The Modern Armor of God

Lesson Transcript

Good morning, everyone. I, um, decided this morning to take a little detour from the studies in, uh, Isaiah. The next, uh, couple of chapters I'm finding a little difficult, um, so I need a little more time to process and, and think about, meditate on those. So, um, a couple of weeks ago I was at the Sheets in Shippensburg, and I noticed this kind of unusual activity taking place. There was a bunch of vehicles parked around the perimeter, and trunks were open.

And, uh, then I realized that I believe these are policemen or marshals or something. And, uh, they were pulling on black T-shirts and hoods and strapping on bulletproof vests. And, and, uh, it was quite obvious that they were anticipating some kind of a conflict. Um, they were going to go in to do something, um, some kind of a SWAT team. And, uh, that got me, got me thinking, um, been thinking and meditating a little bit. Um, so for a passage this morning, turn to Ephesians chapter six.

These are very, very familiar, uh, verses. Modern day armor, I guess you could say, is what we saw being put plate, put on. Ephesians chapter six, beginning reading at verse ten. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, do stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. I guess if there's ever a time where we need the encouragement that's given here, it's, uh, here at towards the end of, uh, 2020. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal. And that, that is what we face here today.

I don't know how you all feel, um, but as I look around, you know, I think every generation, uh, has opportunity to look around and say, you know, I see the darkness. I, I feel like things are really coming to a head. Um, and, and that is true. Every generation faces their, their trial. Every generation faces some kind of a reality that, uh, this world is really only going in one direction, and that is it's headed towards destruction. But as I look around, it just feels like there's an encroaching darkness.

There's these black clouds out there that are just really, really close, and there's an encroaching evil. Uh, it's almost palpable. You can almost feel it, uh, uh, in the, in around us. And so if there's ever a time where we need the armor of God to be able to withstand, uh, the wiles of the devil, uh, it's today. You know, the, the, the first thing that I think is important is that we need to have a clear picture of who the enemy is. Uh, who is the enemy?

Um, and, you know, I'm, I'm afraid that too often among, uh, in the church that the enemy becomes one another. Um, and, you know, it just previously here in chapter four, uh, at the end of chapter four of, of, um, of Ephesians, uh, he talks about... Wait, first of all, in verses one to six, he says, "Therefore a prisoner of the Lord beseech you...

I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling wherewith which you were called, with all loneliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, through you all, and in you all." And he ends this chapter by saying, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." You know, Paul is, is, uh, is realistic. And, you know, the reality of, of it is, is that relationships are a lot of work. And in those relationships, it's not always... everything is not always, um, how would you say? There's, there's struggles. There's things that we go through.

But brothers and sisters, that is not the enemy we face this morning. In fact, the enemy that we face loves nothing better than to, to, to have conflict and strife in, in those, uh, kind of areas. Here it says that we need to put on the armor of God because we need to stand against the wiles of the devil. And that means we, we don't use that word very often, but we know what the word wily is. It, it means, uh, sneaky. It's deceitful.

Sort of like, like a fox or like some, some other creature that's very, very sneaky. And he says, "Be not deceived." And, you know, deception is one of the things I think that we must so, uh, desperately need to be on the guard. You know, there's no one out there that says, "I'm deceived." The very nature of deception itself is that we don't recognize it. We think we're, we think we're on the right way. And Satan is the master deceiver. Um, it's, uh, it's, it's who he is.

Not only that, it says, "We're not up against flesh and blood, but we're up against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age." In other words, these are spiritual beings. Uh, these are... this is spiritual wickedness in spiritual realms that we, as human beings on our own strength, are absolutely powerless against. It is bigger than, than we are. On earth is not as equal, the song says. Uh, that's, that's the, the enemy, the nature of the enemy we're up against.

And on our own, we're absolutely no match, uh, for this kind of force that we're up against. And so he says, "Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might." That is our only hope this morning. We're facing all this. We see the evil around us. And how are, how are we going to stand? How, how are we going to come through this and be, and be faithful? What can we reach for? What can we grab a hold of?

And here he says, "We need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might." Alone, we're no match for the enemy. And, and without His might and His power, we're going to fall. Um, that's just the long, long and the short of it. And so he calls us here. What's he call us to? He calls us to stand. To stand fast. Four times he says that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand, stand therefore. And we've...

