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So yes, the Lord help.
I mean God and our Father, we thank thee for thy well beloved Son, Lord Jesus Christ, Person, Savior, and seeing of him coming back in power and in glory, and every knee shall bow. We thank thee that he came first in grace, uh, to be the Savior of sinners, and we thank thee that he will have his rightful place, uh, here in this world.
He has his rightful place now in heaven, but.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess, and this world shall receive its word of power. And so we pray for refreshment, uh, in a portion of thy word this evening, something for each heart and conscience. We thank thee that we have a, a pure object for our meditation, even the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let us know what we all stand in need of, uh, this evening. And so we pray.
To, uh, refresh us again as we have the word before us, we thank before all that was brought before us this conference weekend.
Commit those that are traveling to bitender care. And so we look up, uh, with expectations and, uh, with dependents and with confidence and we ask these things and the worthy and the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen, Amen.
Mm-hmm. My heart award.
Coming in the world, owning this.
Lordship, but we have privilege now to bow to his worship. I wonder if we could sing #52.
Lord, we are thine, thy Queens we might.
And.
All.
00:05:08
Right.
I was wondering if it would be profitable. I think we got as far as first ten and Asian 6 in our meeting and I was wondering if it would be profitable to continue on from there. Our brother Bruce didn't mention the armor and her tight looks for ****** and I was just wondering if it would be proud to continue on in pieces 6 starting at 1St 10.
Each piece of the armor is necessary, especially the.
The helmet because Satan tries to attack tactics to the mind and and and and the breastplate as well, trying to track their affection. Those are those. I mean all the pieces are important are necessary, but those are certainly.
Important.
They might good, yes.
Chapter 6.
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 you 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 you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins skirt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all thinking the shield of faith. For with thee shall be able to quench all the fiery dark to 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.
And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak, but that he also may know my affairs and how I do. A beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our affairs, that he might comfort your hearts.
00:10:04
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ, praise be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ and sincerity, Amen.
Two different places in Scripture where the Lord says that take my shoes from off by feet for the place Randall stand is is fully found. The first one, of course, is to Moses and it's in Exodus and there we learned that that going through the wilderness is a is a is a holy exercise and there we learn.
What is in our heart and what is in God's heart, and it's completely different than what we're having taken up with here. The other place where it was said was with Joshua, wasn't it? And it was before they they took the, they moved forward to Jericho that it was going to be a holy battle. And the place where in Eastwood was fully ground and it was connected with the promise.
That every step that they move forward was ground that would be given to them. And So what we have here in Ephesians that we have, that God has given to the believer the understanding of his position before God. He's been given to understand what he is as a bride of Christ. He's been given to understand that he's an heir and joint heir with Christ in heavenly places we've been.
Happy for us.
Responsibility, There's, uh, those 3 spheres that were brought out. We didn't develop them all, but umm, uh, there is the, the center, uh, circle is connected with the body and we have the next circle which is connected with profession, how we should go on in profession. And then the last circle is creation. And so we're given how we're to conduct ourselves in these three spheres.
In view of who we are as a heavenly people seated in the heavenlies with Christ, The Walking in this world. Now the battle comes. We've been given all of this. It's our responsibility to possess it, to walk in it, to enjoy it. And now Satan is going to come in and to try to hinder us from taking and enjoying those truths. And so this is in view of now the enemy's attack against us just like.
On the children of Israel had enemies that attacked them as they were trying to possess the land, and many times they were defeated. And so this is the warning to us as to how we're to go on in connection with who we are as the people of God, that we might enjoy the truth that have been delivered to us.
Yes, that's very good, Ed. And as you say, we've been given heavenly blessings in Ephesians, but we need an armor to maintain us in the good of them and to advance in possession of the land. And of course, the land is the enjoyment of all those heavenly blessings, now, isn't it? But we need an armor to maintain us there.
It takes us back, as you've brought out, to what we have in the first two chapters of Ephesians, where all those heavenly blessings are brought out for us, but every effort of the devil is to drag us down to the level of this world, isn't it?
