In order to stand their ground, like we looked at yesterday, in the heat of battle, believers need every piece of God’s armor. The order of the pieces listed in the following verses is the order in which a soldier would put them on. Scripture is clear - without this armor, we will fall pray to the enemies schemes. Without this armor, we will be stricken by one of our enemies deadly arrows. So let me ask very early today the key question of life....
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
Today we’re going to take a look at the different parts of the armor that God teaches us about in Ephesians 6(pretty long, but really good). I have three simple questions we’re going to look at with each of these. What does it look like, this piece of armor that we’re talking about? How does it protect me? I think it’s important to know that because understanding that helps you to understand how to put it on. Then, How do I put it on?
The first piece of armor is in Ephesians 6:14, the first part.
#1. “Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.”
What is the belt of truth? What is truth? There’s an amazing story in the Bible. Jesus right before He’s crucified meets up with Pilate. They’re having a conversation. Pilate doesn’t want to condemn Jesus and he starts to talk to Jesus about Him being a king and about religious things. In the middle of all this conversation, Pilate flippantly and sarcastically says to Jesus, “What is truth?” and that ends the conversation. I wonder what would have happened if Pilate had been serious, if he’d looked at Jesus and said, “I see something in You I’ve never seen in any other man. Can You tell me the truth?” I think if he’d have asked sincerely Jesus would have given Pilate the same answer he did Thomas the night before when he asked that question sincerely. Jesus looked at Thomas and said, “I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life.”
What’s truth? Truth is what God says. Lies are what Satan says. Whenever God has said anything about anyone or any subject (and He talks about a lot of subjects – a lot of things about us, how we work, a lot of things about our world, a lot of things about morality) you can count on it: that is the truth. Truth is what God says.
Truth isn’t relative. Truth is revealed. Truth isn’t figured out by our circumstances. It’s revealed by God who sits above all of our circumstances and see it all. He can say to us, “Here’s the truth that will get you through life.” What can seem very true to me right now, sometimes I need somebody to reveal to me that that’s not going to be true to me soon. And God can do that. I can be driving down the road and it can look like a beautiful road until I see a sign that says, “Bridge out ahead.” The road can look beautiful right up to the edge of that bridge, but because somebody revealed some truth to me that I couldn’t see in y circumstances it saved my life.
God does that for us in our history. We’re going along in life and thinking, “This will be a great decision… this is what I need to do… this feels good so I should do it.” God says, “Wait a minute! Bridge out ahead. If you keep going down that road there is going to be a time when you meet up with some real difficulty and disaster in your life.”
The simplest definition I know for truth is what God say. And where do we find what God says? In the Bible. Satan is the father of lies. Jesus is the Way and the Truth. God is the Father of all truth.
Before you became a believer, who you choose to believe, Satan or Jesus, determined your eternal destiny. Satan says, “Here’s how to make yourself happy.” Jesus says, “Here’s where abundant life comes from.” Who you chose to believe in that battle determines your eternal destiny.
Most of you reading this have already made that choice. You’ve said to Christ, “I believe that You’re the truth.” But now that we’re a believer we still face an everyday choice about who’s telling the truth and who’s lying. It’s no longer a matter of our eternal destiny. Now that we’re a believer, who we choose to believe determines our everyday victory. Whether we live with a sense of victory or a sense of defeat in our everyday life. Who do you choose to believe? Satan is a liar and God always tells the truth.
Truth is what God says. How does this truth protect us in this battle against Satan? There’s probably several ways but I want to focus in on some of the main ways that these protections come into our lives. Truth keeps us from being tripped up by our temptations. When you and I think of a belt being part of battle armor, it’s hard for us to think about than it was in New Testament days. Their belt had a very specific purpose. All the men in those days, even the soldiers, would wear long tunics. We’d call them skirts or dresses today. Ladies, any of you who have ever worn long dresses have you ever tried to run somewhere in a long dress? If you try to run in a long dress, it trips you up. So what these Roman soldiers would do, they had this battle armor on underneath their tunic and they would tuck this under the belt when they were ready for battle. Then they would be free to move in battle. They wouldn’t be tripped up.
