The Fighting Armour

We must WRESTLE against spiritual wickedness. (Verse 12) Wrestling implies there is STRIFE or a STRUGGLE is at hand.

When two men go at it with their arms extended, they move in … looking for the opening. Then … in a certain moment … they seize each other by the neck and arms, with each endeavoring to throw the other off balance to pin his adversary to the ground.
 
For the Christian, this struggle, or STRIFE is part of greater WAR that cannot be fought in the strength of the flesh! Remember our text in II Corinthians 10 and in Ephesians 6. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.”

Our enemies are not who we can see. Our enemies consist of the multitude of fallen angels called devils who do the work of their master: THE DEVIL (or Satan). “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

We who are in Christ Jesus are wrestling with the principalities, and with the powers, and with the rulers, and with the spirits … who are in rebellion to God. It is this wickedness in high places that we through faith in the BOOK, must be ever mindful of … in the midst of our WRESTLING in this warfare.

The scene is set for you and I, my friend. If you are “seated in heavenly places in Christ” then your ADVERSARY wants to go in for the knockout, and GET YOU.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

Therefore, we must put on the WHOLE ARMOUR for the COMPLETE protection from the fiery darts of the wicked. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13)

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Girt About With Truth

We must have our loins GIRT about with TRUTH “having your loins girt about with truth." (Verse 14) This is what Jesus said of himself. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me.” (John 14:6)   HE IS THE TRUTH!

To be girt about with truth is to BELIEVE God’s word … without doubting what the BOOK says ABOUT JESUS CHRIST. It is the forlorn unsaved person who asks the question “What is truth?” Pilate asked Jesus Christ this in John 18:38.
 
The person without Jesus Christ in his heart tends only to see shades of gray and to reject the reality of ABSOLUTES. This they do because they are held in the GRIP of DEATH … in the BONDAGE of SIN. Yes! It is a sad truth, that it is the LOST person who stumbles around throughout his whole life in the total blindness of unbelief, wondering: “What is truth?”

For the Christian, it is not so. It is smack dab one hundred and eighty degrees out for him, because Jesus Christ has made him every wit clean through THE TRUTH. The truth is the word of God! It is the OLD BLACK BOOK … in the language of the end times … English! It is the Authorized Version of the Bible of 1611 OR ANY OF ITS EDITIONS. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17) “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)

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Having On The Breastplate

We must put on the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS. “… And having on the breastplate of righteousness.” (Verse 14) This part of the armor, by its presence or by its absence, signifies the true state of an individual. Hey! Is the person alive, or is he dead? Has he been quickened, or is he still dead in trespasses and sins? If you have been made alive in Christ, you cannot ever die (or become dead in trespasses and sins)!

No matter what happens to the believer in Jesus Christ, there is one thing for sure … that cannot absolutely happen to the believer. It is this: he, or she, cannot lose their salvation! For the Scripture resounds with this declaration: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39) Amen!

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Amen! Amen!

This … because we were SEALED by the Holy Spirit … having been “given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” … the moment we got saved. (I Corinthians 1:22b)

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Shod With The Preparation

We must have our feet SHOD with the preparation of the gospel. “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (Verse 15). Brethren … we need to look to our FEET, being PREPARED “to go” where they are!

We see the lost souls everyday in the market places where we shop, and in the places where we work. They may be our loved ones, or our neighbors, or a stranger but they need Christ! We need to plead for all men everywhere to repent and trust Jesus Christ by faith.

We need to be as Paul: “testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:21) “Now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (I Corinthians 5:20)

An ambassador is prepared! He has his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel.

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Take The Shield

We must TAKE of the SHIELD OF FAITH. “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Verse 16)

In John chapter 20, we have this account of the risen Christ having been already seen by all the apostles except for one. Thomas “was not with them when Jesus came.”

The eleven apostles had seen with their eyes his hands and his side, and believed. “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (Vs.20). Thomas said to them, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe” (Vs.25).

In verse 27, Jesus, then, shows Thomas his hands and his side. “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, Thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

In this dispensation, the age of the Church, it is given unto us to believe by faith, not by sight. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1] “But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” [Hebrews 11:6]

The Scripture foresaw all this, when it said this of Jesus Christ: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” [1 Peter 1:8-9]

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Take The Helmet

We must TAKE the HELMET OF SALVATION. “And take the helmet of salvation,…” (Verse 16). A soldier in this conflict needs this helmet to protect his HEAD from a fatal wound. The Christian’s head is where his vital affections reside. The believer’s whole health, and well being, is wrapped up in the SON of God’s so GREAT SALVATION (Hebrews 2). The helmet of salvation being in its proper place, guarantees our not falling as a fatality in this Spiritual Warfare. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

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Take The Sword

We must TAKE the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT “… and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:” (Verse 17).

Ultimately … it all comes back to this issue. It always will. Is the Bible the word of God, perfectly preserved, or is it the work of men? Is it an error-filled book, or is it PURE, and without proven error? 

Since 1881, there have been over 200 translations of the Bible in a gigantic devilish effort to replace the authority of just one particular translation of the Bible. This ONE translation is the ONE that every one of these other translations has sought to replace … and is known as the Authorized Version of 1611 (or The King James Version).

The logic of faith is this! Obedience to the BOOK of God, through faith in the BOOK of God ... depends on God having not only inspired some missing original autographs, but having MAINTAINED … for us ... this inspiration down through the centuries of time in spite of the sinful men who sit in the high places as the scholars and the educators.

In regard to the various editions of the A.V.1611, let me quote the Committee On Versions To The Board Of Managers, American Bible Society, 1852. “The English Bible as left by the translators has come down to us unaltered in respect to its text”(page 7 of the report). “With the exception of typographical errors and changes required by the progress of orthography in the English language, the text of our present Bible remains unchanged, and without variation from the original copy as left by the translators” (page 11 or the report). “The present copies of the Bible accord throughout with the edition of 1611.”

Will you believe what God has said IN THE BOOK … ABOUT THE BOOK?

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

Amen! Amen! Amen!

Next: Walk!