And this is, you know, obviously we're talking about, I guess you
could say, building blocks, building blocks of the Christian
faith. And there's a lot of things that
we've been going through with prayer, faith and, you know,
everything else that we talked about before that the armor of
God is one that is very important.
And as as far as introduction goes, we're in a great battle
against the world, against the flesh and against the devil.
And the Bible says that in in first John chapter 2.
But we must not be surprised at the constant warfare and the
trouble. Soldiers don't like war, but it
is their job. I thought that was a great
statement. You know, we the, the Hayden and
Esther were here over the weekend and a lot of you got to
meet them and got them. I was telling the I think I was
telling Miss Tawana and, and whoever was in there, Brother
Ryan, that, you know, I said, yeah, I got them to the train
station at 5 O clock yesterday morning because they had to head
out. I was like, wait a second, it
was actually this morning. It feels like yesterday already
was such a long time ago. But they're, they're taking the
train up to New York City. I think I mentioned that, but
they're hitting like every place in the whole country.
But anyway, we went to, we took them to Washington, DC on Monday
because they wanted to see all the different sites and
everything. So we went to the the Tomb of
the Unknown Soldier and watch the changing of the guard and
actually got to see something as many times as I've been there, I
got to see something that I hadn't seen before.
There was a bunch of school groups there and I guess, I
guess maybe because it was spring break or I don't know how
they set it up. But one of them, one of the
schools, actually, they did it with a couple different schools,
but the last one that laid a wreath there at the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier, they actually played taps and they had the
military guys out there with the trumpet playing taps, you know,
And that was, that was really neat to see.
And then yesterday, I went up to Quantico, which is that, you
know, when you're driving up 95 and you see that big Marine
Corps museum right there, And I actually preached the funeral
for a Marine. He was 95 years old, but he
fought in Korea. And because he had fought in
Korea, he was eligible to be buried in the Quantico National
Cemetery, which looks very much like Arlington.
It's right around the corner from where that museum is at.
But we did the, there's a, there's a Chapel right there
that's, that's within. I mean, it's all windows.
And you, as you're looking through it, you're looking right
at the Marine Corps Museum. And so there was a couple things
that we did in there as well. But you know, to, to see how
sharp everything is. And, you know, so they had
Marines that were there that, you know, that that were the
pallbearers. And everything's just, it's just
sharp and crisp and, you know, every movement is, you know, is
just all of them do it exactly at the same time.
And I think that's one of the things that that Hayden and
Esther were shocked by two, especially when we're at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, everybody's shoes clicked at the
same time, you know, and it's just like, how do we don't have
stuff like this? How do they get their shoes to
click? And, you know, they're not even
looking and they're doing it at the same time.
You know, it's just, it's really sharp.
And, and, but I think this is a great statement.
Soldiers don't like war, but it's their job.
And that's what they that's what they do.
We're not yet in heaven. We're at we're in the enemy's
territory and we must keep fighting until the war is over.
But I thought about this, you know, as sharp as our Marines
are, as sharp as our military is, and as much as they train
for all those things to be sharp and to be the best in the world,
you know, how much more should we be that way for Christ?
You know, and, and I, I mean, I get it, people, different people
have different personalities and things like that.
But you know, when I, when I see a Christian that's just a slob,
you know, it doesn't give a good name to Christ.
You know, you go into their house and they got stuff
everywhere and they, they live like, you know, I don't know,
just, I mean, I think as a Christian, you ought to be sharp
with everything that you do. That's how, you know, I get
people asking me all the time. In fact, we, we met somebody in
Fredericksburg yesterday, my wife and I, and she said, are
you, are you in the military? I said, no, I'm a pastor, you
know. Oh, OK, you look like you were
in the military. Just the way your hair was cut
and the way you were dressed and all of those kind of things.
I said, I get that a lot. But I'm in the Lord's army.
You know, it gives, it gives you an opportunity to talk about
the, about the Lord, right? And, and, and I think that's the
way it ought to be with everything that we do.
You know, you got to be sharp. You ought to do things and you
ought to do things to the best of your ability.
And you can do that without a lot of money, right?
You don't have to have a lot of money to be sharp and to dress
sharp and to be on time and to do the different things that,
that make you stand out, right? We're in the Lord's army.
So we're in a battle. And soldiers don't like war, but
it's their job. And, and as Christians, listen,
I don't like confrontation. I don't like to, you know, I
don't like to have to call out evil necessarily, but it's our
job. That's what we do as Christian
soldiers. And, and that's, that's what
we're doing here on this earth. And so until we're in heaven,
we're going to fight battles, which by the way, that's another
reason why, you know, crossing the Jordan River into the
promised land. I mean, that's a, that is a,
that's a, not a picture of, of crossing into heaven.
It's a picture of the victorious Christian life, right?
You don't have battles in heaven, but you do have battles
in the, in the, in the Christian life.
And there are times when you fail, which is where we see with
AI and some of these other things, right?
And it's a battle, it's a, it's a, it's a war that we're in.
So #2 we stand in God's power. The believers armor is provided
by God. That's why it's called the armor
of God. And Ephesians chapter 6 and
verse 11 calls it that. Put on the whole armor of God.
We don't stand in our own power. We have the victory.
We don't have to be afraid of the devil, but we have to stand
against him and be on guard, right?
You've heard it said many times, I've read the back of the book.
And we win. We know that we win the battle,
all right, or we know that we win the war.
We're going to lose the battle now and then, but the armor is
available to all of us. But as he makes the point here,
we must put it on and learn how to use it.
