Open—R. Thonney
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I wanted to share something. It's interesting. I was a little bit hesitant rather than to do it because in the line, the lunch line this noon, I was.
By a young brother who said that three years ago we had Ephesians one in the readings here. I don't I didn't remember that. Maybe some of you do, but he had listened to it on.
Online, I guess, and then he said also that.
I had spoken in an open meeting on the armor of God, and I must say brother now before he told me that I had that on my heart to speak this afternoon. And so I wondered if I was being too repetitive. But I have found, brethren, that we don't need to be worried about being repetitive. I suppose you can do it too much, but.
Paul said to the Philippians. I.
Am not ashamed to speak the same things unto you, and I just have to say rather than as we take up this.
Was so precious to me the what the Lord brought out from different brethren yesterday about our position in Christ in the heavenlies.
Tremendous our place. But what is impressed me, brethren, as I've gone over these verses so many times in different parts of Latin America that as soon as we do, there is spiritual conflict that becomes evident. We have an enemy that does not want you to enjoy those spiritual blessings.
And he's going to do everything possible to avoid it that you don't enjoy it because it's in the measure that you enjoy these spiritual blessings that there will be power in your life to walk as a believer ought to walk. Just like we were talking yesterday about the matter of that. He has set us in a place of holiness and without blame before Him in love.
And to enjoy that rather than it's not something we try to attain, it's what we have in Christ.
And if you enjoy that, there's going to be holiness in your walk practically as well. And so there is real conflict in it.
And I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it was impressive to me in some of our treks across the Andes. Years ago, we came to a town in the Andes where we could finally get a bus to take us on out to Lima, Peru, and we met up with a group of believers there. They were didn't seem to be with any particular denomination.
There were some that had been saved through some missionary that had come through there, but they said we'd like to have a meeting.
And hear what you have to say about the scriptures. And so we were enjoying.
The scriptures and the little room they had off the street.
Was fairly full of people and while we were enjoying it, here comes a drunk to the front door of that place and start shouting in Quechua in the door. I don't understand Quechua that much, so I didn't understand what he's saying, but all the tension went from what we were saying in the scriptures to the drunk at the door.
Well, thankfully her brother got up and got him by the arm and towed him down to the corner and around the corner and let him loose down there. And we thought, oh, that'll help to so we can continue with our meditation on these spiritual realities, these blessings we have. It wasn't too long before he came right back to our door again. It was the enemy that wanted to hinder the enjoyment of these things of Christ.
Whatever he may use in your life or mine, I found that it often happens that when we are in the enjoyment of it, there will be conflict. And so I'd like to go over to the 6th chapter and just briefly go over the different pieces of the armor of God because I think it's so important if we're our young people, and I may have spoken about this before, like a young brother said, but.
If so.
Rather than bear with me, we're going to go over it again because I feel that we need to be reminded of these things we have. The spiritual warfare begins in verse 10 of chapter 6.
Finally, my brethren.
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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 higher heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all.
Two stand 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 you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicket 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 make, 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. So in this portion we have seven different parts of the armor of God. It starts in verse 14 with being girt about.
With having our loins gird about with truth #2 The breastplate of righteousness #3 feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
#4.
Taking the shield of faith 5. The helmet of salvation 6. The sword of the Spirit 7. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. So these are things I'd like to just go over in a brief way because I think they're so helpful in connection with the spiritual conflict.
And you're going to have to come to the recognition that we are in a world of conflict.
You know, what I see so often is that we like to make ourselves comfortable. We try to accommodate ourselves down here rather than God is not interested in making us comfortable down here. There's going to always be some little thorn to make you uncomfortable.
And it's because He has prepared our place beyond brethren, we are called to heavenly glory. That's where He has in mind to have us down here. We're not at home and there's going to be always conflict. Count on it. And so how important it is to stand. It's kind of interesting how often that word stand or withstand.
Is used in these verses we wrestle not against flesh and blood and.
That's not our conflict. We wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high or heavenly places. And so he says, 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. How important, brother, not to give up. There's so many that tend to say.
I'm just not up to it. I can't keep on.
Stand brethren, withstand God is able to keep you standing. And so here are the parts of the armor of God that are so important. The first one is having your loins girt about with truth.
Truth of the word of God and when it says girt about you know the soldiers of old had a their wide belt around their middle and that helped them to be strong in the battle.
To say it has to be gird on, brethren, it means there has to be practical. You might know it in your head, that is not enough. Put it on. Make it practical in your life. That is so important, otherwise you're not going to be able to stand. That's what makes us stand. And so how important is to have an understanding of the truth of God.
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Especially in the New Testament of the doctrine of the Apostles.
Says about the early church that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and then breaking the bread and the prayers steadfastly means that he went on in it. And so I want to encourage you, especially your younger brothers that are coming on to read the scriptures to read the good ministry that's out of that can help you to understand it.
It will be a source of blessing for you your whole life long. But not only that but to meditate on it. Somebody has said RPM is reading prayer and meditation.
When we meditate, it's like that cow chewing the cud, getting the good out of it and.
Chew it, think about it, and meditate on it.
And that's the way you get to be strong, to be able to stand with your loin skirt about with truth. How important this part of the armor of God.
The second is verse 14, the second part having on the breastplate of righteousness. You know, they carried a breastplate in the old armor and if a arrow or something came and whacked him in the chest, why I wouldn't get in because they had the breastplate on. And so it's the breastplate of righteousness. And I like to think of this as a good conscience. It's interesting to me that.
Speaks to Timothy quite a bit in his epistles about a good conscience. I just want to read.