I think we've all seen pictures. Uh, some of the... some pictures are rather gruesome, but pictures of battlefields where the battlefield is strewn with fallen soldiers. Um, and usually what... when you're in a battle and you're fallen, you're not in a very good position. Um, and so he's encouraging us. He says, "We need to stand against the onslaught of Satan." There's a song that says, "We're in a mighty conflict here, the army of the Lord. We must join forces, standing tall and lean upon His word.

The enemy is now in view and bravely circles around. Then comes the cry from the battlefield, another soldier down." And, you know, there's too many soldiers down on the field. Friends, family, people that we know. And we see they end up a casualty to Satan's, to Satan's wiles. And so he says, "Put on the whole armor of God." And I'm just thankful this morning for this, uh, this protection that he affords us. He doesn't send us out to the battle without any, any protection.

He has provided us, uh, with this armor, uh, as, as a means of protection. But he says we have to put on the whole armor of God. It's got to be all of it. We all know the story of, uh, Ahab. What happened to Ahab? He was out on the battlefield, and some random guy shoots a random arrow, and it hits him in a crack in the armor. And, and he's, he's wounded. Uh, he, he's, he's dead. And Satan is out there looking for our vulnerabilities. He's out there looking for our Achilles heel.

I don't know if you know the, the why we say that, um, the Achilles heel. But there's, in Greek mythology, there was a, a mother. Her name was Thetis, and she took Achilles, um, because it was prophesied that he was going to meet an early, meet an early demise. He was going to die at a young age. So she took him and dipped him into the River Styx. Um, and that was supposed to give him these, uh, make, make, make him invisible or make him invincible.

But she, she reached him, and she dipped him in, and she was holding him by the heel. So the heel didn't get covered. And so later on, the legend has it that he was, uh, injured or hit in battle on his heel, and that was his, his death. So we now say when we use this, this, this term our Achilles heel, that means that's the part where we're most vulnerable. Um, and, and that's, that's what Satan's out to do.

He's, he's out to find the cracks in our armor or the piece of armor that we don't have, that we don't have in place. Um, or he's looking for, uh, a loophole. And this is maybe in a little different, different way. But I found this interesting too. Uh, the word loophole, we say, uh, he, he found a loophole. That word comes from the castles, uh, in the, in the, in the age of, of longbows, uh, and, and so on. There was archers. And so, um, you've probably seen the little slits in the top of the castles.

And the idea was if you're in the castle and you're shooting out through the slit, you have, you have a wide range, uh, of, of targets that you can go for. But the, the poor folks that are outside, the only thing they can aim for is that little slit. And, uh, again, the, the idea is vulnerability. We become very... if you're on the outside, you're very vulnerable to that loophole. And, you know, Satan is looking for a loophole in your life.

Uh, he wants to find that area in which you're weak, and so that he can, that he can destroy you. And so it's important that we put on the whole armor of God. And he makes a point of that here. He said, "The whole armor. Put it all on." And I'd like to make this personal this morning. You know, a lot of times as I, I guess, grew up and even heard this explained, I hear it explained sort of in generalities, you know, the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith.

But as I was meditating on this, what does it really mean? I mean, he's giving us this armor, and it's a real armor, and it offers real protection. So what is he actually talking about here? Can we make it personal in our own lives? It's real armor that can help us to stand, that can keep us from falling. And the first thing he tells us that we need to put on is the belt of truth.

David says in Psalm 51:6, "Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom." And again, we, we know that Satan is the father of lies. And so Jesus said, or someone, it says in the scriptures, "Whatsoever is pure, whatsoever things are true." That's what we need to immerse ourselves in. So immerse ourselves in the truth and, uh, be true. In other words, when we're true, that means there's... it's straight. It's, it's right. It's...

there's nothing false, uh, within us. Truth is unchanging. Jesus embodies truth. He says, "I'm the way, the truth, and the light." A man came to his old friend, a music teacher, and he said to him in that flippant way in which we modern people use, he said, "What's the good news today?" And the old man never said a word, but he walked across the room and he picked up a tuning fork and he dinged it. And he said, "That, my friend, is the key of A. Today it was A. 5,000 years ago it was A.

And 10,000 years from now it'll still be A. The soprano upstairs sings off key. The tenor across the hall flats his high notes. And the piano downstairs is out of tune." And then he dinged it again. And he said, "That is A, my friend, and that's the good news for today." And, you know, that's what Jesus is. The same yesterday, today, forever. He's the truth. We can depend on it. It doesn't... 10,000 years in the future, 5,000 years in the past, today, forever, Jesus is the same.

