Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse one.
Thou therefore, my Son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful man who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that woreth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
Then would you turn back to Second Samuel, chapter 23?
Second Samuel, chapter 23.
And verse 6 But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands, but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of the spear, they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.
Now, will you please turn to Ephesians chapter 6? Ephesians chapter 6?
And verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that He may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth, and having on the breastplate of judgment, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith for where thee shall be able.
All the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
Well, to young people, it was particularly on my heart today to talk about the armor of God and to look upon the Christian as a soldier.
It's very humbling to me to see so many young people here and to think of how by coming to these meetings your lives can be so greatly affected. Either to go on and follow the Lord Jesus, or perhaps, if there is resistance in your heart, to choose a more worldly path and turn away from following the Lord Jesus devotedly.
It's a great privilege to know the Lord Jesus, to know Him as our Savior, and it's a privilege for me to speak well of him today and to try with the Lord's help, to encourage you in the pathway of faith.
We've been talking quite a bit in the meetings about the character of the world in which we live. We know that when the Lord Jesus was here, the world said away with him, crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over us. He didn't want to acknowledge his rights and his claims because you know the enemy is behind it all. The Lord Jesus said this is your hour and the power of darkness.
And so the enemy is behind all that which opposes Christ and his name, his rights and his claims. How about you and I who were saved, have within us a greater power. If you are truly saved, you are indwelled by the Spirit of God. And the Scripture says greater is he that is in you and he that is in the world. And God has given you a new life. He has given you the Holy Spirit of God, so that none.
Of us can say the power has not been supplied. Often we don't use the power that God has given. I might have a very good car with a powerful engine and I might stall on a hill if I don't step on the gas and use the power that's there under the hood. And you know, sometimes we as Christians are just like that, being supplied with all the power that God has given. We don't avail ourselves of it. We don't.
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Use it. We go on as though everything depended on us. But we sang in our little opening hymn His be the victor's name. And then again triumphant Saints no honor claim His conquest was their own.
So it's all in what the Lord Jesus has done that we base our hopes for eternity. And it's an old he's able to do in US and through us that there can be any progress, any stability, any real blessing in our Christian life. But let me say again, we are looked upon in the Scripture now as believers, as soldiers, and Paul is exhorting young Timothy and he tells him thou.
Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And before I go any further, I do hope that each one of you, dear young people, have learned to know salvation by grace. You have put your trust in the Lord Jesus. I hope that you know Him, that you have acknowledged his rights and his claims over you, because you're going to acknowledge his right someday.
God has decreed that every knee shall bow.
And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. There's no escape from owning his rights, but there's a blessing in doing it now. A present blessing and an eternal blessing. A present blessing in knowing salvation and in finding in him a portion for your heart and strength, for your pathway, and then an eternal blessing because.
There's a home above where all are redeemed will gather, where there will be fullness of joy, where you'll never meet anyone and have to ask them how they are. You'll never have to ask anyone about the problems in their family. You won't lead anyone in the streets of glory who will have any care. God himself will have wiped away all tears from off all faces. Are you traveling there? God wants you to be there. He's not willing that any should perish.
But that all should come to repentance. And dear young person, if you are here at these meetings, I know whoever invited you for your parents, who brought you long, that you might know the Savior.
And if you do know the Savior, I know your parents desire and I desire, and many of us in this room desire that you would go on and find that peace and blessing and happiness in following the Lord Jesus. But let me say again, we are soldiers. We find ourselves in a hostile world, Jesus said.
The disciple is not above his master. If they have persecuted me, they will.
Also persecuted Jew and I sometimes have to say to myself, you expect better treatment from the world and your savior. Then you're actually putting yourself above him. You're saying it was all right, they crucified him, but they shouldn't treat me that way. I'm a pretty decent person and they shouldn't shun me. They shouldn't talk against me. They might have done it to my savior, but I'm a pretty nice person. Is this the attitude we're taking?
Or should we instead expect that if they treated the one we loved the most in that way, that we have the privilege of sharing His rejection, of having that kind of treatment that he received? And yet the Lord Jesus in that path found that joy of doing His Father's will. We find in his whole pathway A constancy because He was always.
In in perfect communion with God his Father.
Unbroken communion, and He has given to you and IA life by which we can hold fellowship with God as our Father. I don't know of anything more wonderful, more delightful in this world than to think that I can walk down the street of a city and know that I can look up and say God is my Father. The one who sits on the throne of power is my Savior, and he's looking down upon me in love.
