life isn't just a joke though.
And we need, you know, to have some edifying conversations.
And don't just think, oh, that's the pastor's job to teach everybody the Bible.
You know, why don't you talk about the Bible with your friends?
Why don't you just talk about, and I'm not talking about veins angling.
I'm not talking about getting together after the service and we're going to talk about,
you know, whether Adam had a belly button and can God make a rock so big they couldn't
pick it up?
And does the Holy Spirit have a physical body or just a spirit body or is it a dove or,
you know, just, I'm not talking about just trying to delve into all the stuff that we
don't really know the answer to, right?
I'm not talking about all this kind of weird, navel-gazing and strange doctrines, but, you
know, isn't there enough legitimate stuff in the Bible to talk about though?
I mean, who read something interesting in your Bible lately?
Tell me something interesting.
Who wants to stand up and tell me something interesting that you read in your Bible lately?
Where did all those hands go?
Everybody's like, yeah, I did.
You know, what's something interesting, and we're talking about the men only.
Who read something interesting in your Bible?
You know, let's do a dress rehearsal.
Okay, so me and you, we're buddies, we're kind of hanging out after church.
Edify me.
So in Revelation, when the serpent from his mouth received water, and the day I read that,
the nations will come forth as waters, you know, so I thought that may have been an interesting
quote.
Yeah, so he's talking about how like, you know, the serpent casts water out of his mouth
as a flood after the woman in Revelation 12 and how a lot of times in the Bible, like
a flood represents armies, like armies going forth as a flood, and then like the waters
where the woman sits are multitudes and nations and people.
So a lot of times these bodies of water or floods can represent like masses of people,
right?
Yeah, that's pretty interesting.
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for that.
Yeah, I like that.
All right, good.
Yeah, you got something for me?
Yes.
Yeah, so he was noticing like stuff in Joshua that tied in with Psalms about not trusting
in our bow or in our sword, not trusting in our physical might, you know, not by might
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.
You know, it's just, there's all kinds of just interesting things that we read in our
Bible and see.
You know, there's nothing wrong with talking about that, especially you teenagers and young
people who think that you're so cool all the time.
You're too cool.
You're too cool to talk about spiritual things.
You're too cool to talk about the Bible, right?
You know what?
Actually, you're not cool enough.
That's the way I see it.
You need to get cooler and actually, you know, because people that are actually cool, they're
not trying to be cool.
Coolness is like a cat.
If you ignore it, it will come to you.
All right.
Think about that for a while.
It's true.
You know what I mean?
You just, you have to just, you know, you have to quit worrying so much what people
think about you, right?
And just say, Hey, you know what?
I love the Lord.
I love the Bible.
I love Christ.
And you know what?
I'm going to talk about what's on my mind.
And you know what?
If you don't have anything on your mind, spiritual, if you don't have anything ever to say about
the Bible or about the things of God, shame on you.
You know what I mean?
Because you should have some kind of a soul winning story to share that could be edifying.
You should have some kind of a biblical thought to share, maybe a sermon you listened to recently.
Hey, I listened to a good sermon.
Here's what it was about.
You know, whatever.
I'm just saying that we want to open our mouths and speak the word of God.
And it's not just soul winning.
It could also just be in fellowship.
And he said, open my mouth boldly.
That means you're not a teenager who's scared to talk about the things of God because you're
afraid of what your friends are going to think.
Why don't you just boldly just say, hey, you know what?
Let me tell you something interesting from the Bible.
If they don't like it, then tough.
And so, you know, we need to think about edifying people with our words all the time.
And it's not just soul winning, but it's also to people that are already safe.
You know what's funny is that sometimes when a visitor will come to church, people will
approach that visitor and check their salvation, right?
That's good, right?
Make sure they're safe.
But then I've noticed that sometimes they'll check their salvation, and if they're saved,
then it's like, oh, well, then no reason to ever talk to that person again.
You know what I mean?
Well, here's the thing.
Just because that person's saved doesn't mean that your job is done because now it's time
for you to reach out to that person and be their friend.
Fellowship with them.
Spend time with them.
Get to know them.
Ask them questions about their life.
Learn about them.
You know, be able to pray for them, edify them, chat with them, you know, and not tear
them down by telling, hey, let me tell you a dirty joke or, hey, let me tell you about
the latest Hollywood.
Let me tell you, you know, but instead, you know, talk about something nice.
Talk about something true, honest, just, pure, lovely, a good report, right?
Talk about something godly.
Edify them.
You know what?
It's a spiritual battle, and we're pulling people out of the fire that are not saved.
But you know what?
There's a spiritual battle even for the people that are already saved.
You don't think the devil's trying to pull people out of church, and he's trying to stop
them from moving forward in their Christian life?
You know what?
Edify people.
You know, when I get up and preach a sermon, I hope I'm edifying people and helping them
in their Christian life.
I mean, tonight's sermon has nothing to do with getting anybody saved.
I'm trying to edify the brethren, and you know what?
You can do the same thing just in your fellowship, and not being a holier than thou, trying to
act like you're hyper-spiritual or something, but just a natural, normal, you know, talk
about the things of God, because you know what?
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
So if you really think about God and read your Bible, you'll have stuff to talk about.
You can't help it.
I mean, I'm at home with my wife and kids.
I'm constantly just preaching to my wife all day, you know?
If she misses a sermon, it doesn't even matter, because she already heard it at home, because
I pretty much preach every—she hears every sermon twice, because I'm just walking around
the house preaching to her, ranting to her, and then I go to church and preach the same
thing again, you know?
So that's like the dress rehearsal of the sermon.
So the point is that the spiritual battle is fought with the Word of God, right?
And yeah, that's from the pulpit, yeah, that's at the door, but you know what?
It's also at the restaurant.
It's also in the work truck.
It's also just with our buddies and our friends.
It's also in the fishing boat.
It's just wherever you are, and you edify someone.
You say something that builds someone up.
It doesn't tear them down.
Something to where they walk away a little more spiritual, a little more knowledgeable,
not less spiritual and less knowledgeable.
So we need to put on the whole armor of God, and then we need to get involved in the battle.
We need to pull out the sword and use it.
It's power adds another word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this passage, Lord, and I pray that every single person
that's here would put on the whole armor of God, and that they would grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Help us all to grow.
Help us not to be vulnerable, Lord.
We all have parts of this armor that need to be tightened up.
Every single one of us have some pieces here.
Could be the breastplate.
It could be the loins.
It could be the helmet.
Whatever it is, Lord, we might need to tighten this up.
Help everyone here to tighten it up and pray for their own weaknesses and edify one another
and open their mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.