Temptations trip us up. That’s the picture here. You’ve got this belt of truth where you can sort of get everything cinched in and you’re not tripped up. Hebrews 12 says “Let us strip off everything that slows us down or holds us back and especially those sins that wrap themselves so tightly around our feet and trip us up.” What a great picture! The picture here is you can have a lot of these things of armor we’re going to talk about tonight, wearing them all under this tunic, but if you’re not careful with your temptations they’ll trip you up. It’s inevitable in our lives. You can know God’s word and be in church and have a daily quiet time but temptations can still trip you up.
What’s the answer to that? Truth. Temptation is always a lie. Satan says, “This is what it’s going to do for you,” and it may do a part of that. It may make you feel good… for a little while. But it’s not going to fulfill your needs. He comes to Jesus in the desert and says, “If You do ‘this’ I’ll give You all the kingdoms of the world.” He couldn’t promise that. He didn’t own any kingdoms of the world. He was flat out lying. Temptations are a lie. The truth helps us to see temptations for what they really are in our lives.
How do I buckle this on? This is really where I want to focus today. I want to give you a picture so when you get up tomorrow morning you can think, “Truth. Put on the belt of truth.” And picture in your mind what you’re going to do to start your day. You don’t want to go half way through the day, get a lot of hits and really be bloody and say, “I'm going to put my battle armor on now.” This is better to put on at the beginning of the day. Then when we face the battles we’re ready.
How do I buckle on truth? 1 John 3:18 says, “We should love people not only with words and talk but by our actions and true caring. This is the way we know that we belong to the truth.” To know that I'm walking in the truth the Bible says there’s a specific action that lets me know that, that lets me be confident about that in life. It’s not what you would have thought. It’s acting in love towards other people. When I choose to do that it focuses me in on the truth. Unless you and I act in love towards others we’ll be in doubt about the reality of God’s truth in our lives. It’s when you choose not just to try to think about it inwardly but when you share it with others and act in love towards others that the truth really becomes real.
The more that you pull into yourself the more that you’ll be filled with doubt. The more that you give yourself to others, the more that you’ll be filled with confidence about God’s truth in life. Years and years ago there were some very spiritual men called monks. They decided that if they were going to be truly spiritual they’d go up in the mountains and pray and not see anybody. They were isolationist monks. They didn’t get more spiritual by doing that. In fact, they grew less spiritual. It was destructive to their spiritual lives. They became filled with doubts. You can read it in some of their journals. There were a few of them that sort of grew but most of them drew away from God. Why? Because they weren’t giving themselves to others. That’s an essential part of the Christian life, of living out the truth.
There’s still some people who try to copy them today in churches. Churches that try to pull away from everybody. Maybe you feel like that sometimes. You’re not a monk – you’re a monk-ee. Sorry!
It’s very tempting to do that sometimes. The teaching here is when you’re facing doubt in life, face the doubts, tell God about them, let Him deal with them. But don’t pull in. Keep giving yourself to others. Because that’s one of the ways God gives confidence in the truth that answers those doubts. Confidence in the truth is what the Bible says girds our loins that means it ties that “skirt” so we’re free to move, free to act. We’re not tripped up by our temptations.
The first part of the battle armor of a Christian in facing this battle against Satan is truth.
#2. “The breastplate of righteousness”
I want to take a few minutes with this one. I think “righteousness” is one of those words that is used a lot in the Bible. It’s the theme in the book of Romans and the book of Galatians and yet in talking with most Christians, they sort of have somewhat of an idea of what righteousness but they honestly don’t have any idea what the word means.
When you think of “righteousness” what do you think of? Do you think negative or positive primarily? A lot of people have a negative sort of impression of righteousness. That people who are righteous are people who look down their nose at you. A lot of people’s picture of righteousness is this strict librarian picture. If you break one little rule, if you’re not quiet, if you don't do everything just right you’re in big, big trouble. That’s not righteousness.