And that's what the rest of this passage talks about is, is what
those pieces of armor are, what those pieces of armor represent,
and how we should be using them. So First off, is the loins good
about with truth? Let's, let's just start back in
verse #10 and we'll read through verse #14 to talk about the
loins good about with truth. But it says finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places.
I mean, that's what we're dealing with.
If that does not, if that, if that doesn't open your eyes to
help you understand exactly what's going on in the world
today. We wrestle not against flesh and
blood. It's not the people that we're
wrestling against, although sometimes there's a face to
those, you know, to those, to these things that and we blame
this person or that person or this politician or that
politician. And you know, obviously they're
the ones that are doing it. But we're not wrestling against
them. We're wrestling against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Wherefore because of that, take
unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to, to
withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand.
Therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
That's the first one loins girt about with truth.
So the loins must be protected in battle.
That's your, that's your midsection, that's your, that's,
that's where your power comes from in a lot of ways.
But because if you're wounded in the loins, you cannot continue
to fight. The protection is the truth.
And this refers to truthfulness or honesty.
God is a God of truth and his people must be truthful people.
By the way. In fact, let's turn over to
Titus chapter 1. Keep your finger there in
Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to be coming back
there through the rest of the the rest of this lesson this
evening, but turn over to Titus chapter 1.
We'll read that in a second. But I think, I think that's one
of the ways that Christians have failed the most in their daily
life is in this area of truth. Not that we won't stand for the
truth of God's Word, but that so many people have no problem
lying or just, I mean, call it stretching the truth, call it
whatever you want to call it, but they have no problem saying
something that's going to make them look better, right?
And until you actually think about it, until you actually
start noticing it in your own life, you'll just do it without
even thinking about it. It's like a used car salesman.
They'll tell you anything you want to hear as long as you buy
that car, right? And, and there's a lot of
Christians who do that with their lives and, and with, with
everything that happens. Oh, yeah, I was just getting
ready to do that. Well, you weren't, you forgot,
right? I mean, but, but we don't even
think about it and we say those kind of things or Oh yeah, he
was whatever. And, and you know that it's not
true, but nobody can prove it, right?
But we've gotten so comfortable and so smooth at telling lies
that we don't even have any problem with it anymore.
But what we don't realize is it's whether whether it's easy
to prove or not, if it's a lie, it's a lie.
If it's not the truth, it's not the truth.
And it's, it's going to harm your spiritual life.
And that's what I mean, your loins gird about with truth.
It's, it's, it's such an important thing to protect.
It's where your where your power comes from.
But verse #12 one of themselves, even a prophet of their own,
said the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow
bellies. This witness is true.
Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the
faith. That's the, as we're saying, in
contrast, the Cretians were liars.
That was their reputation. But that should never be the
reputation of somebody who is a child of God.
Don't go to him. He'll tell a lie straight to
your face, right? How many Christians have that
reputation? I can't.
I don't know if he's I can't tell if he's telling me the
truth or not. How do I know if he's if he's,
if he's lying to me or not, right?
Because we just lie so easily. But lying is of the devil.
John 844 What is that? You are of your father the devil
and the lust of your father. You will do It was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a
liar, and the father of it Lying is of the devil.
It doesn't matter if you call it a little white lie.
It doesn't matter if you call it stretching the truth.
It doesn't matter what you call it.
A lie is a lie if it's not the truth, and it is of the devil,
right? And it's of the old sinful
nature. Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 22
through 25, it talks about that. So lying is of darkness.
It's of this world and we must put it off and put on the new
man, which is Christ. Therefore, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
Look at Zacchaeus, right? Zacchaeus is a perfect example
of that. Zacchaeus was a tax collector.
He was a liar, he was a cheat. But what happened when Zacchaeus
got saved, everything changed, right?
He gave all the money back. He quit the lies.
At least that's that's what we're left to understand in
God's Word. By the way, I want to show you
this turn over to Revelation. This is a completely off topic,
but it goes right along with this Revelation Chapter 9.
I believe it is. Yeah.
Talk about repentance, right? And, and this and just, you
know, I brought up that verse, First Corinthians 517.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. And you got this, this new idea
out there today. It's not new, but it's, it's
around. And, and a lot of people have
talked about it. You know, repentance is just a
change from unbelief to belief. No, it is, it is repenting.
Repenting of your sin is realizing that you're a Sinner
and wanting to put that sin away and going in a different
direction, right? And I've said this 1000 times,
we don't stop sinning in order to be saved.
But when you get saved, you should stop sinning.
There ought to be a change in your life, right?
And you have all these people. Oh, that's works.
You're trying to tell people that they have to stop sinning
in order to be saved and that they have to repent of the of
all their evil works and everything else.
Well, look at this, OK, Revelation Chapter 9 and verse
#20. And the rest of the men which
were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the
works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and
idols of gold and silver and brass and stone, and of wood,
which can neither see nor hear nor walk, Neither repented they
of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their
fornication, nor of their thefts.
So I guess everything changes during that time and you
actually have to get saved by works, right?
No, it's because that's what repenting is.
Repenting is turning away from those things.
And he said these men that repented not of those works,
right? That's what repentance is.
So anyway, side point, but that's a great verse.
If if when people try to tell you that that repentance is just
a change from unbelief to belief and that you're trying to add
works to salvation when you're bringing repentance into the
issue. That's, I mean, that's a perfect
verse for that because it very plainly lists things that they
did not repent of that needed to change.