And Satan knows very well that if he can drag the believer down to make Christianity a worldly religion, even though people may be saved, and in that sense there may be blessing in the Gospel, he knows that if he can drag Christianity down to the level of the world, then it nullifies any testimony they will have. And of course, it's going on in the past, sad to say.
The history of the church shows it all too well, so we need to be reminded of the need for that armor.
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You know, before we could put off that armor, we have to realize verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. That's our first and most important prediction. But when we are in this position, then we can put on our armor. Then we can face it because we've got something within us.
MMM.
If we look at Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11.
It tells us that we have an enemy and he's strategic in how he does things. It's not a haphazard enemy that we face. It's a very strategic. He has objectives and if the plans that he's trying to.
Accomplish so in verse 11 it says, let's say we should get an advantage of us where we are not ignorant of his devices.
Or I think it's, umm, maybe Mr. Kelly's translation says stratagem just for we are not ignorant of his strategy.
Well, we maybe we are figuring a strategy because we don't know the words and we don't know the tactics.
Uh, we are ignorant of this strategy, but the Spirit of God gives us the treasures that might in connection with the treasures of the blessings that we have that are in the heavenlies in Christ, and then gives us instruction as to how to defend ourselves. This is defense of armor. We're going to face an energy that is vicious, unprincipled and determined. And so we need all of this armor and.
You're responsible to put it on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against for a while. Or I think Mr. Translation better translation the artifices, perhaps a similar word to stratagems the enemy has.
Is organized, you might say, you and I have a greater enemy than we think in connection with coming into the knowledge of truth and enjoying it. It reminds me of is it loop trap?
UH-14 I think that's uh, an enemy comes against the comes war. It says that 14 versus 31 or what came going to make war against another king says knock down 1St and consultants whether he gave me 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000.
We have an enemy. We need to count the cost. It's going to cost us something to be able to stand, not to be able to be offensive, not to be on the offensive, but to be on the defensive, to be able to be ready to defend ourselves and to defend the land. And that's really what we're given here.
I'd like to read just these verses and perhaps someone can help us whether or not it applies to the verse here. 10 in Joshua chapter 4, I'm sorry, chapter 5 and verse 13 it says, And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went on to him and said unto him, Art thou for us?
Or for our adversaries. And he said nay, but as captain of the Lord of hosts, am I now come? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship.
And said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose by shoes, from off by foot, for the place wherein thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
Well, I have a a sense that that applies to this first tense.
Well, I believe it does. It does that because as we know, Joshua in the Old Testament is the book that corresponds to Ephesians in the New. It's the entering into in the conquering and possessing the land, isn't it? And so the land for them was a physical land which God had given them. But their enemy, there were enemies there that were standing in their way. For you and for me. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
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So that in the same way we have a land that has been given to us, so to speak, but the Lord wants us to enter into it and to possess it and dwell. And it doesn't be, but it has to be in the Lord's strength, not our own.
Joshua, no doubt, was a very confident man. He knew the Lord had given them the land. He had no doubt that that would happen. But he had to learn that it was go. Excuse me.
It was going to be a daily exercise of daily dependence on the Lord as to how to proceed. Humanly speaking, you would have said the way that Jericho was conquered sounded a bit ridiculous. Marching around with trumpets and going seven days in a row and so on, and then seven times on the 7th day and all that. But that was the Lord's way to teach them dependence. When they conquered AI, there was a specific way they had to deal with it.
And so with other cases. And so there has to be direct dependence on the Lord. In our case, as Carl was pointing out, we have to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, because we don't have the strength in ourselves, do we? And he provides the armor. It's up to us to put it on. But the battle is very definitely still his, isn't it?
No, we have David as an example. I mean when he went to visit Goliath.
Who was he concerned about?
Present concerns about Goliath at all, he says. You are defying the living God.
And that was his armor, so to speak.
Figuratively.
