Whole Armor of God

These pieces of armor that are described, they're all a part of a defensive armor that we want to have on. And of course, when we read what God tells us in James 4, he tells us to, James 4, verse 7 and 8, he says to draw close to God, and He will draw close to us.

So that's clearly a very positive situation. We want to draw close to God in prayer. We want to draw close to God in studying His Word. We want to become conversant in the Word of God. But he follows that up, draw close to God, and I will draw close to you with resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That's also a positive thing, and yet that does involve some action. That involves resisting, becoming aware of Satan's devices, becoming aware of how it is that he is able to stir things up, how it is he is able to create difficulty and problems, how it is that we as Christians are actually in a spiritual warfare.

If we go to Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6 is the section that I will primarily be working from today. But it says in verse 10 of Ephesians 6, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His power. He tells the church in Ephesus, he was closing a letter. He greatly loved this church. It was a reasonably strong church, a very productive church.

And yet he says, Be strong in the Lord and be strong in the strength of His power. Put on the whole armor of God so you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So here he tells us directly, he told the church there, and he tells all of us, that we've got to be able to resist. We've got to know how to be resisted to those things in ways that Satan uses to try to tear us down.

He goes on to say, and this is actually what I want us to be reminded of, that we are in, as Christians, we are in a spiritual battle. And Paul uses that illustration, he uses that in talking to Timothy, he uses it himself. He says, I'm in a fight, I'm in a struggle.

He talks about how he was to operate as a minister of God, but he also taught that same type of thing to others in the congregations, and specifically to Timothy, because he mentioned several times to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, or he told him to fight the good fight. And he even mentions later that I fought the good fight. He was saying that kind of looking back on what he had been doing throughout his life, and feeling, and maybe knowing, it's very near the end. I want to be sure that I have been doing what I can, doing what I can to resist the devil, and knowing that as I do that, that he will flee.

See, we can be successful in resisting the devil. There's no doubt about that, but we want to be sure that we are doing, we are putting on the armor of God, as it says here, and actually it reiterates that. Verse 13, take up the whole armor of God so you'll be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Now that's where you can be firmly grounded. You can be firmly stable in your spiritual development, in your spiritual growth. But he mentions here in verse 12, our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, but against the rulers, and the authorities, and the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil, in the heavenly places.

And of course, that in many ways is something that I think many people have very little awareness of. Maybe very little awareness would be stretching it. You know, most people don't recognize how powerful Satan is, how involved he is in this world, how corrupt he is, how much he wants to keep everyone deceived and deluded, confused, confounded, distracted, whatever he can do.

That's the type of spiritual battle that we realize that we are engaged in. We might also look, if you'd like to turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, because Paul describes this battle. He actually uses this in numerous of his letters to the churches.

But in 2 Corinthians 10, starting in verse 3, he says, indeed, we live as human beings.

We live in the flesh. All of us are flesh and blood human beings. All of us are very limited.

All of us are subject to distress. We're subject to pain. We're subject to many different things that can be very limiting. And he said, we live as human beings, but we don't wage war according to human standards. See, we don't wage war. Our warfare is not against just physical flesh and blood, like he said in Ephesians. He says, we don't wage war according to human standards, but the weapons of our warfare are not merely flesh. They're not merely carnal. They're not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy the strongholds that are described over in Ephesians, the strongholds that Satan is involved in. And so, it's clearly important for us, even as we prepare for our holy days, that we look forward to, that we anticipate, that we enjoy. We also know that at this time of year, Satan would love to stir things up. He would love to stir us up. He would love to discourage us. He would love to cause conflict and cause difficulty. See, that's actually, in many ways, when you think about it, well, how is it that Satan causes difficulties for people, even as they might be looking forward to, you know, the wonderful time of year. And I think, in many ways, most of us like the fall. We look forward to the fall, certainly coming out of the heat of this past summer.

It's very nice to have things green up a little, a little cooler, and then to, you know, run into the time of the holy days and to be able to think about the answer. Think about the Kingdom of God and what God's going to do when He sets up that Kingdom on earth. That can be very uplifting.