But anyway, lying, lying is of the devil and there are many
reasons why people lie. Number one, lying is often
caused by fear. It was fear that motivated
Abraham to lie about his wife not once but twice right when he
was in Egypt. Genesis chapter 12, verse 11
through 13. I think this is a wonderful
passage because Abimelech was the king and Abraham talked to
his wife Sarah, who was his half sister, but it was his wife.
And Abimelech said, oh wow, she's a beautiful woman.
Is this who is this your wife? No, no, it's not my wife, She's
my sister. Don't kill me and take her,
right? So Abimelech said, great, if
she's not your wife, then bring her to me.
I'm going to marry her, right. But what the Bible says, and
this is a wonderful passage that Abimelech, God came to Abimelech
in a dream and told him that this was Abraham's wife.
And he said, I did it in the innocence.
I, I didn't, I didn't intend to lie.
I didn't intend to sleep with this woman and, and, and sin
against God, right? And, and the Bible says that God
kept Abimelech from sinning against him because of that,
right. But it was fear that motivated
Abraham to lie about he was afraid for his life.
He thought that he was going to get killed if he didn't lie
about it. Peter denied Jesus out of fear
of man. Luke 22 talks about the same
thing. All right, Proverbs 22 and verse
2529, verse 25. The fear of man bringeth A
snare. The Bible says there in that
passage. But lying is often caused by
hatred as well. In fact, let's turn over to
Proverbs 26. This is a verse that you'll
recognize, hopefully. Proverbs 26 and verse 28.
A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a
flattering mouth worketh through it.
A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it.
So lying is often caused by hatred.
People tell lies about other people to hurt them.
That's why the devil told lies to Eve.
That's the motive behind spreading false rumors.
This is a pretty interesting thing he says.
In the 1980's the head of the Bible Society in Nepal sent out
a letter to the church is claiming that I, David Cloud,
had burned Bibles, but it was a complete lie.
He did that because he wanted to force me to stop preaching and
leave the country. This is a really interesting
one. Hindus tell lies about
Christians to hurt the cause of Christ.
For example, some Hindus in Nepal say that Christians must
be baptized naked in cows blood. Well, that's enough to keep me
from converting to Christianity, right?
And that's what they're trying to do.
But it's, it's lies that are that are being spread because of
what? Hatred?
They hate the Christians and they don't want to see people
convert. So they make up things about
them to try to keep people from converting.
So it's caused by fear. It's caused by hatred.
Lying is also. And if you're still there in
Proverbs, turn over to Proverbs chapter 20.
Lying is caused by covetousness. And boy, this is a big one.
This is a really big one, especially for those who are
businessmen out there. Easy to tell a lie about
something. Boy, isn't this, isn't this what
we see happen so often? And that's why, again, that's,
that's why we have, you know, the, the reputation out there of
a used car salesman. They'll tell you anything you
want to hear as long as you buy the car.
And it might, it might barely make it off the lot, but it made
it off the lot. You know, they'll put something
in it that'll make it so it runs smooth until the next time you
have to change the gas, or I mean, put gas in it or, or do
something else. And the next thing you know,
it's sputtering and shaking and falling apart, right?
They'll tell you whatever they have to tell you because of
covetousness. They want that money, right?
Salesman. A lot of times the salesman have
pressure that's being put on them by their bosses or by the
president of the country or by whoever to lie to somebody to
get them to buy a product, right?
And as Christians, a lot of Christians fall into that trap.
Well, it's just business. I just this what I have to do,
right? If I'm honest, I wouldn't sell
anything. Well, you don't think God will
bless your honesty? Absolutely He will.
And if there is no other choice than to tell a lie, then you're
in the wrong profession and you need to find something else.
It is never right to tell a lie. But it all comes down to
covetousness, right? Proverbs chapter 20 and verse
#14 it is not. It is not, saith the buyer.
But when he has gone his way, then he boasted, oh, it's
nothing, it's nothing. Then he starts boasting about
it, right? Proverbs 21 and verse #6 the
getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and
fro of them that seek death. That's a pretty strong
statement. The I mean, but that's exactly
what he's talking about. If you're making money because
you're lying to somebody to try to get them to buy your product
or to buy into whatever it is that you're doing, the getting
of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro.
So people lie when they want to buy or sell.
They also lie to gain position and power, such as in politics.
Boy, if we don't have a perfect example of that in the
governor's mansion right now, somebody who ran as a moderate
and, oh, I'm not going to raise your taxes and I'm not going to
gerrymander the elections, and I'm not going to do this and I'm
not going to do that. And before they'd even sworn her
in, they were already saying all the things that they were going
to do. And they did all of them, right?
I mean, a few of them got struck down, thankfully.
But all of the, the gun laws in the, you know, this
gerrymandering thing, I mean, when you say this is a temporary
measure to bring fairness to the elections, I mean, that's about
as about as straight of a lie as you can tell somebody, right?
They know full well that it's not going to be a temporary
measure and they know that it's not bringing fairness to the
elections. But that's how they're selling
it to everybody because they want that position and they want
that power, right? And it's all about covetousness
because when you're in that position and you have that
power, you make a lot of money, right?
Which is why Ilhan Omar and these other ones who are making
$170,000 a year in Congress are now multi, multi, multi
millionaires. How long has she been in
Congress? Like 5 years, Six years, and
she's worth $30 million, making $170,000 a year.
Isn't that an amazing thing? I'm in the wrong business.
