Youre in the Army Now

In the film, the Patriot. The story is about South Carolina Patriots before the Revolutionary War, who are being challenged to take up arms against British oppression. Early in the film, the son of the main character walks into a church to challenge the colonialists from a certain town to take up arms to become involved in a battle they can no longer avoid. Because many people were still afraid to do that. Let's watch the challenge that he along with a little help from his fiance gave the group that day. Reverend, with your permission, I'd like to make an announcement. Young man, this is a house of God. I understand that Reverend, I apologize. The South Carolina militia is being called up. I'm here to enlist every man willing. Son, we are here to pray for the souls of those men hanging outside. Yes, pray for them. But honor them by taking up arms with us. And bring more suffering to this town. King George can hang those men, our friends. He can hang any one of us. And Scott, barely a week ago, I heard you rail for two hours about independence. Mr. Hardwick, how many times have I heard you speak of freedom at my father's table? Half the men in this church, including you father and you Reverend, are as ardent patriots as I. Until you know, when you are needed most stop it only words. Is that the sort of men you are? I ask only that you act upon the beliefs of which you have so strongly spoken and in which you so strongly believe. Who's with us? When you become a follower of Jesus Christ you are immediately thrust into a battle which you did not choose but you can no longer avoid. It is a real battle. It is a spiritual battle. It is one you may not feel prepared for. It is one you may not feel that you are equipped to handle but it is a battle you cannot avoid. It is a battle that we all face if we are followers of Jesus Christ to use Bible teacher Warren Wiersby's expression, you are in the army now. Now like that, so I borrowed it to use for the title of today's message. You are in the army now. And we are in the army because we face a foe. We are thrust into a spiritual battle against a very strong and shrewd foe Satan and his demons. It is a very real spiritual warfare. Now I understand there are two dangers regarding the whole concept of spiritual warfare. One danger that we face is becoming so preoccupied with Satan and demons that you see demons under every rock and every issue and everything that happens in your life. I mentioned this morning we had a couple of typos in our bulletin about schedule that we are not correct and we are trying to clarify schedule. I said, I think a little demon got inside the keyboard this week and just created a habit. Demons aren't in keyboards. Those are honest mistakes. One danger is seeing demons and Satan in everything, in every problem you have. But I think the other danger is one that we face more often in Bible believing churches and that is not taking this battle seriously enough. Neglecting the reality of spiritual warfare. The battle we are in is very real. It is a battle with no truth, no peace. It is a battle with an enemy who doesn't fight fair and it's very, very real. It is a real battle. Spiritual warfare is an important part of living out our salvation. Now that's what the second half of the book of Ephesians is all about and as we draw near the end of this series in Ephesians, we get back to Ephesians for a couple of weeks. We're finding that Paul is telling us how to live out the Christian life, how to live out our salvation. And he's told us a number of things that means as far as living out the Christian life, living out our great salvation beginning in chapter 4, he said, we must live in unity. We must live in holiness. We must live in love. We must live in light. We must live in wisdom. We must live in power. We must live in harmony in our relationships like husband and wife, parent and child, employer, employee relationships. And now he's going to tell us how to live in victory. How to live in victory. As we face this battle, as we face this foe, how do we get victory in this battle? In order to live in victory, there are three things we've got to understand and apply in our Christian lives. The first of those is we must understand the enablement we have. If you're with me in Ephesians chapter 6, look at verse 10. The enablement we have is clearly described in verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. The enablement we have is in Christ. The strength we have to fight this battle is in him. It is not in you. It is not in me. It is not in our power, wisdom, wit, intelligence, whatever. It is in Christ because Jesus by his death and resurrection and ascension has already won the victory. As Tom so eloquently stated a moment ago, he has already won the victory over sin, over Satan, over hell, over death. That victory is already won. In fact, the Bible says it this way. Paul speaking in Colossians chapter 2, and verse 15 says, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphant over them by the cross. It was through the cross that Jesus triumphant over all evil powers, demons, Satan himself in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14. The writer of Hebrews says it this way, since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil. So the devil is destroyed. The victory is already won. The battle is over, if you will, as far as the ultimate consequence and victory