Tonight we're going to be looking at Ephesians 6 verse 11. I'll be reading when the time comes from verse 10 to verse 13. But let's bow together for a word of prayer before we begin. O our great God and Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you worshiping you this night in praising you for all the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us. We thank you that you preserve and keep us from all evil. You'll keep our souls. We pray that you will bless us even this evening as we study what it means to put on the whole armor of God. Be gracious to us, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Well, how can you be strong in the spiritual battle for the advancement of Christ's kingdom? How can we as his church see the gospel go forward with Satan opposing us at every step? The answer to these questions is that each believer must put on the whole armor of God. We must join together with others in the local church in waging this spiritual warfare. we must join together with all who are following the Lord Jesus Christ. So in order to stand against the wiles of the devil, in order to face the satanic opposition, which is sure to come to you, you must put on the whole armor of God. What does this exactly mean? We're going to consider what it means by asking three what questions of this verse. First, what is this armor? That is, we will consider its description. Second, what kind or quality of armor is it? That is, we will consider its origination. And third, what does it mean to put it on? That is, we will consider its exercise. Well, first of all, what is this armor? What is its description? We need to understand that as a suit of armor, this armor actually is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I want you to turn with me over to Romans. Chapter 13, verses 11 to 14. And David, when you get over there, if you could read that for us, I'd be thankful. Romans 13, verses 11 to 14. And do this, knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand, Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in moodness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. All right, thanks for that, David. So when you were saved, your salvation was wrought out by God, God the Father bestowing on you salvation through His Son. He did this by imputing the merits of Christ's perfect life to you and by laying down His life for you on the cross. It's on this basis that God forgave you of all of your sins. God not only clothed you, the believer, with garments of salvation, but He also presented you with a suit of spiritual armor called here in verse 12, the armor of light. This armor is presented to you when you first believe. But you're given the responsibility, it tells us in our text, of putting it on. There are some things in the Christian life that you as a believer cannot do because they are God's work and you are passive in relation to those things. and thinking now of regeneration, the dominion of sin being taken away in your heart, is something that you cannot do yourself. In this amazing and merciful act of regeneration, God plants a new disposition of righteousness in your mind towards the cultivation of righteousness in your life. It's something that only God can do for you. But there are many other things which you are commanded to do in the Christian life, which by His grace you must be active in them. You must begin to learn to do all of those things which you have been commanded to do by the power of Christ working within you. Some of these are listed for us here in these verses that David just read for us. It's high time for us to awaken out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we believe. What do you think that it means when Paul says it's high time for us to awaken or to awake out of sleep? Well, then Matthew says it a little bit differently. Do this knowing the time that is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. Well, it's the same truth. What do you think it means? Jesus is the light in the day and unbelieving is the night and you need to sleep and you need to wake up. That's good. You go ahead. Awake to what's right in front of our face. The reality of who we are and where we are. What position we're in. That's right. We belong to Christ. changed and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. And sometimes Christians are kind of sleepy in the way that they view the Christian life. And by that I mean that they don't really consider they're asleep to the reality of what they need to do in terms of their putting on Christ and living out then the Christian life in terms of the commandments of God. Is that like the church in Revelation that is called Bukhorn? Very much, very much so. Laodicea. Laodicea, yeah, that's right. And they were exhorted to awaken out of sleep. It says here, for now our salvation is nearer than what we believed. What do you think that means? Our salvation is nearer than what we believed. Weren't we saved when we first believed? What salvation is being talked about here? I believe it's when Christ is going to come and gather his church. That's right. It's when we die and go to be with the Lord, or we could also refer to Christ's second coming, and the idea that we need to realize that these things are nearer than what we believe. Now, sometimes people believe in the imminency of Christ's return. I will not fault them for this, but I will say this, that we need to think about this in terms of our own death. Because the next event that we will see with our physical eyes, after our physical