918. Using Our Armor Effectively

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina today on The Daily Platform were continuing a study series entitled our ancient foe, which is a study of Satan. The reality of his presence and how Christians can be victorious against him. Today's message will be preached by Dr. Mark Minnick, the title of his message is using our armor effectively and BTU Pres. Steve Pettit will introduce him without a doubt one of the greatest expositors in my life that I ever heard is Dr. Mark Minnick have listened to many, many of his sermons. Fact is upset.

I preach a sermon is better than he dies.

And so I I have the most profound love and respect for pastor Minnick's faithfulness to God's word, and so were delighted to have them come and speak to us in our theme as we are working through our ancient foe again this morning. Hi would like to direct our attention to the sixth chapter of the book of Ephesians. If you would turn there. Please miss last week I have been greatly encouraged and spiritually impacted by listening to almost all of the messages that are then preached in this series, and when Dr. Horne began the series he made a statement that very often Christian people are oblivious to if not naïve about spiritual warfare until they are wounded. That is very spiritually insightful and why does call attention to the fact that we are to be proactive about this matter and the topic that is been assigned to me today is that of using this armor in Ephesians 6 in an offensive way offensively rather than defense ably last week when Dr. May, Zach preached made the comment as he began to deal with this an overview that there isn't something that is just a secret here of which were utterly unaware, or a methodology that we've never employed, but he referred to taking the armor as a matter of just classic discipleship, and that is the case when you leave the metaphors aside and just simply look at the components that are scriptural, they are the basic elements of Christian living wages saying soldiers of Christ arise.

I didn't know we were going to do that today but in the 13th verse we are exhorted to take unto us the whole armor that Greek word is mama Charles Wesley placed in the stands of the him that we just saying can take the Army for the fight and the word he uses is one that we don't frequently employ him employee of God.

That is the Greek word he's just taken the Greek word transliterated into English letters.

We sing a Greek word every time we sing that stance and the word panoply does mean the entire activity of it so that what we have the assurance about is this that these half-dozen components are all about that. If we employ these classic discipleship.

God knows this is utterly sufficient so I like to speak to you today on using this armor effectively. What were going to find is that every piece that it is the counter stratagem of Satan you can think of it this way. These pieces are revelations of his strategy in reverse and because there are six of them followed by verse 18 in the admonition regarding praying, I'm going to throw the majority the emphasis toward a couple of them. One of them leave almost entirely for Dr. McGonagle for next week but were told. First of all, that are being protected and to speak of it in terms of our topic this morning to go on the offensive. It's a matter of what we're dealing with truth Dr. Talbert caught her attention to John 844 which says that there is no truth in Satan, and he clarified for us by saying that even when he speaks half-truth that it actually is entirely alive because his whole purpose is to deceive the folks that matter is not something remote from us or anyone else this matter of our being deceived in the 12th chapter of Revelation.

An extended passage about her at her salary.

You have this blanket statement that he deceives the whole world that isn't just hyperbole that is true of every single segment of world culture. The politicians are deceived. The educators are to see the economists are to see the entertainers and scientists and corporate executives and religious clerics.

He deceives the whole world and it isn't just selective and individual here or there. It is universal. We are born Scripture says given to lies. The Scripture says that we lot, we actually go astray from Arbor and in this book. The second chapter in the second verse the Holy Spirit informs us that the God of this world, the prince of the power. The air is the one who and this is the Greek word I'll pronounce it and you'll know immediately what English word we get from it. It says were to choose is Anna Gatto that he does that all the children of disobedience. What English word when we get from banner get's the word energize you wonder sometimes where lost people get there in rentable energy for doing evil.

They are energized by the prince of the power of the air and because this is the case because there is this universal deception not in every single point people are made in the image of God and they really do retain a conscience and they are truthful in some cases, but in general that statement is applied to the world universally and every individual entity deceives the whole world and what we discover when we go out in society are very aware this is the way in which society begins to speak euphemistically or in acceptable terms, when actually what is being disguised is evil so murder of the unborn becomes freedom of choice to be morally deviant is to be gay or happy to advertise deceptively is just doing business in people who evangelize our being divisive and we grow accustomed to living in a culture of lies passively and what the Scripture is telling us for our own protection, as well as for the cause of Christ is the necessity of taking truth to ourselves and the metaphor that is used here is that of a belt and for these ancient soldiers. That is what Gert everything together.

He had folded and held together the loose folds of their roads or that kind of a leather skirt, the Roman soldier more. But in addition to that, the breastplate was fastened to that belt both in the front and at the back so that it wouldn't ride and leave the soldier exposed in a moment, battle, and the scabbard of course hung from it. The belt was the thing that really bound all the other components together. It was central to the whole scheme of soldiers panoply and certainly the Scripture begins with this because this is the single most important element in life.