it is done. And our position in Christ enables us to share in that victory. You see the way God sees you when you become a Christ follower, when you trust Jesus as your Savior and become a part of the family of God. The way God looks at you now is through the lens of his Son. And everything that happened with Jesus, he sees as applying to you. Jesus died on the cross because you are one of his followers. God looks at you as though you are dead as well to the old life. Your old life is gone. Jesus arose from the grave and God sees you as being risen to walk in a new life now, a resurrected life. Jesus is now seated in heavenly places, a place of authority and power over demonic spirits and powers. And God sees you as seated there with Him. You have the authority and the power to have victory in this battle because you are in Christ. That is the enablement we have. Please understand it is not by our strength, our willpower or anything else that we can defeat the enemy. It is not by us going around saying Satan to part and get out of here fleeing all that. The Bible says it not even angels will rebuke Satan. Personally, they say the Lord rebuke you. So we have to be careful about us thinking we have some kind of power to do this. Now we have several policemen in our church. And those policemen when they go to work carry with them an authority that they do not have at home. Now they have got another God-given authority at home, but they do not have that badge in that uniform at home. But now when those policemen go to work, they may not feel well that particular day. They may feel tired or very ill. But even a policeman who does not feel good who may be sick or just really tired if he holds up his hand at an intersection traffic is going to stop. Hopefully it will stop. It is supposed to stop. Why? Because of that badge that uniform he has authority invested in him by the state to do certain things, to control certain situations. Because we are in Christ, we have the authority in power. No matter how you feel, it does not matter how strong you are because it is not your strength anyway. It is not your intelligence anyway. It is because you are in Christ that the victory is already won. And the battle is yours. The victory is yours. It is not by us demanding or us having willpower or us being strong or intelligent. It is because we are in Christ. That is the enablement we have. And that is why Paul says, be strong in the Lord. And in his mighty power is because we are in Christ that we have the enablement to win this battle. But Paul wants us not only to understand the enablement we have, he wants us also to understand the enemy we face. The enemy we face, we need to understand. We need to come to grips with. He is a very powerful and shrewd enemy. Verse 11 says this, put on the whole armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Now the first thing you will notice in those two verses is that we are facing a spiritual enemy. Paul says this is not an enemy of flesh and blood. Our problem is not other people, regardless of what form that may take. Other religions, other enemies, other people who are over us or under us. Our problem is not other people. Our problem is not flesh and blood. The enemy is a spiritual foe. So this is a battle that cannot be fought with human weapons, the weapons of this world. It's a spiritual battle because you have spiritual enemies. Now notice how Paul describes further this enemy we have. He talks about his kingdom in verse 12. Notice in verse 12 he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, against the powers of notice, this dark world, this dark world. That's the first arena in which this kingdom operates is this dark world. Now when Paul says that Satan's kingdom is in this world or is this world, he's not talking about the planet, he's not talking about the world of people. The word he uses here means a well-ordered system, way of thinking, philosophy of life. It's a world system. The Greek word is the word cosmos. We get our English word cosmetics from it. I think I've explained this before but this one needs repeating every once in a while. Cosmetics is a very good word with the same kind of meaning as cosmos. Cosmos means an ordered system. Cosmetics bring order to a system and disarray. That's what cosmetics do. Bring order to disorder. Well, this is an ordered system that Satan has. And it is a system that is very cleverly built around three principles. He knows what he's doing. This ordered system, this way of thinking, this philosophy of life is based on three key principles. John tells us what they are in 1 John 2, 16. Look at this verse on the screen. Where John says, everything in the world, another thing, in other words, you can take everything in this ordered system and put it under three categories. Everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does comes not from the father but from the cosmos, from the world, this ordered system under Satan. What are those three key principles that Satan has ordered this world system by? It's the cravings of sinful man. In other words, the desire to do whatever your sinful nature tells you to do. Whatever your sinful nature says, I want this, I want to do that, then that's the way you go. So that's a part of this world system. I don't have to labor the point that this world operates that way. Whatever feels good, whatever I want to do, whatever my sinful nature prompts me