Righteousness is one of the most winsome of characteristics we can have. Righteousness is not found in looking down on others. Righteousness is found by looking up to God.
One time Jesus was with the Pharisees who thought they were righteous and they always looked down on others. He told them this story about two men who were praying. One prayed and said, “God, thank You that I'm not like that man over there, a sinner.” The other man prayed, “Please be merciful to me. I'm a sinner and I need You.” Jesus asked, “Which one do you think was heard by God?” It helped those men to recognize that you can’t get righteousness by looking down on others. A lot of people think if they can put others down, it lifts them up and makes them righteous in God’s sight. God doesn’t do it on the comparison basis.
Righteousness is not earned by us. Righteousness is credited to us. It’s not like the lottery. It’s not a luck kind of thing. It’s God’s choice to credit it to us. In Genesis where Abraham one of the first people to have faith came along. The Bible says, “Abraham believed the Lord and God credited to him as righteousness.” God credited that belief, that trust in God to him as righteousness. Then in Romans 3:22. “This righteousness from God comes from faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” The way to open up that credit account is faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible even tells us exactly how God does it. “God made Jesus, Him who had no sin, to be sin for us. [That happened on the cross.] So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” God credited this righteousness to us when we trusted in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.
What is it? Righteousness is being right before God and becoming right with others as I'm right before others in my actions. It starts with being right before God. I can stand before God knowing that my relationship with Him is cleared up. There’s nothing standing between me and Him. Jesus did that on the cross. That’s part of righteousness. That’s already been done.
Also, if you read the Bible closely, part of righteousness is also becoming right in my relationships with other people and right actions in my relationship with people. But it starts in being right with God. Don’t get it backwards. Don’t try to become righteous, to earn righteousness by making all your relationships on this earth right and doing a lot of good things and try to earn it that way. You have to have it credited to your account. Then you start spending off that credit account by developing your relationships here and by acting in new ways towards people. That’s what righteousness is. Righteousness is Being right with God is where it all starts.
This thing of righteousness that the Bible talks so much about, how does it protect us? My heart is protected from Satan’s attacks – and remember we’re talking about this breastplate of righteousness – it protects all the vital organs, that breastplate. It protects our heart, the most vital. And spiritually – my spiritual heart is protected from Satan’s attacks when I focus on this new relationship I have with God, as I act out this new relationship I have with men. It’s really the first two commandments. Jesus gave them to us: “Love God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” The righteousness that God credits to my account gives me the strength and ability to do that. I can’t do it on my own. God gives us the strength to do that.
If that’s what protects me, what that means is Satan is going to try to mess up your relationship with God. Righteousness secures our relationship with God. So when you look at the fact I'm in right standing before God and Satan comes and accuses me of “You did ‘this’ and you did ‘that’. You don’t deserve ‘this’ and you don’t deserve ‘that’.” It doesn’t change the truth about you that we said in the first three chapters of Ephesians. God has chosen you. Nothing changes that. That’s what it means to be righteousness. Whenever I'm afraid of God (Like when I go to pray, I know He’s going to pray it up. Or I’ve done something I'm sort of nervous God knowing about as if He didn’t know about it.) we’re easy pray for Satan. Whenever we don’t have that relationship straight with Him. But when I recognize I'm in right standing before God and I'm forgiven and I can live that out in my life, then I can live with a sense of protection in my heart in my life.
How do I wear this thing of righteousness? What does it look like? Let me give you a warning before I given you two ideas the Bible talks about.
The warning the Bible gives again and again is don’t try to make your own righteousness. Don’t try to build it yourself. Trying to make your own righteousness is like trying to cut your own hair: you’ll always come up a bit short somewhere. Trying to make your own righteousness, no person can do it. Paul says, I tried. Philippians 3 says “I was the best Hebrew, I was the best Pharisee. I kept every law in the Old Testament perfectly. I did that and it wasn’t enough. I had to set all of that aside and find a new righteousness – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”
Two ideas about how you put on this breastplate of righteousness.