Maybe I need to go to Congress and see what they're doing
right. But that's exactly what it is.
It's all it's lying that's caused by covetousness.
And then I think both of these go hand in hand.
But lying is caused by selfishness and pride.
It's often inconvenient in this world to speak the truth, all
right? That's why Ananias and Sapphira
lied in Acts chapter 5. They had pretended to be more
spiritual than they were, and they lied in an attempt to hide
their selfishness. Well, I think that's a lot of
people don't necessarily lie only with their lips.
People lie with their life too, right?
You show up at church and you're one way.
You act like you're something that you're not.
You're somebody completely different when you're at home.
That's telling a lie. It's lying about who you are
based on who you're around, right?
And boy, there's a lot of things that we could say about that,
but it's caused by selfishness and pride.
Why? Well, if somebody finds out that
that's the real me, then I'm going to lose my, you know, my
reputation at church, and I'm going to lose my reputation at
work and I'm going to lose my reputation at this place.
And it's all about selfishness and pride.
So lies destroy the believer spiritual armor and allow the
devil to have an inroad into his life for one big reason.
What is Psalm 6618? If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me, right?
So is a lie a sin? Is a lying iniquity, right?
And how often do we confess those things to God after we
just told somebody without even thinking about it?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry about that.
I got that. Or or.
No, that's not the way that is or.
No, that's not what happened. This is what happened.
And it was knowing full well that it was a lie, right?
It's lying is one of the easiest sins.
I think maybe, maybe throw in pride and maybe some
unthankfulness and maybe some covetousness and things in there
like that. But lying is one of the easiest
sins to commit because most of it is done so easy that nobody
knows that that's what you're doing many times.
And it's very easy to get away with it.
Now, obviously you get caught and then it's a big problem.
But most people are not telling big lies.
Most people are just telling little lies.
Little lies here and. There and they never confess it,
they never ask God's forgiveness.
And then they then they're going to show up in their prayer
closet. They're going to show up at a
prayer meeting. They expect that God is going to
hear them. If I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Lying is sin just the same way. And so when you lie you, you
lose the armor that protects you and you give the devil an inroad
into your life. So back in Ephesians chapter 6.
The Armor of God. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
#14 we read the first half of that verse.
Stand there for having your loins good about with truth, but
then also having on the breastplate of righteousness.
The breastplate covers the heart and it's a very important part
of the soldiers armor, right? Which is why most of the time
when, when the the soldiers, especially in our military,
obviously they're not wearing armor, but they're wearing a
version of it. And almost always that, that
body armor that they wear is protecting they're midsection,
right? You got a lot of vital organs in
that area. And your heart is the most
important of all of them. If you get shot in the heart,
you don't have much of a chance of surviving, right?
So the breastplate covers that, that very important area.
So the protection is righteous living.
And again, I, I, I, I try as as much as I can to stress the
importance of that holiness in the importance of holy living,
the importance of righteousness in our lives.
And we go back to Ephesians chapter 4 through 6 talks about
putting away all of those things.
So let's go back to the Ephesians chapter 4 and we'll
just cover these quickly. But what is what is righteous
living? Well, it's putting away anger.
Verse 26, be angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. It's not stealing.
Verse 28 Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let
him labor working with his hands, the things, the thing
which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth
working and giving to help others.
Verse 28 Then he may that that he may have to give to him that
needeth right. That's another one pure speech.
Verse 29 let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that
it may minister grace unto the hearers.
By the way, turn over to keep your finger there.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 12. Talk about pure speech.
I pointed this verse. Out before but it's been a
little while since I pointed this out Matthew chapter 12.
I want you to think about this because boy, this is this puts a
whole new perspective on pure speech.
Matthew chapter 12 And this is Jesus talking, He's talking to
the Pharisees, which He was constantly on the Pharisees,
obviously because of who they were, and what they were, and
how they were. But verse #36 the Bible says
this, But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall
speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Every idle. Word that men shall speak, they
shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
I wonder how many idle? Words we have in a day.
Where we say things. And by the way, that would be
your cuss words. That'd be your words that are
close to your cuss words, right? Those are idle words.
They're they're words that just don't mean anything that you're
that you just throw in and add to your speech for no reason,
right. But could you imagine what that
list is going to look like when we stand before God and He says
that every idle word you're going to give account thereof in
the day of judgement? That means you ought to.
Be very careful about the words that you use and what you say
and how you say it and when you say it right doesn't doesn't
really leave a whole lot of room for for cursing and swearing and
all of those other things right something that we have to be
very careful about. But that's what he says.
If you're going to live righteously, then let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is
good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the
hearers right being kind and forgiving.
Verse 32 Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Putting away fornication and uncleanness.
Chapter 5 and verse #3 But fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become a
Saints. Putting away covetousness.
You just mentioned that one. We just read it.
Having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Verse 11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Redeeming the time. Verse 16 because the days are
evil. Being a submissive wife.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband's is unto the
Lord. Being a loving husband.
Verse 25 Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church and gave himself for it.
Being an obedient child, children.
Verse 1 of chapter 6, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is
right. Being engaged, compassionate and
a wise father. Fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath. Being a diligent servant.
Verse 5 through 8, being a just master #9 all of those things.
And that's, that's just a small portion of the Bible commands
that were given. But those are, those are ways
that we protect that righteous living and doing things that are
pleasing to the Lord. And then and then Ephesians
chapter 6, you should be right there because that's pretty much
where we ended. But verse #15 and your feet shot
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
So the believer is to be moving forward into the enemy's
territory or not to be on the defense hiding behind the castle
walls. And I believe that's that's one
of the reasons why Christianity is in the state that it's in.