There's a verse in the Psalms that says I will guide thee with mine eye, and another translation reads I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee. Isn't that nice to think that you can walk through life with his eye upon you? Does it make you happy? It ought to. God couldn't have done more for our blessing that He has done, and His love wouldn't do less.
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And so I say again, we're soldiers and.
And there is a real powerful enemy. And I read that in Samuel, because David realized that there were powerful enemies and that the man who faced these must be fenced with iron and spear. That is, it's not going to be an easy thing. And Paul said to Timothy, Thou therefore endure hardness.
As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you know that if you're in.
In the army of this country, one of the first things you have to learn is to get toughened up to a few hardships. And that's the way they start. And, you know, let us prepare ourselves as believers that the path of following Christ has its hardships, has its problems, has its difficulties, but oh, it has its true reward and above everything.
It has a safe path through this world.
And has the company of the one who said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, the one who said, Lo, I am with you always are all the days you and I value his company.
Thumb may have heard me say. But I think it bears repeating because the brothers said this to me when I was a young man, he said. I don't ask the Lord to be with me. I ask him for a sense of his presence.
He said, he's not going to leave us, but are we walking day by day as though he were right beside us, as though we could turn to Him at any moment and say, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And then when he tells us as we had yesterday, to say, yes, Lord, to desire to do his will. Oh, I say, dear young people, it is the path of blessing and happiness.
Now when we come to this epistle to the Ephesians.
I just like to say a few words before we start on this 6th chapter, because I think the character of this epistle is very beautiful. I like to turn back in my thoughts to the city of Ephesus where Paul preached his visit. There is recorded in the 19th chapter of Acts those people, as we are told in that chapter.
Were worshippers of the great goddess Diana and they thought that image which they were.
Worship had fallen down from Jupiter. They were very jealous about that image that they had, and they practiced many curious arts. Strange to say, we find in the world today that people are going back to a lot of these ancient and Eastern religions as though they had not found anything better in the revelation that God has given in His Word.
Well, Paul visited that place. He stayed there for a long time, about two years. There were some wonderful things wrought in that city, and there was great results from his preaching. And those who practice curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men. They had found something so much better in the knowledge of Christ.
That those books and those things that they had gone on with previously.
Really no longer meant anything to them. But one thing I have to say, and that is they found themselves in conflict with the whole stream of public opinion. They found that their way of life was different. And as it tells us when Paul visited Philippi, as they said, these men being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.
Did they come there with guns or did they come with sticks to hurt them?
No, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They didn't lift a hand against them, but it says they teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe. Being Romans, it changed their pattern of life. And so it is when you get saved, you have a new master. You have one whom you acknowledge as Lord, you have one who has a right to tell you what to do.
And since we're no longer part of this world.
Old and occupy a position something like an ambassador in another country.
When an ambassador is sent to another country, he's not expected to conform to all the ideas and customs and ways of that country. That isn't his purpose in being there. His purpose is to represent his own country. And that is the position, dear young people, that you and I occupy in this world. Just stop and think. We represent heaven on earth.
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We've been called to the heavenly Kingdom. We belong to the.
House above and we're going to be called there very soon. We've been talking about the moment when the Lord will say come up, hit her just as an ambassador may look forward to the time when he leaves that country and goes back to his own homeland again. And we who are believers like to sing, Heaven is our Fatherland, Heaven is our home. Do we realize this? Has it really laid hold?
Of our hearts, that heaven is our home. I want to just say that if I get hold of that, I don't think I would know how to live in this world. Oh yes, you'd know better than you ever knew before because God not only has invited you to a home above, but he also has told you how you can have a happy life down here on the way there. And to me, this epistle to the Ephesians is a very, very wonderful book in that connection.
And I'd just like to make a little brief outline.
Now just so you see how wonderfully this is brought out in this book, in the 1St chapter, we see that God had eternal counsels and that He had people who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, before God made this planet earth, before He set up all the fountains and all the hills and all the forces and everything that we recognize in this planet earth, God had a purpose.
And that was that he was going to have a people from planet earth who were going to be associated with his Son, to enjoy in fellowship with him all that his love could provide for them. A people who would know his heart, who would be in the relationship of children to God and in the relationship of being members of the body of Christ.
