Spiritual Warfare

[0:00] Wow. Wow. Wow. We have one more.

[0:14] We have one more recitation before we finish Ephesians chapter 6.

[0:33] And Mary Ellen, your Sunday school class is next. When you are ready, like next week. No, I...

[0:47] We'll work at that. But hasn't this been a blessing, right? It's been a great, great blessing. And we all want Gabe in the future to introduce our various little parts of the Scripture.

[1:01] In case you're wondering, Gabe is a very quiet, shy young man. And so we appreciate that. I trust what you will do is take your Bibles and turn in them to Ephesians chapter 6.

[1:18] And follow along with me as I read there in verse 16 and 17.

[1:31] In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

[1:44] Let us pray. Our Father God, this morning as we take this Word in our hand, we recognize that it is given to us by revelation, that the Holy Spirit has given it to us that we may profit by it.

[2:05] And furthermore, we are mindful, Lord, that we who are Your children are heavily dependent, even at this moment, both in the preaching of the Word and also in the comprehension and application of the Word on the ministry of the Spirit of God who dwells within.

[2:22] And so this morning, we ask that we would be enabled and strengthened by Your Spirit to both comprehend and declare the sweetness and the glory of the truth that reflects our Lord Jesus Christ and His love for us.

[2:43] And we ask this in His name. Amen. We are in our third lesson, I believe, on the subject of spiritual warfare.

[2:54] And I confess that it may seem a little longer than most, but when I stop and consider the significance and the importance of it, I believe that it has bearing on all of your lives.

[3:04] And as I have spent the last week in prayer and thinking about this passage, I couldn't help but have many of your hearts and my pastoral relationship with you come to mind.

[3:17] I cannot think about the issue of spiritual warfare and not think about, first of all, the enemy and his hatred for me and his desire to harm me, but I also cannot come to this passage and not think about you and recognize that in pastoral ministry, you end up being aware of some of the heartaches and challenges and the afflictions of the enemy who at one point or another has harmed and aims to hurt you.

[3:47] Furthermore, I cannot help but think of our young men this week as I was praying. I thought about Will and I thought about Sam and I thought about Isaac going off to basic training. I thought about Seth and I thought about Kevin, one in Afghanistan and the other in Cuba.

[4:03] and I found myself praying not only for their physical safety but for their spiritual well-being. And my desire and my prayer has been that the Word of God would be the thing that would be a comfort and a help to them and that they would, in those circumstances that they will find themselves, they would put on the whole armor of God that they will be able to stand against the wiles of the devil in the wicked and evil day that we are.

[4:30] Now as we look at this passage we come to the last set of pieces and very thankfully I have some illustrations here of those things.

[4:41] I'm going to draw their attention to them. For one, we have a shield. I'm going to get these things set where, what happened to the chairs? Here they are. I'm going to put the helmet out here for you.

[4:58] But a shield was something that since people were always trying to hurt you and stick you and poke little things in you, the shield was something that protected you and was very, very vital to ancient warfare.

[5:10] In fact, a soldier was most often referred to as a shield wearer or a shield carrier. And ancient warfare and much of the, I wouldn't use the word mythology, but all the mystique surrounding it had to do with a shield.

[5:26] One of the things that a Spartan mother and father would say to their son when he was going off to warfare was either come back with your shield or on it.

[5:40] That is not rumor. That's fact. And the attitude was is that your shield was probably one of the most important items of defense because it was what protected you from those who were bent on your destruction.

[5:54] In addition to the shield, there was the helmet and we were looking at that this morning. This is one example of a helmet and the helmet was something that you didn't wear for casual entertainment or when you were mowing the lawn.

[6:07] You only put it on when you were involved in conflict. It was hot. It was sticky. It was messy. It was heavy. I mean, the modern helmets that men wear today in battle has nothing to do with that old lump of metal that was stuck on top of your head for your safety.

[6:24] Third, and I have very thankfully a sword here that, there it is. Sword was very, very important and for the most part in ancient warfare they did not use swords the way they use them on TV.

[6:41] Now what I mean by that in TV, how are swords used? Oh, it's clatter and clang all over the place and big strokes and swings and all that kind of stuff but the truth of the matter is the sword was used primarily for putting five or six inch little holes in people.

[6:57] Straightforward, okay? Let me tell you something. A slashing wound that is two feet long and half an inch deep is not quite as dangerous to an individual as a five inch penetration in his core because guess what happens when there's a penetration in your core, in your thorax?

