Open—Bob Thonney
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I'd like this afternoon to pick up on something that was touched on yesterday.
The question of spiritual warfare.
It's pretty evident, brethren, that we are living in days of tremendous spiritual warfare and it's important that we understand we are not living in days of peace. It's days of real warfare. Things that have been taken for granted are being challenged and given up all over the place.
And if you and I don't know where we stand?
Then.
We're going to get swept along with the tide, so I'd like to go to Ephesians chapter.
Six, where we have that subject.
Taken up.
Ephesians is the book where we have probably more than any other.
The spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ.
Wonderful panorama of spiritual blessing.
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But we have an enemy that doesn't want you to enjoy that. He can't take away your blessings, but he can take away the enjoyment of him. So I'd like to go over these verses, Ephesians chapter 6, and we'll read from 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 you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all two, stands.
Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
And 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, wherewith ye shall be able to quench 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. 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.
There we have the question of our spiritual warfare taken up and the armor that is provided for us. And you know, a soldier puts on his armor before he goes into the battle. So it's something for us to reflect.
Do you have the armor of God put on, or do you just know about it? It's important that we put it on and so he says.
First of all, and just want to mention this before we go on, be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. It's only in that way can we go forward. It's not a matter of how strong you are physically or mentally. It's a matter of our faith in the Lord and walk with the Lord. Oh, how important it is.
It's only that way can we stand in this evil day?
Lord help us.
I must say, brother, in my travels through Latin America, I remember.
The years when I was still single and we were hiking through the Andes of southern Peru in the department of Ayacucho and and we came to this one town where we met some believers. They had been saved through some missionary that had come through there, but they hadn't anybody to take care of them spiritually.
And so they said to us, why don't you come and have a meeting with us? So they arranged and it was on one of the streets of the city there, and quite a few came together. And we were speaking about these spiritual realities that we have in chapter one of Ephesians, that we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, that we are accepted in the beloved that we have.
Redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. You know what? All of a sudden the door was open to the street there and here comes a drunk man and he starts shouting out in Quechua. I don't understand Quechua that enough to be under to understand what he was saying, but he started shouting in catch with his drunkard.
And all the attention went from the word that we were speaking to the drunk man at the at the.
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At the back door, at the door of the entrance.
Well, somebody had mercy on us and went out and took the drunk man by his arm and walked him down to the corner and around the corner.
And we hoped that that would be the end of the matter. And so he left him there and came back and we continued with our meeting. It wasn't too long before the drunk was back at our door. There's a lot of other open doors along the street, but he was at our door.
The enemy knew that they were enjoying the truth of the scriptures, and they didn't want that to happen.
It's when you are walking in the enjoyment of the truth of God that there is power in your testimony, and that's what Satan doesn't want to happen.
And so it's a real warfare. It happens in so many different ways.
But I want to get it down, especially to leave time for somebody else here to the seven pieces of the armor of God. And I'm going to just enumerate them first of all, before we talk about them individually. They start in verse 14. The first one is having your loins girt about with truth.
#2 having on the breastplate of righteousness.
#3 your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
#4 above all, taking the shield of faith.
Wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked #5.
Take the helmet of salvation number six, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and #7.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints. They all go together and I just want to challenge you, dear brother, and to stop and think whether you.
Have really put on all the armor of God. It's important it goes together. So the first one is having your loins girt about with truth. It's not just learning the truth in the head, it's girding it on. It's putting it into practice in your life, how important that is.
I'm sure you've all heard.
That.
The truth of God tells us that we are all.
Priests, holy priests, to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices to God. That's what we were doing this morning.
In the breaking of bread meeting I was very pleased to hear some younger brothers.
Take part as well, because it's not a matter of age, it's a matter of consecration, the use of priesthood. Sisters are priests as well. That's why in the breaking of bread, meeting the sisters, take part in the hymns of praise to the Lord, your priests just as much as the brothers. And so to realize that you know what the enemy uses.
He uses the idea that there's certain ones that are qualified to take part in that.
Meeting others are not quite up to that category yet.
Lord help us brethren to have the truth gird on and to. It concerns me sometimes when people talk about certain brother and I are in the Lord's work and others not. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, you are in the Lord's work. There is no qualifications of no categories.