We have allowed the enemies of Christ to be on the offensive
for far too long. And we've just.
Sat there and taken it, right? They tell you that you have to
accept LGBTQRST Plus and we just say, OK, well, I guess I won't
say anything about that, right? You see what's happening with
this? What's that guy's name?
Jaden Ivy. Basketball player for the
Chicago Bulls, right there was there was a player that was on
the Chicago Bulls that got that got arrested and got convicted
of assault and battery and all kinds of different things and
ended up spending some time in prison.
They gave him a 3030 game suspension.
The Chicago Bulls, Jaden Ivy spoke out against the NBA's
Pride Awareness Month and they fired him.
They kicked him off the team. They said it was conduct
unbecoming or conduct detrimental to the team.
The only thing that he did, I mean, he, he, he plays hard.
He gets along with all of his teammates.
He no fights, no arguments, no nothing.
He spoke out against the LGBTQ and what the NBA was doing with
that and the Bulls dismissed him and said that he was detrimental
to the team. That's that.
We have allowed that to happen. Do you know that the of all of
the the gays, lesbians, transgender, all of those people
who identify with all of those different alphabet soup
acronyms, 5% of the population? Identify as one.
Of those thousand different things, 5%.
And yet, there's something. Like 100 days a year where they
are celebrated. One of them is for an entire
month. There's such a small.
Portion of the population, you know why they went on the
offense and everybody else, Christians included, went on the
defense and said, OK, let's just hide behind the the walls of the
church. Let's hide behind our Bibles.
And you guys just go do what you're going to do because we
don't want to be offensive to you.
So you just, you just continue to go on the offense.
If the 95% of the people that don't agree with it would
actually stand up to it. There would be no LGBTQ plus in
the United States. There would be no
transgenderism. There would be no transgender
issues that we're fighting against.
There would be no lawsuits because you're trying to force
somebody to make a cake for your gay wedding.
There wouldn't be any of those things.
But we went on the defensive, they went on the offensive and
we just let it happen. Right, we need to get back.
On the offensive and if and if Christians would all stand up
together. You see the reason why people
like Jaden Ivy don't stand up is because they most people don't
want to lose their jobs. And so they just don't say
anything because long as it doesn't affect me.
Long as it doesn't affect. Me, I'm not going to say
anything about it, right? If every Christian that agreed
with him would actually stand up and agree with him, he'd
probably get his job back. He'd probably get $1,000,000 and
win a lawsuit and everything else, and then they would never
do that again, right? But all the other Christians,
well, at least it wasn't me. They got fired from my job,
right? I agree with him.
I wish more people would stand up and do that, but not me,
right? Because we're living on the
defensive instead of on the offensive.
We let them live on the offensive.
And there's such a tiny percentage of them, and I'm not,
I mean, that's just one issue. I mean, think about the
abortionist. I mean, there's not that many
that agree with abortion, but they're loud, they're vocal,
they're offensive about it. And everybody else just.
Says, OK, well we don't want to offend that tiny little portion
of the of the population. So you guys just go ahead and do
what you're going to do, right? That's how we live.
We move into the devil's territory by proclaiming the
gospel. This is the great light that
moves back to darkness and that's what Jesus commanded.
Mark 1615 Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature, right? Five times.
The commandment to preach the gospel throughout the world is
repeated in the New Testament. Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24,
John 20, Acts 1, all of those right?
That's one of the reasons why we we give out the cards and why we
make it a competition to to get you excited about it, right?
Because how else are we going to win this world for Christ if we
don't go tell them? How else are we going to go on
the offensive if we're not out there putting the gospel into
places where people can see it and getting it into their hands
and, and not trying to be, but being in your face about it,
right? I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. Why should I have to be sorry
that I'm trying to hand you a track to tell you how to go to
heaven, to tell you how to get your sins forgiven?
Why should I be the one that's that's shamed into not doing it
right? You should be ashamed of not
taking a gospel track. But but but we're the ones who
are like, I'm sorry Sir, but I would like to give you this.
Would you, would you please take this from me and and read it
when you get a chance? Oh, thank you so much for taking
that right. Why do I have to be the one
that's ashamed? I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. It's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth.
Right. But we, we are.
So used to living on the defensive that we're afraid to
do anything for the cause of Christ, right?
And a lot of people get charged politically and they want to go
do something in politics or a lot of people get charged in in
business and they want to go use their money to to affect good
and do all these other things. What people need more than
anything is Christ. And if we would put our efforts
into winning people to Christ, we'd probably see a lot more
people one and we would see people's minds being changed and
we would be on the offensive, right?
And they would be the ones that were be on the defensive, not
us. Putting on gospel shoes #3
refers to something you do every day and all the long life's way.
So when we're talking about feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace that is putting on your gospel shoes every time
you wake up. I am ready to go give the gospel
out. I've got gospel cards with me.
I've got, I've got a I'm looking for opportunities.
I'm praying and asking God to give me opportunity to share the
gospel. And then what he does, I'm using
that opportunity to share the gospel.
There you'd be. When you're actually looking for
ways to share the gospel, you'd be surprised at how many ways
God actually gives you to do it. The people who always say, well,
I don't, I don't see that many people are.
I don't really get that many opportunities.
You know why? Because you're not looking for
opportunities. If your feet were shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, you would find a lot more
opportunities out there. You're not looking for them, so
you let them pass you all the time.