In chapter one of First Timothy 2 mentions of a good conscience and to me it's so important.
First Timothy chapter.
One and verse 5.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart.
And of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. Verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. There's other verses in Timothy that talk about the conscience, and I think it's so important to exercise a good conscience, Paul said.
In the book of the Acts herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men?
He didn't say. I always have a good conscience, no.
He says I exercise myself. It's a daily exercise to have a good conscience. Is there something on your conscience that's bothering you that you know that you did, that you haven't really rectified? Get it straightened out as soon as possible. You're in no condition to encounter the enemy if you don't have on the breastplate of righteousness.
Oh, how important this is to have a good conscience.
And the Lord help us so that when we encounter the enemy.
That he doesn't say, hey, you know, you're plowing something in your life that you know is wrong or not in any conditions. I mean, that's that the enemy in that way. We need to exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
So the third piece is verse 15, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We preach the gospel of peace, brethren, but we need to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. It didn't say shod with the gospel of peace, but the preparation of the gospel of peace. In other words, the way you walk in this.
World commends the truth that you speak, how important it is to walk properly as a believer, somebody has said about certain people.
What they do speak so loud that I can't hear what they say.
And that's a person that is not have on the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Lord help us, brethren, how are we known in our community? Do we have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Remember, that prepares the means by which we will be able to take this message of the gospel of peace.
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But then notice verse 16.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darks of the wicked.
The darts are the doubts. An enemy works with doubts. He tries to get us to doubt God.
That's what he did to Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said, Yeah, hath God said, and he made Eve doubt God. Those are those fiery darts. And I say to brethren, sometimes I understand if you want to doubt me, I've got my failures. I can understand if you want to doubt other brethren, but when it comes to God and His Word, don't allow any doubt.
No, it's important to above all.
Having the shield of faith, and by that shield of faith is trust in God and His Word.
Faith is always based on the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And so how important do base our lives on the truth of the Word of God? What God says, Stand on it because God will never be mistaken. Sometimes I don't understand what God's telling me.
But it's pretty clear the scripture, so I'm going to go by what he says.
For as much as I don't understand it very much.
But how important it is, brethren, not to allow doubts to come in, because that's the way the enemy wants to knock us down. In comes one doubt, and it gets in, and we tend to tend to countenance that doubt. Let's see. I don't know what to say about that. And then in comes another doubt, and sooner or later that soldier is down on the field of battle.
Again, I say rather than trust God.
You can always trust him.
You might not be able to trust anybody else, but you can trust him and I.
I think I mentioned somewhere recently.
A young sister said to me.
A while back.
Lord has left me, I said. What? Why in the world do you think that?
I just feel like he's left me, I said. Do your feelings ever change?
Yeah, they've changed quite a bit. Does the Word of God ever change? No. Which is better to trust than your feelings or the Word of God? And I find so many people pay attention to their feelings. Yeah, your feelings are real and we have to deal with them. But I just want to say you can't trust your feelings. You can trust God's Word completely.
So that is a piece of the armor that says above all.
Make sure, brethren, to have that in place, the shield of faith.
Beautiful. Wonderful.
I'd like to think of the Apostle Paul when he was in that storm on the sea and the Lord appeared to him and said, fear not, Paul. I've given you all those that are on the on the ship with you. There's 276 people on that ship.
And he finally stands out. Paul does amidst all that crowd and says, fear not for I believe God. He had the shield of faith in place. Oh, how wonderful it is if we can simply do that, Brandon. Now the next one is verse 17, the helmet of salvation. The helmet covers the head.
And it's the knowledge.
That we have a complete salvation.
I love that little stanza of him 16 in the appendix, if I can remember the quote that it says. For every tribulation, for every sore distress in Christ, I 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 that's the helmet of salvation.
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To knowledge.
You're going to have tough times. Yeah, you might have tough times, but remember, God is working through it all.
For your blessing in the end. And he's going to have his way.
I sometimes say to people, God's purposes are from that past eternity.
And here come me and I'm sometimes kind of willful and hard headed and stiff necked.
Who do you think is going to win, God and His eternal purposes or me in my hard headed stiff neckedness?
You know what the answer is, God is going to have his way in the end. Wonderful to understand. That's the helmet of salvation to realize that rather than he will bring us through. And then the last piece of offensive is actually say the first five are defensive and then we have the offensive, the sword of the Spirit.
Which is the word of God, and this is what the Lord Jesus used.
When he met Satan every time Satan.
Tempted him. He said it is written in one of the temptations, Satan said it is written to the Lord Jesus, and Jesus said it is written again. He would not be.
Put to one side the word of God, and so that's the sword of the Spirit.
Impressive to me that's the Lord. Jesus didn't reason with Satan. We don't have to reason with the enemy.
What we have to do is quote Scripture. It is written, and then the last one is verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. How important prayer is, brethren, I've been impressed in my own life in more recent years the importance of making it a serious occupation in our lives.
I sometimes quote what I read from Martin Luther.
He said one time he said I have so much to do every day.
I dare not take any less than three hours to pray in the morning.
Brother, no wonder God used that man. Do you take time to seriously pray?
God wants fellowship with us, and not only with the Lord Jesus, but with.
God as Father, he's our Father. He's interested in us, He knows where we are, He wants fellowship with us and so to pray. Not only prayer, but it speaks about supplication.
Why supplication? Do we have to kind of convince God to do something? That's not the point.
He wants us to be intense about our our requests.
Because he is intense about it. He wants fellowship with us.
In those things and I think that's why where supplications come in and so may the Lord help us brethren to.
Have on the whole armor of God.