to do, I'm going to get it. I'm going to do it. Second principle is the lust of the eyes, lust meaning strong desire. So it's a strong desire to have whatever the eyes see. Quite clearly this is materialism. The desire to have whatever we see. And I don't have to labor the point either that this world operates that way. The people who are the most successful in the world's eyes are the people who have the most things. Success in the world's eyes means getting more, climbing the ladder of success, showing by the house you own, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, all of that, that you have made it. That's possessions. That's the lust of the eyes. And then the pride or boasting of what he has and does, that's having arrived. That's pride, position, prestige, fame, popularity, however you want to call it. That's the idea that I've arrived. I am somebody. I'm going to tell you who I am and what I've done and what I've got. It's pride. The world operates on those three things. Those three principles. That is the way Satan has arranged his system to operate on those three principles. It is a well-ordered system. He's cleverly designed it to appeal to our sinful nature and our desires. He knows exactly what he's doing. His kingdom is in this dark world. And he has a lot of helpers strategically placed demons strategically positioned in this world's culture to fashion it in that way after this organization, the system. They're influencing politics, they're influencing entertainment, they're influencing religion. So much so, Satan's kingdom in this dark world is so pervasive. His influence is so broad as God has allowed him for a time to have it. That John can speak of his kingdom in this way, in 1 John, chapter 5 and verse 19. Look at it. We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Now that control obviously is under God's overall control. God has allowed him to have that power for a brief period of time. But the whole world is under his control, this world's system, this way of thinking, this philosophy of life that pervades every part of our world. So much so that Paul would say it this way in 2 Corinthians 4-4. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of God who is the image of God. So Satan's power is so pervasive, he has people blinded. They think that's what life is really all about and people are blinded to the truth of the Word of God and the truth that is in Christ. His kingdom is in this dark world. But notice also verse 12 says, we're not only fighting against the powers of this dark world but he also says against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Heavenly realm simply means this is a spiritual kingdom. It operates in a very real world but it is a spiritual kingdom. So there are spiritual powers that are influencing people on earth to fight against God's plan and God's purpose and God's moral standards. And in the holy forces controlling much of what happens on planet earth to frame it and mold it into the threefold scheme of Satan, cravings of the sinful nature, the lust of the eyes and the pride of what I have or do. That's what Satan is about. That's where his kingdom operates and that's how it operates. So God wants us to know about his kingdom but God also wants us to know about his army. As he describes this foe that we need to understand, he also describes his army in verse 12. You see it there? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces. Forwards he uses their rulers, authorities, powers, forces. These are demons. These are different categories or ranks of demons. You see demons are Satan's helpers. Satan is only one being. He can only be in one place at one time. So he has a lot of helpers. Now where do these demons come from? Well the Bible seems to indicate that they were originally when they were created by God. They were good angels. In the original creation God created all the Spirit beings and they were all good angels, including the devil himself. However according to Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14, it appears that Satan led a major rebellion against God and there were some angels who followed him in that rebellion according to Revelation 12 as much as one third of all the angels followed Satan in his rebellion against God. They were cast out of heaven. And became Satan as we know him today and those following angels became demons as we know him today. So that's where the demons came from. And he has a lot of helpers and this text and others describe for us, this is not some rag tag army, you know, kind of walking around, not knowing what to do. This is a vastly organized hierarchy with different levels of authority. This is a well developed and defined and disciplined chain of command. Satan knows what he's wanting to accomplish and he has all of these ranks of demons under him who know exactly what they're supposed to be doing in fulfilling Satan's purpose for this earth rather than God's purpose. That's his army. We are up against a very well organized and clever foe. God wants us not only to understand about this enemy as kingdom as army but also his strategies. Look at verse 11. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Now the word schemes there is a word which means methods or even better yet strategies. Well devised, well thought through plans. Satan has strategies. Again, he's not just kind of fooling around trying to figure out what to do. He has a definite plan and strategies for how to accomplish that plan and he's been honing that for thousands of years. You think about it. He's been tooling that plan and honing it for a long, long time. Now I am no good at math. I mean I can add and subtract and divide multiply if you keep the numbers fairly small but I'm not very good at math. But I think what could I do if I had ten years to really devote myself to learning math? What if I had a hundred years? What if I had a thousand years to learn how to do math? I could probably do simple algebra by that time. I think I'd get pretty good at it. I had that much time. Satan has had several thousand years since the beginning of creation of man to hone his strategies, to decide exactly what he's going to do and how he's going to do it and he's very good at it. He's been around a long time. He's had a long time to master philosophies that capture the minds of men. He's had a long time to study psychology. He knows a lot about human behavior and the way people think. He knows a lot about you. He knows a lot about the way humans feel and the way they make decisions and the way they think. He knows a lot about theology. He knows more about theology than you or I either one do. He's been around a long time. He knows a lot about deception and manipulation and he has taken a long, long time to become very, very good at honing his strategies as to how he's going to get at us. He knows how to use sensuality to get a lot of people in his clutches. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your character. He knows your personality. He's watched you since you were born. He's seen you develop. He knows a lot about you. He knows a lot about your issues from your past that you deal with that maybe you don't let anybody else know about. He knows about that. He knows how to appeal your desires. He knows just how and just when to instill doubts about God and his goodness in your mind. He knows perfectly how to tailor his attacks to your unique individuality and personality. Listen, he is a very wise foe and he's been at this for a long time. He can even masquerade as a messenger of God and people be fooled by him. Look at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 13. For such men, speaking of these false teachers that Paul was battling in Corinth, such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ and no wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants masquerade is servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. Why do we have so many religious leaders in America and across the world that flagrantly disbelieve and flout openly and publicly their beliefs which are contrary to the word of God, on God's standards of morality, on what the Bible teaches, why are so many religious leaders falling right in line with this world's philosophy of belief? I would suggest to you that's the reason. Because Satan has a lot of people masquerading as his, as God's people and as God's teachers, pastors. So you see, Satan is very powerful. He is very shrewd, extremely shrewd. He is evil beyond our comprehension and he has no conscience and no principles about what he is doing and he is after you and he is after me. Now that is a chilling thought that would cause me to give up and despair if I did not understand from the Bible that the victory has already been won through Christ, that he is a defeated foe and that because of our position in him we can draw up on that power to defeat him in our lives. In fact God has given us the exact equipment we need to fend off his attacks and that's what leads me to verse 13. The equipment we need Paul describes for us exactly how to defeat the enemy. Now notice in verse 13 Paul says, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Put on the full armor of God. Paul had in mind a Roman soldier, you have got one picture for you here, this is very close to what the kind of armor a Roman soldier would have used in the first century in Paul's day when he was writing. So Paul had this in mind, what he is going to do is take the different pieces of armor that a Roman soldier would wear and use them to illustrate for us the kind of character and actions and belief we need to fend off the attacks of the evil one, this enemy who is so shrewd and so experienced. Here's what we need to do it Paul is saying. The equipment we need Paul says in verse 13 that when the day of evil comes, meaning the day when Satan hits you the worst, when it's as bad as it can possibly be, when it can't get any worse, when that day comes you'll be able to stand. And isn't that interesting? Notice how he says you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. You know a lot of people have spiritual warfare backwards. They think we're trying to storm the gates of hell and you know beat Satan down and get him off his throne. That's not it at all. Christ has already won that victory at the cross. And he's given us a position from which we have the power to overcome the enemy as he attacks us. When I was a young boy before the day of video games and computer games and all that before the day of computers by the way, when I was a young boy we used to play outside all the time. If we weren't playing basketball or baseball or football we were playing army or another game that I love King of the Hill. Remember that? King of the Hill. We had a steep bank outside. Remember Jan we had a steep bank outside our home there on