And certainly, Satan would like for you to be discouraged. He would like for you to fall prey to getting impatient and angry and full of guilt or doubt. I mean, there can be so many different things that come up that cause us to take our eyes off of the real important things. That's what Satan would love to do. That's what he would like. And, of course, that's what we are resisting whenever we resist the attacks and the influence that Satan has on us. So, if we go back to Ephesians 6 again, you know, where it does tell us to put on the whole armor of God. If we are going to be, if we are going to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, you know, then we, you know, want to put on the armor of God. And so, I'd like for us to continue here. He's talking about this topic here in these few verses. He says, take up in verse 13 the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day and then having done everything to stand firm.

You know, that he wants us, you know, to be able to stand firm. He wants us to be able to fight the good fight. He wants us to be a good Christian soldier. And so, he starts off with, in verse 14, stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist. Okay, now that's the first implement of armor that he mentions here, the belt. And, you know, the belt of truth, we could talk about that. I think it should be something that we think about. Each one of these, there are six different pieces of armor that are described here, but all of them are very important. All of them are very meaningful. And, you know, if you were to think of a Roman soldier and you would think of the guard that they might have on and then the armor that they would have on, you know, this is what Paul is using this analogy from because it was very common to see these people in their day and to see this type of armament. So it was clearly a very common illustration that he was giving to them. Maybe not so much for us today as we happen to see this kind of an armor on soldiers, which we might see even on television. And yet he mentions the first one being the belt of truth.

And it's interesting that the belt, maybe it's interesting that he mentions this the very first one because, you know, the truth that God has revealed to us, the truth that He has opened our minds to be able to understand, involves an understanding about Jesus Christ. It certainly does say in John 14 verse 6 says, Jesus says, I am truth. I am the one who has truth to give. I am the one who is the source of truth. But He also shows that in John 17, 17, that your word, the entire word of God involves truth. And of course, whenever Jesus was brought before Pilate, He was asked about truth. And it was clearly something that Jesus was very solid in. He very much understood what was true, and Pilate certainly didn't. He was very confused. He didn't have any response to the answers that Jesus gave him. And yet, you know, what we want to be reminded of is, you know, Satan would like to get us sidetracked. He would like to have us unloosen our belt and throw it aside, because the belt was really important. And I might mention two or three things as far as just details of the belt that the soldiers would use. One of the things that you could say about the belt, as it was strapped around the soldier, is that, you know, the sword that the soldier was going to be carrying was strapped to the belt. So without a belt, you didn't have a sword either. Or at least you didn't have any holster for the sword. And so that's why this belt was so important, because it held or contained the holster where your sword would be put. It also was designed where it would hold some of the other armor in place. I would think probably the breastplate was held in place by this belt so that it wouldn't be falling off. And you could also use or realize that the belt was keeping other looser clothing bound up and out of the way so it would allow for action.

See, that, I think, is one of the reasons why Paul would use this illustration, and perhaps the first illustration, to remind us that we want to be continually reminded of the truth that God has revealed. In John chapter 8, you have an interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees.

And of course, the Pharisees, as we know, were quite a knowledgeable bunch. They were the teachers of the law. They were individuals who were descendants of the house of Judah. They knew that.

They were very familiar with their ancestry. They could look back throughout the ages. They could see that they had come from the house of Judah, and prior to that, Jacob and Isaac and Abraham. I mean, they knew where they had come from. And of course, they felt very righteous, and we might say self-righteous, in their position. And yet, in this account, whenever we read through parts of John 8, or at least short sections of John 8 that I want to go through at this time, you find Jesus revealing something that they certainly didn't want to hear. He was going to point out something that they really had not had their eyes open to, or their ears open to, being able to receive. Let's take a look here. In verse 39, I'm breaking into this discussion that Jesus was having. And of course, He pointed out numerous very important things here. But there is one point that I want to make. They answered Him and told Him, well, Abraham is our Father. You know, they were very proud of that. They were proud that they were a descendant of Abraham. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that. It's fine to have a physical descendancy from Abraham. But that wasn't really the point, as Jesus is going to point out here. In verse 44, He says, You are from your Father the devil. Now, how did He come to that conclusion? Well, He actually knew these men. He interacted with them. He actually knew human beings. He knew how that, even from the time of Adam and Eve, men had been deceived.