This was in the eternal purposes of God before this world was created.
At all? Isn't this a marvelous thing?
If you were brought into the councils of someone who was going to put up a grand building here in this city, why, I suppose you would consider yourself quite honored that he had let you see the plans and all the details. But do you realize, dear young person, that when you took the Lord as your Savior, that he called you his friend? And he said, I haven't called you a servant, I've called you a friend because all things that I have heard of my father.
Whether I've made known unto you, just think I've often said it's a very marvelous thing to be able to say what a friend we have in Jesus, but to me it's depend us that the Lord should call me his friend and tell me that he's bringing me into his counsels and purposes. 1 is often said, the Christian is the only person who has an intelligent outlook in what is going on in the world.
Men of the world don't know what's coming. They're alarmed. They're concerned. How about you and I as Christians?
Have the counsels of God revealed to us insignificant nothings in this world, and yet God has called us to the fellowship of His Son. So in the 1St chapter He shows us how He had those counsels, that He would have a people in association with him and with His Son who would be suited to himself.
Holy and without blame before Him in love. It has been said that what the heart desires above everything else is satisfied affections. And I think that's true, that if you really think of what is really highest and high and most important is to have your affection satisfied sermon that you can really love and who really loves you.
All brethren, dear young people, isn't this grand?
That you and I have been brought into such a place that we can know that love that's in the heart of God and in the heart of Christ, That we can respond to that wonderful verse, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Then as we go on in this first chapter, we find that there was an obstacle that hindered the fulfillment of this purpose. And what was it? Well, sin came in. Sin came into this world. Was that obstacle too great for the heart of God? Oh no, it wasn't. We have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin, and we who rebelled against all.
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In the heart of God, and all his goodness and mercy, who joined ranks with Adam, who chose his own will in opposition to the will of God? God said that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. Who did he send to pay my debt? Who did he send to remove the obstacle so that his purposes could be fulfilled? The dearest object of his heart, His own Son, that's whom he sent, does not.
Your heart, that the one who is the dearest object of the Father's heart, came down because there was no one else that could remove the obstacle. There was no one else who could pay the price of sin. And the Lord Jesus came in love and he paid that price.
And says, now the obstacle is removed and I want you to know that when the Lord Jesus takes his rightful place, that you and I are to share in that inheritance. And you say, well, I don't have very much in this world. Oh, isn't it wonderful to be able to look about on everything that you see in this world and say, my father made that and I'm a joint heir. I'm going to possess it all another day.
You got a little discouraged when things don't go very well financially and you're losing a few things. You realize that all things are yours. Life, death, see fast the world come the unsearchable riches of Christ. Oh what a privilege we have, what a place we've been brought into. And he loves us so much that he says he's not going to take the inheritance till he has us with him. Just like a man who builds a beautiful house and you say.
They weren't even gonna live in it. Oh, he said, I'm waiting till I have my bride. We're gonna enter it together and share it. Oh, how wonderful. That's what he's telling us here in this book, that the Lord Jesus has gone into death and now he's up there on high head over all things to the church, which is his body, and he's saving out of this world. Rebellious man. The 2nd chapter shows us the kind of people that he picks up, people who were dead.
Passes and sins, people who are in open rebellion against him, following the course of the world, which is a course that leads on to judgment. And God arrests us. Has he arrested you? Oh, how many? If we were just asked to ask a few here to tell how did the Lord arrest you, we'd hear a very number of stories how perhaps it was an accident. Perhaps it was.
Some amazing way that God stopped you or me.
In our downward course and in his goodness and in his grace, he said, I want you to be a fellow heir, a joint heir with my son. And he stopped us in our downward course. But not only that, the Lord Jesus didn't only die to save us from the penalty of our sins. He saved us because he wanted us to be in his presence, the objects of his love, and to.
Enjoy all that is in his heart.
He's broken down the barrier between Jew and Gentile, and today in this room we see that barrier broken down and that there are different nationalities meant here. The world has strife, distress of nations. As we read nation rising against nation, we only have to look out on the panorama of this world and we see nations fighting against one another.
But oh, how different it is when we get saved and whatever nationality.
Were brought to a relationship with one another that is so precious, so dear, that all that disappears in the relationship. The middle wall between Jew and Gentile has broken down and there's a spiritual building being put up in this world. Tells us for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. What a blessed place I say we have been brought into.