third street and we'd play King of the Hill. Of course when it was me playing with my four sisters I usually did pretty good. I just went some guides in neighborhood got involved. I had a little trouble. But anyway, King of the Hill, the idea is there's one person who's kind of chosen at the beginning, you know, cast lots, draw straws, whatever. That person is the King of the Hill. Everybody else is at the bottom of the hill. Now the person on top of the hill has a distinct advantage by position. Everybody else at the bottom of the hill is trying to get up and get him down. So you kick, fight, bite, pull hair, whatever you have to do to get that person off the hill and you're the King of the Hill now. But the person on top of the hill has the best position. He is defending against others who are trying to take his position. That's exactly the way the Bible views our spiritual warfare. We have a position in Christ where we are not trying to attack Satan and get him off. He is attacking us and the Bible gives us the equipment to be able to stand our ground Paul says. And having done everything, stand. In other words, you will not be toppled off the hill. You will not be defeated. Satan cannot overcome you if you use this equipment. Now taking the pieces of armor, Paul uses them to describe the equipment we need spiritually to defeat Satan. Let's look at them very quickly. The first one in verse 14 is the belt of truth. Stand firmly in with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Now I'm going to show you pieces of armor that would have been used in the first century so that you understand kind of what Paul had in mind and what his readers would envision as they heard these words. The belt of a Roman soldier's warfare was similar to what you're seeing there. It was four to six inches wide. It would kind of help keep the breastplate here. It's soon over a chain of male kind of armor. It would also hold the sword. But one of the main things the belt would do is if you remember in that other picture of the Roman soldier, they wore kind of a tunic underneath their armor, kind of a knee-linked skirt, sissy's that they were, you know what I mean, just kind of wore that thing. And one of the things the belt would do, you could kind of pick up the end of that and tuck it in the belt so that you would have freedom of movement in your legs. You would not be encumbered, you know, kind of thing flopping around your legs as you would fight. You would have freedom of movement. Now what is our belt that gives us freedom to move and to stand against the attacks of the enemy? Paul says it's truth. Now it's not the truth of God's word. We'll get to that later when we get to the sword. It's a different kind of truth here. I think Paul is talking about truthfulness. It's us being true. It's integrity and honesty of lifestyle. It means that as you speak and as you live, you have nothing to hide. You're not looking over your shoulder afraid somebody will find out the truth about you. You're living in honesty and integrity and that takes an attack out of the enemy's hands. If you're not living a truthful lifestyle of honesty and integrity in the way you speak and the way you live, you've already given ground to the enemy because you open yourselves up to attack. You cannot be ready for the attack of the enemy unless you are living a lifestyle of integrity. Satan is a liar and if you are not honest in your speech or your lifestyle, you are playing into his hands. You will not be able to stand when he attacks you. So honesty and integrity is the belt that we use to tuck everything in so that we have freedom of movement, freedom of conscience to live without fear of anything being found out that will tear our lives apart. Truthfulness. The belt of truth. Secondly, Paul says we need to take the breastplate of righteousness, verse 14. He says with the breastplate of righteousness in place. Now this breastplate would look something like what you see there on the screen. It would protect from the neck down to at least the waist, sometimes down to the thighs, but at least to the waist. And the purpose, obviously, of the breastplate was to protect the vital organs, particularly the heart from any thrust of a spear or a dagger or sword. What is the protection for our heart? Paul says it. He's talking about a Roman breastplate, but he says for us, the spiritual weapon is righteousness. What he means by that is righteous living, godly character. Not the righteousness of justification being declared righteous. That's important, but the kind of righteousness he's talking about here is the way you live. Living righteously, living godly character from the heart, but that also protects the heart. You see, when Satan goes after your heart, and by the way, most of the sins we struggle with are sins of the heart, like pride and lust and envy and all of those kinds of things, and many more like them. When Satan goes after your heart, if you are living out the righteousness of Christ, you are protecting yourself against his attack. On the other hand, any sin in your life weakens your resistance to Satan and actually opens up the opportunity for him to conquer you in other areas of your life. That's why it's so important to confess sin, get it right with God, get it behind you, and live for Christ with faithfulness, godliness and righteousness. Paul says the very thing in the fourth chapter of this book, verse 26, when