Right. You let them.
You let. Those opportunities go by and
you let them go by so much that you don't think that you get
opportunities, but you do if you look for them.
And and you know what? Most people are not rude.
There are some people who are rude about it, right?
There are some people are going to say no, I don't want that,
blah, blah, blah. Riley gave a track to somebody
in Sam's the other day. We were walking around.
Of course, they were still trying to get their numbers up
for Sunday, but she gave a guy in Sam's a card and he said he
started, you know, he took it. But he said, I mean, he was, he
was asking her all kinds of questions about, well, do you
know this? And do you know this and do you
know this weird ideas? I have no idea what he was
talking about, you know, but most people are not going to be
rude about it. They're going to take a card,
right? And you just never know how
God's going to use it. I think we'll be surprised to
find out how many people are in heaven that, that, that scanned
that video and watch that 15 minute video and accept the
Christ as their savior or people that you talked to that you lost
touch with because you moved away.
But you worked with them and you shared the gospel with them and
they got saved later on. And you just, you'd have no idea
where you went or how to get in touch with you.
You're going to be surprised, I believe, and you're going to
wish that you had done so much more in the area of witnessing
for Christ. I think I've told you this
illustration before, but I remember that there was a there
was a, it's an old like Arab, you know, not wives tale, but
mythical story. I guess these guys were walking
along the road with their camels and, and this heavenly being
showed up right in front of them and said, I want you to pick up
these rocks in front of you and put them in your bag.
And when you get to the when you get to where you're going
tonight, you're going to be both excited and disappointed.
And they were like, what in the? World this thing.
Disappeared and there rocks litter pick up rocks and put
them in our bags. OK, fine, whatever, we'll pick
up some rocks. So they grabbed a little handful
of rocks and they stuffed them in their bag and they got to
where they were going. And as they were unpacking that
night, they opened up their bags and realized that those rocks
had turned into diamonds. And of course they were excited.
Oh, look at these rocks or diamonds.
And then they were disappointed because they said, oh, imagine
if we had picked up a ton of more of them, you know, and
that's, and that's exactly the way it is when we're going to
stand before God, You know, we'll be excited for the ones
that did get saved and we'll be happy that they that we led them
to Christ. But I think we're going to be so
disappointed that we didn't share the gospel more, that we
focused on humanitarian things and focused on politics and
focused on this and focused on that and all of these other
different things, conspiracy theories and all these other
things that we tried to do to change the world.
When in reality, if we had just LED more people to Christ, we
would have a lot bigger impact. That's what Feat shod with the
preparation of the Gospel of peace is talking about.
Shoes are something that you walk in all day long.
It refers to something you're continually busy doing, not
something that's done for a special situation.
A Christmas choir program. VBS program Just once in a
while. #4 putting on. Gospel shoes as part of a
spiritual revival because spreading the gospel is so close
to the heart of God and so necessary for His best blessing
and for spiritual fruit. Those who do not.
Witness do not have protection from the devil because they're
living in disobedience to God. We can't effectually resist the
devil until we submit to God. James 47.
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you. You're dead tonight.
Nobody's awake but putting on gospel shoes as part of a
spiritual revival. Because when you lead people to
Christ, what's the last thing that Jesus told people to do
before he went into heaven? Go tell.
Right, Matthew 2819 and 20, the last couple verses in that in
the entire book of Matthew, right Acts chapter 1.
You shall receive power after that.
The Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto me, right? That's what His whole focus was
on. The Son of Man has come to what
seek and to save that which was lost.
That's why He came. So when you do what He came to
do and when you do what He told us to do before He went back
into heaven, you were doing something that was very close to
the heart of God. So you will experience your own
personal revival when you get busy winning souls to Christ.
I want you to think about this. How many people have you shared
the gospel with? Giving out tracts is great.
You should. But how many people have you
shared the gospel with in the last six months?
How many times have you sat down with somebody and gone through
the entire plan of salvation with them?
Now how many people? Have you won to Christ in the
last, let's just say two years? Have you won anybody?
To Christ, well, I just don't get opportunities.
No, you do get opportunities. You're just not looking for them
or you're not looking hard enough because I tell you this,
I get opportunities all the time.
And I know that I'm. I'm in a little bit more of a
position to be able to talk to people, but God gave me the
opportunities and I took those opportunities.
And that's why I go to breakfast with people all the time.
So I go to lunch with people all the time.
And you know what I do when I go to lunch with them?
I know what your problem is. You need Christ, you're building
on a foundation that is going to crumble.
You need to have a solid foundation.
That's why your life is in the condition that it's in.
You cannot build something that's going to last on a soft
foundation made out of sand. It's going to keep crumbling.
What you need is Christ. You need to build on a solid
foundation. You know how easy that is to
tell somebody that they're looking for answers.
They don't know what to do. They don't know where to turn.
They don't know what what the answers are.
And you have them. But you're not looking for the.
Opportunity to tell people that. It's not hard to.
Meet somebody or to, to get involved in some kind of
organization or something like that and go sit down for lunch
and give them the gospel. And, and I'm thankful God's
given me some, some opportunities to, to witness to
people in very high positions in this area, supervisors and, and
police officers and, you know, all kinds of different people.
But you've got to take the. Opportunities.
That's why God keeps giving you the opportunities, because He
knows you're going to take it. You wonder why you don't ever
get to give the gospel out to somebody because you're not
looking for ways to do it. Feet shod with.