Everything is held together by that and what the Scripture tells us is that there are at least two aspects to this believer is one of course is the objective aspect and that is the truth of God and one of our defects is if we only know it superficially. That is, if we only know the general facts of the thing. But we don't have spiritual insight as to what those facts actually mean for us and that insight is given only by the Holy Spirit of God. There are probably two great failings, that is, Christian people, we often have comes to the truth of the word of God failing with reference to the breadth of it and failing with reference to the death of with reference to the breadth of it. We often just read by this selectively favorite books or passages in their portions that perhaps we seldom if ever read what that does is leave us with a distorted view of God so that we view God only in terms of certain of his perfections and whenever, then, were confronted with another perfection, particularly those that are more severe were shocked and there is a kind of an unconscious recoiling and down our souls. A rejection of that perfection of the it's imperative that we read the entirety of our Bibles from beginning to end and that we do that regularly and I would encourage you today with reference to using this panoply off defensively to be sure in the future that you look into getting a good Bible reading schedule. There a lot of different ones that are out there get a hold of one that you can just mark off the chapters as you read them and whether you get through your Bible in a year with her takes you two years to get through with you to start a lifelong habit of exposing your soul to the implant of the entire unity of the character of God, whether it's in Leviticus, or Revelation, the Psalms or Philippians.

The whole thing is press down on your soul.

I can die to form up in you, the image of God and the other defective course that we have is that depth of things a little ways to overcome that is through regular Scripture memory I just say this to share with you what I do in the mornings I start with a little 3 x 5 posted pad yellow with lines on it.

I do the same thing every single morning I list out the things that I have to do that day and always starts with four Bible, prayer, memorization, reading, and then as I do my just check them off just helps me to check them off but memorization is always part of that and I try to work on at least a couple of verses every day just to save them to myself just takes a couple of minutes, but often we carry them with me through the day like that to repeat them is parody. We have to get the word of God locked into our being there at our disposal will encourage you to bring truth in all your circumstances and bring the entirety of the truth and adapt the bed that literally is locked away inside your inner being that way.

The other aspect the course of this truth is the subjective aspect of our truthfulness.

God's truth. Objectively, my truthfulness subjectively. This loss is utterly irreplaceable and right human relationships, and you know that leading up to this election yesterday. One of the greatest complaints of the American public was that neither of the candidates appeared to them to be entirely truthful people, society of family, church pulpit ministry just simply can't function without truth it holds everything else together.

You can't let yourself become untruthful person. A chronically deceptive person, but your adversary the devil is intent on habituating you and me to being less than truthful in our relationships.

We need to hold ourselves, and this is an effort because there is something in us that is always bent to the left. It's like having a big thick rubber band around your head and the pole is always to the left is our flesh inside us doing and that applies to this matter of truthfulness is much as to anything. There are so many ways that we need to check ourselves about this. Dr. Ormiston took us to Genesis chapter 3 in the way Satan just directly contradicted the word of God that courses the most conspicuous form of lying and we tend to recognize that one perhaps pretty well but I want to take off real quickly.

Five other ways that we need to check ourselves and hold ourselves accountable mass representation is deception.

For instance, many of you are going out into the corporate world.

Proverbs chapter 20 verse 14 gives you a little window into how that works as a buyer you go to a seller and you try to clock down his product. You say oh it's nothing, it's nothing but then when you go your way, you boast about what a great deal you got. We are so given to a culture of lying and deception that even reading that verse and someone commenting on it like I am right now it just catches us like he wait a minute I thought that was just good business. Everybody does that.

That's exactly the point everybody does that in Scriptures putting its finger right on it and saying not so, as a straight shooting righteous person. I will look in my library by JCPenney axis autobiographies only began the Penny stores. It's called 50 years living by the golden rule and I know some of you who are in business are always looking for good books.

Even reading for inspiration.

You might get that. I don't know a lot about pending spiritual life, but he did attempt to live that way and run his business that way. And one of the things that he was insistent upon with his salesman was absolute truthfulness and advertising so you would go into an early Penny store there would be a whole stack. Let's say a flannel shirts and assignment read. The colors are not attractive but the shirt will wear well misrepresentation is deception evasion which is withholding truth.

The times that it's imperative that someone habit. The insinuation which is suggesting things that are untrue like the sailor who had him for his Capt. and so he decided that he would slip into the ship's log to be read later by the owners of the ship he write things like this. The captain is sober today when in fact the captain was sober every day. A week later Capt. sober today insinuation is deception exaggeration is deception. Silence when you know that people are misunderstanding and misrepresenting things and folks that this matter of being truthful. You can bring it right down to this one practice in our lives that will help us.

The thing that will most help us to learn to be entirely truthful is in our confessions to God if we will be honest with God if we will be entirely righteous in what we confess about ourselves. We habituating ourselves to be truthful. Secondly, I intended to throw most of our weight right there on this what is this matter of righteousness. When the Scripture says, having on the breastplate of righteousness you may be aware sure you seen images of this.