death, with our physical body, will be Christ's second coming. I don't know if you've ever thought about it that way, But that's the truth. That's the next thing that you'll see with your physical eyes after you lose your body here. Which is why we're so often told to be looking for the Lord's coming, I believe. People have been looking for the Lord's coming for 2,000 years now. And He has not come back yet. Should we be discouraged? Oh, no. Not at all. Each of us should be looking for His coming. And that means it's two-fold coming, that is in our death and what that will mean is literal, physical, bodily return where we will be glorified and transformed to be like Him. So it's true that each of us as Christians needs to grasp the idea that all Christians have a responsibility to fight in the spiritual warfare. You need to reason this way, that salvation is all of grace, but I need to fight in this holy war. Now I don't know if you've thought about it that way, but each of us needs to learn to put on the whole armor of God and learn to fight the good fight of faith and the spiritual battles that come to us in relation to Satan's attacks upon us. We need to fight in this holy war. You can't relax in this fight. You need to strive to be obedient. This text tells us. In fact, we must come to terms with the fact that it might be possible for me, if I am not careful, to go to sleep on guard duty. Like it says here in Romans 12. God would have us to be awake you would have us to be alert, you would have us to be active. Why? Because we are much nearer our salvation than when we first believed. It's our duty to remember that we will someday be meeting our Lord face to face and He will be evaluating our life's work. Now, I don't know if you've thought about that or not, because even though we will not be judged for our sins because of Christ's sacrifice, Yet our life's work will be evaluated. Each one of us will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, as Paul says in another place. You remember that saying, only one life too soon is past. Only what's done for Christ will last. It's a good saying. Do you remember that it was when Christ was doing his greatest work for all the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, that they were sleeping. Couldn't you watch with me one hour, Peter? He says to him. They couldn't watch for even one hour. So we should learn from this that our determination to stay awake spiritually will not be enough. This is something important for you to realize as well. Many people think the Christian life is lived by their determination. Well, it's good to have determination, isn't it? But that's not enough. We must be actively believing in Christ day by day and be clothed with Christ's power to win the spiritual battle with the devil. You must spiritually put on your armor. We're going to study all these different pieces of armor coming months, the ones that are mentioned here, and Paul takes them one by one, and we'll look at them one by one, piece by piece. But it's by putting on this armor, that's how you stay alert. That's how you stay awake. That's how you stay active in service to Christ in these days that we're living in now. Put on Christ And do not think to be passive when Christ would have you to be active. If you have clothed yourself with Christ, you will be in a position to think about loving your neighbor as yourself. If you're actively trusting in Christ, then you will be learning to cast off the works of darkness. How will you do that? Well, you'll be taking action to think about what your sinful works have done to hinder you from being able to do the will of God. What was it? Your unbelief? Your pride? Your laziness? Your foolishness? Could be any of these things. But I'm saying that you will be dealing decisively with all the remaining sinful works in your life And this happens only through Christ. You as a true Christian will put off and leave behind your old ways of thinking because life is not living for this world. The Christian life is living for the next world, not the next sports game, the next drink, the next pleasurable experience. You now begin to realize as a Christian that you have the armor of Christ's purity. to cover your heart. So now you can consciously cultivate the life of Christ in your life. And I need to pause and just ask if you're doing that. Are you cultivating the life of Christ in your life? Do you pray that way? Lord, let your life be seen in my life. Let it be that I understand the reality of your Spirit's working in my life. Well, when you come to that place, you're going to begin to realize that you can pursue righteousness when you have a proper hatred of sin. And each of us has to ask ourselves if we have a proper hatred of sin. And what sin does to dishonor God, hurt other people, we need to begin to ask ourselves those kinds of pertinent questions. How can I walk properly in love? for the brethren. How can I avoid being envious and fighting with other Christians to get my own way and everything? How can I become the humble, self-denying, holy child of my God that He wants me to be? It's by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. So physical sleep is a good thing. but not when it overruns your fulfilling your responsibilities. So it is with spiritual sleep. When you are sleeping spiritually, you cannot overcome Christ's spiritual enemies or yours. You must therefore believe in the Lord Jesus and trust implicitly in His Word to have this armor of light. You're spiritually naked without it. Remember