Then we come to the third chapter. He tells us how all this was hidden in the mind of God for centuries, and it could not be made known until redemption was accomplished. And as soon as redemption is accomplished, then the secret comes out. You may have a secret and nobody knows that. You're just waiting for something to happen before you tell that secret, and it's burning inside of you, and you just wish you could tell, but.
You know you don't tell until a special time comes and then you tell it well, the Lord Jesus, this is a wonderful verse to me. He said I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straightened or restricted until it be accomplished? In the heart of the Savior was his glorious purpose that he was going to have a bride of people in association with himself.
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And he said I have to go into death before this secret can come out.
He went into death, he rose again, took his place at the right hand of God, and then he caught Paul up to the 3rd heaven and said, I'm going to tell you the secret, Paul, and you can tell the others how this wonderful secret that was in the heart of God.
Oh, how blessed this is, and he has brought us into it. And then in the end of that chapter he prays that we might know how richly we were blessed, and also that we might be in the enjoyment of it.
There are two things in the end of the 3rd chapter of Ephesians, and that is how richly we are blessed, the length and depth and height of the blessing.
At the length and the breadth and length and depth and height of the blessing, and then the love of Christ that passes knowledge.
Notice those two things? I think it's nice to see them. To me, it's just like if a young man had built this beautiful house for his bride. And then he brings her to see it. And he takes her from room to room and shows her all the things that he has put there that he knows will just make her so happy. And then when he's all done showing her how he has planned all his house for her happiness, then he puts his arm around her and says.
I've not only prepared this, but I want you to know the love that goes with it. Well, and you young people, this is where we're brought. This is the place into which God has brought us. And then in the next chapter, He shows the provision that he had made, that there should be such a testimony here in this world.
That we are members of the body of Christ, that people would see us not just as members of our particular nation or group, but rather see us as members of the body of Christ. What a what a privilege. That's why it's so precious to many of our hearts to just gather on the Lord's Day morning with one loaf on the table. And that one loaf doesn't just represent the little company that are there or the big company either, but it represents every.
The body of Christ and we just delight to think that we are just a little local expression of this wonderful, this glorious fact that there is on earth a company espoused to Christ, members of his body. Isn't it a wonderful thing to break bread in that way? You'll never know the joy and happiness of your relationship to Christ.
Until you have responded to his desire for you.
That you would not only remember his death, but that you would do it as a member of the body of Christ. What a great privilege this is.
Then He shows how He has given gifts to bring all these things before us, because many things that we might not see in the Word, God has raised up people to point them out to us. They don't, they don't add something to the Word. They point out to us the wonderful things that God has put down so that we might know them and that we might enjoy them. And this is brought before us in the 4th chapter. And then he has to give some mornings.
Sure of the fact that he's a child of God and God our Father has made known to things that he wants us to do. Are we going to be rebellious? And so he says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Isn't that lovely?
He brings before us the place of the life. Sometimes. I'm sure it's hard for a woman to occupy the place of a life in some circumstances, but when she thinks that she can do it as a pattern of the relationship of Christ to the church, now there's an entirely new motivation and an example for her pathway when the husband thinks that he can.
Fill the place as one who is just as the Christ is the head of the body.
The church saw in love he tries to fulfill that place, seeking always the good and happiness of his partner. Why? How much easier it makes it to fulfill that place when he does it in relationship to that of which it's a pattern and you're working for a hard master. But when you think that just as Christ is our master and we can serve him.
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So that helps us to realize.
That we can fulfill the place of a servant as unto the One who is our master, even the Lord Himself. How? How beautiful these things brought in to show us how this relationship effects every part of our lives, first telling us how richly we're blessed and shedding its light on every single relationship in which we might sin here in this world.
Now this brings us to what we have.
Have here in connection with the armor and I I think this is very important and I believe it's important to see the reason this comes in at the end of the chapter. Let me make this point very clear. Satan can never never rob you of your portion in Christ if you really know Christ as your Savior. It's secured and the spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of.
Purchase possession to the praise of His glory.
But I'll tell you a thing He can do, and you know it as well as I do. He can rob you of the enjoyment of what you possess in Christ.
And that he's going to do his very best. He's going to use every effort possible to rob you of the enjoyment of your portion. And that's why in the end of this very interesting epistle, we find brought in the whole armor of God. And dear young people, as I look out on your faces here today.
