Glory to God. Today, we've been talking about how we live, I hate to say the word victorious, but how we walk in a Christ-like manner, how we meet adversity in our lives. We've talked about last three weeks on resting and we touched on the armor last week. And there's something that I've always struggled with. You know, the Bible says to put on the armor of God. I never have really known how to do that. I mean, it ain't like you're getting dressed. It ain't like you're putting this piece on, that piece on. And so, believe it or not, I think I've got my question answered, and I'm going to try to share that with you today. I'm excited about it. And I hope you're excited about as I am because it just cleared this whole mess up to me We got no water Okay Do y'all know how to get to heaven how does somebody get to heaven I Huh? Just believe in Jesus? Is that how you do it? No, that's not how you do it. You believe in what He did. You have to believe in what He did. He was crucified on the cross. He was buried in a tomb. Three days later, He rose from the dead. If you believe that, what Jesus did for you, He paid for your sin. It's not just in believing in Jesus. That's another story. But it's believing what He did for you. If you believe that, you know His blood paid for your sin. All your sin was paid for by the blood of Jesus. What you did before, what you did today, and what you're going to do next year from now. It's all been paid for by the blood of Jesus. How do you get to go to hell? I mean, you got two choices. I'm very serious. You have two choices in your life. When you die, you're going to go to heaven. You're going to go to hell. How do you get to hell? But you get to choose, right? You get to choose if you spend eternity in Heaven or eternity in Hell. You get to choose that. I heard a guy talking this morning, you know, how could a loving God send somebody to Hell? God ain't sending anybody to Hell. You choose it. It's your choice. Please don't choose that. The reason you say, well, why are you bringing up this morning? because what I'm talking about today only applies to you if you're a Christian. The armor of God only applies to you as a Christian. If you're not a Christian, if you don't believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, crucified, buried, and rose again the third day, if you don't believe that, then you are not a Christian. You must believe that. So, first of all, we need to understand something. I want to get right to the gist of it. We don't put on the armor of God. We don't put it on. I'll explain it. It's very confusing. It only applies to believers. It's not like getting dressed and putting your helmet on, putting your shoes on, putting your breastplate on. It's not like that. I'll explain it. When you look up in the 1828 Dictionary, which all of you should have on your phone, your iPhone or your Android, the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, which defines every word, pretty much every word in the King James Bible, God's true word, armor is defined as what? Anybody take a chance? Defensive. Armor is defensive. Think about this, an armored tank, The Army ain't fighting anybody. The Army is to protect those people inside the tank. I mean, I'm gonna teach you. You come to church, you ought to come to church to learn something. You ought to come here to be with your friends and have fellowship and sing. You ought to have something. You ought to learn something before you leave. At least one thing. Armor, the armor of God, right there, it's defensive. The armor of God is not offensive. We got to get out of the charismatic mindset of we're going out fighting devils and this and that. We didn't do that. God does that. God and his angels fight for you. We own defense. He gave us armor to put on. Armor defined is defensive. That's what it is. Our only command in fighting our enemy, Satan and his devils, the only command is for us is to what? Last two, three weeks, resist him. we have to resist. That's what we're supposed to do. Last week we talked about defense is us, offense is for God and His angels. He's got His angels. God's our protector as a believer. You know, if God wouldn't protect you today, you'd already be dead. He wants to wipe you out. So we have protection. already through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 5 9 says, 1 Peter 5 9, not 1 John. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren there in the world. Resist steadfast in the faith. James 4 7 James 4 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he'll flee from you Resist the devil and he'll flee from you Would you look up to see what resistant what it means Ephesians 6 13. We're gonna see most of the day today Ephesians 6 Let's go to 6 13 The Bible says, "'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.'" Guess what the 1828 dictionary, Webster's dictionary, how it defines the word resist? Take a guess. Stand! The Bible is so plain, it's right in front of us what we're supposed to do. Armor is defense. Resist means to stand. That's what we're supposed to do. We don't run from, we don't charge after, we stand. We maintain our position, what we're trying to do. We're to stand our ground, take our position. Our position how? In Christ. Your position in Christ. I'll explain it. Haven't y'all sort of struggled some with like, how do I put on my armor? Can you struggle about that? Do I take it off at night? I mean, I'm taking a bath. I mean, what do you do? I put it on every day. When did I take it off? Well, I didn't take it off, I put it on again. I'm going to explain to you today what it means. I really think I am, and God help me because I want to be right on this. I want to speak truth. We take a defensive position. God and His angels take care of our offense. Ephesians 6, 10 through 8. Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Put on the whole armor, the whole defense of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, you may be able to resist against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We don't do that. therefore take unto you the whole armor, the whole defense of God that you may be able to withstand the devil in the evil day and having done all to stand, to resist. Resist therefore, 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 a 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 there into with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. This armor is who we are. This armor is who we are as Christians. Non-believers have no access to this defense. Non-believers, they can't go there. But as a Christian, which all you have to do is make that decision to believe what Jesus did. No works involved. Grace you have been saved through faith. Not on your own. Not of any works that you've ever done. Simply by the grace of God. We have to recognize who we are as Christians. The arm is always there. This arm is always available to you. You don't hang it up at nighttime, come get it the next day. It's always there. I pray, glory to God. Father, your word is absolutely true. There are no mistakes, there are no errors. And Father, I thank you. You told us your desire is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so Father, we thank you today that you help us for salvation and help us come to the knowledge of the truth. Paul's instructions are written here in Ephesians 6-10. Now this is pretty good. I think this will help you. Go to 1 Samuel 17. I think this will help you. 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17, 32. 1 Samuel 17, 32. This is David and Goliath. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fall because of him. Talking about Goliath. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. You but a kid, you but a youth. He's a man of war from his youth. David said to Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep. There came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his spirit and smote him and slew him." That's not a fable. That's a true-to-life story. David was just a young guy, teenager. The servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. Saul armed David with his armor. He put on a helmet, brass on his head. He gave him a coat of mail. David put all this, got his sword, and he got ready to go. But he hadn't proven, he hadn't tried, hadn't used it before. And David said to Saul, I can't go with these. I haven't proved them. And David took them all. He took all the armor off. And he took his staff in his hand, and he chose five smooth stones out of the brook, put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a script. And his sling was in his hand, and he drew near the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near to David, the giant of a man, 13, 12, 13 feet tall. And the man that bared the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him. He was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, come unto me and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand, and I will smite thee and take thy head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." And it came to pass, Philistine rose. He drew nigh to meet David. David hasted and ran, and he met him. He put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, slang it, and smote the Philistine in the forehead. It sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon the face of the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling, with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him. Anyway, later on, he took Goliath's sword and chopped Goliath's head off. Key verse. Verse 47. I want you to see your battles of the Lord's. Trust the Lord, lean not on your own understanding. He will guide your steps and your path. He's doing the fighting, you gotta forget the fighting. We get in situations, we get all emotional, get all broken hearted about different things. You gotta understand, God is the one doing the fighting. God's the one taking care of you. It ain't on you. It ain't on you. Your job is to have faith in Him. As you said and done, I'm not saying it's easy. Only if we could trust God like David trusted God. How much better would my life, your life be if we just trusted God like David did? It ain't my battle, it's his. It's God's. Man, we have saved so much time and so much worry and oh my gosh, anxiety. Think about what we could be like if we really trusted God like David did. If we only could do that. We've got sickness, we've got diseases, we've got marriages, we've got jobs, we've got all kinds of issues. Family issues, church issues, finances. If we just trusted God, like David did. Who is our commander-in-chief? It's not Trump. God is. God controls His armies. God's in charge of all the angels, good and bad. The devil still has access to his throne. We proved that in Job. One guy got mad at me. Anyway, God is over all the angels, good and bad. He is the commander in chief. You remember when Jesus, when he was in the garden, he said, I can call 12 legions of angels to come and save me. That's roughly 72,000. I could, he could call down, just 72,000. What's the most, do you remember in the Bible, the most men that were killed by one angel in one night? I happen to know this. I gotta confirm the memory. One angel killed 185,000 people in one night. One angel. It's in the Bible, it's in Isaiah. One angel killed 185,000. That's a lot of people. That's a whole lot. Consider the time frame. Glory to God. If we could just submit ourselves to Him. God does our fighting. Our responsibility is