Like his practice was practiced in Judaism where you had one tribe that was doing the service of God of that one tribe, one family that could go into the holy place, and one person of that one family could go into the holiest of all.
Christened them as returned to that in setting up the system of the clergy. And sometimes I find we fall into that mentality rather than let's put on this truth.
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That we are.
Priests to God, this is one of the things we need to put on.
Enjoy it and I want to say something that I have found a real blessing in our own. My wife and I as we're at home by ourselves is to learn to praise the Lord in your family as well. We try to do it after we have our Bible reading. Take some hymn of praise. You know, there's a lot of hymns that are about our spiritual blessings, but there are hymns.
That are directed directly to him. That's what a real hymn is.
And what a privilege to be able to do that. It says in Hebrews chapter 13. Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God.
Thursday morning does it say Nope?
Continually make a practice of praising God in your home life. Oh, it's a blessing. I must say, when I hear that in some homes, I am thrilled.
I still remember.
In one place I was in South America and there was a little kid outside the window. He was trying to sing Jesus Loves Me. He hadn't learned it very good, but he was singing. And I just thought how much God must appreciate to hear that precious name of Jesus, even though he had the hymn all mixed up.
That's all right.
And I think God really appreciated it. So the Lord help us brethren. And so the truth is affects every aspect of our life, not only the aspect of praising the Lord, but it's oh brethren, our walk in ways down here put on the truth of God. It's not just merely.
Understanding it. Yes, understanding is important and I really appreciate conferences like this where we have reading meetings where the truth can be presented.
And balanced, you know, it says let the prophet speak two or three. Let the others judge. We're not judging people. We're judging what is said. We have the scriptures open before us. Is this what it says? You judge and say that rather speaking right? Or is he a little bit off and sometimes we get off.
But then there's another brother that comes along and says, hey, here's another verse I want to present in connection with this subject.
And he balanced it out. I must say, brethren, sitting in conference meetings since my youth has been a tremendous blessing and has left the truth of God as something I treasure in my heart. But I hope it's not just matter in my heart. I hope it's put on the Lord help us in these things, brethren, it we could go into so many different aspects of.
Girding on the truth.
Gird your loins with truth. The loins are the strong part of the.
Of the body and very important to have that belt of truth on for a soldier that helped him in the battle.
So that's the first thing that we are to gird on the truth. Truth is the word of God, but it's not only to be known, it's to be put into practice in our lives. The second one is.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate was a part that covered the breast of the soldiers, so that when the arrows came a flying at him.
Bounce right off. They wouldn't be able to do any damage to the soldier. What is that for the believer? I like to think of it as a good conscience. Let's look and see what Paul says to Timothy. Was a young man about a good conscience so important?
Chapter one of First Timothy and verse five. The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.
And of a good conscience and of faith.
Unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned his sight into vain. Jangling. Verse 19.
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Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck, mentions a good conscience. You know, where man got conscience, I'm sure was in the Garden of Eden.
When man was innocent.
And there was one tree that he was told not to eat of it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course we know the story how Satan came along and deceived the woman, didn't deceive the man, deceived the woman, and she put out her hand and took the fruit and ate of it.
Scripture definitely says that men that the man was not deceived.
He knew what he was doing. He didn't say anything when he saw his wife reach out and take that fruit.
He is the responsible head of a fallen race of human beings.
Oh, how important it is. And immediately after they had eaten, they knew that they were naked. That's the knowledge of good and evil. And every man has that, whether they like to admit it or not. Sometimes I've seen little kids in the home. Their mom has told her don't touch that vase on that table in the middle there. And so they know they understood that.
So they're wandering around, they come to that table.
And they reach out their hand to touch that vase, and they look around and see if their mom is watching. Why do they do that? Because conscience is working. It's interesting. And every man has a conscience. Sometimes a conscience can get seared. You do bad stuff. You get used to it. Like a blacksmith who picks up those hot irons and his hand gets calloused. He doesn't feel it, but you take.
Pin and poke down through the calluses. He still got feeling down there, and so conscience is still there. Oh, how important it is to cultivate a good conscience, Paul says in the book of the Acts. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man.