1. You have to hunger for it. Jesus said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” Jesus said, “If you hunger for it, My promise is you will be satisfied.” Satan tries to thwart this by tempting us to fill up and something else. It’s sort of like you’re headed towards this great meal at the best restaurant in town and on the way you say, “I think I’ll stop and have ten Big Macs.” Satan tempts us to fill up on things that don’t eternally satisfy us. God says if you’ll just hunger and thirst for righteousness, sometimes that means you say I'm not going to try to satisfy my own needs; I'm going to wait on God to satisfy my needs.
When you say that and you allow a hunger for righteousness develop in your lives He promises He will satisfy it. If you want a better relationship with God, if you want to better your relationship with others, if you want to begin to live out more of the Christian life you read about in the Bible, if you want those things the Bible says that God will satisfy that in your life. Continue to pray about those wants and God will bring your life in compliance with the things you’re saying you want.
How do you develop a hunger? A hunger and thirst for righteousness? You develop a hunger by focusing on the things you want to be hungry for. You focus on what it would mean to live out that new lifestyle. You focus on how it would feel to be in that kind of relationship with God. You focus on how it would feel to know God in that kind of way. It’s temptation in reverse. When temptation comes into our life we focus on, “Wouldn’t it be great if I did that?” and Satan keeps encouraging that: “This is what you need; you should do this.” By focusing on it you get closer and closer to what you’re focusing on. You’re driving down the freeway and you’re trying to watch what’s happening in the car beside you, you tend to drift into their lane. We tend to drift towards what we’re focusing on. We move towards what we’re focusing on.
If you focus on what it would feel like – allow yourself to spend a few minutes just to think about what it would feel like, what it would be like to develop a deeper relationship with God that you have now? Let yourself daydream about that instead of all the other things we tend to dream about. That would develop a hunger for righteousness in your life. Hunger for it. That’s one way you put on this breastplate of righteousness.
The second way is I offer yourself to God. Romans 6:19 “Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.” Instead of being a slave to sin, make the choice of being a slave to what’s right. The great thing about that is when you make the choice to be a slave to what’s right you’ve never felt freer in your life.
Satan is going to tempt you – I promise you. He’s going to come to you and say, “If you become a slave to that you’re going to be miserable. God just wants to put you in bonds and make your life worthless.” Satan’s lying. God’s the one who tells the truth. The truth is when you and I make ourselves a slave to what’s right, when we say, “I'm going to offer myself to that,” it doesn’t take away from our personality, it doesn’t take a way from our life. It fills us up like we’ve never been filled up before. It’s one of the most incredible feelings in life.
As we look at these things like the breastplate of righteousness and the different ways God wants to work in our lives, there’s two things I want you to be aware of. I want you to be fully aware of the power of Satan. He does have power. It’s obvious from what happened in the Garden of Eden. Be aware of that. But on the other hand, I want you to be fully confident of your victory in Christ over Satan. I want both for you, not just one of them. If you’re fully aware of the power of Satan but you’re not fully confident of your victory in Christ, you’re going to live in fear in your Christian life. But there’s a danger on the other side too. If you’re fully confident of your victory in Christ and you’re not fully aware of the power of Satan, you’re going to live in defeat and in pride in your Christian life because you’re going to think, “I can do this on my own.” It takes both sides to do that. Confidence without awareness is pride. Awareness without confidence is fear. Either will get you.
You can’t defeat Satan but Christ has already defeated him. He’s taught us how to put on some practical armor in our lives to live out that victory He’s already accomplished in our lives. Armor like that belt of truth – the truth of God’s word. Jesus is the truth. Armor like that breastplate of righteousness and the Bible tells us that Jesus is our righteousness. All these things we put them on in Christ.
#3. “The gospel of peace”
What is this gospel of peace? It’s the good news about God’s peace accomplished in our lives. It’s not peace between nations. It’s peace between man and God. It’s peace of mind and peace of heart. It’s all about the good news of salvation in our lives. How does this good news of peace between man and God help me in the battle?
It helps me in the battle because it keeps me ready. It’s like the shoes you’re wearing on your feet is the readiness that comes from this gospel of peace. The good news in our lives keeps us ready for the battle. You can’t face a battle without shoes on. You’re not going to do well in the battle. Paul writes and says, “You need to put on the gospel of peace ready for victory.” Don’t discount the value of the good news of Christ in keeping you ready to win the victory of Christ in everyday life. Bad news gets us ready for defeat. Good news gets us ready for victory.
Whose reports are you listening to the most? The reports of the bad news or the reports of the good news. There’s lots of sources in our lives right now for bad news reports. Any newspaper, any local newscaster. It’s not wrong to know the news of what’s happening in this world but the question is whose reports are you listening the most to? Christ says He’s got some good news about our lives that you need to listen to.
Sometimes I listen to things like 20-20 (the news report) and that can be depressing. Instead of the 20-20 report, I want to give you the 16:20 – Romans 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.” When I read things, or hear things on the news, it breaks my heart the world we live in. But I have to remember: that’s not the whole story. Romans 16:20 is still true. Satin is at work in our world – yes. He is trying to mess up our lives and our world but the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Very, very soon. That’s good news that this world isn’t going to continue forever. That's the news. All this other stuff that we read that’s what’s happening in our world. But the news – that’s the rest of the story that God has.
Romans 16 tells me that what’s happening now is not what’s going to happen then. That I'm getting a little slice, all these evil things that Satan’s bringing in – the good news of the gospel of peace is the most important news in this world.
How do I wear this news? When I get up in the morning, how do I put it on? There’s a good clue in Romans 10:15 “How can they preach unless they are sent as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.’” That’s a great verse about witnessing. It’s saying look how beautiful it is when someone shares with another person the good news about Jesus Christ.
How do I wear the gospel? I share the good news. For those of you who are already believers it becomes more real when you share it with somebody else. In your own life you know it’s real but sometimes you get sort of depressed by all the other news in life. But when you get a chance to share with somebody else the good news in this world it’s like it brings it to life again. I know you may not get a chance everyday to share the good news specifically with somebody, but the Bible says when we’re ready to, when we’re looking for opportunities, when we’re looking for people to pray for that they’ll understand the good news, that’s one of the things that gets us ready for victory in everyday life. It keeps me ready for victory.
#4. “Take up the shield of faith by which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
What’s faith? Hebrews 11:1 says it’s the conviction of things that aren’t seen in our lives, that we’re convinced that even though we don’t see it we trust in it. It’s trusting God above all else. That’s what faith is: it’s trusting God above all else.
The opposite of faith in our lives is usually not not trusting God. When we have a lack of faith we don’t say, “I don’t trust God.” That’s not usually our problem, especially as believers. Usually our problem is we’re trusting someone or something else other than God and when we do that, we have a real lack of faith in our lives. Like trusting ourselves for instance. Or trusting some self help book we read recently.
Trusting God above all else. That is a very important part of the armor. It’s the shield of faith. How does that help me in the Bible? The Bible says it extinguishes these flaming darts. In battles of that day they had a couple kinds of shields they would use. One was a smaller shield that they would hold up maybe in a sword battle. But a lot of times in battle they would carry these larger oblong shields with a wooden front to them. One of the ways of battle in that day was to dip darts in some kind of flammable liquid a flaming arrow kind of thing and they’d shoot it at the enemy. You’re out therewith brush all around you, if you had a metal shield and it bounded off, with all the brush around, it would start a fire around you. So they’ve got the wooden things so the darts would stick. They’d intentionally try to catch the darts as they came so they’d stick and the flames would go out. It’s a good picture.
Sometimes when we try to use another shield, beside the shield of faith, our own shield. We try to duck and play dodge ball with Satan. We just get on the edge of the sin. We don’t want the dart to hit but we want to see what it’s like. The problem is it’s still on fire. It bounced off and it’s right beside us and it’s creating a bigger problem than the first place. The only way to extinguishing them as they come is to deal with them by faith. That puts them out and then you don’t have to deal with them any more.