submit to our commander-in-chief. Not to buck him. Not to go our own way. No, I don't need you right now. How many of us, we prayed about this morning, We're so inconsistent in our walk with the Lord. Y'all know that. I look around this way. We're so inconsistent. We can't put days together. We can't read our Bible every day. We can't pray every day. Some can't go to church once a month. All these things. Some things you can help us, some things you can't. We have to be consistent. We can't treat our kids one way this day, and then tomorrow treat them another way tomorrow, and then the daddy does one thing, mama does one thing. The kid's going, I don't know what to do. We have to be consistent. Are any of us perfect? No. No, but our goal is to be consistent what we're trying to do. When we submit to God, we are illustrating humility. When you submit to God's will, you're saying, not my will, but thy will. Does that sound familiar? Somebody else ever say that one day? Don't you remember Jesus prayed three times in the Gethsemane? Father, is there any, this is the Son of God. Get ready to go to the cross. He said, Father, is there any other way? Any other way? Three times. And he finally said, Father, I submit, thy will be done. So it's okay for you to have trouble submitting. It's okay. But at some point, you need to submit. Glory to God. All right, I think I got that part covered, but how are we gonna put this armor on? You said you're going to tell us how to put the armor on. But then you said we don't put it on. That's right. We don't put it on. It's not literal how we do this. A lot of people say, I should say that some people say that Paul came up with this when he was in where? Prison. Roman guards. He's looking at how Roman guards dressed and he came up with this part of Ephesians. He tied these different parts together to teach us how we are to put on the armor of God. Get that out of your head. I want you to understand this. I really want you to understand it. Paul is merely giving us a visual aid. That's my opinion. Romans 13, 14. Romans 13, 14. This might help, hope this helps you. Romans 13, 14, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provisions for the flesh to fulfill their lusts thereof. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't put on Jesus. I want you to see put on don't mean just put on like a shirt or socks or underwear as I was talking about. Hope you can see that. to put on, means to put on his attributes. You hear people say they'll sign a letter, they'll go, in him, like they send you an email or something, they go, in him, it's in Christ. That's what we're putting on. We're putting on Christ. We're putting Christ on. It's really just living the Christian life. It's not getting dressed every morning, to put my armor on, then I forget to put it on. I'm telling you, these six pieces of armor are very important. Paul is instructing us who we are in Christ. He's trying to get you to see who you are in Christ. If you can just remember who you are in Christ, that's why I say this does not apply to non-believers, to non-Christians, because they're not in Christ. If you're not in Christ, this means nothing to you. You can be in Christ right now if you just believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, died, buried, and rose again. If you just believe that with your heart right now, it's done. You are a Christian. You are a new creature in Christ. It's that fast. It's instantaneous. Your salvation is. Six pieces of armor. We must remember who we are in Christ. All right, Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, let's go with 14. Yeah, put on the whole armor. Verse 14, 6-14. Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth. That's the first piece. You got a belt of truth. Now Roman soldiers, remember they had tunics, sort of flowing, and so what they had to do was cinch that up and put a belt around it because it would be hard to fight in a dress. Right? You know what I'm saying. I'm not being disrespectful. It's that belt of truth held all their clothing together where they could fight and be prepared. What it means for us is it's the knowledge of the truth. I just told you before, God's will is all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. If you don't have knowledge of the truth, which is the Word of God, you're not going to be prepared for this life. You cannot be prepared. This right here is sort of like the glue in a way. This belt of truth. It's knowledge of truth. It's a knowledge of God's Word. First of all, you've got to have a knowledge of God's Word. You have to know all of it. Do you have to know all of it? No. Need to know a little? The Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God. Workmen need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. All God's word is true. There's not a single mistake in this King James Bible. There's not an error in it. I don't care what you say. It's a conflict. It's nothing. It's not that way at all. If you see something here that don't make sense to you, you don't understand, it's just because you don't understand it. That's okay. It's okay, that's why you have to study it. Study it. So the belt of truth is knowledge of the truth. First of all, you gotta have knowledge of the truth. Second thing, it says, verse 614, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. I don't know if you knew this or not, but you know that Roman soldiers, you've probably seen the movies, they had a breastplate. It went from the top of their thighs up to their neck and covered all their organs. From here down, it covers your heart, your stomach, liver, spleen, all your vital organs was covered by this breastplate. That's what the guards, heavenly soldiers had. If