Adam and Eve, the beginning of the world, when God first placed them in the Garden of Eden? Even though they were naked, they were created wearing spiritual armor. They were created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Well, it was true holiness, wasn't it, Adam's? Righteousness and holiness, but it was something which he had to stand in for a time of probation where God would look him over and say, are you going to be able to stand in this righteousness which I created you in? And as a representative head of our whole race, Adam's holiness would then be tested. And God would confirm him in it forever if he could stand in his original righteousness by his own free will. Well, you remember what happened that Satan came into the garden? And through his deception of Eve, he caused her to spiritually fall. And then Adam disobeyed God in listening to her voice instead of his voice. And by this means, Satan stripped them of their spiritual armor, which was their original righteousness. And now they were naked, but defenseless. So they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, which didn't work. They were vulnerable to every temptation and liable to physical and eternal death. And by the way, that's the state of every person coming into the world today because of Adam's sin. This is the state of every person without Christ. If Christ had not come into the world being sent by the Father, then all mankind would have perished. But when Jesus did come into the world, I want you to see what He did say, and I want you to turn with me to Luke 11, in verse 20. And Marjolein, if you would read verses 20 to 23 of Luke 11, I'd appreciate it. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own talents, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, He takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." Okay. Now, what would you think that Satan's weapons are? The weapons of his warfare against the saints. And against Christ himself when he walked upon the earth. Well, he uses deception a lot. That's right. Deception. He's a liar. Lies. That's exactly right. Division of brethren. Say again? Division of brethren. Making people work against each other. Making divisions between brethren. Very good. So, Satan's weapons are his lies and his weapons of war are the falsehoods that he tempts men with. So, Satan is the strong man, fully armed, guarding his own palace that is in his own kingdom of darkness by which he rules in the hearts of unregenerate sinful men. I want you to see from this passage that men's hearts are his goods. His goods. And unbelievers are kept in a state of false security and false peace by thinking that they can love sin and darkness. But when Christ came, he was stronger than the devil. He overcame the devil's temptations in the wilderness. He completely overthrew him at the cross by his suffering as a simple sacrifice in our place. This has made all the difference in the world for the person who trusts in Jesus. Now I want you to look with me at Ephesians 5, verses 8 to 12. And Vicki, when you get there, if you could read that for me, Ephesians 5, 8 to 12, I'd appreciate it. You could read verse 13 even. In fact, why don't you read to 14? 8 to 14. That's good. Sorry about that. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is life. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you life. All right, that's really good. Thanks for that, Vicki. So before Christ came into your life, you were alienated from the life of God. It says that you were in darkness. What does that word darkness mean, spiritually speaking? What does it represent? Sin. Sin is one thing. What else? under Satan's control. Very good. Ignorance. That's related to what you just said. That's exactly what darkness represents. Sin and ignorance. Anybody else? Well, it's the realm that Satan rules over. The prince of darkness. The kingdom of darkness. You were in darkness. You're without strength, spiritual strength, in a state of friendship with the world, we can also say. Really in league with the devil, whether a person knows it or not. But when you first come to Christ, all this changes. You're no longer darkness. And it's really interesting wording here. is not in darkness, but you once were darkness, but you are light in the Lord. So having light means that you have Christ's truth and His strength. You have His friendship. You have His nearness. You now have armor and weapons. fight in the spiritual battle. So I've been trying to show you here in this first point that a Christian not only puts on Christ when he first believes, but he puts him on every day as he goes out into the world. Christ is the captain of your salvation and the armor that he has purchased for you was purchased by his blood on the cross. It's the armor that you wear into spiritual battle every day. These verses that Vicki just read for us are really important to our faith, aren't they? You'll notice what our task is as Christians. What is it according to verse 10? Proving what is pleasing to the Lord. That's exactly right. King James says, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. pleasing or acceptable to the Lord. And then, we're exhorted here to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Why should we expose them? According to verse 12. Just a matter of standing for the truth and whatever that means, I'm not quite sure. Whatever it is, shameful even to speak of those things. I'm not quite sure what that is because there's a lot of moralists in the world that are in darkness. They don't necessarily, I don't know, have shameful things to manifest, but I don't know in what context he's saying this. Maybe in the Ephesian context. Yeah, I think so. The idolatrous generation in which he lives, I suppose. I think you're right. I suppose, just to follow up and then you can talk Dave, but I suppose just to follow up that a moralist's shame is his failure to recognize God's perfections and his expectations are greater than what he himself believes. That is, he thinks he's doing pretty good in terms of keeping God's law when in many points he's no doubt falling far short of it in the motives that he has. I think that that's, you could apply, certainly apply it that way. But David, what were you going to say? Well, it says have no fellowship with the unproofful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Well, if we're children of the light, then we're walking in the light, and the light exposes the darkness. So, you know, if somebody's watching or looking at us, they're going to see that, well, they're different. They don't do that thing. And that way you don't talk about it because it's shameful. But notice the last exhortation here. He's speaking to believers. Awake you who sleep and arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Boy, that's pretty strong language, isn't it? I suspect that he's talking to people who at least think that they're Christians. But he says arise from the dead. So sin leads to death, doesn't it? James tells us that in James chapter 1, that sin always leads us to death. And Christ will give you light. Isn't that good to know? I just love it. Because Christ will give you light. He's always faithful to give us light when we will turn to Him for help, for grace, for truth, for wisdom. Christ will give you light. That's so very good. So we need to wear this spiritual armor into the spiritual battle every day. That's our first major point here. Second, we need to ask ourselves what kind of armor is this? What quality is it? That is, we'll consider its origination. Well, it's of divine origin. It was hammered out on the anvil of the divine purposes and God's eternal love. God Himself very lovingly and thoughtfully designed the weapons that would be fitting for His Son to use to save sinners and to make them good soldiers. Christ hammered them out Himself by He Himself becoming the ultimate weapon. And now that He has gained the victory over sin and death, He gives us the weapons of His making that will be effective to promote truth and righteousness and to destroy sin. I want you to see this by turning with me over to Isaiah 54 and verses 16 and 17. Brian, maybe you can read that for us. Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work, and have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me, says the Lord." Very good, thanks for that Brian. So we see here that all this the Father purposed. And He brought it to pass in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father has created all things. for His good pleasure through the Son in order to serve His purposes. Whatever opposition which Christ's Church faces, whether it's from the devil or men who abuse their political power or the Pope who counterfeits the spiritual authority of Christ, no weapon which is formed shall prosper, it says here. And every tongue which tries to rise itself against God's people in judgment, his dear people shall be able to condemn all those attempts to waste and to destroy in the day of judgment. All of these adverse forces are raised up by his providence according to his secret purposes. Even his Pharaoh was raised up so that he might show his power in him, demonstrate his power in Him. As John Gill says, they are entirely dependent upon Him and subject to His influence, direction, overruling providence and therefore His people have no reason to be afraid of them. This is their heritage. It's something which Christ has purchased for them by His righteousness and His death and He gives to them these weapons by the power of his resurrection. I want you to look with me also at 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 to 6. And Hannah, when you get over there, if you could read that, I'd be grateful. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of forces. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. Okay, thanks for that Hannah. So when it says that we do not war according to the flesh, what does it mean? Spiritual warfare. That's right, we don't use physical weapons to coerce people to come to Christ. Although it's said, if you read the history of the church, that sometimes men did that back there in the medieval times. Charlemagne. Yeah, Charlemagne among them. So the weapons that Christ gives to us are not carnal. They are not weapons that men use in earthly wars. They are weapons related to the declaration of truth. It says here, our weapons are mighty, or powerful, in God for pulling down the strongholds. The word is logismos in the Greek, imaginations. These imaginations men make for themselves to continue on in their sin, in their error, opposing God's righteousness, and His grace, and His truth, which are found only in Jesus Christ. So, it's by the holy use of the Word of God concerning Christ, this is the conclusion, that a man's boastful, self-justifying, self-righteous pride in himself is broken down. It's when the believer is using the weapons of divine revelation, skillfully wielding them, prayerfully selecting them, that he's in a good position to defeat the devil. You submit to the authority of God