I know that God has a way.
Of blessing you a plan for your life where he can and delights to bring very real happiness into your life. But you know the enemy doesn't want you to follow the divine pattern. He doesn't want to see you sitting in the seats here in this meeting and really enjoying what it is to be in the family of God.
To be espoused to Christ, to have such a glorious future.
Before you and so he's going to do everything he possibly can to distract you from that if he can only occupy you with some of your problems, if he can occupy you with the problems in the assembly, if he can occupy you with what's going on in the world, he doesn't care what it is that he uses if he can only keep you from the enjoyment of Christ in your soul and enjoying that which God gives you along the way the very.
Relationships of life in a way how that is pleasing to him. He's going to attack you and he's never going to give up. He's never going to give up. We can never rest upon our oars. David fought many battles of the Lord until one day he said, Joab, you go out. I've had enough of it. I'm going to stay here at home. And he laid down his armor and what happened? He was tempted.
And he said dishonor came into his life. Dishonouring the Lord brought a lot of the government of God down upon his family. Why, he gave up just for a little time being a soldier.
Here young people were soldiers for life. We can never give up because Satan never gives up. We can never stop until we get home to glory. And when we get home to glory, then we can lay down the armor. We can say the conflict's over. Oh, how wonderful it is. And how we love to think of that time when the scene of conflict will be ended and we will be in His presence.
I like to think that when we enter those courts of glory.
And lay down the armor. Why? We're going to everyone of us say, oh, this is home. This is wonderful. This is eternal rest and eternal joy. But don't do it beforehand, because Satan won't.
Satan won't, He'll keep on and he'll attack you on Abraham. And so notice where we began here in this 10 verse, the 6th of Ephesians. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I've heard young people say, well, I wouldn't do that. I think I have a strong enough character for that. Be strong in the Lord.
Many strong men have been slain by something that has.
Come into their lives where they have yielded to the lust of the flesh, and they never expected to do it. But all how subtle the enemy is. He knows those unwatchful moments and he's ready. He may attack you in one way and me in another, but he knows our weak points. And as soon as we're off guard, there he is with a temptation. And so here we find it says, be strong.
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In the Lord.
And then the power of His might. Never rely on your own character. Never rely on your own ability to meet problems and difficulties. Get down on your knees and say, Lord, I'm helpless, helpless. I need thy help. Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. And any of us who in grace have been preserved can look back and realize that if the Lord hadn't kept us, we wouldn't have been kept. It's his grace and his grace only.
That keeps and so be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, not just part of it. Maybe you may protect yourself on one point, but not on all. But here we find in this chapter that I think there are 7 points that are brought before us, and we need everyone of these in order that we may stand.
It says against the love.
Of the devil, and that is the devil doesn't come and say I'm the devil, look out for me. Never will he do that. He'll always come in a wily way. He'll always come in a tricky way that we may not even realize that it is the enemy. He'll come in a way that looks as if you could gratify some desire.
When Adam and Eve took of the tree, he told them that.
Something that would be gained by this and they thought it wouldn't it be wonderful to be wise? The tree looks nice, everything seems so attractive, but God had said no. Is there something that looks attractive to you? And God has said no. Are you going to trust your own eyes, your own ears? Are you going to trust no your natural senses?
Are you going to be like dear Joseph when he was tempted? He said.
God forbid that I should do this great wickedness and sin against God. He realized that it was an attempt of the enemy. And so Satan is very wily. He knows just what my weak point is. And yours. And we're not all alike. We all have different ways in which the enemy attacks us.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We don't go out and hit people. We don't enter into movements in this world to try and set things right in the political world, in the financial world. We don't go about trying to. No, we have nothing to do with that at all. We fulfill our daily task, that is true. But we're not here to set the world right any more than your ambassador in Canada tries to set.
Canada right now, He's not there for that purpose. He's there to represent the United States. And if he does it well, his government is going to be pleased. And you and I are here to represent heaven, to not to interfere. Jesus said they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He didn't leave us here to set the world right or to bring in a new social order, but he did leave us here to represent Christ and that the world might see Christ in US and might be.
Attracted to him like when the bride was restored in the Song of Solomon. And then they came to her and said, they said, where is thy beloved, that we may seek him with thee. When they saw that her heart was ravished with him, then they said, We'd like to meet this person. He must be very wonderful. And Mr. Darby once said, Our testimony to the world is our joy in the Lord, that they see that we have found this joy.