How important it is to exercise ourselves in that way, Brethren, this is part of the armor of God. If there's something on your conscience.
You know in your life that is not right. I ask you to judge it and to put it where it belongs. The Lord help us. This is part of the armor, and it's extremely important. When people give up, a good conscience is no telling how far they may go.
And the third one is.
Verse 15. Put your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
When it talks about the feet, it's talking about our walk.
And notice it doesn't say that our feet shod with the gospel of peace. It's the preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words, the way you walk prepares souls from for hearing the message from you.
I've heard people say sometimes about Christians the way they walk.
Speak so loud I can't hear what they're saying. And that's a lack of having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Lord help us, brethren, if we walk properly. I still remember the story of a sister, and I'm not just sure where she lived here in the United States, but her testimony in the office where she worked. She was quite a shy girl.
And her testimony was such that another secretary came up to her one day and says, what do you have? You have something that I want, Just tell me what is it that you have? And so she was able to share the gospel with her and talk to her about the Lord. And I do believe that she got saved. That other secretary, it was because of the walk.
Of that, sister. So it's important to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
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Now comes the 4th, the middle.
1.
And notice that it's prefaced at verse 16.
With those two words, above all, something that is extremely important, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Those darts that he's throwing out in this spiritual warfare are doubts.
Satan wants to get us to doubt God.
That's what happened with Eve.
She started talking to the devil, and the devil said Yay hath God said. He put a doubt into Eve's mind, and in the course of things he got her to fall.
Lord help us, brethren, I can understand if you want to doubt me.
Or others, but when it comes to God in his word.
Don't entertain any doubts as to it. That's the shield of faith.
When it comes to God's word, believe it God.
Is as good as his word. He will never deny himself.
Just want to read that in Second Timothy. This to me is a bulwark of for our time Second Timothy chapter 2 and verse.
13.
If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, He cannot deny himself. I love that.
God is God and God is true, and when he says something, maybe I don't understand it very well. And that's to be expected. We're all growing in understanding, but God will never deny himself.
Oh, how wonderful to have him, and to have that shield of faith wherewith we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So if you want to doubt me, brethren, I can understand. I failed in my life.
And quite a few things I can understand. But don't doubt God. Never doubt God. You know, I think of the Apostle Paul as one who illustrated this. You remember?
In the 27th of the book of the Acts, when he was.
On board that ship and that terrible storm that they were going through and.
Paul stands up after quite a while and says.
Wherefore, sirs?
God, an Angel of God, stood by me and said that we will all be saved. Somebody might have stood up to Paul and says, come on, Paul, be reasonable. Look at the state of this boat. Look at the storm. It's not abating. There's no chance that we're going to be saved.
He says, Wherefore men be of good cheer for I.
Believe God. That's the shield of faith, and how important it is to know how to raise the shield of faith amongst the unbelief that's in our era of the history of this world, to believe God.
How important, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Now verse 17, the next one is the helmet of salvation. The helmet was something that went over the head.
The knowledge that, brethren, we have a full.
Salvation.
And no matter what happens in this life, it will never change.
The outcome, if you could tell a soldier as he's going to the battle, I know you're going to come out victorious.
What a bolster that would be to his confidence to go and fight.
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I think it's in the.
Appendix of our hymn book. We have a hymn. Can I borrow your hymn book? Just a minute.
You got it, You got it.
This this is the.
The.
Shield of the helmet of salvation verse six says for every tribulation.
For every sore distress in Christ.
I have full salvation, sure help and quiet rest. No Fear of false prevailing. I triumph, Lord in thee, oh Jesus, friend unfailing, how dear art thou to me that's the helmet of salvation. Thank you.
Put on the helmet of salvation, brethren. Sometimes things go heavy in life.
But remember, God is using those heavy circumstances to work His eternal purposes of blessing for every tribulation, for every sore distress in Christ, with full salvation, sure help and quiet rest.
The sixth piece is what follows the Sword of the Spirit.
Which is the word of God. Oh how important to have that in our lives as well. To use the word of God I find in my own.
Reaction to people off times, I like to stop and try to reason with them. To me it's interesting to see that the Lord Jesus in interacting with different peoples.