These shields were made in such a way that they would lock together with other people’s shields. In a battle you’d have a wall of shields marching towards the enemy. That’s a good picture for us as believers. We need to encourage each other as we lock our shields together. We’re not in this alone. We fight this battle together. If a dart’s thrown my way, if somebody else’s faith can help me that’s encouraging. You don’t have to do it alone.
Focus on this shield of faith by putting it on. Something specific we can do about putting it on. If you want to be full of faith focus on God’s faithfulness. One way to try to full of faith is focus on your lack of faith and pray that it would be built somehow. That will never work. You’ll just get more and more depressed, more and more down on yourself. But when you focus instead on God’s greatness and faithfulness, how faithful He is to you it fills you with faith. The faithfulness of His promises. The faithfulness of His patience. The faithfulness of His love. That fills you with faith.
The great picture of this in the Bible is Peter, when Jesus challenged him to get out of the boat and walk on water. When Peter focused on Jesus and the faithfulness of Christ and the power of Christ, he was able to walk on the water. That’s incredible. But then when he tried to focus on the circumstances around him and how much faith he had he started to sink. And as he started to sink, Jesus had to lift him out because of His faithfulness.
You and I in our everyday lives, if we’re going to have faith we have to focus on God’s faithfulness. That’s the shield that extinguishes those darts.
#5. “The helmet of salvation”
Salvation is being rescued. We’ve seen a lot of pictures of floods and somebody who falls in. There’s no way out for them. The water’s rushing so fast, the sides are so slick. There’s no way no matter how strong they are, how good of swimmer they are there’s no way for them to get to the side and climb out of that channel. They need somebody to rescue them.
The only problem when it comes to us spiritually is that all of mankind is in the flood channel. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” There’s nobody standing up on the bank to lend us a hand except for God. And God decided in His Son Jesus Christ to comedown to this earth, stretch out His strong hand and say, “Take My hand.” And He lifts us up out of that flood channel. We’re headed for certain destruction if we stay in it. Fast! But He lifts us up out of that. Only God is strong enough to do that. That’s what salvation is. The Bible says it’s part of our spiritual armor. The helmet of salvation. It’s interesting that it pictures it protects our head, our mind.
The fact that God loved you enough to save you not just mankind but you is a weapon. That is a piece of armor that Satan can’t penetrate. The helmet obviously has to be one of the most important pieces of armor. That’s a weapon that Satan cannot overcome.
How do I put it on? How do I get this helmet? My mind is protected from Satan’s attacks when I choose to think about the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ. Satan hates it when you do that! It’s when we think about His blood that Satan has to flee. Why? Because that’s where he was defeated. That’s where the power is. When we try to do it on our own he can laugh at us. But when we recognize the cross, that’s where the power is. When you’re feeling like, “I can’t make it another day,” you might paint a mental picture in your mind of yourself standing at the foot of the cross and think, “How does this situation look in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ? How does this sin that I’ve committed look in light of the cross of Jesus Christ?” It looks forgiven is how it looks. “How does this decision that I'm facing look in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ? How does this sin that someone committed against me look in the light of the cross of Jesus Christ?”
When you begin to think that way it changes your mind. It changes your thoughts. Because the cross has the power and always will have the power to defeat Satan. It’s the helmet of salvation and the way you put that on is by thinking about the cross.
#6. “The sword of the Spirit.”
We’re ready. We got all this stuff on – our shoes, the skirt all girded up around us with our belt, this battle armor, a shield – we are ready. But how are we going to attack? The offensive part of the battle armor was the sword. “Take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” The Bible, when Jesus was faced with temptation from Satan, the weapon He used to defeat him was the Bible. He quoted scripture back to him. The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.
Notice that it’s the Spirit’s sword not your sword. If you’re going to use this you need the Holy Spirit to understand it, you need to Holy Spirit to use it. It’s the Spirit’s sword not your sword.