Ephesians chapter 4, verses 13 through 15. Just jumping in here. "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, but in cunning craftiness and deceitful plotting...

in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but in speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things unto Him who is the Head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does it share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." So they're speaking the truth in love. It brings about stability. And that belt that they wore on, you know, imagine they...

a lot of times they wore a tunic, um, and it was very difficult to, to run. Uh, the Bible talks about girding up the loins. That's the idea of putting this belt around, uh, getting ready to... for action. And, um, so we need to immerse ourselves in the truth. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 9 through 12.

"The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteousness, deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they should all be...

that they may all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." So again, there he's warning us that if you're going to fiddle around with the truth, you're going to believe a lie. You're going to become deceived. And you're going to think what you're doing is right and true, and it's actually the exact opposite of that. So the belt of truth that girds us in the middle, a very important thing because it was on that belt that a lot of the other armor rested.

Um, the breastplate fastened to that, the sword fastened to that belt. It, it, it freed them up for movement. Um, truth is very, very, very important. And, uh, let's not play games with it. Um, you play games with the truth. That's one of those loopholes. That's one of those, uh, cracks in the arm... uh, in the armor that Satan is, is looking for. Then he says we need to put on the breastplate of righteousness. And this is not self-righteousness. I said earlier that we're in and of ourselves, we're no match.

But Romans 6, Romans chapter 6, verses 12 and 13. "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lust, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourself to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace." This is... the kind of righteousness he's talking about here is, is uprightness in character.

He's talking about the kind of righteousness that... the practical righteousness that comes from Christ making that change in our life. It's the idea of integrity. I really appreciated the devotion this morning. Thank you, Anthony, for that. Because, I mean, what we're talking about, those questions really come down to evaluating the integrity of our life. The word integrity comes from the idea of, well, the word integer, which means whole. It's a whole number. The whole, not a part, not a fraction.

And so integrity is... a person of integrity is a person who what he says and who he is are the same. In other words, there's no... there's no disparity. This person is, is a person of integrity. You know, our reputation is what men think... who men think you are. Our character is who God knows who you are. Satan does not need to accomplish much to destroy integrity. You think about it. If it means whole, and we violate in one little area, then we're no longer a person of integrity.

Because integrity has to do with wholeness. Even a small chink destroys it. Integrity is a true 24/7 concept. Consistently right choices create or reveal integrity. One evil choice creates a fault line of potential catastrophe. And I think that's why this breastplate of righteousness covers the heart. It covers the most vital parts of our body. And he says, you know, there's... there's many people, there's many soldiers who have fallen because they harbor some kind of secret sin in their life.

They're just not integral. They're not whole. Maybe they... maybe they look good on the outside. But is there something inside that's a little bit rotten or just not quite right? At 7:00 p.m. on September 27th, 1994, a 510-foot deep-sea ferry, Estonia, left the port Tallinn in Estonia for... to go to Stockholm, Sweden. 162 crew members and 897 passengers were on board for the overnight voyage. This ferry had been crossing the Baltic Sea for more than a decade.

The crew was experienced, and nothing indicated there was any danger to the ship. At 8:30 p.m., the Estonia encountered rough weather. Rain in high seas slowed the ferry and pummeled its hull. At midnight, water was observed pouring through the front-loading cargo doors. Pumps were activated immediately, but within 15 minutes, the crew was overwhelmed by the water surging in. At 1:24 a.m., the ship sent out a distress call. It had started listing and continued to take on water.

At 2:00 a.m., the ship went down 60 miles from Stockholm. The sinking of the Estonia claimed 921 lives. Only 138 people survived. Before the Estonia sailed, two Swedish safety inspectors had spent five hours examining her seaworthiness. They noted the damaged and worn rubber seals around the front-loading cargo doors. These problems were written up, but the lead inspector did not think they affected the ship's seaworthiness. And so on they went, and there was a disaster.

And, you know, again, I want to emphasize that how important it is to have on this breastplate of righteousness, to be a person of integrity. That means the whole. And, you know, you know, we make mistakes, but are we quick to repent? Are we quick to make that right with God? And so that, you know, someone comes at you with accusations, and you know within your heart that it... I'm clean. I'm whole. That gives you a tremendous strength.