This was a kind of a sleeveless and fast and it was made of heavy material and on it were salamanders polished over lapping pieces of metal so there would be no chinks in it. The enemy was intent on stabbing through some whole or change between those pieces of metal and as you know, that breastplate covered everything from the bottom of the neck all the way down over the hips, both front and back protected all of the vital organs in the Scripture is saying here that this is like righteousness for a Christian and again the Bible knows of two aspects of this. One of them is Christ's righteousness, which is his life long obedience as the man Christ Jesus gets the life that he lived that was impeccable when we come to Christ and in trust ourselves to him. The Scripture says that that life long obedience is imputed. That's the Bible were imputed to us. It's given to us and entirely credited to us what you think of it is this way. It is legally given over to me and from that point on I have the complete authority and legal right to use that righteousness that is not my own. Theologians refer to it as an alien righteousness. Righteousness foreign to me.

But, given to me. I have the legal right them to use that in all my transactions with God and where this becomes imperative is when I have taken a blow and that of course occurs when we have not ourselves done right and when you don't do right. Your conscience accuses and if several of those wrongdoings pileup. How do you feel when it comes to your liberty to go in the presence of God. I will ask you this. How do you feel about asking God to forgive you yet again for the same sin or failing for the 100th time, or the thousandth time. How do you feel about that you feel about that. The way I feel about that.

It's like I can't even hold up my head.

I tried. I don't feel like I can go to God again.

That's where this is so essential it's what Hebrews is talking about when it says no, no, don't shrink back. Don't hold back. That's disaster the throne of God's grace and the imputed righteousness of Christ are made for that very time in your life, that's exactly when you need to come in when you're conscious is you can't come.

That's a lie. You must come here just invited to come for your safety and your cleansing command, and your authorized by the righteousness that was imputed to you and there's no more shot between you and God. When you sin and the veil that was ran when he died his recent ditch. We see and it's still all wide open to the throne of grace. You just gotta go and you go on the basis of the righteousness that was given to you in Christ.

The second aspect of course of this is our personal right doing and the only folks the only right rule for our right doing is the entirety of the word of God is a verse in Proverbs that I often refer to for my own guidance in situations where I can't seem to quite figure out what I ought to do is Proverbs 11 verse three and it says this the integrity of the upright shall guide him and what that verse is saying is when you're caught in a situation and you. It's it just seems like you're not exactly sure what the will of God would be that verse is the will of God. The thing that should guide you is the integrity do the thing of integrity. That's God's will and that kind righteousness ends up being very protecting us and that brings us. Thirdly, this matter in the preparation of the gospel word preparation is a word that has reference to readiness readiness with giving it. It's part of what keeps us stable in the ancient war, soldiers would wear sandals thick leather souls started with top males and that was designed to enable them to keep their footing in the initial shock when two great armies, the whole vast heaving sea of thousands of rough pushing violent man enable them to keep their feet so they didn't fall and exposed himself to the fatal blow. It's imperative for your defense to go on offense with the gospel. When you go out into life in a way that is for me. What it does is run up a banner. It makes you conspicuous, but it does affect everything around you.

I learned that when I was a student here.

There are three summers when I worked on a Carpenter crew running money to come back to steal my first summer after my freshman year when into that some are so enthusiastic about trying to serve the Lord by the end of the summer I was absolutely crushed spiritually.

My second summer I went back and discovered to my delight, the contractor had hired two other fellows to serve in a crew who were also Christians from another college so that there were three Christians three lost the atmosphere as we left in these houses was completely different because there was an offense.

The language tone down the filthy stories disappeared. There was more respectfulness because there was more of an offensive readiness of the gospel.

I went to the hospital this last weekend picked up my Bible listening and thinking walked into the hospital pulling the small Bible walked out of the hospital the same way and all of a sudden it occurred to me how conspicuous you feel and look when you're carrying a Bible in your hand. And really there's a protection in that it makes you very alert, I found myself alert just the way my countenance look and we would think about it that way.

Bible on your desk tracts in your code Christian music in your car. These things are an offense that also creates a tremendous defense for us. The only other thing that I want to comment on the first Thessalonians 6.

Usually the last thing is said here and that is for my helmet. What part of her body was or how does Emma protect her head. What's our habitus to be protected are mind and first Thessalonians 5 verse eight which is a cross reference here says, and for a helmet the whole of salvation and the word hope means the confident expectation that I am a Christian. It is nearly impossible to survive. If you lack assurance as to whether you are even God's child, and I know from my own experience as a student from counseling students here for many years that that is a problem multiplied many many times across the student body and dear young people.

I want to encourage you to get that matter settled.

You must come to the place where you get that file drawer that has that file and it am I saved them. I say you get that filed Russia walked welded around the edges. Never open again if you don't do that you will always be an insecure, ineffective, vulnerable, defeated person. You've got to have on your head protecting your mind, your confident expectation of salvation. Let's pray together loving heavenly father, thank you so very much for all of these good messages. We pray that you would help us to take these truths to apply them and live them by your grace in Christ. Precious name. We asked a man it would listing to a sermon preached by Dr. Mark Minnick, which is part of the study series entitled our ancient foe.

Join us again tomorrow is we continue the series here on The Daily Platform