The reason that’s so important is this verse about how it works in our lives and what it does in our lives. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active. It’s sharper than any two edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
How does this sword protect me? It protects me as it works as a sword on me and a sword for me. The Bible says that not only is it this thing I fight Satan with and when he uses temptation I use the word of God to defeat that temptation. But the Bible also says I’ve got to let that sword work on me. Maybe some of you like to do surgery on yourself but I don’t want to. I want the Holy Spirit to be holding that sword. I trust Him a lot more than I trust myself. He cuts into the deepest parts of my life and slowly, gently, surely shows me attitudes I need to change, actions I need to change, a new heart I need to have. I want Him to be the surgeon that does that. The Bible is able to do that. It can judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
I don’t even know what motivates me sometimes. But God does. He can say, “I can change that. I can fix that.” And He always does it at just the right time, not too soon, not too late. He always starts to work at just the right time. I have to give Him that freedom in my life and let the word work on me and then I can use it to defeat Satan. A lot of people try to use it to defeat Satan without letting it work on them and they find out it doesn’t work. If the sword is going to be part of your life, it has to be both ways. It’s a double-edged sword. It does cut both ways. It cuts into your life but it also cuts into Satan’s attacks in life.
This sword of the Spirit helps us to help face some struggles and difficulties of temptation in our lives. It helps us to make the right decision. It helped Jesus to do that. Satan came and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, offered Him the power to make bread out of stones. Jesus was able to say no based on the power of God’s word in His life.
There’s a picture I use sometimes in my mind when temptation comes. It’s really a choice when it comes to temptation. You might picture it this way. On one side is a black pit, dark. Satan says, “If you’ll just fall in, it’s great down there. You wouldn’t believe all the pleasure and joy that’s down there.” Here’s the picture to get in your mind. For every temptation that Satan’s offering, the Word tells us that there is a real need in our lives that God wants to answer by His word. There’s a black pit but on the other side of the narrow ledge we’re standing on, there’s beautiful, refreshing living water. God’s saying, “Dive into this!” The mental picture I try to build in my mind is if Satan’s tempting me to do this, what’s the other side, what’s God’s side of that?
Sometimes we just stand on the ledge – “Black pit – Living water…” It’s sort of like one of those old James Bond movies. The ledge is getting narrower and narrower as you stand there. If you let it get too narrow and don’t decide to jump into the living water you’ll fall. And you never fall into faith. You always fall into temptation. So what’s helped me in life as I face temptation is building that mental picture and say, “If Satan is saying ‘do this’ I'm going to turn around and see what does the word of God say is the positive alternative.” For instance. Satan says, “Things aren’t going good. You should be depressed. You should be down. You should think you’re a rotten, terrible person in life.” What’s the other side of that? God says you’re a holy person. God says, “You’re acceptable in My sight.” I can choose to stand there are wrestle with that and finally fall in or I can turn around and dive in to the living water.
The thing that gives me the power to make that choice is the Word. Without God’s word I’ll stand there and fall the wrong way every time. The thing that gives me the power to choose is God’s word. The next time you’re standing on that ledge and it’s getting narrower and narrower, what’s the alternative to what Satan is saying? Don’t play dodge ball with Satan. Don’t look into that pit and think how great it would be. He’s lying. Think about the wonderful truth of God. You have to choose to dive into it. You’ll find you can overcome some of those temptations in your life. It’s incredible how making that choice based on God’s word makes a difference in our lives.
That’s an idea about how I take up the sword. But in a practical way the thing I tell you to do is have a quiet time. If you’re going to live your life based on God’s word you’ve got to get to know God’s word. I can’t tell you how many times I read something in the Bible, jot something down and it’s the exact situation I face that day. I guess God knows what I'm going to face that day and He gives me His word to get me ready.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 says, “But the Lord is faithful and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” He will. He’s given us the tools to do that.
I have a dream for every one of you that you’re going to be living your life in increasing victory. I believe that one of the things this church stands for is standing at the end. We don’t want short-term disciples here. We believe that God can develop in this church and in your lives the kind of people that will be standing at the end.
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