What were you, what you were saying, Bill? Uh, it's the armor of God. It's not armor. It's armor of God. And our brother Robert said these are defensive things. We have a whole list of defensive things and then we come to a sword and sword is an offensive thing, but it.
Is specifically specifies that the sword that is the sword of the sphere, the spirit sword. It's not our story, it's the spirit sword. It's the word of God.
Very definitely. That's very good. Yes, When we get to the end of our defense of armor, there is one offensive weapon, isn't there? But.
It's the sort of the spirit, and unless it's wielded in the power of the spirit, it won't have any effect and so.
Remember being in an old reading meeting where a brother asked the question, what is your sword? I know this is going ahead, but we only have an hour here, so we can kind of skip around the arm of it maybe. But uh, he said, what is your sword? And somebody of course spoke up and said, well, it's the word of God. And he said, no, He said, it is the word of God that you have read and meditated upon and walked in.
He said that is your sword. And it's true, isn't it? We can't pick up the word of God in the energy and in human energy or in the energy of the flesh. We can't pick it up and use it when we're away from the Lord. It just, it doesn't work.
Is that right, Steve and are likely to hurt ourselves.
The prophet servant took the prophet staff and laid it on the child's face and it didn't produce anything. Wasn't his staff.
I was thinking of a line of things Tim was bringing out today. I'm not sure he he got all the way to it like he would like to have, but.
The Lord Jesus here is man displayed.
All that God is in himself. He displayed that eternal life and now the corn of wheat has fallen to the ground and died and it's brought forth much fruit. He's up on high. We're still here. And if there's going to be the display for for Christ's glory of his glory here, it's through the believers, it's through you and me. So so it's kind of striking what what you have there in Joshua 5 because we would think.
That the Angel of the Lord would have said, oh, I'm on your side. He would have said, yes, I'm, I'm with you guys. Doesn't say that at all. He says net. And because it was the wrong question and coming from the wrong point of view and it wasn't picking them for their side. He's he's like this as if to put it readily, this is my show. This is about me and my purposes and my counsel, the counsel of God. And this is about just like the gospel itself. This is about it's the gospel of his Son.
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And so.
It's the captain of the Lord's host was going to go in and they were privileged to be his people, to follow along behind him because his help. And so it is today. So it's not so much us going in, as I'm sure you guys have been saying, but it's all about Him and aligning ourselves behind Him and what's appropriate to Him and as you say, taking possession for His glory, that there might be a display here in this world.
Of that eternal life.
The Ephesians, we didn't read those chapters, but Paul speaks of the mystery and the mystery of Christ in the church in chapter 5 and in a different sense in chapter 3 and one in Colossians. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what needs to be displayed. And there's an adversary that doesn't want that to happen.
And the adversary is taking the offense and.
To be aware of that and face in and seek to.
We belong behind the Lord. So as you say in the figure of Joshua that we, umm, that we take possession of the land with our feet, and then we realize that He's given to us what we put our quote on the Lord, umm.
He starts out, doesn't he?
Showing the children of Israel and Joshua his power and his ability to take down the stronghold as we have the Jericho and as he said Bill, it's a very unlikely way. Who would have thought to want to take it down that way seems silly, but yet we we need to trust the Lord regardless of what our thoughts are in the things and here it is. It's not talking about.
Fighting against the strength of Satan.
Talking about the wild of the devil. And we get 2 examples of that early on in Joshua, don't we? The first one is that certainly it's a little city, there's a few people there and we don't need to look to God to go take down this city. We'll just go in and we'll take it. So that is a picture of us trying to do things in our own strength.
And not trusting the Lord, it's our armor, not the Lord's armor. And so that's the first example we get a failure. The second example we get a failure is the Wilds of the Gideonites as they come in and they have their moldy bread and their old clothes and their, I remember right, their water bottles were old and torn. And, and so they came and they said that they were from afar and wanted to make peace.
