PUTTING ON THE ARMOUR! (Eph. 6:11)

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1 PUTTING ON THE ARMOUR! (Eph. 6:11) Paul had a very strong personal concern for the spiritual development of each member of the churches he established. He travelled thousands of miles, preached in churches, synagogues and wherever he had the opportunity. He met people from all backgrounds; he had an insatiable desire for Christ to be known and sinners to be saved... and he was anxious for them to be aware of the battles they would inevitably face. He, of course, spoke from personal experience II Cor. 11:23 in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: 33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. When do you most need protection in the Lord s army? In the difficult and dark times we to go through? Yes, most certainly but remember the young man in the times that were good and fun-filled he was so enthusiastic for the activities of the world. He heard of all their attractions and paid attention to their vain promises. They seduced and fascinated him, and eventually drew him away from his father. Yes, at first he enjoyed himself but, - as is often the case, - the pleasures turned to sorrow and he ended up in the most demeaning surroundings. In the good times, he had not considered for a moment that he needed protection and such was the reason he fell victim to a cruel world. Paul had already given the Ephesians clear and wise instructions to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might This wasn t a request or a suggestion, it was a command. This is a command for our protection! He had been teaching them sound doctrine, - beautiful doctrine, - but he nevertheless warned them to be diligent and properly protected in the armour of the Lord. It s one thing to know it in your head, but you need to put it into practice! Most of us here have belonged to the Lord for many years, and I m sure your testimony is the same as mine we cannot afford to ignore the Lord s plain instruction concerning this putting on the armour. There have been times the enemy has wounded us because we haven t paid due attention to how the armour should be worn.

2 2 All too often the fiery darts come dangerously close. If the devil would dress in a combat uniform with his name written on it, we would at least recognise him as the enemy how much more straightforward it would be! But he comes in different guises. Sometimes he appears as we would expect him to, - foul-mouthed, filthy, and totally abhorrent and then there are other times he comes with a smile on his face, a gentle word, a friendly gleam in his eyes and the most tantalising of manner but he is still the devil he is the enemy of the people of God. Sometimes him and those belonging to him are so many just as David wrote when the Philistines took him in Gath, Ps. 56:2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High. 3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. What good things can you say about the enemy? Before you answer that, consider his mission is your destruction. He is not just out to defeat you, he is out for your annihilation. He wants to extinguish every Christian, and every Christian influence and everything associated with God. He doesn t believe in half-measures. When you trace the devil s plan in the Old Testament you conclude that he had no place in his kingdom, - if he had ever managed to establish it, - for any who worshipped God. In the New Testament, - and ever since, - he has tried every means the Lord has laid at his disposal to conquer the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has tried to persecute it, pollute it, pervert it and he will continue to try until he is cast into the pit! He has infiltrated the Word of God and he has taken verses out of it, and changed meanings without the Author s approval. He has interfered with the whole concept of Godly worship and he put his own worldly slant on it so it is not the worship of God. I would not pretend to understand his foul mind, - he should know his days are numbered, but such is the unimaginable corruptness of his depraved mind he doesn t accept it. He might think he can still defeat the Church, but we have God s Word to say He won t! When you read its pages, - from beginning to end, - you see very clearly that throughout history God always retains a faithful remnant who are looking unto Him as the source of their strength. The word for wiles is meqodei,a, deceitful methods, cunning arts, crafty trickery and that is how he succeeds. He offers men and women what they think they want and he keeps gently nudging their need of God bit-by-bit out of the equation. It is one of the saddest pictures when someone searching for God takes a route that merely tickles their imagination because it exposes their heart to the trickery, - the meqodei,a, - of the devil. He can so subtly offer a Christless Christianity that denies Christ the Saviour of His true position on the throne of the heart. The offer is made that you can have Christ plus whatever you want to set alongside Him. To the untrained ear it is so attractive.

3 3 It is so far removed from Fanny Crosby s old hymn, Take the world but give me Jesus. How many have changed it so they think they can have both! They contrive a God that harmonises with just about any way they want to believe. Yes, the devil s dangerous and that is why we need to make sure we re wearing the armour. And when we are wearing the Christian s armour we don t sit down when we are wearing it Neither do we go to sleep when we are wearing it. We need to stand! The word i[sthmi means to be fixed and firmly established and it is in an aorist tense, - in other words, it is something you started to do when you first joined the Lord s army, and you are continuing to stand! Over and over again Paul reminded the churches of this very important position to adapt He told the Romans about this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God (5:2). He told them that their faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (I Cor. 2:5). He left them with no doubt, I Cor. 15:1 I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved. 16:13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, he told them. You Galatians you who are in danger of listening to false gospels, 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. He told the Philippians, 4:1 stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved and the Colossians, 4:12 stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. In the shadow of persecution and opposition he instructed the Thessalonians, II Thess. 2:15 stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. One of the questions asked in the Book of Revelation is 6:17, For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? The answer is given in 14:1, And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb standing on the mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His [i.e. Christ s] and his Father's name written upon their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from out of heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard as the sound of harpers harping with their harps: 3 And they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. Where are we standing? We are standing on the promises of God our Saviour! We are standing on the Rock, and we are bound to Him eternally by love s strong cord. When you watch the old films of the Roman soldiers at war their enemies are shouting and taunting them but the soldiers continue to stand firm, not moving not being provoked into actions that would give the enemy a foothold or a way in not breaking ranks but standing firm! The soldiers together hold the line in spite of all the many antics of the enemy. That is what it means to stand fast!

4 4 When they come to you and say all manner of evil against you falsely (Mt. 5:11), and you are faithful to the Lord they will try every which-way to goad you into dishonouring Him. They will want to cause confusion and division. They will want to bring indiscipline and mutiny. You see, that is why it is our remit not to negotiate with the devil, not to listen to anything he says for it inevitably leads to compromise and you cannot afford to give him an inch for he wants it all! To stand against him Paul has learned we must put on the whole armour of God, that [we] may be able to stand against him. It is spiritual warfare at its most devastating, and yet we have the confidence I Cor. 15:57 thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the Lord on our side, and we can cry out to the Captain of our salvation, Ps. 35:1 Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. The victory is already ours, along with the responsibility to be properly dressed in the Heavenly armour for Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight (Ps. 144:1), that is the vocabulary of the victorious soldier. Read and study God s Word, speak to Him in prayer, meet with His people for worship as often as you can, serve Him among your friends and in the place where He sets you He will give you the strength, and the confidence, to be faithful for Him. He will help you, - by the Holy Spirit, - to put on your armour and to know how to use each part to its best potential. He ll show you how to be wrapped safely in His truth, and how to cover your heart with the breastplate of righteousness, and you will put on the proper footwear so you will be able to go where He sends you. You ll have the shield and you ll know how to use it so that the fiery darts are stopped and you ll have on the helmet through which none of the errors or trickery of the enemy can penetrate your mind. You will have the Word of God, - the sword, - in your hand, and you ll know how to use it. And you are keeping it all together in the attitude of prayer, - what does that mean? It means you re listening to the commands of God and being obedient. You are using the Christian s armour, - you have put it on! And you are not just happy to keep the enemy at bay, you want to totally defeat him in your life. When he comes up to you and he leers over you in that threatening way he does, then shout at him that the certainty of your salvation is eternally in Christ, - he already knows, but tell him again anyway! Tell him you belong to the Lord. I guarantee he will hate it, and it will annoy him! You submit yourself to God afresh and resist the devil and you have the Lord s promise, he will flee from you (James 4:7)!

5 5 And then, when he s gone, withdraw again into the presence of the Lord, v.8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. He is the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10), and He is always on duty with us. In the army, when you return from a patrol, they have what you call a debrief. That s when all the soldiers who were on the patrol come together to speak about their experiences, - who they saw and what they did. When you are with God s people in His army you also have much to speak about in His presence. You want to pray that He would take a loved one who is presently serving in the enemy s ranks and you want to pray that loved one will come on to the side of the Saviour that he/she will join the company of the saved. They mightn t be high up in the devil s army, - they are not really bad, not as bad as many others but they are not serving the Lord, they are serving the devil. Pray for them to be saved. Maybe someone in your family is steeped in the enemy s tactics, - they take every opportunity when they see you to mock your God and it is so easy to react to them but, once again, before you do anything, pray for them to be saved. You also have other issues you want to bring to Him in the hearing of your fellowsoldiers in the Lord. You know the devil is powerful, he s strong, and there seems to be times when he is winning. Maybe he has been engaging you in battle for a long time over a specific issue Well, remember you are on the Lord s side, the winning side, and we are more than conquerors through him that loved us (Rom. 7:37). Our Saviour defeated him at the cross, - the blood of Christ was his final undoing, and all the victory is with God and His people. Yes, the army has different regiments and battalions, - the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlands, the Royal Scots and others but they all belong to the same army and are under the same command. It doesn t matter whether we are Baptist, Brethren, or whatever else as long as we know the Lord as Saviour. He is the entrance requirement and the standard by which we serve! He has fitted us out with the very best from the stores of Heaven. The weapons He has issued us with will never jam and the swords will never rust. The shield will stop everything that comes against it so therefore, to His glory and in obedience to His precious word, I trust we ll make sure to put on the whole armour of God, that [we] may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.