But boy, if someone comes at you with some accusations, and you know there's something there, that just has a way of getting us, and it... and it makes us very vulnerable. A clear conscience is a prime benefit of integrity, and enables one to stand firm when the storms of life come upon us. If your heart does not condemn you, but affirms you, you can be a tower of strength, for the man of integrity walks securely. And that's what it says in Proverbs 10:9.

Where the Hebrew for "securely" means safety, security, a place of refuge, feeling of trust, assurance, without concern, confidence, a person of integrity will have a good reputation and not have to fear that he or she will be exposed or found out. Integrity provides a safe path through life. And then Sturgeon said this: "Lose all rather than to lose your integrity. And when all else is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the bosom of a mortal.

Serve God with integrity, and if you achieve no success, at least no sin will lie upon your conscience." Um, and so I think probably we have way underestimated the, uh, the seriousness of allowing things in our life that we know are not right, um, which compromises our integrity. And just like that ship, it compromises our whole life and makes us open and vulnerable to to Satan's attacks. He says then that we should put on...

that our feet should be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, shoes of the gospel of peace. It's kind of ironic that he's speaking about peace here in the midst of a battle, but that's exactly what he's talking about. Peace in the midst of a battle. There's something I would like to picture here. Um, I wonder what would happen if we took all the men here and told you to take your shoes off, and we're going to run a race around the out... around the church house here, uh, three...

three laps, uh, in barefooted. I think it would actually be kind of funny to watch. Uh, I think there would be funny-looking gestures being made, and I think that there would be unnatural movements and, uh, probably some yips and yelps. Because shoes are foundational. You know, there's battles... physical battles have been lost because of poor shoes. Um, I think there's stories of the... in the... in the Revolutionary War where the soldiers didn't have any... it was winter, they didn't have the right kind of shoes.

They were wrapping rags and whatever they could. Tremendous hindrance. And he's saying here that we need to have a foundation, be firmly planted in the gospel, the good news of peace. Isaiah 52 is the passage that always comes to mind. I'm just going to read that.

Isaiah 52, verse 7: "How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of Him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" And as I was reading on this, I discovered that they claim that, you know, before the days of cell phones and telegraphs and and all that, there were messengers. These messengers would bring news from the battle.

And the people that were watching became experts at predicting the kind of news that was coming by looking at the runner's feet. If the runner was kicking up clouds of dust and really, really making headway, they said, "Yes, the news is good." If the runner's feet were kind of plodding and it was hard, they would say, "The news is bad." And so we have a tremendous foundation with the peace that God gives us. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on him." John 14, verse 27, Jesus...

Jesus said this: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." And just like if we have to run through the stones or some rough area, and we have a good solid pair of shoes on our feet, and the confidence that gives us, the peace that God gives us, keeps us rooted and grounded and our foundation firm. What good's the rest of the armor if we're not rooted and grounded and firm and have a solid...

have a solid footing? It says that there's a peace that God gives us which passes understanding. In other words, we can't even understand... it's almost beyond what we can understand. And there's another aspect of this gospel of peace. Jesus said we need to love our enemies. Jesus said my kingdom is a peaceable kingdom. And when I thought about... Satan has probably destroyed more with the churches who have said, "Jesus didn't really mean that in a practical way." Think about the Crusades alone. How much...

how much... how big of a blot that is put on the name of Christianity, and how big of an opening that Satan used that. Even to this day, uh, there's bitterness and hatred over... over supposed Christians and how they treat. I think... I think the peaceable... the peaceable gospel, the gospel... the non-resistant gospel of Christ is a tremendous foundation and gives us a tremendous security, uh, that... uh, that we don't understand or put enough, uh, stock in.

Our feet shod with the preparation or the foundation of the gospel of peace. So let's avail ourselves of that. Let's follow what Christ said: "When our enemy is hungry, feed him. When we're smitten on the one cheek, turn to the other." There's tremendous power in that. And Satan, that... that it's the antithesis of what he is, and he will run the other way when that's... when that's the case. He says we're to take up the shield of faith. Now this shield that we're to take up was not just this little bitty thing.

The shield that the Roman soldiers used was a big shield. In fact, there was... there was some kind of a statement that if you don't use the shield correctly, you'll be carried back from battle on it. And so, in other words, the idea was it's a big enough shield, it can actually be your stretcher. And it says that with this shield... get back here in Ephesians. It says we can quench all the fiery darts of Satan. Now that's a promise this morning that we can... that we can claim.