How they had been caught up in a deception that had begun and then been passed down throughout the generations to include all people on the face of the earth. And so, even though these folks that He was talking to were, in a sense, upright, and they certainly knew that they were from the family of Abraham, He said, that's not what you need to know. He says, You are from your Father the devil. And you are actually choosing to do your Father's work, your Father's desires, because He was a murderer from the beginning. And He does not stand in the truth. He was pointing out to them that, you know, you may feel self-righteous about where you are, but you need to reconsider. Actually, He was telling them, you need to repent. You need to change. You need to see where you really are as you take a look at the reflection that you have of the Word of God in your life. That's what He was telling them. He says, Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the Father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you don't believe me. You know, who had truth to offer? In this exchange, the Pharisees didn't.

They were completely unaware, and as they were following their Father the devil, as He pointed out to them, they were unaware that we've been deceived. We are flawed. We are sinful. We need to be forgiven. We need to accept Jesus Christ and the truth of God. That's what we need to embrace. And of course, I think verse 45 is a far fabulous statement because Jesus said, because I have the truth and because I am the truth and because I'm telling you the truth, you don't believe me. You don't even want to know the truth. And yet, I think this is a very good example of how we want to live, we want to thrive in the truth. We want to thrive in what God has offered us, and of course that is one of the first things here that we mention as the armor of God.

The second one that's mentioned back in Ephesians 6 verse 14 is not only being stabilized with a very sound belt of truth, but it talks about putting on the breastplate of righteousness or having a breastplate of righteousness in place. Now, what would the purpose of a breastplate be?

Well, it's to cover vital organs. We mentioned that last week, that the vital things, the really important things, the heart and the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, vital organs are going to be covered by and protected by a breastplate. And so, we find that even though Satan is wanting to attack us, even though he wants to send darts at us that pick away or chip away at us, get us discouraged, some of those are really attacks on our mind, attacks on our emotions, attacks on our interaction with others. I'll mention that a little more as we go along. And yet, I'd like for us to think about this breastplate of righteousness, see the righteousness that we need to seek. It's not simply our obedience because we do recognize that God asked us to obey. He tells us we must obey, that we must seek righteousness that would come from honoring His Word. But He talks also about a righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ. It comes from faith in Jesus Christ. And so, we want to be sure to be seeking that particular righteousness. Let's take a look at Romans 13.

Romans 13 highlights what we can think about when we think about the breastplate of righteousness. The defense mechanism that He gives us to be able to fend off any difficulty that Satan may cause for us. Here in Romans 13, it says in verse 11, besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now. The moment for you to wait from sleep for salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers. And obviously, that was not only true then, but it's true today.

It's true for every one of us, no matter how long we have been dealt with by God, and how long we have been a believer of the truth, how long we have been seeking the righteousness of God.

He tells us we're closer to salvation now than ever before. The night is far gone, the day is near.

Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us live honorably, as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness and not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy, instead putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

So that's a type of righteousness that God would have all of us seek. A righteousness that comes from Him, a righteousness that actually tells us to seek in Matthew 6.

He says to seek the kingdom of God, but He says to seek the righteousness of God, to seek what God is able to infuse us with.

And that's really an extremely important factor in understanding, I think, the defense mechanism that He gives us in this armor of God. The next one that's mentioned in Ephesians 6 in verse 15 is, "...having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace." You know, how would that be applicable? How would that even be important?

And certainly, I think we could all realize, and maybe it's even easy for us, even whether we're a soldier or not, you know, whether our shoes feel very good, greatly influence, whether we're able to function as highly as we would like.

Does anybody have any shoes that hurt their feet?

I certainly do. I have some I like to wear because they don't hurt my feet.

And yet, I have some others that I occasionally wear at times.

I think, oh, I can't remember the last time I wore them. So I wear them again, and I decide about four hours into that that that was a dumb idea.

Because your feet hurt, and I will think I'll point out to you, you know, that in this analogy, you know, having your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the footwear that a soldier would have would enable him to move effectively, would enable him to be at his greatest capacity.

And so, I was thinking, as I read this, I was thinking that my dad was a participant in World War II. He actually was a part of the military. He was a retired military 20 years into him being a part of World War II.

And so, he was very familiar with many military things. I'm sure he was glad to share that with me, especially some of the more strict things that he wanted me to do, which was fine.

That really wasn't him. He didn't really ask me to do much of anything that I shouldn't have been doing anyway. And yet, I remember him talking a lot about, you know, how the military were prepared, how at least he was, and others in his group were prepared. And of course, boots, or, you know, how is it that you were to take care of your feet? Well, that was very important. That was really, maybe even more important than some of the other things, because if you didn't have the right type of socks, and of course, he said the only right kind of socks is wool socks, and if you didn't have the right type of boots and good fitting boots properly cared for boots, what's going to happen real easily and real quickly in battle is that you get bogged down real easy, and, you know, your feet get wet, and you start, you know, being much less effective. Far more concerned about your own well-being than even maybe what operation you may be trying to complete. And I think this certainly is a good analogy to point out that, well, our feet need to be shod with the gospel of peace.

Now, we know we are preaching a gospel of a coming kingdom that is going to be a kingdom of peace. We yearn for that. And yet, how do we enact that today? Well, it's actually enacted, you know, between us. Are we people who exemplify peace that comes from God? Let's back up a little bit here in Romans. Actually, go back to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, you know, this is actually a remarkable description of what Jesus did, of what he said we were supposed to do, and what Paul says that he wanted the people in Rome, the church in Rome, to be doing.

Here in Romans 12, he said, of course, in verse 15, as we were mentioning earlier, about our care for one another and for Janice or her family now in a time of grief, it says, rejoice with those who rejoice, but weep with those who weep. And we can have that kind of concern and love and care and interest in one another that God would expect of us.

Do not be haughty, or verse 16, live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Do not claim to be wiser than you are.

I wonder why he would have to say that. That might be a human tendency to think that we're wiser than we are. Well, he just points that out pretty plainly. Verse 17, do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. See, what is he talking about there? Don't return evil for evil. If someone does something, if you are wronged in some way, does he say, be sure to retaliate, be sure to get back.

No, he says, don't do that. See, that again is a pretty human tendency. That's a flawed human tendency, and it's a tendency that we're required to overcome, a tendency that we're required to learn enough about to know that we understand that, we comprehend what it is that he wants us to do. He says, don't return evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble.

And if it's possible, in verse 18, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And, beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave room for the wrath of God.

Now, this is actually a principle that Jesus points out, and I'm not going to elaborate more on that. It's, I think it goes to simply state that this is a requirement of Christians, a requirement of us. If we're going to be, you know, living the gospel of peace, then we're going to be learning what it is to be at peace with one another, and to be able to solve our difficulties, solve differences, because those come up within our homes, they come up within our marriages, they come up within us as a group, they come up within the framework of a wider group, and of course, you know, dealing with people even who are not a part of the church at all, as we all will, as we travel, if we go to festivals here in the next few weeks in different locations, we're going to be interacting with a lot of people, but we certainly want to learn, you know, what it is to live at peace with others, and to be able to do that, it takes a certain mindset, and certainly having an awareness of, you know, being empowered by the gospel of peace is one of those. The next armament that is mentioned is the shield of faith.

In Ephesians 6 verse 16, it says, Hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery darts of the devil.

You know, that, I think, should be pretty easy to understand. Actually, when you see what it was the Roman soldiers used, they had usually two different shields. They had a small shield that they would normally use just with direct hand-to-hand fighting, and that would make sense that if they were needing to be in a very close area and warring with another individual, they'd have to have some kind of a defense to be able to then use their sword or their knife. But they also would carry, and this is what you often see whenever you see a picture of a Roman garrison. You see these soldiers walking along many times in unison with a big shield, a great big shield, a large shield that in many ways was able to, in a sense, even create a barrier between them. If they got together, and even if they got together kind of in a circle or semi-circle, you could present a protection toward a given direction. That's the type of shield that is mentioned here. It's called a flouros. It's about two and a half feet wide and four and a half feet long. It was designed to protect the entire body of the soldier, and it was made usually of one piece of wood or of metal covered with metal or leather. Actually, I guess whenever I read this type of thing, I think of the armaments in Braveheart, because I've seen Braveheart a number of times. If you watch TV, it all comes on every other night. Whether you watch it or not, it's always on. But they had a lot of hand-to-hand combat in that. Some of the shielding that they have, I think probably the Romans did a little better job than what they had even. But you see that the shields could always often be used as a protective barrier against arrows. Sometimes arrows that were on fire and others that were just arrows that could be destructive. It's important for us to have this shield of faith, because that in a sense is able to defend off Satan's attacks, or fend off Satan's attacks. We can look in Ephesians, or Philippians, excuse me. That's another one of Paul's letters in Ephesians. Sorry, Philippians. They're right together, so it shouldn't be too hard to be able to find them. But here in Philippians 1, he points out how important it is that we have faith in God, faith in Jesus Christ, and faith in their power to be able to protect, and to be able to encourage, and to be able to uplift us. And so, if we're going to be the Christian soldiers that God wants us to be, then we're going to have to be wielding a shield of faith.

Here in Philippians 1, it says in verse 27, Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Live reflecting what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about, so that whether I come, or see you, or whether I'm absent and I hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel. In a sense, he was saying, you know, and he was actually very positive about the church in Philippi. He has a lot of very good things to say about Philippi and about some of the work that they were doing. Yet, he says, you actually are helping one another. You are, in a sense, protecting one another. You are using the shield of faith. And he goes on and he says, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel and are in no way intimidated by your opponent. You know, here he points out, I guess, that if you're using that shield of faith in an appropriate way, if we are dependent upon that shield and we are looking to God to protect and to supply our needs, well, then we have no way or no need to be intimidated by whatever Satan may throw at us. We can feel very confident in that. We can be very grateful for that. We might also look at 1 John. 1 John 5.

And John did write a good deal about the way that Christians should live. But here in 1 John 5, of course, he says in the Scripture that we're all pretty familiar with in verse 3, the love of God is this, that we obey His commandments. If we want to express the love of God, if we want to live by the love of God, then we're going to obey His commandments. And those commandments are not grievous. They're not burdensome. You know, in some ways, people look at the law of God and they look often at specific ones of the laws of God. Sometimes it's Sabbath command, even, and say, oh, that's just too hard. That would just be giving up too much.

And yet, of course, I think their view of that is completely backwards, because how much do you gain? How much do you gain by respecting what God says? And you come in alignment with His words.

But He says, for the love of God is this, that we obey His commandments, and those are not grievous.

For whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith, our faith in God, our dependence upon God, our appreciation for God. And who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

He ties all these concepts together of belief in God, of belief in Jesus Christ, and obedience to the commands of God. And yet He says the victory, the conquering power that is conquering the world and that will conquer for us the world is our faith.

And so we want to be sure to have the shield of faith. The next one that's mentioned in this list of armaments is the helmet of salvation. And of course, I think all of us could clearly identify that the helmet in any type of an armament on any type of soldier would be extremely important because if they can hit them in the head with any kind of a weapon, whether it be a bullet or an arrow or even a club, then you've effectively incapacitated the soldier. And so He tells us to take the helmet of salvation. See, that's the helmet that we have, an understanding of what it is that God holds out before us, what it is that He wants us to be keeping in mind, that He wants us to be seeking the salvation, the eternal life that He holds out before us.

And even you find, as David was repenting in Psalm 51, which is certainly a very good verse or a very good chapter, actually, to read when we want to understand what are the depths of understanding repentance. What is it if we acknowledge that we have not been observing and keeping God's laws and that we need to know what to do, well, what Jesus tells us to do is to repent. He tells us to yield to Him. And, of course, as David was describing His repentance before God in Psalm 51, he was describing that in graphic detail and in great innocence. He was doing that with great fervency, I guess, would be a good description because he talked about, you know, I'm ashamed, I'm sorry, I wish to be forgiven. Please, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

Don't cast me away from you. Please forgive me, clear me, wash me, and I will be clean.

And yet, he said a little later on in that chapter, he said, restore to me the joy of your salvation.

So he realized that he drifted away from what God had offered, what God had pointed out to him, what he was aware of, at least in numerous degrees, I'm sure, may be very highly, you know, clear to him at times, and yet you see sins occurring in his life and then him being repentant for those sins and really turning to God with great anxiety, that would be a wrong, great fervency of appealing to God. But he said, please restore the joy of your salvation, the joy of being able to focus on eternal life and being a part of the kingdom of God.

But we also find here in Revelation 2, Revelation 2, in connection with this helmet of salvation, you know, you see in this chapter in Revelation, it is a listing of several different messages that were sent to different cities, different congregations of the church of God.

And he said in the message to Smyrna, verse 8, the angel of the church in Smyrna, write these words.

These are the words, the first and the last who was dead and who has come to life. You know, this was Jesus Christ providing information to people that he was well aware of for them. He says in verse 10, don't fear what you are about to suffer. He says don't shy away from the suffering if that's what God allows you to go through. Don't fear what you're about to suffer, but beware. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested.

And for ten days you shall have affliction, but be faithful even unto death, and I will give you a crown of life. To hear he was pointing out that, well, you're going to go through a very difficult time in your life, and yet you want to keep in mind what the real goal is, how it is that God offers eternal life, how it is that he gives us that hope. And of course, he's talking about overcoming, he's talking about being faithful, I guess, in this verse in verse 10, be faithful unto death. And I will give you a crown. I will give you a crown that you've been protecting with your helmet. And certainly that helmet is very important, and we want to keep our mind on, you know, the kingdom of God and on the salvation that God offers. And I think you all can understand how important a helmet is. I think about this every time I see somebody riding a motorcycle. Many times you see people wearing a helmet whenever they're riding. I think it's required in Missouri. I don't think it is in Kansas. I see some people in Kansas. They must be a little wacky. Riding around on motorcycles and not having a helmet on, you know, that's pretty defenseless. You know, that makes no sense to me. And of course, I don't really like to ride, if you like to ride motorcycles, that's up to you. But I don't, and I certainly don't even want to, because I'm pretty sure I would get hurt. But whenever you see motorcycles zipping in and out, you know, I certainly think about, I don't think you could stop if you had to, you know, on this motorcycle. And then certainly if somebody doesn't see you, you are toast. You know, that's, I think, the main reason why motorcycles are involved in accidents. And of course, usually not too easy to determine or difficult to determine, you know, who's going to win, motorcycle or truck. It's pretty simple.

Truck's going to come away unscathed, the motorcycle rider will have major, major injuries. But I was thinking about helmets, some helmets look like they'd be a little more protective than others. And yet I saw, I think, probably a young guy riding a motorcycle the other day, and I thought, well, at least that, you know, that looks like that might be some protection. Because I saw him zip by, I was looking this way. I heard him, of course, and yet I could see him. Looking this way, I could see him because his helmet was a pretty good size helmet, great big helmet, neon yellow.

You didn't have to have a coat on, you didn't have to have anything else on. All you need is to have a neon yellow helmet. So I suggest all of you get that spiritually so that we have, you know, the helmet of salvation safely protecting our heads, guarding us against Satan's desire to try to defeat us. And of course, you know, the crown of righteousness that we're going to be given, and as mentioned here, the crown of life. You know, that's what we're looking forward to, that's what we're seeking. The last of the armaments that you find there in Ephesians 6 is not simply taking the helmet of salvation, but also having the sword of the Spirit, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now, this one kind of ties together with the belt, in that, you know, the belt was tied together with truth and with the Word of God as well.

But here it talks about taking the sword of the Spirit, which is a reference to the Word of God.

Now, I think this may be a meaning a little bit different than the belt of truth, because it could be implying here that, well, as we're using, you know, the sword, you know, how is it that we might use the Word of God? You know, we want, and of course, you can read in Hebrews 4 about how that the Word of God, let me get that in front of me here, the Word of God is living and powerful, in Hebrews 4 verse 12, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of soul and spirit and of joints and morrow, and it's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know, the Word of God is able to cut deeply into our lives, cut all, you know, between all of the defenses that we might have and to be able to reveal how we really are. But I think whenever you think about this being a sword that we are to use, how is it that we use the Word of God?

We want to be familiar with the Word of God, and we want to be able to relate to others. And I think that, you know, we probably all could do this better. I certainly know I could do this better. I'm thinking of a particular incident the other day that happened that I thought back on, and I thought, well, you know, that was pretty bad representation as far as I was concerned. I thought I could have done better than that. And yet, I wasn't thinking so much about, well, how do the words that I speak reflect the understanding that I have of the Word of God, of what it is that God wants of me, and how it is that I ought to relate to others or maybe those who even want to know.

Because sometimes we find ourselves in, you know, that kind of situation. I was talking to a young man in a store. I was buying something, and he was the one who was checking me out. And yet, we were back in a far part of the store. And somehow it came up that I was going to go to Branson in the next week. And so it turned out that he wanted to know how come. And I said, well, it's kind of a church-related festival. And yeah, well, it ultimately ends up being somewhat work-related for me since I'm a church pastor. And he said, oh, well, I'm interested in church. I really like to find... You know, I've been thinking about church quite a bit. And, you know, I've been going to a couple of... Or I've been thinking about going to a couple of places and looking into this or that. And he mentioned where they were, and I wondered whether that would be a good help for him.

But I didn't tell him, well, you know, don't do that. You know, I tried to talk a little more. Actually, it turned out that he told me that he had grown up in his family with his...

One parent was Catholic, and one parent was Jewish. So he was familiar with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and with the Feast of Tabernacles. So when I had told him about that, oh, I know about that as far as know about this, you know, the Jewish festival as they would look at that.

And so he was kind of interested in knowing a little bit. And yet then he started telling me, well, you know, the problem that I have with church is, you know, I've gone to some of these churches and people seem to be pushing stuff down my throat. You know, they seem to be just kind of trying to push stuff in my face. And I don't like that. And he said, you know, this guy right over there, you know, some other guy worked in the store. He's a pastor, too. And he's always trying to, you know, try to tell me something that I don't know whether I want to know it or not. He's going to tell me. And so I decided then, I don't think it'd be good to be pushing too much. But I thought later, well, I think I could have probably added a few. I told him what I thought he ought to do is, I think, you know, because he was kind of wondering, you know, where should I go to church?

And I was saying, well, I think you really just need to, you know, study the Word of God, find out what it says about what the church looks like and what it should be, and then find where that is. I wanted to tell him, or I should have, I thought later, you know, can't think of it quick enough. I should have, you know, explained a little more. I did mention that I worked for the United Church of God, but I didn't tell him any more about our telecast or the webcast, which he might be interested in. And yet, we don't know when those kind of situations will come up.

I certainly wasn't thinking about it right then. And yet, you know, we all may have, you know, certain type of situations like that where we need to be able to use the sword of the Spirit, the sword that's connected with the Word of God and how it is. And certainly, whenever you see, if you look in Luke 4 and Matthew 4, Jesus is encountered with Satan. Satan's throwing all this stuff at him, and he is very wisely countering all of those with correct understanding and statement of the Word of God. And of course, I know that's what we would like to do. That's what we want to do, and we need to ask God to help us to do that. So we want to be able to use, you know, the sword of the Spirit and certainly being familiar. Being familiar with the Word of God would enable us to be able to be more effective with that particular armament. And so I point all these out. And of course, the Ephesians 6, maybe we should go back there in conclusion.

All of these armaments, the armor of God is listed here, they all have the significance to the soldier who's going to be effective and who's going to be able to fend off the fiery guards of the wicked one and is going to be able to stand and be stable and be happy and be encouraged. And down in verse 18, it goes on to say a little more about what we should do. Pray in the Spirit at all times and every prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert. And so He tells us to be praying, to be doing that consistently, to be asking for God's help, to be requesting His inspiration in our thinking, in our mind. And I know I always feel more comfortable when something is very familiar. You know, when I've gone over it recently, if I haven't gone over it for a few weeks, probably won't be able to remember it. I like to be able to remember it. And so it's got to be something that we keep in mind. To that end, keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints and pray for me so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of the kingdom of God, the mystery or the secret of what it is that God is going to do very shortly, how it is that He's going to intervene. And so I hope that we all can keep alert as we prepare for the upcoming Holy Days, as we are now involved in them, as we are sharing them with others, as we move about, as we're traveling here and there, that we can not only do that safely, asking God to help us be safe in our travels, but be concerned for one another, and certainly be sure, be sure to be fending off Satan's attempts. He says if we resist him, then he will flee. He will not be able to get to us if we are doing our part of resisting by putting on the whole armor of God.