And they made the leak with them. Well, that is us trying to defeat Satan in our own wisdom. The first one is our own strength. The second one is our our own wisdom. And we learned by the failure that we need to trust the Lord. Now one of the things is, which is interesting, and I think it was Bruce that brought it out before, is going back to Gilgal one time they did.
And, you know, the problem is that sometimes we can feign that we're humble and go back to Gilgal and own that, you know, we're nothing. And it was God's victory. But really, it was really all done in the flesh. So it, it brings out here what we're fighting about. We're we're fighting against very crappy things that sometimes might even seem to make sense.
Take a stand with Christendom against a particular 'cause that is really none of our business. That's the wild of the devil. Get us off the path. Get us off the enjoyment of who we are as a heavenly people. Earthly affairs are none of our business. And yet there's constant causes that pull us into these things. And I believe that's connected with the Wilds of the devil, and it is not using the armor.
To which properly uh is given to us to umm, to fight against umm, these things.
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There's something else in the principle and that failure that you mentioned Joshua 7 and that is that he sent men out and viewed AI in verse two and then verse three they returned to Joshua and seven and let not all the people for what?
But not about two or three thousand men go up in smite AI make not all the people to labor their sitter for they are but few. And so as he he says the war, the battle isn't for all he says just a few select ones that that this is an easy enemy. And so this epistle is written to individuals in the first verse of decision chapter one follow apostle Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints.
Which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.
He's writing them into individuals and so there's individual responsibility in it for all believers.
To defend recruitment and to walk in all of the truth, and to walk in it by faith, and to be able to defend it. In Philippians chapter 2, the Wiles of the Emmy were engaged in trying to destroy the ascendant. He says there's fault now, much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for his God that worketh in you. Both are willing to do with his good pleasure, but here it's the individual.
Your individual testimony. Your individual.
Walk with the Lord. Fruitfulness for Him is going to be based on not what you know of the truth, but what you have come into the knowledge of and enjoyed and digested and are willing to walk in and defend. And so now we have this.
Battle. It's in verse 12. You wrestle not against flesh and blood. I'll read it in the new translation.
We because our struggle is not against flood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal Lord. This starts this against spiritual power of wickedness in heavenlies.
So we have enemies that are powerful. We can't even see them. We can deserve their influence, but we cannot see them. And in the spiritual realm, seeking to destroy our enjoyment of those things that are ours. And so as already mentioned in Joshua's physical enemy, here is the spiritual enemies. And they're very real. They're just as real as the physical enemy.
And, uh, Joshua is, uh, going back to the portion of red a few left and Joshua had to learn that there was a captain for the Lord's host. So that was lesson. But you know, he did get something right.
There's no neutral place in this battle.
There's no neutral place, and that was right. The other lesson you had to learn is that God is holy, whether in warfare or among the people. The captain of the Lord. So he said take your shoe from off your foot. What was the first failure really with AI?
Israel has been really that was the route that Jehovah points out. They were defeated. Israel had sent the first lesson Take your shoe off your foot.
This is a failure in holiness.
And I take 2 with the gibeonite.
They've been deferred to the captain of the host. They use their own wisdom. So the very initial lessons given to Joshua were where those two failures had their their roof, I believe.
I was thinking also with with was said in in connection with they sent spies and the spies came back. How often is the danger that we take counsel from man and not the word of God?
In both cases, whether it was to give you a night or going down to AI, the Council of God was to be sought. Should we go down? David would say, Lord said go down. He asked again, very same battle, very same people, very same place. Should we go down? Lord says don't go down. And so we're going to get fresh direction. It's not always going to be the same. Even though the situation may be similar, He may have a different step of direction for us.
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But so often today, when trials come in, we seek counsel from men that is not based on scripture and it will always lead us astray.
So we better get to the armor before, yeah?
Before we title this region on Joshua, there is an evil day. You know, not every day is an evil day, but there is an evil day and it comes and it comes unexpectedly. And so we need to have the armor to be prepared for the evil day. And I think a little example you get in the book of Ezra with the the building of the temple.
And.