Well, so we don't, we don't fight against in a physical way. We have nothing to do with that. But we perceive that there is a power, the power of Satan. Don't let anybody deceive you. Satan is a real person. He has real power and he has, I believe, millions of fallen angels under his power and at his disposal. He knows all about us, the word familiar spirit.
Means that he's familiar with me he knows all about me that can be seen by my daily actions I don't believe he knows our thoughts, but he's familiar with you he knows those plans that you make and ask the Lord to keep you because he knows where you're going tonight. He knows what you plan to do tonight he's familiar with all this if you've been talking about it, be careful and so he is very.
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Now we have the whole armor of God here, and it's only with this armor that we can stand in an evil day. And it says having done all to stand, that is the Christian, is never to yield to the enemy. Never. There's never any excuse to do evil that good may come. There's no excuse to say, well, this is one time we can kind of let go. Never.
Because that'll just be the time that Satan.
Will know when the city of Babylon fell, they decided after a long siege that they were going to have at least one night of revelry. They wanted to have a good time and the city had been besieged for so long that let's have one big night. That was the big night when Babylon fell and that big night that time when you and I.
Relax and we don't stand. That's when the enemy has it all planned. And he had it all planned, and he got into the city of Babylon. And in that night Belshazzar was slain.
So here we find the first part the loins gird about with truth.
I believe that means the loins represent the desires of our hearts, and I believe this is very important. Let us never allow ourselves to have one desire that is contrary to the will of God. I say again, as our brother mentioned yesterday, that we should always say yes. Lord, that never, never should we say no to anything.
That he tells us in.
His word not to do or to do. There's some things He tells us not to do. There's some things He tells us to do. Let our response be that of an obedient heart. All you say, but you don't know how much I really like this or like that. All before you think about indulging that desire. Well, I just think, has God said anything in His word about this?
Have I asked His will about it? Is it His mind for me? Oh dear young people, have your loins gird about with truth. There have been people who have remained in a wrong position because they couldn't bear to leave their friends. They loved their friends more than they loved the Lord Jesus. It tells us in the Scripture that among the chief rulers, many believed in His name.
But didn't confess him openly, lest they should be cast out.
Synagogue, for they loved the praise of man more than the praise of God.
How are your loins and mine girt about with truth? When something is presented to us, do we stop and say is this according to the word of God?
When we read a verse in Scripture that shows us that our pathway isn't just according to God's plan, that we look up and say, Yes, Lord, I want to please Thee. He will give you the strength then. But if you hesitate, if you don't take that step, why it may be that the enemy will see that at once, and then he'll bring in something else, because if you were willing to disobey God in that point.
Now then he's going to argue, where do you want to do it? In something else and something else, and something else.
And so may this be the character of our lives that our loins are gird about with truth. Here, young people, turn to the Word of God for guidance in your pathway. Oh, you said. I just went out with that girl for one evening. I knew she wasn't saved, but she was a nice girl.
Oh, how dangerous that is. You took a wrong step. And where is it going to end? You never know. Many, many such links have been formed and they never intended when they started.
All dear young people, I warn you have your lines, the desires, the inmost desires of your heart. Gird about with truth.
And then the next one is the breastplate of righteousness. Satan has a way of tricking us into doing something that is not really honest.
You know, many Christians get caught in that snare. We're living in days when, as the Bible says, the wicked go astray from their mother's womb. Speaking lies. They do. Little shady things they do. The world is all full of it. And so much so that it hardly can depend on what people tell you. And you know, dear young people, it's easy to get caught in that current.
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It's easy to just allow some.
Shady things to come into your life. Little things that you know aren't just right.
But you get you lose the breastplate of righteousness and the devil is quite ready immediately to say, well, you did that and now you better try and cover it up because somebody will find out. Some will get you. And all he saw that little slip, he saw that weak point and so he didn't have on the breastplate of.
Righteousness and the enemy knew how to get you. Oh, May God grant that we will hold faith and a good conscience says some have given up a good conscience and the next thing was to make shipwreck of faith. Oh don't, don't do anything questionable. You'll never never gain in the end by it to go on in holy boldness in your life knowing that you have sought to please the Lord.
Gives.
Moral strength. And so we have first of all, the loins gird about with truth.