The preparation of the gospel of peace means you are looking for
the opportunities to do that. And when you start sharing the
gospel and you start seeing people get saved, you'll be
surprised at how that makes you get your life right with God
because you want to be effective in doing that.
Right. That's why.
That's why my focus is so much on witnessing and holiness.
They go together so closely. When you witness, when you share
the gospel, you're going to want to live a life that's right with
God. Because why do all that if you
don't have any power to share the gospel?
If you don't have any power to answer the questions that they
have, you don't have any wisdom that comes from God.
But then when you're. Holy and when you are right with
God, you cannot help but witness, you cannot help but
look for opportunities to share the gospel and when that's why
those things go together so closely.
And it's exactly what he's saying is that when you when you
put on the gospel shoes, it'll, it'll give you a personal
revival in your own life. Because you start seeing.
That happen. You can't help but.
Tell somebody else and tell somebody else and tell somebody
else and look for more opportunities and you get
excited about it. That's why the reason that's
that's. The reason why most most most
Christians in most good independent Baptist churches.
Are just. There.
They're not doing. Very much at all for Christ.
And they have no desire for witnessing.
They have no real desire to be right with God.
They have no real desire to do anything else.
Because God gives you. These opportunities and your
feet are not shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace. You are not ready to share the
gospel at at a moment's notice. And you see an.
Opportunity and oh man, I probably should have give that
one. I should have given him a track
man. I should have.
Given him a track when you say that 100 times.
Don't you think you're kind? Of in a position where you need
to make some changes, start sharing the gospel a little bit
more, start listening to the Holy Spirit when He tells you to
give somebody a track and instead of living with regret,
you live on the offensive and go give that person a track.
When you start doing it, you. Find out that it's really not
that hard. It's really not.
Sharing the gospel is not really that hard.
You just got to do it right. It's like making a presentation
at work. First time you ever made that
presentation, you're probably really nervous.
But once you do the job and once you've done that presentation 50
times, you can get up there and do it in your sleep almost
right, Given the gospel is the same way, right?
When you see somebody and God puts it on your heart to go talk
to them, or when you have an opportunity and you say, hey,
how about if we get together for lunch, let's let's talk about
this, whatever it happens to be, I know what direction I'm going
to steer that conversation. And they're not leaving there
without me sharing the gospel with them.
They may not know that. Yeah.
All right, that's great. Let's sit down for lunch.
Yeah, I'd love to do that. Right.
Who's going to who's going to turn that down?
Very few people will turn that down.
But then you always steer the conversation back toward giving
them the gospel, and you find out it's really not that
difficult. God gives you the wisdom, and
God gives you the the courage and the boldness to do it.
So those don't, those who don't witness, don't have the
protection from the devil because they're living in
disobedience to God. We can't effectively,
effectually resist the devil until we submit to God #5
preaching the gospel requires preparation.
The believer must learn how to preach the gospel to different
types of people. You have to learn how to deal
with sinners arguments. That reminds us that each church
is to be a training center to exhort and prepare soldiers for
the warfare, right? I mean, I've, I've been through
a whole series, I call it Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, and talked
about all the different religions and what they're going
to say to you and, and what their arguments are going to be
against the Gospel. And, and I can't preach it every
week or every month or even every year.
But you can go back and you can watch those series and you can,
you can go back and look at those things and remind yourself
about how to talk to the Mormons, about how to talk to
the Jehovah's Witnesses, about how to talk to the Catholics
and, and you can share the gospel with them.
And when they come to you and they say, well, what about this?
Well, yeah, you might have a point there.
No, you don't. It's not in the Bible, right?
But if you have no idea how to lead somebody to Christ, you
need to get saved. You're on your way to hell.
Well, how do I get saved? Well, well, you need to ask
Jesus in your heart. What does that mean?
If you don't have any idea what it.
Means then how are you going to lead somebody to Christ, right?
I've told you this before. Start with first John 513 in
your Bible, right down next to it, Romans 323 and next to
Romans 323, right? Romans 623 and next to Romans
623, right? John 316.
I mean, you can, you can, you can walk yourself through the
Bible. You got to do something to
prepare yourself to be able to share the Gospel, right?
And, and if you have no idea what these other people believe,
then how are you going to share the gospel with them, right?
I always, when I'm, when I'm talking to somebody, I always
try to figure out what their background is 1st.
And if they tell me that, oh, I was raised Catholic, but you
know, we didn't really stay in the Catholic, well, then I know
that their mindset is everything that they're doing is based on
works more than likely, right. So I don't want to say all the
Catholics are wrong on all of that stuff.
Now, sometimes if they're asking and they're, they're kind of,
you know, down on the Catholic Church themselves, then I'll
tell them all the reasons why everything that the Catholic
Church does is wrong. God, God gives you the wisdom
and how to, how to do those things right, how to talk to
somebody about those things. But I can, I can steer that
conversation in a direction away from works and toward grace and
toward a gift of God and all of those things.
If I know their background, they tell me they grew up Jehovah's
Witness. You're going to.
You're going to take. The conversation in a different
direction. You know, most people that
you're talking to are not ex Mormons because they don't
usually come out of Mormonism unless they get saved, right?
But sometimes they come out of that background too.
And now I know how to talk to them because I know a lot of
what they believe, right? That's where studying comes in.
That's why it's why it's so important to study God's word,
to read God's word, to memorize God's word.
You know what happens when you memorize God's Word?
He. Brings those verses.