They left off that building and what had happened? Well, the letter had gone through the king of Persia, and he wanted the work to cease and so on. What do you find happen behind the scenes to get that in day? There was a Prince of Greece, there was a Prince of Persia, angelic beings, fallen angelic beings that were involved in the workings of those courts of those kingdoms.
And there was one there that was for God's people that had was doing battle in connection with what was going on in those courts. I just don't want to take time to refer to it, but there was a tremendous battle going on behind the scenes to stop that work in Jerusalem.
And it's the same with us. The evil day comes and that letter comes from the king. Just to put it in that way, to stop the work, you know, or whatever. Behind the scenes, there's a tremendous warfare that's going on, and that's where our real battle is. And so we have to be ready for the evil day. It will come to each of us.
The armor seems to start at the middle and work to the extremities.
Verse 14.
Stand therefore having your loin skirt about with truth.
Then it goes to the breastplate, the feet, the.
Shield, which is very much external, and the helmet. And finally, the sore.
It almost seems to me I know when.
Trying to recover from my.
Back surgery, physical therapist says what you have to strengthen your core and, uh, work from the things that you don't see in your body. You know, if you go to a gym, which I don't really like, if you go to a gym, you see people doing that, you know, pumping their arms and trying to build up the muscles that people see. But, but for most of us, especially as we get older, we need that strength in our core.
And so in spiritual things we need, and I think that's much of what Paul was writing to Timothy about, because things in his core that he was going to be effective against the Wiles that Paul was warning him about, he needed those.
I needed to have faith and good conscience.
And this bill was putting before us today that list of things, you know, the absence of fear, love and sound mind. These are core things in a person that will enable us to.
To to to be stable, understand.
Some of the writers suggest that verse 18 is the 7th part of that armor. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching their own through all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. So in the sense we have the defense of the prayer, dependence upon the Lord and recognizing our own weakness, it's something to stand. We have all this armor. We can comment on each one individual piece of this armor.
But if it's not.
Worn, it's not born.
In a defensive posture, in the spirit of dependence.
We just won't achieve the objective. And so it's not uh, that we're told to, uh, go out in an offensive way, but to, to stand doesn't sound like much doesn't stand. But when you have to stand against the force of the end and the enemy doesn't give up, you know, try every angle. He'll try every while, every little.
00:40:24
Uh, unprincipled.
Unprincipled and he'll try everything but to stand, and to stand solidly and firmly, and to recognize that the Lord Jesus is the.
He's a leader and the host.
The God of Lord, the Lord of hosts, and He is the one that is going to affect the stand in a spirit of dependence. So May God give us the grace to depend upon Him.
I think one of the things that's important to recognize is when the Lord asks you to do something, something, that's one thing. If He asks you to do it twice, you better stop and ponder what he's asking. So he says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God.
But then after he tells you what kind of an enemy you're fighting against, he says in verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. So what does that mean? Well, it means you better take each piece of armor to heart that you shouldn't be trying to fight against the Wilds of the devil with piece of armor missing. So each piece here is very practical to be able to have a victory at the attacks of state and so.
If it's said twice, we should really ponder what does it mean? And then we should ask ourselves, is there an armor, a piece of the armor that we're missing that we're not exercising, that we're not moving forward and embracing and walking it because they won't have a victory for missing a piece of armor or find a way to get in.
So it doesn't hurt to look at a few of these things just briefly.
The first one is in verse 14, stand. Therefore, again, there's that standing, as we were noticing, having your loins gird about with truth. For the loins are the place of strength, as we've been hearing, core strength as our brother Bruce was mentioning, and we need to have our loins gird about with truth. Now again, we can't hold the truth in our own strength.
But in the Lord's strength, we can do it. But I can't have my loins girt about with truth if I don't know what it is, can I? Nor can I have my loin skirt about with truth if I think of truth the way much of the world thinks about it today. You can have your truth and I can have my truth, and they can contradict each other. But, well, you do what works for you, and I'll do what works for me. And I can't criticize your truth and you can't criticize mine because.