and Christ to rule over you. Your thoughts are taken captive to Christ's obedience. And you become willing to obey through knowing and acting upon the truth of the Word of God. And you are able to declare it by the power of the Holy Spirit to others around you. This is also the way to see the thoughts of many people around you brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It's by your sharing it with them. I don't know if we realize sometimes how important our witness is in declaring the truth to people around us. We take every thought captured to the obedience of Christ, but when we proclaim Him as the one who obeyed the law perfectly, It gives people reason to suspect that they have not kept the law of God perfectly. Neither can they keep it perfectly. And only Christ has kept it perfectly. And thus you're preaching the gospel to them. So I'm trying to tell you that this is the way that you bear witness to the truth so that others might be delivered from being held captive by Satan to do His will. This truth of the obedience of Jesus Christ, it says here in these verses, is mighty through God to pull down strongholds of satanic opposition. So this is what you and I, we need to believe this with all of our heart. Christ was obedient in a perfect way. And His obedience which led Him to the death of the cross for our sins has also become in every way our obedience, that is, to be changed, to be able to be changed and transformed by His grace, and to see other people also brought to the truth out of darkness and into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Do you see how important your own witness is to the forward advance of Christ's kingdom? Very important. Third, what does it mean to put on this armor? That is, we'll now consider its exercise. What does it mean to put on the armor of God? It means to make use of the armor that you have been given. If this armor that we're going to read about here in these upcoming verses is ours, we have to make use of it. We can't just let it sit on the wall. as it were. It's one thing to have the armor in your house, and it's another thing to have it buckled on. In other words, you must not only have grace, but this grace must be kept in exercise in you. Do you have faith? You must exercise faith. Do you persevere? You must keep on persevering. Do you have love? and all these different graces of the Holy Spirit, then you must show these forth to people around you. But we're talking about this in terms of armor. The armor is made to be worn. It's not meant to be polished and set in a corner. So where do we begin? Well, turn over to Hebrews chapter 5. Matt, why don't you begin reading in verse 8 and read to Verse 14. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Now there's a couple descriptions that are given here in these verses. One is found in verse 11, since you have become dull of hearing. And the other one is in verse 13, for he is a babe. So why is it that Paul had to write this way to these Hebrew folks? Why was it that they had become dull of hearing, would you say? We're told here, by the way. We're told in verse 13. Well, I was thinking, not verse 13, I was thinking that we can become dull of hearing when we are sleeping, when we are not awake. Well, that's good. Yeah, very good. It's also mentioned in verse 14 more plainly, even in verse 13. I guess it means in these verses that we are not practicing the knowledge that we have and the word that we have. That's good. And notice the wording in verse 13. Everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. Milk in the Word and there is meat in the Word. What would you say milk is according to these verses? I suppose if we read chapter 6 we could see it more clearly, but what would you say partaking of milk is? The Gospel. It's the elementary truths, isn't it, of the Word of God, which would include the Gospel. But all the elementary truths of the Word of God. And if you just partake of milk only, it says here, Paul says here, you're unskilled in the word of righteousness. You are a babe. In verse 14 it says, but solid food belongs to those who are mature or of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised or trained to discern both good and evil. So there's the issue, isn't it? There's the issue. So a younger Christian has to exercise their spiritual senses to discern both good and evil. As they read the Word of God, it has to be something that they intend to put into practice. It's as simple as that. You're not just a hearer of the Word, but you become a doer of the Word, which is really a wonderful thing, isn't it? Very significant in God's sight. So, being exercised in it doesn't mean merely that you know these things, but it means that you, as it were, put on your armor and you go out to do battle The evil one and with what is false in people's thinking. Now flesh and blood, we do not fight against flesh and blood, it says. But we fight against the forces of the devil. So we aren't to see people as our enemy even though they act as our enemy. They are our enemy. in the sense that they don't know the Lord and some of them may want to kill us because of the things we say to them. But what I'm trying to share with you is that we must always remember that our primary battle is with the forces of evil. And much of that has reference to our own heart and the way that we view the world. The world and the flesh and the devil are our greatest enemies. and living the Christian life, but they're tied together as enemies in their battle against us. So to exercise, it