you study it out, it's talking about it covers the heart, the bowels. If you study it out in the Bible, heart means mind. You know, it says trust in the Lord with all your heart. It don't mean with all your heart, it means with all your mind. All your mind you have to trust. This breastplate of righteousness, trust the God, Your bowels are like your emotions. And all of us have emotions, right? Will your emotions lie to you? Do they lie to you? My emotions, I ain't gonna tell y'all, my emotions lied to me yesterday. They lied to me yesterday. And I was sitting there going, you didn't know, I can tell you some things. I was going, I was thinking this stuff, and I was thinking this stuff, and all of a sudden I found out my emotions were lying to me. Your emotions will take you down a really bad path. But if you trust in the Lord with all your heart, He'll take care of your emotions. Here we have instructions. Here the breastplate of righteousness is to protect our heart, our mind, our thoughts, our emotions. You've got to know your righteousness is in God. You've got to know that you're righteous by the blood of Jesus. It's our second major area of protection. You must remember that we've been made righteous by what? The blood of Jesus. Let's just check this out. 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21. I hope you're starting to get it. Putting on anything you just recognizing what you have available to you as a Christian. I Got the word and now I need to be right reminded that I'm righteous 521 for he hath made him to be sin for us Jesus who knew no sin That we might be made the righteousness of God in him Pretty plain, you know Most of y'all have a place you stay, right? It could be a trailer, it could be a campground, it could be an apartment, it could be a house, it could be a lot of things. Would you let just anybody come stay with you? What if they're really having a bad time? I mean, lost their home and just really bad. when you want to know a little something about them? Don't all of us have a certain standard that we, before somebody's gonna come in my house, first of all, they're gonna obey my rules. I don't care if they're 30 years old, they're gonna do what my house says. Anyway, or 40 years old, I don't care. You have a standard. You just don't let anybody come and stay in your house, right? Why do you think God would let anybody come and stay in his house? He has standards too. He's got a standard. His standard is simply you believe in what my son did for you. That's his standard. And you come live in his house. You can be mean as a snake. But if you got that standard, if you are a born again believer, if you are a new creature in Christ, you have met his standard. You don't need a credit application. He don't need your credit score. All he needs to know is in your heart. Do you trust what Jesus Christ did for you? You're not different. You don't let anybody come in your house, right? I don't care how bad the story is. You ain't gonna do that. Just I don't know why anyway. Philippians 3.9. Philippians 3.9. and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of which is of God by faith." We have righteousness by our faith in God, by our faith in what Jesus Christ did. We have the righteousness of God. We are righteous. Do you always feel righteous? Do you sometimes feel like the scum of the earth? Do you feel like Don't say that. Sometimes you know what you are, you know who you are, right? You act like a scoundrel, correct? You said this, you did this, all these different things, but you're still righteous by the blood of Jesus. You can't lose your salvation. Romans 8.1, Romans 8.1, you gotta see this, you gotta see, as a Christian, the Bible says, Romans 8.1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Romans 322. Romans 322. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference. upon all that believe. I don't care how sorry you are if you trust in the blood of Jesus Christ and what He did, His sacrifice on the cross. He that knew no sin was made sin for you. He took on all the sin. I mean, some of the most vile things you can imagine, He took those for us, for me and you. So you are righteous as a believer. You've been made righteous. It's based completely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Completely on what he did Now do you have anybody to try to tell you do you ever get told something different You ever get told something different Does your wife ever tell you something different? Be quiet you ever tell your wife something different Y'all be honest come on you were adults in here Does the devil try to tell you something different Who do you think you are? You call yourself a Christian. I've told y'all, you've heard this story, I mean, I don't know, a hundred, not a hundred times, but maybe 50. I've made some mistakes in my life as a preacher. I still make them. I don't like, y'all like to make mistakes. I don't like to make them either, but I do. A couple of times, several times, people come to me and said, I've done something wrong. You call yourself a preacher? That's happened, that's in real life, more than once. Not in a long time, but a long time ago. What do you say to that? And you call yourself a Christian after what you just did? That's why I don't come to church, people like you. You know that, right? There are people who see us act stupid or foolish, they go, I ain't going to church, that's how they're going to act. All you got to do, well you need to mean it, you just turn and look at them and say, you know, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're right. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have said it, whatever it is. Will you please forgive me? Conversation's over. That's probably the greatest witness I've ever had. Well, be careful. That's one of the greatest witnesses I've ever had to people. When they see me really screw up, do something I shouldn't do, and go turn right to them and say, I'm very sorry, you are correct. Will you please forgive me? It'll change somebody's heart. It wouldn't mind. Father to waste them that you might need it. The third thing, 615. 615, and your feet shod for the preparation of the gospel of peace. What does that mean? The Roman soldiers had special footwear depending on what they did. It had cleats in it or knobs in it. Their feet were made for battle and to stand. You understand what they're supposed to do? How many of y'all know about baseball? Y'all got funny shoes for baseball? What's that for? For you to help you run and grip the ground. Football, golf, you have footwear designed for what you're doing in. Our footwear needs to be, peace. We stand, we have to understand we have peace with God. I got my knowledge, I I know a little bit about the Word. I know I've been righteous by the blood of Jesus. You're reminding yourself, and I have a peace with God. I've got a peace with God. I've got my shoes on. I can stand, preparing myself to stand, to give me stability. Another preacher that I really like a lot, I remember he was so goofy about different things. He said, you know, all I want to do in my life It's just when I go home, I want to go home and have a nice meal, read a little bit of a magazine, watch a TV show, and go to bed. That's my dream of my life. I used to think when I was maybe, you know, 25 or 30, I said, man, you're an idiot. What's wrong with you? I mean, that's pretty stupid. Well, once you get to be 40 or 50 or 60, you realize that man spoke with wisdom. To go home to a peaceful house, no I can't say bitching in church. So no griping, no complaining, no raising cane, no fussing, just to come home to a peaceful house. And I don't care if you have a hot dog, whatever it is, have a meal and watch a TV show and be there with your spouse and just go to bed pleasant. That's a great, I mean, that's, anybody would like that? Peace. If I want to just have peace, That's what we prayed for Linda and her family. That's my main prayer, is they have peace. Peace fixes everything. Peace. Romans 5.1, what does that say? Romans 5.1. The Bible says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You have peace. If you are a believer, you have peace. Peace is part of what you have. So that's how you stand, and you have peace. I know, y'all know people that do their leg like it's all type. I mean, I do it too. You know, they're always twitching their leg or doing their fingers right. I mean, I do it, but because I ain't really got maybe the peace I'd like to have. I don't know, that's just me. I'm anxious about something. I'm trying to, you know, I gotta get this done, you know, and whatever, you know, right? Peace, we want peace. You gotta stand on the ground in peace. So we talk about the knowledge of the word, everything what we believe, we gotta remind ourself of our righteousness, and then we gotta be able to stand. The whole purpose we've been reading, resist, resist, stand, stand, so you gotta have the right shoes on, and those shoes are the gospel of peace. you'd be able to stand, not run, not hide. Number four, taking on the shield of faith. The shield, the Romans had a couple of shields, we won't talk about it here, it's about two and a half feet wide by four feet tall. Well, bigger than that table, I guess, a little bigger. That shield, they could hide behind it. If y'all seen the movies where they get behind the shield, they shoot the arrows and get all stuck. it's a pretty big shield. They can get behind, they can't get hurt behind that shield. That's the kind of shield we're talking about here, that's the shield that they had. Remember Paul's watching all this, he's trying to give us some really good examples. We have, our shield is made of faith. Faith simply, what is faith? Just trusting God. It's just trusting Him. You remember, I don't know if y'all can remember this, but if you've ever been around little kids or had a little kid or whatever, sometimes they go to, remember going to the diving board and they're afraid to jump, but at some point they trust you. They might go, all right. At some point they know, well, daddy's going to get me, mama's going to get me and they'll jump. That's because they totally trusted you. They know that you're not going to let them. drown. Totally trust in God no matter what the situation. Your faith there is what protects you. It shows that you trust God more than you do the enemy. We blame God for so many things. We lack so much trust in our Father. Adam and Eve were the first people who trusted the devil more than they did God. Did he really say that? He didn't want me to be smart and know all this stuff, think like he thinks. They actually trusted the devil, their first ones. And I heard this too, I'll give you this, it's free too. How many races are there? How many races? How many races? You're scared to say, aren't you? You're scared to say. There's only one. We all came from Adam and Eve. There's only one race. Remember in the Bible he spread everybody out, they went to different parts of the earth. We go back, there's one race. Some have more melon than others, but there's only one race. I just thought I'd share that with you, that's a freebie. Anyway, God's Word is greater than your circumstance or how you're feeling. I don't know, I think about, I'm not going to say her name, but the lady back there, I think about her. How she has dealt with this situation, I'd say probably 99% of it you have come through because of your faith, correct? You know who God is, you trust