After all, everything is relative, and what's truth for you may not be truth for somebody else.
A ridiculous argument because truth by its very definition excludes that which is not the truth. And it means having a right thought about everything. And the only way we can have a right thought about everything in this world and what we see is by the Word of God. The Word of God is the only book in the world that will explain everything that you and I observe in this world.
The way creation works and the how it came about, the way this world is going, where it's heading, what's happening, uh, tells us who God is. It tells us what man is. Everything that we see about us in the world of today is perfectly explained in the word of God. And if our loins are gird about with truth, it enables us to see everything from God's perspective and to rise above what we see in this present world.
And it seems not to go on too much, but the breastplate of righteousness is connected with that, because righteousness is the effect essentially of truth being taken in and understood and then expressed practically in my life.
I can talk of truth.
Without a second person being around. But righteousness involves someone else. Righteousness involves dealings with some other party. And so the breastplate of righteousness, how necessary in the world of today that what you and I call righteousness is founded on truth according to God's Word. Just to use an example, and I heard this many years ago.
00:45:30
Boy went into a store, a boy in his late teens, and bought a couple of pairs of trousers and a couple of shirts or something like that, and it duly paid for them and had them all in a bag. And then on his way out of the store, he casually picked up another shirt just off the rack and stuck it into the bag and proceeded to walk off with it. And when he was arrested for it and charged with stealing, he was most indignant and said well.
It's a nice spends enough money in that store that you know I ought to be able to do that. And he just couldn't quite see what all the raw was about what was wrong. His ideas of righteousness weren't based on truth, were they? And so the world's ideas of things when they don't have the word of God tend to be very shifting. Now, of course, if it's your shirt that's being stolen, perhaps the.
Shipped a little bit in the other direction, but what I'm pointing out is that.
The Walking in righteousness is connected with truth and its truth as it is from God, isn't it? And of course it includes everything that we normally would say is the truth. When it comes to the truth of gathering and everything like that. It's all part of the same truth, isn't it?
What do you mean to have your feet charged with the preparation of the Gospel feast?
Is that related to the 1St, 8:00 or 3:15?
The preparation, right?
MMM.
We're all we believe everything is called to be gospel creature or evangelist, but we're all called upon to be ready.
For the whole concern in US.
There, there is. Umm.
There is the danger of.
Statement attacking us, giving us to.
Trying to persuade us that we don't deserve.
The grape that has been extended to us through the work of Christ. And there there is the having a full understanding.
Of the gospel and your position before the Lord, so that when such attacks. Remember this is defensive. So it is really more personal than it is going out, I believe, and it has to do with grasping the understanding.
Of the work of Christ so that Satan cannot attack us from that point. And so, umm, there is that danger of, umm, you know, many, many have been become discouraged, perhaps because they weren't holding the truth or perhaps because they didn't have a righteous life and then they're under attack of the gospel. They're, well, what makes you think you're worthy to be a child of God?
And so you see this buckling and so I believe it's, it's part of of what we can grasp a hold of and and we can use that the the love, the standing that we have before God is never compromised because the work of Christ was complete.
Did you have a thought on it? No, I was, I, I, I've always puzzled over that one more than all the others. I thought I would. I thought of it. Uh, you ever have to run out for something in the car and go across the gravel driveway and you decide you're gonna just chance it, not put your shoes on? What happened?
Right. So there's nothing that speaks so louder to this, loudly to this world as to what we have in Christ.
And a sole that goes on in peace through the trials and difficulties in everything that Satan might throw at us. There's nothing that speaks more loudly to this world as to what we have. And if we go on in peace and let the world come out there. Yes, I believe the emphasis here.
00:50:13
Is really on the word peace. Uh, we do need to be ready to give an answer to every man and.
I wouldn't in any way take away from that thought, but the emphasis is on the piece here. Here we're talking about an armor. We're talking about a soldier. And after all, what's a soldier good for if he's not good for warfare? That's what he's equipped to do. That's what he's, uh, available to do. And there is warfare. But here is a soldier that is to be a man of peace, to walk in peace, as you say, in the trials and difficulties of the way.