Then we have on the breastplate of righteousness, maintaining a good conscience before God.
And then the third one is your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
You know, the gospel is a message of peace and the Christian ought to be characterized by that. Even though he's a soldier, he has his feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That is, he's not ready to run into conflict as it was brought before us this morning. He delights to tell of God's pardon and of God's salvation.
He may have to, and we do have to.
Of coming judgment, but gospel means good news.
Judgment is not good news. There needs to be a warning because the danger is there. But the Christian is to have his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and I believe this ought to characterize the life of the Christian.
In other words, we walk in peace. We're not agitators, we're not troublemakers. We have to be faithful when it's required. But God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the Saints. Now let this be the character of our lives, while maintaining first our loins Groot about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The character of the Christian is that he brings.
A message of peace. We find this in the Old Testament. When they came to a city, they didn't want to attack it. They sent a message. God told them to send a message to the people and tell them there were terms of peace. If they would acknowledge the rights of this person who came against them, then no one in the city would be slain. But if they rejected that, then they must take a faithful stand. And you know, this is the character of the Christian, and I believe it's important for us.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we ought to be those who are walking in peace when we read about all the terrible things that are coming.
When we see there are many, many that are raising all kinds of alarms about pollution and the monetary order and what's going to happen and all these things, isn't it nice to be able to go on in peace? And when they start telling you about all these terrible things that are going to happen, to be able to say my father's in control, He's not going to let anything happen until his time comes. And they'll see in you a peace that they don't have the Christian.
Ought to be characterized by that. Now, I say it's not at the compromise of holiness or anything like that, but the character of the Christian. God has made peace, and the disciples preached peace by Jesus Christ, and our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It said when a Christian works in an office and he's an agitator, when he's all the time trying to stir up something, when in business he's always stirring.
Up something the character of the Christian is that he has peace with God and he has the peace of God ruling in his heart. You know, if you get in as an agitator, you very often find you get into quite a few troubles and the enemy knows how to take advantage of this kind of thing. So here we find the preach God for the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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The man above all, taking the shield of faith, For with thee shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Notice those two words above all, taking the shield of faith. The enemy is always at work, first of all, to put a doubt into your mind.
The first recorded words of Satan in the Old Testament are Yeah, hath God said.
Immediately raising a question as to whether God had really spoken and the first recorded words of Satan in the New Testament are If thou be the Son of God.
When you go to school and in your life, Satan is always ready to raise a question about the truth of God's Word. Is there any young person here that never had a question about the truth of God's Word? Never had anybody say anything about it? Oh, you say that. I've heard that over and over again. Is there any young person here that hasn't had a question as to why God allowed a certain situation to come in your life? And it was awfully hard.
To overcome that big question, it really took a lot of courage and grace to lift the shield of faith and say God is in it all.
He all things work together for good to them that love God to say to your heart, As for God, his way is perfect. But I urge you, dear young people, whether it's the attacks that you get in school, whether it's the attacks you get in your daily life, or whether it's about circumstances that have happened in life that you can't understand, I urge you with all my heart.
Not to allow Satan to put a doubt in your mind.
Because the first doubt is just the beginning of the second one, and the second one is just the beginning of the third. Satan will do his best to keep us from that absolute and perfect confidence in God, our precious Savior. As He walked here in this world. He always had confidence in His Father, and when rejected by the very nation He came to bless, he could look up and say to his Father, even Saul, for so it seemed good.
In Thy sight He took even that which seemed very adverse as from his Father when he faced that Lord of sin in the Garden of Gethsemane. Why he said, not my will, but thine be done here Young people, guard the shield of faith. If there's any of you that are having doubts about God's word about things that happened in your life and why God allowed them.
Why did he let a little extra trouble come into your life more than somebody else? And you tried hard to please him and he led a few extra troubles come in your life. And you say, I, I can't understand that. I must say I have doubts. Oh, I plead with you, lift the shield of faith.
Have sometimes called attention to the 11TH chapter of Hebrews. And there in that 11TH chapter of Hebrews you find two groups. A group that were delivered when they cried to the Lord, and a group that were not delivered but honored the Lord in their suffering and suffering even to death.
And with some God does seem to work remarkable deliverances, and with some He seems to let them go through the trouble without deliverance. But it says at the end, these all having obtained a good report through faith, the ones whom God answered their prayers, why they rejoiced that He had answered their confidence and delivered them. But the ones who didn't get the deliverance still had confidence that God's way was right, and they trusted him when to trust Him.