We can quench all the fiery darts of the... of Satan if we utilize the shield of faith. You know what they would do? They'd take these darts, and they would dip the ends in tar or some kind of flammable substance, and they would chuck them to create all kinds... it's sort of like a Molotov cocktail or something like that, where if it doesn't cause damage where it hits, it catches things on fire and... and creates all kinds of... kinds of problems. And Satan has an arsenal full of fiery darts. And he is...

he's just winging them things as fast as he can... as fast as he can throw them at us. Doubt, discouragement, greed, lust. And we could... we could just go on and on of the darts that Satan has thrown. But he says that the shield of faith, we're able to quench those fiery darts. Deuteronomy 33... Deuteronomy 33:26-29: "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds, the Eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

He will thrust out the enemy from before you and will say, 'Destroy!' Then Israel shall dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone, in the land of grain and new wine. His heavens shall also drop dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your majesty? Your enemies shall submit to you, and you shall tread down their high places." Psalm 28... Psalm 28, verse 7: "My heart... the Lord is my strength and my shield.

My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my songs I will praise Him." The Lord is our shield. And you know what's it mean, the shield of faith? It means that I believe that what God said He is able to perform. It means that I am willing to act upon that. I don't just say it, but I'm willing to act upon that. The things that God says, I'm willing to act upon that. Because faith is not faith unless it's acted upon.

Without it being tested, without it being tried, it's not... it's not true faith. Alan Gardner was a missionary to South America, and in 1851, his body was discovered on the coast of Terra del Fuego. He had been shipwrecked, and he and his party died slowly of hunger. We know what his thoughts were during these dark days because of the letters he wrote and left behind for his family and the entries he wrote in his journal. "There came a time when he was desperate for water. His pangs of thirst were intolerable.

There he died, all alone, isolated, weak, and physically broken. And yet one of the last entries in his journal were these words, Psalm 34: "The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." And his last recorded words were, "I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God." With a faith like that, you can quench the fiery darts of the wicked. And do we have that kind of confidence in God?

That no matter what happens to me, I trust You, God, that You are doing what's best. And there's just one more blessing about this, these shields that really bless me, and that is these shields were made to interlock. So in some ways, we've been talking about an interlock... a sort of a personal armor that we put on. But now let's picture everyone together interlocking those shields and together having that added protection and added power of the phalanx, which is what that was called.

And so I like to think of this as an individual battle, but it's a battle we as a church do together. It's a battle that God's people do together. They interlock these shields, and they're... and you're out there quenching the darts of the fiery darts. They would take those shields, and they would... the outer cover was leather, and they would soak them in water so that when the... when the arrows hit, they could not... they would sort of burn out. Then he says we're to take the helmet of salvation.

I'm going to read 1 Thessalonians... 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 8-10. Another place where he talks about the armor. "But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him." The hope of salvation, he says, is our helmet. You know, one of the...

one of the places that Satan attacks us the most is in our minds. Many people have fallen because of Satan's attack on their intellect, something in their mind, a way of thinking. And he says that we need to keep a fueled view of the hope of salvation. John chapter 5, when thinking of our minds...

John 5, verse 24: "Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, and has not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life." There he's talking about the power we get from salvation. We've passed from death into life. 1 John 5:10-13: "He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe, God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son.

And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things have I written to you, that you may believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." If we have the Son, we have life. If we experience salvation, that guards our hearts and our minds. I had a customer tell me some time ago...

he's a Christian man. In fact, I would really like to sing. He loves a cappella music. Hopefully, if this virus is good enough that we can do Christmas caroling, I'd like to go there. But he's a very... had brother in background and so on. And he was telling me with sorrow that he said, "I have a grandson who's an atheist." And he said that... he asked him, he questioned him, because he's a doctor. He'd been in school for 12 or 13 years as a specialist.

And I think he ended up at Yale or Harvard or one of the elite medical schools. But he also went to Messiah College. Messiah College is a Christian college. And he asked his son... or grandson, he said, "Where did you... what changed your mind?" And the son said, "I didn't change my mind at Yale or Harvard." But he said it was at Messiah College.

And so Satan just loves nothing better than to sow confusion about in our minds and get our minds, our intellect, all messed up and not really recognize the salvation that he is offering. Our minds are very important. Let's guard them. Let's keep fact... keep view of the fact that if we're... if we're Christ, then we're one of His, and we have that to grasp a hold of.