To mind when you're sitting there talking to somebody, if
you've never memorized it, you don't have an idea of what to
say to these people when they ask you this question or when
they bring up this argument or when they talk about this.
I could say, well, the Bible actually says, right.
That's why it's important that you memorize the references to,
right? Memorize the reference with the
verse. Somewhere in the Bible it says
something about. It's not very helpful either.
Right, But you memorize the verse and the reference together
and you can take them to that passage or you can say, well,
the Bible says in John 8, ye are of your father the devil and
lust, your father. You will do, I mean, whatever,
whatever it happens to be, right?
That's why it's important that you memorize.
That's why it's important that you study.
That's why it's important that you know what you're talking
about when it comes to those things, right?
That's why it's necessary. So you you have to understand
those things, and preaching the gospel requires that
preparation. So you learn.
How to preach the gospel to those different types of people.
And as you learn it, it gets easier and easier and easier and
easier to share the gospel. And then you're not hoping that
God doesn't put somebody in your past.
So you don't have to talk to somebody.
You're looking for ways to talk to them.
You're looking for ways to get the gospel in there.
And, and I try to give you a lot of illustrations and I try to
give you a lot of verses and I try to give you a lot of things
that you can use when you talk to somebody about the gospel,
right? It's a great, it's such an easy
illustration that people can understand, right?
And so I'll end with this because I could, I could go on
all night about it because it's, it's, it really is, it's
something that's so important that, that we understand and
that we know. But one of the easiest things
for people to understand when it comes to why is my life falling
apart? Why is nothing seemed to go
right? What I mean?
I just, I don't have the answers.
I don't know what to do. The easiest thing in the world?
Is to give them an illustration about building your house on a
rock or building your house on sand, Right.
Everybody understands that. So you say, well, look, would
you ever go build your house without building it on the
foundation? Well, no.
Why? Well, because it's going to
eventually it's going to fall down.
It's exactly right, Right. You might make it all the way
through the entire process of building that house and it looks
beautiful, but as soon as you get a big storm that comes
through, everything is going to collapse.
Right now, just because you built on a solid foundation
doesn't mean that everything's going to be perfect, right?
You could build on a solid foundation and a storm could
come through and you could lose a shutter, you could lose some
siding, you could lose a few shingles, but those aren't that
hard to fix, right? You built it solid and it's
built on the right foundation. Doesn't mean that everything's
going to be perfect. Doesn't mean that there's not
going to be any storms. Life is still it has some bumps
and some bruises and some difficulties and everything
else. But when you're built on the
solid foundation, you can go fix those things.
You're not starting over every time you hit a rough spot,
right? But most people are building on
sand and they're, they have not built on the foundation of Jesus
Christ. And so when you go through a
rough patch in your marriage or you know, when I'm talking to
these first responders and things, you, you, you go on a
rough call, You see something that was really difficult to
handle and everything collapses. Everything falls apart because
that's a storm. But your entire house fell down.
And now you're now you're ready to kill yourself because
everything that I've built my whole life on is just gone now,
right? And if I'm going to, if I'm
going to have something that I can live in, I got to start all
the way over and build it all the way back up again.
And I said, and what most people do is they build it back again
on sand. You can if you you.
Can lose your house all the way down to the foundation, but if
you still have the foundation you can always build it back up.
It might be difficult, but you can build it back up.
If you have no foundation, you have to start completely over
every single time. And it just falls apart.
Right. And most people can understand
that. They say now the foundation that
that I'm built on is Christ. And so doesn't.
Mean that my life is perfect. It doesn't mean that I don't
ever have any struggles. Doesn't mean that I never have
any issues. But it's a whole lot easier to.
Replace a few shingles and a couple pieces of siding than it
is to rebuild the house every time something happens, right?
Because it's built on the solid foundation.
And then you go back and tell them what that solid foundation
is, and you start them all the way through and you give them
the message of the gospel. It's an easy illustration for
people to understand and it may not work for everybody.
Right, but especially. Somebody who's a builder or
who's a contractor or who does anything in that kind of
community, it's an easy one for them to understand.
It's an easy one for the first responders to understand.
It's an easy one for a lot of people to understand, right?
But you have to be looking for opportunities.
You have to be looking for ways to share the gospel.
And if you're looking for it, you'll find it.
You will find it. If you're not, you'll never have
opportunities. And I don't know why, but God
never puts anybody in my path. No, He does.
You just don't. You just don't see them because
they walked right past you. Feet shod with the.
Preparation of the gospel of peace is people who are looking
for opportunities to share the gospel.
And when you start doing it, it gets easier and easier and
easier. And when you start doing it,
you'll find a personal revival in your own heart because you'll
want to be right with God so that you can share the gospel in
a way that is pleasing to Him. So a lot of things here that we
could talk about and, and, and we'll, we'll just, we'll briefly
review this next week and then we'll jump into the rest of
these things and finish it up. But let's pray we'll be done.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight.
Pray that you'd help us to take these things to heart.
God, those whose hearts are the hardest and have such a hard
time sharing the message of the gospel, may you soften their
hearts. May you help them to have a
desire to please you in this area.
May you help us all, may you help us all to be witnesses for
you and not just say that we that we are witnesses, not just
give out a card here and there, but to really share the message
of the gospel and to really try to look for opportunities to
share the gospel. God, may you help us to be
soldiers in the army of the Lord that are living on the offensive
and sharing the message of the gospel with as many people as we
can. God, may you help us to do that
until you come. Thank you again for all that you
do for us. In Jesus name, Amen.