he says, in your anger, do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. You see what he's saying there? One sin, and he picks out the sin of anger. One sin, anger that is let go, that is not taken care of, and you let it go for a day, what you're doing is you're giving the devil a foothold. You're allowing him to get a foot in the door, the door is cracked a little bit, and if you don't deal with that quickly, then he'll move in some other area. Now he's got both feet in the door. It's going to be a hand, and he's going to be in before you know it, controlling all kinds of parts of your life. So that's why a lifestyle of righteousness is one of the best defenses we can have against the attacks of Satan. Okay, belt of truth. Breastplate of righteousness. In verse 15 is the third piece of armor, the boots of peace. Stand firm then, verse 14 says, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, breastplate of righteousness in peace, verse 15, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Boots of peace, or you might even say sandals of peace, because this is really what they would have looked like, a heavy duty sandal, but notice the bottoms of them. The bottom of them would have like cleats, like football or baseball cleats or pegs that would stick out that would allow the Roman soldier to get a good solid footing, be able to dig in and stand against his enemy. You see, and not be knocked off balance because his foot slipped. Okay? Now, what is our boot of peace that gives us this rock steady stand? Paul says it is the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. The word readiness means a preparation of a foundation. So it's a, to get ready, a firm foundation, and that firm foundation for your life comes from the gospel of peace, particular construction here in the original means, the gospel that brings peace or that gives peace. So what's he talking about? When you understand the gospel that Jesus died for your sins, that he was buried in Rose again the third day, and you've received Christ as your Savior, you've accepted the gospel, that gives you peace with God. Your eternal destiny is forever settled. The Bible says there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. What he's talking about is if you understand that, you will have the assurance of your salvation. Now one of Satan's favorite attacks against Christians is to get them to doubt their salvation. And there are some Christians who never make any progress in their growth in Christ because they're always battling that battle over and over and over again. Satan keeps them unsteadied all the time because they don't have the firm footing of knowledge that the gospel that they believe gives them peace with God. It's once and for all settled, you're reconciled to God. You are now his family. He cannot disown those who are born into his family. So if you have that assurance, that firm solid foundation, you can stand against the attacks of Satan. If you're always off balance wondering whether or not you're even in the family, you know, oh my, what's happening here? Then you're easy prey for the attacks of Satan. So the firm foundation, the readiness, the preparation of the foundation that comes from the gospel of knowing that we have peace with God. That's a tremendous defense against the attacks of the evil one. Fourth piece of armor, the shield of faith, verse 16. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now the shield of a Roman soldier would have looked something like one of these two. Some of them carried kind of oval-shaped shields, some of them more rectangular-shaped shields into battle, depending on what kind of infantry you're in or whatever. But usually these were made of wood, thick wood, sometimes two layers of wood that were put together with iron pieces and often covered with raw hide, which would absorb the arrows of an enemy, even a flaming arrow. You know, an arrow dipped in pitch and lit and then fired. Now what is our defense against the flaming arrows of the wicked one, the evil one? It is faith. That's what it is. Our shield is faith. Now do you remember those old Westerns, you know? I don't know if this is the way it really happened or remember the wagon trains that would move through the west and also the Indians would come swooping out of the hills and attack the wagon train and what would they do? They would circle the wagons, wouldn't they? Get them in a circle and from behind the wagons, you know, the settlers would fight the Indians, but then what would the Indians do? And again, I don't know if this is the way it really happened, but the movies are fun to watch anyway. What did the Indians do? They would fire flaming arrows at the wagons, wouldn't they? The wagons would get on fire, you know why they did that? Because they knew that you can't fight an Indian at a fire at the same time. The fire was a distraction. The arrows were designed not to kill, but to distract you from fighting the real battle. And that's what Satan does a lot. He's always firing these little arrows, flaming arrows at us. Discouragement. Disillusionment. Whatever it may be, temptations that may come our way, stress, you know, all kinds of their worry, family issues and all these flaming arrows are being shot at us so that we get distracted, fighting this and fighting that and worrying about this and trying to do this and all so that we get our eyes off of the real battle or off of what God is really wanting to do with us. So how do we overcome that? Faith. With a clear focus upon God and His purpose and what He wants in us, what He wants to do through us and with us when we trust Him, when we look to Him and walk in obedience to the way He set forth with faith, with confidence in Him, then that absorbs. Doesn't mean the arrows are going to stop coming. It absorbs the arrows of the enemy. So shield is faith. And then the fifth piece of armor is the helmet of salvation, verse 17. Take the helmet of salvation. You didn't say any more about it. It's pretty obvious what a helmet does, right? I mean, this is the way it would look in Roman times. It was pretty big. It would actually cover the sides of the face as well to protect the whole head except for the line of vision. Obviously, protect the top of the head and the sides and the back of the head too. So your head was protected by this helmet. What is our helmet? Paul says it's the helmet of salvation. What protects our head? What protects our mind? The knowledge and the living out of that knowledge that we are saved, that we are God's children. That changes everything about the way we think and respond to things. What I think Paul is saying is think like a child of God. Think as a child of God would. One who is saved, one who is in God's family, begin to process things from the perspective of being God's child, from the perspective of the Bible, begin to think biblically and then respond in that way. Guard your thought life when something comes to your mind that you know is impure, unclean, worthy of consideration by a believer, remind yourself, I am a child of God. I am saved. I don't have to do that. I don't have to think that way. I don't have to respond that way. I am his child and begin to think and respond biblically. That's the helmet of salvation. Living out your salvation, the fact you are a child of God, letting that be the screen, the protector of every thought that comes into your mind, helmet of salvation. And then there is one other piece and that is in verse 17, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Now for a Roman soldier, the kind of word that is used here for the kind of sword that would be used is not the large broad sword. This is the small dagger type thing that would be in the belt of a Roman soldier. It was a few inches long. It was designed for hand-to-hand combat, close quarters. You know, that arrows and spears and machines that would propel, you know, rocks and all kinds of stuff for a longer range on the field of battle. But when you got in where you were hand-to-hand combat, you used this little dagger type sword and that's the kind of thing Paul is talking about. What is our sword? It is the word of God. It's the word of God. The Bible really is like that kind of dagger because it cuts, it pierces. It's used for hand-to-hand combat. The writer of Hebrews would say in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12, the word of God is living an active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and merit. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. There's something about the word of God that does what none of our clever arguments or words can do. The word of God penetrates the soul. It penetrates man's heart. In fact, remember when Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, and Acts chapter 2 tells us the response of the people. In Acts 2 verse 37 says, when the people heard him, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? That's what the word of God does. It's a sword that penetrates into the heart of people. Every time before I preach, one of the things I pray is I ask God to help me to make the word of God clear, but then I ask him to do what I cannot do. That is open up people's hearts and do his work in people's hearts because I can't do that. That's beyond human ability. That's something God's spirit must do. To open up hearts, cut into our hearts, make us convicted or receptive to the word of God. That's what the word of God does. By the way, it's a great tool against the enemy. Here's how I think it works when Satan attacks us. When Satan attacks you, if he finds any dishonesty in your life of speech or character, any lack of integrity, he will exploit that first. You're already easy prey. But if he finds that's covered, you've got the belt of truthfulness, honesty and integrity in place, then you'll go straight for your heart. You'll try to get you into pride or envy or lust or any other kinds of sins of the heart. But if he sees you're covered with that breastplate, then what he'll do is begin to drop suggestions about your relationship with God. If he sees that's covered because you've got the shoes of the gospel of peace, the sure foundation of the assurance of your salvation, then he will attack your mind. And he will throw all kinds of things at you, doubt and discouragement and despair and evil thoughts and all kinds of sins of the mind. He will throw it. And if he sees that you've got the helmet of salvation on, then he'll start shooting all kinds of arrows in other parts of your life to try to get you distracted. But if he sees you calmly trusting God in the midst of those arrows, he is now on the defensive. You take the Word of God and some short quick thrusts with the Word of God will send him fleeing. That's how we do battle against the enemy. Now I know my friend, sometimes it looks like the