The hardest thing of all, Oh dear young people, don't forget the shield of faith. It's tremendously important, Paul said to Timothy. Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having given up concerning faith, have made shipwreck.
Then take the helmet of salvation.
Now the helmet of salvation, that's for the head. And here the thought of salvation, I believe is the hope of the Lord's return. Now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. Instead of hoping that we'll say, well, we hope the next government will be better. We hope the next boss in the office will be a little better. You hope the next person that comes along and friendship will be a little better.
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Our hope is the Lord's return.
There's the answer makes me think of a care meeting in one place and they'd had a number of care meetings and.
The dear brethren, we're getting kind of worried. And as they walked out of the care meeting one night, one brother said to the other, Oh brother, where is all this going to end? And the brothers answer was at the coming of the Lord.
And dear young people itself, and whether it's the problems that you're having in your job or with friends or whatever it is, they're not going to end until the Lord comes, but they're going to end them. And in the meantime, He's not going to leave you nor forsake you. Satan wants to make you unhappy in these things. God wants you to find that in the midst of all these things, there is an armor so Satan can't get in. And the Lord Jesus was a perfect example of 1.
Who walked the path of faith here to the glory of His Father?
And then it says, take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and that is this is the only offensive weapon that we have, the sword of the spirit. In other words, we don't hit people, we don't raise armies. Some of the reformers got armies and tried to maintain Christian liberty by armies. But here we find that the effective.
Weapon. The offensive weapon for the Christian is the sword of the Spirit.
That become well acquainted with your your Bible, read it every day and you'll find that there is in scripture either a principle or a direct scripture for everything you can meet in life. It's all there. Take the sword of the Spirit and when new circumstances arise, don't say I think this, I think that, but read the word of God.
And seek in the Word of God the direction that He gives, and follow it.
And then, last of all, praying always, for the two were constantly brought together in Scripture, the reading of the Word of God, and prayer.
The reading of the word of God, because God has given us direct instruction for many things, but there are many, many things that it's a question of nearness to Him. And so it says, praying always with all prayer and supplication, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and long-suffering. You say I prayed about it and I didn't get the answer, but it says.
With all perseverance, and with all.
Perseverance and supplication for All Saints as you watch. Why Don't give up? Don't say, well, the answer didn't come, so I guess I have to step out on my own. Oh, don't do that, don't do that. Wait, God's time, God's time and God's answer will be the best. And if He sees fit to order things different from your plan or mine, then his plan is best.
And so here we have, dear young people, a whole armor of God.
We see how richly we have been blessed. We see that we have an inheritance undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. We see that God sees us already seated in the heavenlies and blessed with all spiritual blessings. The enemy knows that too. And he says, I don't want any of these young people to be enjoying that. I don't want them to be happy Christians. Why, that would be too bright a testimony to the world.
That would be far too wonderful, I know.
I can never keep them out of heaven, but I don't want their path on the way there to be a happy one. But God does. God does want it to be a happy 1. He wants you to find that blessing. And oh how blessed it is. When you look back as a little verse in Proverbs says the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it. I like the new translation.
In the footnote it says that it could be translated the blessing of the Lord.
It maketh rich and toil addeth nothing to it.
In other words, people in the world will say, well, I worked hard to get that, now I have it. They work hard. Toil adds to their possessions and their things. But you know, every spiritual blessing is a gift. God bestows these spiritual blessings. And then he says, you don't have to work to get them, but the enemy is trying to take them away from you, trying to rub you of the enjoyment of them. He can't take them away, but he can rob you of the enjoyment.
May the Lord grant your young people that we will take the whole armor of God. I must say I look upon you.
And long this, I have this earnest desire for you as you grow up and as you go on in life. If the Lord leaves us here a little longer, that you would prove the blessedness of the path of following Christ, of giving him his rightful place in your life. Well, I can command it to you. It's a blessed, it's a happy path as God.
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Marked out in his precious word. Oh, may you walk along that path in communion with him. And don't forget, we need the whole armor. We need everything that we might be preserved. And never, never, as our brother chapter Brown used to say, never think we can be wiser than God. If God has marked out a path, by then it's the best path. May God grant, we'll walk in it.
We seek His blessing in prayer.