[7:15] It all begins to shut down, okay? And you begin to lose oxygen, you begin to lose blood, there are all kinds of nasty little ugly things that happen when that sword ends up being stuck inside you.

[7:32] And this morning as we think about ancient warfare, we recognize that this passage was written not to just give us a little introduction to history but to remind us that we here are engaged in active warfare and we have an enemy that is bent on causing us harm.

[7:51] And one of the things that we saw as we look at the passage earlier is over there in verse 12, Paul says this, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

[8:05] And over and over again the enemy inclines us to think that the problems we have in life have to do with other people and things that other people are doing to us, circumstances, events, all those things surrounding us and here the Spirit of God says to us, hey, let's get this straight.

[8:21] The real battle, the real conflict is not with people, it's with something more profound than that and there is an enemy, there is an enemy of your soul that is desperately interested in causing you harm.

[8:35] And as a result of that we come to the last three pieces and we find here that the first thing that we find in this passage in verse 16 is that we're to put on the shield of faith.

[8:46] Now the shield that I have here is probably a shield that would, if it had been used and this is a modern shield in case you're wondering, it was just put together this week, but, last week, but if you were dealing with an ancient shield this kind of shield would have been used by those who are riding on horses as a general rule or involved in individual personal conflict.

[9:11] The shield that Paul refers to was much larger. It was four feet tall and two and a half feet wide and it was kind of sloped like this, kind of a concave and you would stand behind that, you had a brace so you could hold on to it and it weighed about twenty some pounds.

[9:33] It was a very, very heavy thing and because of that as you look in this passage it says in all circumstances take up. You had to pick it up. You had to hold on to it and what the ancient shield was used for was primarily for a defensive posture of guarding yourself against the enemy that was coming at you as this mass of individuals or was firing arrows and throwing darts or throwing spears and trying to stick you and kill you and the large shield was something that the soldier stood behind and he used that shield to protect him against the things that the enemy was throwing at him.

[10:13] Remember I said that ancient warfare for the most part was a brutal pushing match in which one side tried to push the other over and then when they had their backs turned or had bowled them over guess what they would do?

[10:26] They would slaughter them. They'd stick, stick, stick, stick and kill them as a result of that. And so that ancient shield was how the men would lock together 10, 20, 30 of them in a row and they would lock those shields and then they would bear against the weight coming and as that enemy came right up against them then what they would do is use that sword and they would stick in between and find the little gaps in the other person's armor and they would poke holes in them and allow him to die.

[10:55] And as we look at this passage the apostle says listen I want you to understand that in all circumstances all circumstances you are to take up the shield of faith with which you are to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one.

[11:11] So let me draw several truths out from this that you can apply into your own life. For one I think you sitting here need to understand that Satan hates you and he's bent on your destruction. Satan hates you you and he is bent on your destruction.

[11:25] You may not realize it you may find yourself indifferent to it but I want you to understand that Satan is interested in your personal harm and he wants to trash your life.

[11:37] You're a believer. Most of you here this morning know Christ as your personal Savior but that does not mean that you are exempt from the attacks of the enemy and as you stop and think about it it's important for us to recognize that a lot of the things that we go through are really not just the consequences of who we are but they're also something that the enemy is bent on harming you with.

[12:02] So let's stop and think of some of the little things that we deal with on a daily basis that are more than just what they seem on the surface. Sometimes we find ourselves blindsided by events.

[12:14] We didn't plan it. Something happens in our life and all the order and structure that we had and how many of you realize that for the most part we do rely upon order and structure to keep balance.

[12:26] Isn't that right? And along comes something that just completely throws everything out of turmoil and when we are in that state of turmoil and flux we have a tendency to become more vulnerable to Satan's attacks.

[12:39] Isn't that right? And we need to understand that behind those circumstantial challenges is really an enemy who's interested in causing you harm.

[12:50] Now does God let things happen to us without weighing whether or not we can endure them. What's the answer? 1 Corinthians 10, 13 There's not a single thing that happens in your life that God has not already evaluated and weighed and He considers your ability to handle it and He will not let you be tested above what you can handle and He will with that testing provide a means of dealing with it enduring it standing up under it.