And in that sense, be lifted up above this present world to enjoy heavenly things. And so he's to be equipped with that preparation of the gospel of peace. Yes, there's going to be warfare and there's going to be having to defend the ground that he's taken. And in that sense, there has to be defensive armor and there is to be the sword of the Spirit used in its right time and place. But it's the emphasis is on the fact that.
The believer walks in peace and the world sees that and uh, in the sense that we walk in peace, we are able to be lifted above everything in this world that would drag us down to its level.
Is there any connection between this and?
Feet and Scripture, I've often seen, especially in the New Testament, we have feet washing. We have. How beautiful are the feet of them? The preach, the golf course. Is this something to do with when we're walking in this world and our interactions with them? The gospel should be part of that. Mm-hmm.
Well, umm, from a national point of view, soldiers occupation is not necessarily in warfare. It, it could also be uh, saving people like evacuating in areas, uh, because of these hurricanes, for example. So, umm, that would be another function that a soldier could have. I think looking at it from an actual point of view, I believe we have the principle of it illustrated in MOOC 16.
Verse 22 The father said to his servant, Bring forth the best world, and put it on him, put a ring on his hand.
He threw those seats and so it really brings before us the the dignity of the position of being a son with this the feet shog. And so there's dignity to the place, the position of favor and blessing that we've been brought into and to defend the truth and to walk in righteousness as those that are sons with our shoes, with our feet shocked is.
A work of dignity.
I think it's good to remember the distinctions of things.
Umm, this is not talking about walking on the earth. It's talking about fighting a heavenly battle. And and because of that, it's it's really talking about what comes in to interview from continuing to take and maintain and hold what you have. So we found that, you know, we would find if we went to Joshua that.
That they fought a battle, but they didn't take in all, they didn't defeat all the enemies. But what happened is later on they came in and they took the land back away from them. They became servants. And so that's the danger, isn't it? It's, it's the danger of knowing these things and to have this armor on. We, we want to maintain distinctions of things. And this is fighting against the wild of the devil in spiritual high places.
It's not against flesh and blood. It's not really about going out and saving souls. It's about what's necessary for us to hold and maintain what we have in heavenly places that the battle in heavenly places. So I just think it's good to to remember that. And there's a similar place, I think it's in Second Thessalonians. I think it's might be, might be, I'm sorry, it might be Philippians. But anyway, there's another armor that it speaks of there, but it only gives a partial.
I think that has a little bit more to do with the earth, but this is heavenly. So really I'm getting the sense then that that it's it's practically entering into not just peace with God, but practically being in the good of.
00:55:13
Of the peace of God and yeah, maintaining ourselves, walking through this world as those that can display the good of what, of what we've been brought into. I can remember giving my father the gospel once in the kitchen now that you mentioned this and, and I said something about peace or, or something like that. And, and it's kind of a terrible thing to say, but he said, well, your mother's a Christian and she doesn't seem to have much peace.
Which unfortunately was true and I hate to tell tales out of school like that, but but boy, it, it hurt, you know, to and and that was because she wasn't walking, she didn't have on the preparation of the of the gospel peace. She wasn't practically in the good of that and she was living in distressed life. So I think perhaps that's where your brothers are taking this into that practical side.
So we better keep going here. Sorry, Carl. That's OK. Go ahead. Well, if I was going to go on to the next verse, so if you had a further comment, I just want to put it in a practical way that people who live in the United States, of course, are are subject to going into the reserves.
And, uh, you're equipped with the equipment.
That you're supposed to put on and you're to go out in battle if that's the case. But what is the main object of the ruling? It's listening and watching your commander.
New that's the most important thing that I've never been in before. So I don't know, but I I gather that your commanders one that you should look to if he says you could do something, you do it.
Now, if we're focused on our commander, and I say that regularly, if we're so focused and our eyes are on our commander, we don't have to worry about anything else technically or spiritual speak.