Him, you have a relationship. There are people who don't, I can go and I can do a funeral and I can tell you a whole lot about things, if I get there and everybody's just crying and it's just, I mean, I don't mean, anybody can cry, don't twist me on that, you guys. You can go away for the certain level of emotion. I really feel sad because I believe those people don't really have a relationship They're all they're terrified of what's going on. There's nothing wrong. I'll probably cry during your funeral. I mean, I I don't That's not what i'm talking about. I have confidence I know my lord and you need to know him as well It'll change how you view life How people live without the lord I have no idea have no idea. Glory to God. Number five. Verse 17, the helmet of salvation. Roman soldiers wore a helmet made of metal and leather to protect their head. One of our protectors of our head is our salvation. As a Christian, you know you're saved. You've got to remind yourself, okay, I know the Word, I know I'm made righteous, I have God's peace, and I'm saved. I'm born again. I'm a new creature in Christ. You need to remind yourself because sometimes you don't feel like it. You ever feel like you're not saved? Yeah, but you are. That's why I'm telling you, you're not putting on pieces, you are reminding yourself of what you have in Jesus Christ. This defense He's given you, this resistance, the ability to stand, is recognizing who you are in Jesus Christ. What He has given you by you trusting what He did for you, this is what He's given you to be able to stand against the enemy, to be able to resist the enemy. Just remind yourself of what he's given you. He didn't make a mistake I've had people I've had people say I was a mistake, you know that my parents didn't want you Nobody's ever born was a mistake Get that junk out of your head. God decides when you're born. He decides when baby's that he makes that decision I don't understand it. You don't understand it, but you have to trust him You have to trust him Your salvation is forever. Number six, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Roman soldiers had two swords. One of them was a big one they fought with, and one of them was a little short one they defended with. This one is a short one. This defense, all of this is defense. Please, please understand, there's no offense talk here on your behalf, it's just defense. the sword of the Spirit. A little short one there. And when you study it out too, it talks about the word, it's not the written word, it is the spoken word. There's the Logos, which this is the Logos, the Rhema word is the word you speak. When Jesus was in the wilderness and the devil confronted him, he used the He spoke the word to him. He didn't just think in his heart, in his head. He spoke it. That's why you have to know, you need some knowledge of the word in your defense. Jesus didn't make him live by just thinking a word. All part of standing. We are not putting on these things in a literal sense. We're not putting them on clothing by clothing, article by article. We believe it by faith. We live it by faith. I want you to please understand this armor is who you are. As a Christian, this is who you are. This is what's available to you. And you know, as well as I know, there are times you need to remind yourself who you are in Christ. you need to remind yourself you might have a really bad week, you might have done some things you shouldn't have done, or said some things, or thought some things, or looked at some things, but you've got to remind yourself, I have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus and I don't ask for forgiveness anymore, from you I would, but from the Lord I thank Him. I'll ask you for forgiveness, that's different. But I don't say, God please forgive me for that sin, because He's already forgiven me of that sin. So I do I said that was a bad mistake. Thank you for forgiving that sin for me. Thank you lord That's how I approach it. You do how you want to do it You got to work it out how you feel good about we must submit ourselves to god Remind ourselves of who we are in christ We have a knowledge of the word We have to i've been made righteous by the blood of jesus I'm able to stand in peace on solid ground. God has promised me peace. I got faith to use, to trust Him, now trusting Him. Then remind yourself, I'm saved. I am born again. I am His son or daughter. I am that. And then in confidence, we must remember to use His word when we defend ourselves. This is how we put on the armor of God. We simply Remind ourselves of those six pieces and they're in order specifically for a reason I believe Go through that order and just remind yourself. That's how you put it on You can remind yourself every day. You can remind yourself when bad things happen. You can remind or things you don't like Some bad things aren't really bad things things you don't like, whatever. You ask God, you go through these things, you put on the armor of God. It's defensive and it's the way you stand and resist the enemy. This laid out force. And I thank God for that. Father we thank You for Your Word. We know everything in your word is true. The things I may have spoken may not be absolutely true, but I tried, Lord. I really tried. And so if I messed up, please correct. And I thank you for giving us instruction. Now, I believe, Father, I am satisfied in knowing how to put on the armor. I hope my explanation in time will make sense to those that are listening. It's not clothing, it's not articles. It's just recognizing who we are in Christ, knowing what Jesus Christ through His blood has provided for us. And Lord, we thank You for that. Glory to God in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Glory to God.