[13:18] So I want you to understand that when circumstances come and seem to just overthrow us for a moment remember Satan's behind that and he wants to harm you. What about those times when you find yourself suddenly reviewing something that someone said that was a little snarky and you get caught up and a little embittered and how many of you ever play that game I should have said any of you out here do the I should have said or I wish I'd said or you know we just kind of play and we let that thing kind of kind of inside and no that's not just something happening it's the enemy who's also interested in harming us by that or you're sitting there watching TV and suddenly there's that ad on the TV or there's the little scene in the program and you think man that is just so godless it's perverse and instead of responding to it and really cutting it down and shutting it off you just kind of said oh well whatever it happens all the time and you go on and you're desensitizing yourself to what the enemy of your soul is interested in doing in your harming your heart there you sit and beloved understand that

[14:25] Satan is in the mix in that moment and he is interested in your harm so what do you do here in this passage it says that we're to pick up the shield of faith the spirit who is deeply interested in your spiritual well-being says pick it up and use it that means that there has to be a conscious and deliberate choice to pick up that shield when we find ourselves in that adversity and do something with what is the shield of faith so let's ask ourselves what is the shield of faith that's important to know is faith something that is kind of abstract or it's just kind of one of those ethereal ideas that well it's got some benefit it's very interesting the other day I was speaking with an individual and asking them why they were doing a certain thing and the person as they pondered it for a moment they says well I guess I'm doing this because of heaven really well what is heaven you can have all different ideas one of the things

[15:32] I was actually doing this morning as I was finishing up my devotions is I googled the idea of how common it is in history for people to have ideas and visions and write little stories of visiting heaven how many of you realize it's a fairly popular thing and do you realize that surprisingly enough it's not something that's happened only in the 20th or 21st century people have always had little fantasies and ideas about what heaven is and they get carried away with it and they don't really rely upon that which the word of God has revealed regarding it and so here's this person saying well the reason I'm doing this is because of heaven and when I pressed in a little bit on it I discovered that this idea of heaven was something that was kind of ill-defined and just kind of like an attitude you know well someday it's going to be better I got to tell you when we're dealing with an enemy having some abstract idea of well someday it's going to be better a little positive mental attitude is not the key

[16:33] I want you to understand that faith really is a very personal issue in that it really rests in the person and the nature of God himself I want you to get that anchored in your mind when it says that we are to take up the shield of faith it's not talking about faith as an abstract it's talking about a very real understanding of the person and nature of God himself let me illustrate that for you I want you to look first of all if you would at Romans chapter 4 verse 19 through 21 we are looking at the fact that when we take up the shield of faith we are actually referring to our thinking about the person and the nature of God Romans chapter 4 verse 19 through 21 it's talking about Abraham being the father of faith and there in verse 19 it says he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God for he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised faith faith is not an abstract sense of positive mental attitude faith is believing

[18:12] God is who he says he is and believing that he is the one who keeps his promises and does exactly what he says he will do and so when we find ourselves under attack from Satan and he is seeking to unhinge us and harm us it's not just a matter of having a little bit well I think it's going to work out alright it's a matter of believing that God is who he says he is and he's going to do what he says he will I want you to look at another passage in relationship to this and turn over in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 it says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen I've got complete confidence in how my story will end do you have that confidence do you have complete confidence that if you were to die this morning as you were driving home that instead of spending eternity in hell you would spend eternity in heaven why do you have that confidence do you have that confidence because you're a great person and there's nobody else like you and you've earned your way into heaven well that's a lie from hell if you believe that the reason

[19:34] I have confidence is not because of who I am but because of who Jesus is and what he said and we look at this passage it says hey listen faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen now look forward if you will to verse 6 and without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him so now I want you to recognize that what Paul is teaching us is that when we face the adversary that we do that we're to pick up the shield of faith and the shield of faith is our conscious and deliberate thinking about the person and the work of Christ now I play that out for you in a couple different ways so you can kind of see it in real time when

[20:34] Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife to have sex back in Genesis how did he respond to Potiphar's wife where he said no no no if I do this it's probably going to be a career ender I'm going to get in trouble and I don't want to do this is that what he said no did he that if I'm engaged in unprotected sex that there could be some consequences I could end up with an STD or I could have some real bad things happen to me is that what he said no what did he say how can I do this against God God in the center of his faith was his belief in the person and nature of God and he understood that if he fell into this sin he would harm his relationship and his communion with his father and he said I don't want to do that to my father let me have you think of an opposite illustration after David fell into sin with