Well, we better go on here. Our time is pretty near gone. In fact, it is almost gone. But we have the shield of faith in verse 16.
Someone has said that.
A little faith will bring the soul to heaven, but much faith will bring heaven.
Will bring heaven to the soul. And how necessary that is, it only takes a little faith to lay hold on Christ. And as we've often remarked, I may not understand think it was remarked in these meetings. I may not understand even all about the work of Christ, but if I lay hold of him I can be saved. But faith active in our lives and.
Increased as we exercise that faith and learn the Lord more.
It enables us to look at everything in our right perspective, doesn't it? And to realize that those fiery darts that are coming at us, well, again, the battle is the Lord's, isn't it? And that shield of faith yet not merely deflects those fiery darts. I never yet, and I'm no expert on armor, but I never yet heard of a shield that would extinguish fiery darts. It might be able to deflect them if you had the shield in place.
But to it says here, quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. We know what those darts were in warfare in years gone by. They would deliberately put a gob of pitch or something flammable on the end of an arrow and then light it on fire with the idea that it would not only hit and do damage, but it would light on fire anything flammable that it landed on. And it could cause an awful lot of damage because even if it didn't hit an individual, that could light something else on fire and cause havoc.
But here's a shield that not only, if you could say it this way, wards off those fiery darts, it quenches them so that they don't do that kind of damage. And so how necessary faith is in our Christian pathway, faith in the Lord for every step of the way. And again, to maintain us in the enjoyment of those heavenly blessings, Satan brings troubles and difficulties into our lives.
And then that occupies our minds if we let it, let them do that. And again drags us down, quenching those fiery darts, lifts us above them and our time is gone. But just a quick story. There's a there's a brother that's in Tacoma now and.
01:00:22
He's through sickness, he's confined to a wheelchair. But more than that, he's.
Can't move around except for blowing inside of a little tube and he steers from left to right in that tube and he has to be fed, has to be clothed, he has to be showered. And everything about him is it's hard to imagine if any one of us were in that condition, how would we be going on? How would we be thinking what, what must Satan have been telling him about? What kind of God would love you like this?
And yet he has grown in faith like you would never believe. He is one of the one of the most shining testimonies of faith and love and joy in Christ that you could ever imagine. And and I'm just saying that because he's living those verses of the fiery darts that he is able to deflect by faith. And so any of us could be going through different trials.
And Satan might be telling us that God doesn't love us. What kind of a God would let this happen to you? But that's the point of this, isn't it? That did not discourage us and not give us to not look up to our heavenly blessing to lose sight of who we are as a heavenly people. And so it's just, I know our time is going to go over, but I just, he's such a shining example of of that bird. Should we sing 318?
318.
The greatest?
And only.
Hiding.
Through it being an alarm sound singular.
Only and they are fighting.
Fluid riser face to face.
And riding bearing glory. Who else is like power and grace?
So I give the Lord and glory.
The wandering of thy love.
Shall be made.
Oh, I say.
We pray together.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for what we have had before us.
01:05:05
We thank thee that thou hast provided an armor.
Dallas provided all of that which would maintain us in the enjoyment of heavenly things.
But we trust, blessed Savior, that we recognize our responsibility, first of all to put that armor on, and secondly to recognize our God that it is to be used.
In the power of thy might we know our God, that we have no strength of our own.
But we thank Thee that thou hast not only given us those heavenly blessings, but everything to enable us to enjoy them down here. And we thank Thee for that, for that day, the full result of our salvation, when we shall forever be with thee and like thee, Lord Jesus. No more, as it were, to have to wear that armor. No more to have to be concerned about an enemy that seeks to drag us down.
To take away the enjoyment of those heavenly blessings.
But while we are down here, we thank Thee for the opportunity to live and walk before Thee. And surely what a blessed path it is. So we commend ourselves to Thee, some who are now traveling, others who may be traveling later this evening. We ask Thy mercies for each one. Commend all these things to Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.