devil has won. Sometimes it looks like Satan has gotten the upper hand and he's winning the battle, but he's not. The battle is already won by Jesus Christ. We are in him and because of him we have the ability to have power and authority and victory. Even though we know our enemies very sly and shrewd and very experienced and powerful, if we use the equipment God has given us, we can have victory. Two weeks ago it looked like the enemy had won at Virginia Tech, didn't it? And some people probably think he did win, but he didn't. This story came to me this week, actually from two different sources. This story will get no press in the mainstream media. It's a story, little too religious. It's a story that might be a little too politically correct, incorrect, in certain editors' boardrooms. Nevertheless, it's a story that must be heard, it must be told. On Sunday morning, on April the 15th, two weeks ago this morning, Jarrett Lane was attending services at the first Baptist Church of Narrow's Virginia. It might have been a Sunday service like any other Sunday morning service. Sunday school followed by opening comments, followed by praise and worship, followed by the Sunday sermon, followed by an altar call, followed by the benediction of dismissal. But on this particular Sunday, during the altar call, Jarrett Lane responded to a stirring, to a small still voice in his heart, telling him to go forward. He stepped out of his seat, walked down the aisle to the front of the small church right down the road here in Narrow's, and prayed with the pastor to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Jarrett Lane had doubtless heard many times in his lifetime the admonition. This might be your last opportunity to accept Christ. It might have been easy to override the still small voice and leave for Sunday lunch, but instead he listened. Although he heard, he heated, he obtained forgiveness, he experienced the love and grace of the Son of God. It was a glorious day for Jarrett. Less than 24 hours later, Jarrett Lane was killed along with 31 other innocent victims on the campus of Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. Sometimes it looks like Satan is one, but God has already circled his blank. I don't think we've heard the end of the story yet of what will happen. That God will do to turn a terrible tragedy, a nightmare will turn and use for his glory. I received another email this week, Jeannie did from her brother Tom, who is one of the leaders of Pioneer's Mission Agency. They have almost 2,000 missionaries across the world, mostly enclosed access countries and unreached people groups. He told us a story that also happened just two weeks ago in Turkey. A missionary, 46-year-old man, a wife and three children, had won several people to Christ in that Muslim country. They do it very carefully there. They work with people, make friends as they do in many closed access countries. So the point that they find somebody they think is interested that they would believe is seeking truth and they will have them over for a meal and they will introduce them to a Bible study. They've done that with five young men. These young men seemed very receptive. So this missionary and two national workers who had come to know Christ invited these five men Monday morning, two weeks ago, to a Bible study again. They had just gotten started into the Bible study. And these five young men pulled out ropes, bound the missionary and his two national believer friends and began to savagely torture them. I can't describe to you in a public setting what all was done to them. They were all stabbed over 150 times. Many other atrocities done to them that are just unspeakable, finally ended by slitting their throats and leaving them dead. So of course the government, local and national basically came out publicly saying this is what we think of Christians. We don't want you here. They actually see Christians as a terrorist group. But the wife of the missionary who's now left with three children made a public comment to the press which was aired nationwide when she was asked her response. She said, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing, repeating the words of Christ from the cross. And other missionaries said this, that woman by that one comment in a society that is known for revenge killing that woman by that one comment did more than a thousand missionaries could do in our country. She showed the spirit of Jesus Christ. So did Satan win that day? No. No. Even the tragedies that Satan seeks to inflict on God's people, God is more powerful and he turns them around and uses them for his glory and for the good of his kingdom and so that people get saved. And Satan goes on a frustrated defeated vote to try to find some other way to upset what God's doing, but he will not win. He will not win. And he doesn't need to win in your life either. If you'll use the equipment God's giving you. Let's pray together. Father, thank you that you've given us the victory through Christ. Thank you that you've given us the equipment we need to fight off the attacks of the evil one. Lord, I pray that you would help us to stand in your strength with the equipment, the armor you've given us so that we might not fall to the attacks of the evil one. I pray that for us as a church, I pray that for each believer in this room for us individually that we will stand in the day of evil. We'll stand in Jesus' name. Amen.