[21:36] Bathsheba and then subsequent a child was born and he thought that the reasonable way to cover up this sin was to murder the woman's husband and then marry her in this quick little event so that he could pretend that well she had a little bit of a premature birth or whatever else and hide his sin did it work out no and eventually Nathan the prophet shows up and you know what Nathan says to him how could you do this to God you have been you have been the one that has harmed the reputation and testimony of God and so when Satan is attacking and he is trying to unhinge you or he's trying to discourage you or he comes in and he says listen the things that are happening to you are indications that God really doesn't care he's not paying attention those are lies from Satan and when you give in to them in essence what you are doing listen to me carefully you are denying what your faith believes and knows about God the Father will God let something bad happen to his children to their harm and their detriment what's the answer from God's people no and so when you sit there with your pouty attitude kind of fretting of the fact that God doesn't love you what are you saying about the scriptures that you say you know you're denying them and what you need to do is pick up that shield of faith and say I am not going there

[23:09] I know who my Father is and I know how he cares for me so when you find yourself tempted by the enemy who wants to harm you think often of your Father's person and promises and guard yourself from sin think about your Father's person and his promises and guard yourself from sin I want you to ponder with me just for a moment what it must be like to be Pastor Saeed as he is in prison in Iran or I think about the woman we heard that she has been she has been forgiven or whatever and she may be released from prison but just days ago Miriam, what's her name, Abraham anticipated that eventually she was going to be executed by hanging for her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and as she languished there in jail what do you think she took confidence in?

[24:02] not just a positive mental attitude she was believing in the character and the nature of her Father and she trusted in His promises the second thing that we find there in Ephesians chapter 6 is that we're to take on the helmet of salvation here's the helmet and what the helmet did was it protected the head I'll tell you something if you have ever been bumped on the head or hit on the head what does it do to your capacity to think clearly?

[24:28] it kind of messes it up there's a reason why we have all this attention now in the football league to concussions because it causes individuals to not be able to think clearly and so here in ancient warfare man, if you could hit a guy a good lick on the head he rung his bell and not only that he couldn't think and Satan is always interested in hitting us in the head so that he can affect the way we think and our understanding of things and just as the ancient helmet protected the head where thought was generated so the helmet of salvation is designed by God to protect our head and our thinking from the attacks of Satan and so look at what it says here it tells us a little bit of what this helmet is it says it is the helmet of salvation verse 17 take on the helmet of salvation and I want you to think with me that I believe that this issue of the helmet of salvation is not just the matter that you're saved that's true it is important to recognize that you're saved but there's more in peace than just the matter of your salvation so let me talk a little bit about the broad sense in which I believe this issue of the helmet of salvation protects the believer from the attack of Satan against his mind for one thing salvation delivers us from the penalty of sin the sinner lives a quiet life of anxiety and terror from the eventual judgment of God that doesn't mean that all that the sinner does is under this pall and under this cloud but I will tell you that in the quiet moments when those individuals are alone their conscience bears witness against the sin that they've committed and they live with a certain fear and anxiety that judgment's someday coming and we who know the Lord Jesus Christ understand that the scripture tells us that because of what Christ Jesus has done for us that we have been delivered from the penalty of sin

[26:36] I want you to turn over your Bible just a little bit go to Colossians chapter 2 and look with me at verses 13 and 14 in relationship to this Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 and 14 and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross in the ancient world when a debt was satisfied the thing that happened with that document of debt was that in a different sense from our world by the way when you pay off your mortgage what happens?

[27:37] you get a title to your home how many of you have had the joy of having the Bureau of Motor Vehicles send you a copy of the title to your car? how many of you like that?

[27:48] it's a good thing I want you to know that in the ancient world when you satisfied a debt that document was taken and was nailed in a public place so that everybody knew you were free of that obligation salvation and in the Bible what it tells us is that salvation has delivered us from the penalty of sin salvation has taken away the right of the enemy to come and remind your conscience that you stand condemned before a holy God and that you should live in holy terror of his judgment I want you to understand also that salvation delivers us from the power of sin now think with me carefully follow me carefully here prior to conversion the sinner cannot help himself but sin does that make sense?

[28:41] the sinner cannot help himself but sin in fact there are some of you sitting here this morning perhaps that that secretly inside now you wouldn't admit it at this point but secretly inside your life has been one ongoing frustrating experience of trying your very best to do right and you never get there the reason you never get there is because you don't know Christ as your Savior you do not have the indwelling spirit of God that is actively engaged in helping you overcome the enemy and not fall into sin and you're toast you're a little bit like the lion who by virtue of being a carnivore right is just not into vegetables and so every time Satan kind of drags a little piece of meat by guess what you're saying no I'm going vegan now it's like boom there you are you're all over it because that's your nature the unregenerate person cannot help but sin the person who has been saved by the grace of God has received a new heart and a new mind and has the ability to not sin this morning as I was driving to church and it seemed that there were quite a few of my neighbors who decided that it was time to jog and they were jogging in fairly scanty clothes because you know it's insufferably hot and so you know that's the best way to jog and I am you know what I'm doing

[30:27] I'm reciting passages of scripture to help me with my thought life does anybody understand what I'm saying okay and one of the passages that I grabbed a hold of and hung on to was this passage in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 it says they that walk by the spirit shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh I could say to myself I don't have to do that why because God has saved me and I enjoy the blessing of that deliverance but there's another part coming listen to me salvation will deliver us from the presence of sin the day is coming when the believer will no longer face that daily battle with sin turn with me just for a moment to 1st John chapter 3 just want to read that passage to you 1st John chapter 3 let me have you look at it here's what it says in chapter 3 verse 1 it says see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called the children of God hey listen if you are a child of God you should never get over absolutely being blown away by the fact that God has made you his child

[31:51] John says see now what is he saying in essence he's saying in our contemporary lingo he says wow see what manner of love the father has given to us that we should be called the children of God and so we are the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him beloved we are now God's children and what we will be has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him can I stop there just for a second when he appears we shall be what like him if that doesn't overwhelm you there's something going on in your heart that needs to be remedied when we see him we shall be what like him the best the most precious the most real most satisfying thing of all eternity will be seeing the Lord

[33:05] Jesus Christ and in seeing him my soul will be satisfied and I will be like him and then look at verse 3 and it says and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself your ambition your futuristic thinking about the day that you will see Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world in your spiritual life life and coming back to that passage in Ephesians where the apostle says put on the helmet of salvation thinking about the fact that you've been delivered from sin thinking about the fact that sin has no right to control your life anymore and thinking about the fact that the day is coming when you will see

[34:07] Jesus face to face and that protects your mind and your heart from the attacks of an enemy that wants to trash your life finally we look there in the passage and it says and take up the sword of the spirit which is the word of God now like I said TV has given us to a large degree a misunderstanding of what swords were for I can tell you that it's not just this sword here that would probably not do well I'm sorry Josh forgive me but I can tell you that if Josh and one of his neighbor friends armed equally with a sword what does it say here there's a I forget it's an elven script and I can't read that today it's not

[35:08] Greek and it's not Hindi so I'm stuck but you know Josh and his friend out there in the yard going through the drama of these whoo choo whoo choo crack smash about three or four strokes into it the sword would be bent or whacked in half how many of you understand that I mean for the most part swords were really not designed for smacking other swords they were designed for putting holes in people do you follow that all about poke poke poke poke and you know here it says take up the sword the sword of the spirit of the word of God I gotta tell you that the word of God is not some certain warm set of fuzzy feelings it's the authority it's the express written revelation of what

[36:08] God who abides in heaven knows to be true and tells us is right and we ought to take him seriously I bump into people all the time today that the wishy-washy lack of clarity on what the Bible has to say is befuddling to me you know what when the Bible says don't be unequally yoked do you know what that means it means believers and unbelievers should not be engaged in relationships should a Christian boy date a non Christian girl what's the answer the Bible says no it's not Tim Kenoyer that thinks that it's the Bible one of the reasons why periodically I say to you as a congregation hey don't ask me to do a wedding ceremony where there is a believer and a non believer that are thinking about getting married I can't do it God doesn't allow me and if

[37:11] God wouldn't allow the pastor to perform the ceremony should parents allow the dating what's the answer no God's word speaks clearly and one of the responsibilities that we have is to take the word of God and use it let me hammer home the value of the word of God and I want you to look if you would to a passage in 2 Peter just for a moment 2 Peter as we think about the word of God let me stay in this passage predominantly 2 Peter chapter 1 and I'm going to tell you that the word of God is the direct revelation of the spirit it says there in verse 20 and 21 knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes by someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from

[38:20] God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit being a person who is a collector of books to a certain degree and I know we are moving towards the electronic age where we can have a whole library and our iPad but I have a copy of the Gospel of Thomas how many of you have Gospel of Thomas in your Bible well there's a reason that it's not in your Bible because it's heresy it's false teaching it's just the figment of some person's imagination who decided that he would write a book and he would call it the Gospel of Thomas and has some kind of wishy-washy feel-good stuff about Jesus but other than that there's no scriptural clarity in the matter and I want to tell you that scripture is not something that comes by because somebody decides they're going to have a fertile idea it tells us here no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

[39:22] Holy Spirit this idea of being carried along is a word that comes to us and we find it elsewhere in particular where Paul in a shipwreck his ship was being carried by the storm the power of the storm was the thing that was moving the ship in a certain direction and men wrote the scriptures when they were being moved by the Holy Spirit to say exactly what needed to be said you will never hear Tim Knoyer and I trust that in the days to come when we prayerfully!

[39:57] find a man that will come here serve as our senior pastor I trust that no one ever stands in this pulpit and says I have a direct word from God and can't hold up this Bible and say and here it is this is the book and we rely upon it secondly I want you to understand that the word of God is settled in the heavens just to recite the passage in Psalm 119 verse 89 it says doesn't change when God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit tells us what is immorality it's not up for vote it's his word third the Bible is more reliable than any human experience I want you to look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 this is a real winner for today here is Peter and I want you to look at verse 18 it says we ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain what this is talking about is when during the transfiguration remember when

[41:06] Jesus took three of the disciples up the hill and they had a view of Jesus in his glory and they heard a voice from heaven said this is my son follow him obey him right okay and here is Peter years later!

[41:27] hey we did hear that voice now follow me and we have something more sure hey if you could choose between a voice and the Bible which would Peter advise you to choose it says here the Bible is the more sure word of God well I had a dream and God told me oh yeah while I'm saying oh yeah I'm picking up stones really what did he say you know I want to know what the Bible has to say because the Bible is the only thing that is reliable it's more important than experience finally mark this it is not for private interpretation it's not for private interpretation and so you understand this morning as you think about this subject that the

[42:33] Bible is not something that means one thing to Andrew Mead and another thing to Pastor Andrew and another thing to Andy Manwiller it's the same for all of us because God who he is has said it clearly and he expects us to follow and understand what he has to say I appreciate in particular the value that we have this morning as we deal with the enemy that is interested in absolutely trashing your life in relying upon the shield of faith that is the character and nature of God and we who are his children knowing who he is and how he handles things secondly in putting on the helmet of salvation which is the truth of our salvation it's deliverance from sin it's present victory over sin and it's eventual absolute deliverance from any sin whatsoever and finally taking up the sword of the spirit so let me close do you have an enemy that is interested in harming your heart and soul what's the answer

[43:53] I spend a fair part of my week and pastor Saul spends a fair part of his week and pastor Andrew spends a fair part of his week and every one of you that are fathers and mothers and every one of you that are young people are well aware of the fact that we have an enemy that is bent on harming us and if you as God's child do not pick up the shield and put on the helmet and take up the sword I can tell you he will harm you and it will not be pretty and God intends for you where you sit to take the word of God seriously and to do something with it does that make sense let me close if you are here this morning and you do not know the

[45:00] Lord Jesus Christ the armor is not for you yet the truth of the matter is a part from coming to Christ with a broken heart that says I am a sinner that stands justly condemned before a holy God and I realize that the scripture tells me that I have no hope apart from what Jesus did in dying on the cross for me and I freely plead with him to save me and to deliver me from the judgment that I deserve I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal savior if you have not taken care of that this morning now is the time don't fool yourself it's not about who you are or where you were a member or how many times you go to church or how nice people think you are the truth of matter is this there is salvation in no other person than the

[46:10] Lord Jesus Christ and the door to salvation is narrow and is marked by humility and brokenness and calling upon the name of the Lord let's close in prayer our father God this morning we come to you with humility recognizing that you have given us these verses to warn us about the enemy so that we who are your children would not be harmed and father we want to be a people who listen carefully and then plead with you to enable us to take up the armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil there are some here this morning that are wounded no one else knows it but you and in their own heart they desire to be freed from the bondage of sin I plead with you that this morning those who sense the burden and the convicting work of the

[47:11] Spirit of God would call out and say Lord deliver me from Satan's devices they would repent and forsake that those who are not Christians would call upon the name of the Lord for salvation we ask this in Jesus name amen