says here you need to be mature, you have to be able to take in the solid food of God's Word, then you have to exercise reading and meditating upon it until you discern good and evil clearly. If you aren't sure, you need to keep reading. This is one of the good reasons, by the way, for a Bible reading program. We're regularly studying the scriptures each and every day because you will learn as you read more and more and more and more. But you will not learn if you do not read more and more and more and more and meditate upon it. Jenny and I have been having our devotions in the morning, going through Genesis and Exodus, and there's many good things that I'm learning, even though I've read these things before. And you will notice, if you abide in the Word in that way, that it will do you a world of good as you live your life to God. to abide in it in that way that you read it regularly and you meditate upon it and even memorize it if you can, certain portions of it. Because you'll then know what to do when you do battle with the evil one. What was it that Jesus did to defeat the evil one in the wilderness? Do you remember what he did? He reminded him of the word of God. He quoted scripture to him, didn't he? A man does not live by read alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And et cetera. So we need to be doing the same. That when the evil one comes to tempt us, that we can come up with good Bible verses that will help us to defeat his schemes to lead us into temptation. Leave me not into temptation. And we have to know them well, because Satan also twisted that one verse. Amen. It's a very good application. Satan knows how to twist scripture. Knows how to leave certain critical parts of it out, like he did with Jesus. Well, we have to be wise that way, don't we? So with regular practice, you will become a good soldier of Christ Jesus. You'll be learning to do battle with the evil one against evil. and seek to bring forth what's good. Let's look at 2 Timothy 2 verses 1-4. I think Sarah it's your turn. Isn't it? 2 Timothy 2 verses 1-4. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Separate hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. You are right. Well, he's addressing Timothy as his son, his evangelist son, but there are principles here that I want you to take notice of with me. Once you have put on the armor, once you've used it for a while, you'll be willing to endure what, it says here? Hardship. Hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. You also find here a hindrance to the battle for truth and righteousness. It is to verse 4. What is the hindrance there that could come to a man of God, such as Timothy, or really any Christian, if they're serious about the work of the Lord and laboring for the Lord, what would that be in verse 4? Getting involved in worldly cares. That's exactly right. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. It says here. So, the thing I'm trying to bring to your attention is that there's a hindrance to the battle for truth and righteousness, and it is to entangle yourself with the affairs of this world. The key word is entangles. I'm aware that this verse is particularly applied to those in full-time ministry for Christ, but the principle is true also for anyone who would fight and win spiritual battles. It reminds me of the verse, the Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God. Very good. That's right. That's exactly right. The principle is true for anyone who would fight and win spiritual battles because all of us have responsibilities in this world and we are not and we should not be hermits or people who are living apart to ourselves. But to become entangled in the world means that you spend so much time in doing worldly things and fulfilling earthly and material responsibilities that you do not devote time to God or to spiritual realities. I hope that you see this. This is very, very important for Christians who live in this day. We're prone to such worldliness as we can scarcely conceive. So we need to realize in closing that each one of you and myself are in this battle together. It's Christ's kingdom that we would advance together and it's Satan's kingdom that we would pull down and see destroyed. And so we need to remember to pray for one another in our church and work together toward the goal which Christ has set for us. And putting our armor on for Satan is not going to be still while we oppose him. In fact, the more that we oppose him, the more he will attempt to oppose us. Christ can crush Satan under our feet and will do so in due time in terms of the schemes he brings against us. must not be ignorant of his schemes. And we'll go on to talk more about these things the next time we're together around this passage. OK, we're going to sing hymn number 379. Send thou, O Lord, to every place. Send thou, O Lord, to every place. passengers before thy face, the heralds of thy wondrous grace, where thou thyself wilt come. Send men whose eyes have seen the King, men in whose ears his sweet words ring, Send such thy last words, O, to bring them where thou wilt come. to bring good news to souls in sin, the bruised and broken hearts, to win in every place, to bring them in where Thou Thyself wilt come. Gird each one with the Spirit's sword, the sword of Thine own deathless Word, and make them humblers from green Lord, where Thou Thyself shalt come. Raise up, O Lord, the Holy Ghost, From this fraud land a mighty host. Their war cry we will sing, The lost, where Thou, O Christ, wilt come. Amen. Amen.