He says then, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Hebrews 4:12 in the Good News translation says, "The Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart." And we talked about integrity. You know, how do I know if I'm a person of integrity? The Word of God is that thing that convicts us. It cuts right through.

It cuts through it all. And it says it judges the desires and thoughts of the heart. So if we're wanting to know this morning, where do we stand? Are we a person of integrity? Is that breastplate what it needs to be, the breastplate of righteousness? He says, "The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, it will tell us. It will convict us. It will judge the desires and thoughts of the heart." It's a very powerful weapon. Jesus used it in the wilderness in Matthew 4 when He was tempted by Satan.

What did He do? It is written, and He'd come right back with the Word of God. And you know, I think we would just do well. The Word of God, read it, study it, memorize it, use it. A sword is no good if it's in its sheath. We can walk around with a sword all day long. If it's in its sheath, if we're not utilizing... and God has given us a precious gift in His Word. It reveals who He is. It reveals how we should live. It helps... it brings about conviction. It gets right in. It cuts...

I like how this translation says, "It cuts all the way through." Cuts all the way through. And He ends this chapter then, and He talks about communication with the commander.

Back in Ephesians chapter 6, He says, "After the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." You know, if you're in a battle, there's hardly anything that's more critical than communication with the commander. And He has given us that privilege this morning through prayer. You know, there's many, many battles that have been lost through poor communication.

I read about one battle where they had this store of arms in a particular fort, and the commander was talking to one of his generals, and they had two different locations in mind. And so the battle was waged. They went... the general went to where he thought the the store of arms were, ladders and things that they needed. Nothing there. Miscommunication.

"On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate attacks drove the Union troops through the town to the top of Cemetery Hill, and the battle appeared to be a Confederate victory. But Lee, he could see that as long as the enemy held the high ground south of the town, the battle wasn't over.

So he knew that the rest of the Union army of the Potomac was headed towards Gettysburg, and his best chance to clinch the victory was to seize those hills and ridges before they arrived." In other words, gain the high ground. "So he gave Richard S. Ewell," which was another one of his, I guess, a general, "a discretionary order to attack Cemetery Hill if practicable." It says, "If head Stonewall Jackson still lived, he undoubtedly would have found it practicable.

But Ewell was not Jackson, and he thought the enemy position was too strong, and so he didn't attack." And that's one of the big ifs in the Battle of Gettysburg. But communication problems between the general and the commander. In this case, maybe the commander's commands were too vague. But that's never the problem with our commander. It's not that he has a problem. It's, are we listening? Are we hearing? Are we praying? Are we seeking His face? Are we seeking His advice on how to live? We have an open line.

You know, millions of dollars are spent on the battlefield, even today, on how do we get that communication? You know, it continues to improve, you know, from radios to walkie-talkies to satellite phones to whatever. But the idea is, if we can communicate, we can win this battle. We have a commander who sees the big picture. He's in control. He says, "Here's the armor that I give you. Put it on, all of it, and let's pray.

Let's pray for all we're worth, because that's our communication with the commander." And he wants to... he wants to guide us. He wants to lead us. He wants to help us defeat Satan. So we're in a battle. We know who the enemy is. He's given us some wonderful provisions of things that we can... armor that we can put on that He promises will help us to stand. We don't have to become one of those people who've fallen on the battlefield.

2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-5: "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." Our weapons are not carnal, but they're mighty.

It says they're able to pull down strongholds. James says, "If we resist the devil, he's going to flee from us." So I just hope that we can be challenged. As we see the darkening clouds around us, if we see the evil... sense the evil days, and possibly the battle we face not only spiritually, maybe even in physical persecution and things that we're going to face, let's take courage and let's take heart this morning. We have a commander who we can be in direct control with.

We have some things that He's told us, "If we put these on, we can stand. We have the shield of faith, which we can... we can... we're in this together. We can connect those shields together and together put on a united front." I'd like to read the words to Martin Luther's Hymn number 488. It says, "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, our helper, He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing." This is... we already read this.

"But for still our ancient foe doth steek to work us woe, His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not His equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing." On our own strength? Impossible. "Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing? Doth ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He. Lord Sabaoth is His name, from age to age the same." The good news is He never changes. He's the same from age to age. "And He must win the battle.

And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure: one little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth; the Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth.

Let goods and kindred go; this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever." Does anyone have any comments or anything before we close? Really like the practical approach to the armor. And when you mentioned that the belt is true.