Often did not answer their questions. He gave something else.
He gave something of the word of God, and when the devil came to tempt him in Matthew chapter 4, every time he said he didn't reason with the devil, don't get reasoning with the devil, just give him the scriptures. So when he tempted him with the saying, make those stones bread because the Lord hadn't eaten for 40 days.
You can imagine how hungry he must have been physically. He didn't fall for it. He was guided, not by his.
Physical needs he was guided by the word of God and he gave the word of God. It is written, a man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so each one of those temptations he answered with the word of God. How important that is to have the word of God as a living reality in our lives. Not only.
To.
Understand it, but to memorize it. I just encourage you young people.
To memorize the Scripture. You know, there's people that have memorized the whole New Testament and I have heard of them, but they're not that many. But I think as beautiful when you can memorize Scripture, but not only memorize it, but let it live in you, that's important. And then when need comes, then you can respond.
You don't have to reason with the unbeliever.
You can simply say it is written and when the devil quoted a scripture to the Lord Jesus, he said it is written again.
Then the last thing in verse 1819 and 20 is prayer. Oh how important. Prayer is the word of God and prayer. And so we have the word of God in what we have in verse 14. The truth is the word of God to dirt it on. And then we have prayer at the end.
Do you take time?
To pray seriously, take time in quiet to pray to the Lord, I must say.
I do it at a time when I didn't. I don't have any other thing to.
Interrupt my prayers during the early hours of the morning. I find that's the best time to pray.
And you might say, aren't you sleepy? Yeah, I'm sleepy, but it's more important.
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To pray than it is to sleep. I'll get some sleep afterwards. But oh how important it is to take time to pray. God is a personal God. He wants to communicate with us. He does communicate through His word. He wants to hear from us too. And it's interesting the words that are used there in verse 18, prayer.
Supplication Watching.
Perseverance supplications for All Saints.
You know, it came to me one day. Why do we have to supplicate God? If it's something that God wants, why do we have to supplicate?
Supplication is something more intense than just simply prayer.
And this is what's come to me, brethren.
God is intense about the desire to bless souls. Are we in fellowship with Him on that level to really desire as well blessing for souls? I suggest you think it through, but this is so important.
Impressed me when I was reading the biography of Martin Luther. You remember Martin Luther was a man God used in the Reformation period to restore the truth of justification by faith alone, and it was a great blessing. He didn't have all the truth of God, but he did have something that was very precious and was mightily used.
One of the statements he made.
I found, and I think it was a biography I read of him, he said. You know, I have so much to do every day. I dare not take any less than three hours to pray.
No wonder God used that man the way he did.
O brethren, the Lord, help us to pray, to take time to pray, to be intense about it. God is working in this world, but more things are.
Affected through prayer than we realize we're told to pray for those in authority.
I find sometimes in our prayer meetings rarely a mention of the president of the country or kings or prime ministers. Whatever it is, Scripture is very clear that we should pray for those.
Do we, Lord help us brethren, because you know, I think we don't get involved in political movements. I don't feel that's our place. The Lord Jesus standing before Pilate said my Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I would not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my Kingdom not from hence?
And so.
Do we have anything we can do about it?
What's going on in political circles? We sure do. We can pray.
But we need to be intense about it, we need to be deliberate about it.
I just want to challenge our dear young people to take time.
To spend with the Lord.
I don't like to mention myself, but I must say there was a time when I was still single or working in the Chicago area.
That I thought convicted that I needed to take more time with the Lord. And I decided that I was going to take an hour each morning before I went to work. I had to leave for work in downtown Chicago at 7:00 in the morning. I'd take an hour before that to read and to pray.
I must say those were times it took some discipline to get myself out of that bed and get up and read a chapter.
And read some of the ministry that was written on it. And then take time to pray.
I have to say that was a time of real help in my life. It gave me an understanding going through some of the ministry books on Scripture. Get intentional, young people, about understanding the Word of God. It's going to serve you in the long run. It will be a blessing to you.
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So the Lord help us, brethren, we are in a very real spiritual warfare.
But we have every reason to believe that we can come out victorious.
Not by our own strength. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand.