Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
So we are in Ephesians chapter #6 you'll remember that last
week we looked at First Timothy chapter #1 and in that message
we looked at the reality of war. We saw that there is a war.
It's not a question of whether a war could come to you
spiritually, that it just is a matter of the Christian faith
that there is going to be a clash between the flesh and the
spirit. There's going to be a clash
between God and Satan. Now, listen, we already know who
has the victory, Amen. But yet there are still battles.
And we'll talk about that in just a moment.
The reality of warfare. We saw the quality of war that
we were to war. What type of warfare?
A good warfare that we were to make sure that we were to fight
what we could even call a beautiful warfare.
Not that it's not a very difficult thing, and not that
there can't be some very difficult moments in it, but the
fact of the clash between the good and the evil and that good
overcomes, there's a beautiful quality to that.
And that we need to fight that good fight that we need to war
that good warfare. And then we saw the tools of
warfare and we saw the very basic ones that were given to us
in first Timothy chapter #1 that we were to fight the war with
faith. I mean, how are you going to
fight against the spiritual darkness that's in this world
without faith? I mean, faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen by
it of those of the Old Testament.
It says in Hebrews Chapter 11 obtained a good report, and by
it today we are saved just as they were saved of the Old
Testament. So we've all saw faith, but then
also have a good conscience as well.
To be able to have a good warfare, you got to fight with a
good conscience. That you can't fight pretty,
could we put it that way? But that you have to fight with
some spiritual tools. And we're going to be looking at
that tonight. That we saw that the stakes of
the war were this, that there were two men who were named
there in First Corinthians, or rather First Timothy chapter #1
who had gone shipwreck. They'd gone off the rails
because they did not war that warfare.
That they ought to. They didn't lose their
salvation. But could we put it this way?
They lost everything else. They were saved as by fire, but
yet we wouldn't look back at their life and see that there
was a lot that was there to be meaningful.
And if we don't fight that fight, sure, your salvation will
not be taken away, but your peace, your joy, your
effectiveness, your testimony. We go on and on and on.
All of it could be taken away in a moment.
Why? Because you were not willing to
fight the good fight of faith, as we were told in First Timothy
chapter #1 Well, we're. Going to look.
At some principles this evening of warring that good warfare and
listen, it is is real. It is important for us to fight.
You know, my mind goes back to the War of 1812 and there's a
very decisive battle in the War of 1812 called the Battle of New
Orleans. And if you ever done some study
on it, Andrew Jackson was the general that was in charge of
the American troops. And those British troops at that
time, you know, they they still had a lot of thinking about
warfare in the well, not the colonies anymore, but in the
United States wilderness and those kind of things.
They were so different than warfare in Europe.
You know, on Europe, they would have warfare by like, going out
to the square in the middle of town and they, you know, shoot
at each other for a few minutes and probably, you know, go to
the pub afterwards and grab something to drink.
That's the kind of way that they would have warfare over there.
Of course, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you
understand. But here in the wilderness of
America, it was a lot different, wasn't it?
Well, they would be in the Battle of New Orleans.
They were still war for the British, were still warring in a
way that was, well, very European in a lot of ways.
They would line up in beautiful rows.
They would walk forward together, even if the terrain
wouldn't really allow them to do so.
And it was said that they had these red coats on that also had
red stripes across going just like this.
Well, it looked like a real big target right in the middle of
the chest. And so Andrew Jackson would tell
them with their muskets, he'd say, hold your fire, hold your
fire. Wait until they come close.
In fact, he said this. Wait until you can see the
whites of their eyes. And as they did so, they
unloaded everything that they had.
And the Battle of New Orleans was won very decisively by the
Americans. Now, many people know that, but
here's a footnote of history that's very interesting about
the Battle of New Orleans that not a lot of people know.
The War of 1812 was already done. 18 days earlier, the peace
treaty had been signed between the United States and Great
Britain and the battle the war was over.
But guess what? The word hadn't gone from the
peace treaty that was signed to New Orleans.
And they were fighting and the war was already done.
I guess nobody looked online to know what was going on.
You know, nobody checked Facebook or X or Twitter or
whatever it is called nowadays. They didn't know.
What I'm saying is this is they, the fight was already, oh,
listen, the battle had already been won.
Victory had already been secured.
And I kind of think about the Christian life kind of like
that. Listen, understand, this victory
has already been secured through Jesus Christ.
The victory was done. You say, when was that taken
care of? Well on the cross?
And it was authenticated at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
First Corinthians chapter 15 talks about that at length, that
the, the, the resurrection of Christ authenticated upon that
upon which Jesus Christ did on the cross.
But that's not to say that there aren't still battles and
skirmishes. They're going to take place.
Listen, the victory's already been secured.
We live in a place of victory, not as defeat.
As Christians, everybody ought to say Amen to that.
We live in a place nobody did, but that's OK.
Everybody ought to because we live in a place of victory as
Christians, because Jesus Christ has wrought the victory.
But there are still battles and skirmishes that have to take
place just like, well, the battle of New Orleans, well, had
to happen. And in the same way, we have to
make sure that we are going to fight that good fight of faith
because the adversary, even though he's lost, will not give
up. He's in his death throes like
some animals. You know, snakes can be cut in
half and still will be alive for a period of time.
That's why I believe they're all from the devil, every one of
them, because they could still latch on to you even though
they're in the midst of dying and even though they're cut in
half. And Satan, listen, that old
serpent, his back has been broken already.
Genesis 315 talks about the fact that his head has been crushed.
But at the same time, we know that he's in these death pangs
that will take place for a little while, and he can still
cause great destruction to your soul.
So what we need to war this good warfare, what we're in.
Ephesians chapter #6 Why don't you stand with me?
If you will. We're going to read Ephesians
chapter #6 beginning in verse #10.
And tonight, I want to give you 12 principles for fighting the
spiritual fight. Now, as soon as you heard that
number 12, your mind just went, whoa, like, this isn't good.
Pastor, how long are we going to be here tonight?
No, no, it's going to be a normal.
Ish type of message, all right, but I do want to give you some
very basic, some very helpful principles to fight the fight
that God has called us to fight when it comes to spiritual
warfare. Now look with me in Ephesians 6
verse 10. It says this.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and 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 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. Wherefore take unto you the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth,
having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
In this text we see the armor of God.
And listen, we can preach a whole series on the armor of
God. We had a Sunday school series
years ago that went over the armor of God in very great
detail. We're not going to do that here
tonight, but I wanted this to be a launching pad for us this
evening to look at some of the realities of spiritual warfare
and how you can win through the victory that's already been
secured by Jesus Christ. So why don't you sit down this
evening and we'll pray together? Heavenly Father, we do thank you
for this night and we thank you for your word and what it
teaches us, how it helps us. I pray that was received here
this evening will be helpful to each and every believer.
Lord, I know it's been helpful to me.
Or help us not to just hear these things, but help us to put
them into action. Help us to make sure that we
prepare the armor of God within our own life.
We thank you for what we have here tonight in front of us.
Let us learn from it and we do ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Tells us here in our text that we are to be strong in the Lord
and the power of his might and this is really where it starts
isn't it? Are we to be strong in our own
power You know we're to be strong in his might.
We're to be strong in the Lord and in my Bible I have in the
Lord circled and his might circle Why because the reminder
that if you are going to fight within your own power and your
own name you are going to lose in the name of Adam, I lose in
the power of Adam I lose but in the name of the Lord and the
power of his might. Listen, you can't lose when you
avail yourself to the power of God, which is greater than any
of the power that Satan can muster up.
Even having the knowledge and the understanding of what the
Book of Revelation says that he will do and what God will do,
Satan will still try to usurp Jesus Christ at the end times.
And Jesus will just utter words and Satan will collapse and he
will be defeated and all of his in minions and all of his
armies, even God telling him what's going to happen.
He can't avoid it. God explaining to him how he
will try to fight, he can't get around it.
Satan has no power. That's why we need to fight in
the Lord's power and in the Lord's might.
And it says just put on the whole armor of God.
That word hole in the Greek means this hole.
Yeah, you said that's why I came to Liberty Baptist Church for
tonight. Yes, that's what you came to
Liberty for. Hole meaning this, the whole
armor of God is necessary. Each piece is.
Important. Just like someone who was about
to go out to the battle if they forgot a piece of their armor.
Listen, that could be very devastating.
You could have devastating consequences.
You don't say, well, at least I've got the majority of my
armor on. I must be doing pretty well, no?
So each of these pieces that are mentioned here are important in
their own way, and each of them are things that we need not in
our weekly or our monthly or in our yearly spiritual life.
Each of these we need every day to be able to wrestle against
the flesh, and not the flesh and blood, but the principalities,
powers, the rulers of darkness of this world against spiritual
wickedness in high places. And so that we can withstand the
devil and having done all to stand in verse #13 but then it
gives us what this armor of God actually really is.
The next verses. And if you have the opportunity,
your Bible, I would circle these just so that you know, it starts
with having your loins girt about.
With what? With truth.
Listen, everything starts with the truth.
Being able to understand the truth of God's Word.
Listen, you must equip yourself and outfit yourself in your
loins, meaning this in the very most intimate parts of yourself.
You must be acquainted with the truth.
Why do we talk about, and we'll talk about this more in just a
moment, why it's so important to be in the Word of God.
Listen, you have to know the truth.
You have to understand the truth.
And by the way, you don't just know the truth because the
pastor gives you the truth on Sunday morning, Sunday night,
and Wednesday night. Although I try to endeavor to
give you the truth and everything that I say from this
pulpit, but you need to know the truth for yourself because you
are in the Word of God yourself. I can't give you enough on a
Sunday morning and a Sunday night and a Wednesday night to
equip you with the truth for the entire week.
Listen, it's a daily fight. I can't prop you up every day.
And by the way, it shouldn't just be me digging up things in
the Word of God for you. You ought to allow the Holy
Spirit to teach you things in the Word of God for yourself so
that you know, here's the thing, you have the same Holy Spirit
that I do. You say, well, pastor, you went
to Bible college. Sure I did.
Pastor, you commit your life to studying the Word of God and you
have books and all these different things.
Sure I do. But I'll tell you the most
important part of all of that is the Holy Spirit.
And it's that same Holy Spirit that you have and He can teach
you. Your loins must be girt about
with that truth, and it continues with the breastplate
of righteousness. Listen, holy living is important
of being able to live a life that eschews sin and says this
no, I don't want to do right. And I don't want to let the
wicked one within the camp even of my own life.
And that I need to make sure that every place where he can
worm his evil head in is able to be stopped up.
Because I need to live a life of righteousness.
I need to be able to think righteously.
I need to be able to speak righteously.
I need to be able to act righteously.
Everything within me should be dealing with righteousness.
And again, this is not our own righteousness because we have
none. So what are we equipping
ourselves with? The very righteousness of God?
Because this is what will make the difference.
The blessed, the breastplate of the righteousness, covering the
heart, making sure the very heart is covered by the Lord's
righteousness. The feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, that it's not just about
ourselves. What are we doing?
We're protecting our feet as our feet are going to do what?
Give the gospel to other people. How beautiful are the feet of
those that preach the gospel. Romans chapter #10 Now listen.
When it comes to people's feet, listen, I don't want to talk
about that anymore. Actually, let's move on.
All right, But the idea of this, the feed of someone who is going
to give the gospel, that's a beautiful thing in the eyes of
the Lord. You cover your feet.
Why are you covering your feet? Because you ought to be going
out and giving the gospel to other people as well.
We'll be talking more about that over the next weeks and months
here at the church as well. And says above all, taking the
shield of faith, you say, why is that?
Above all, because without faith, where are we?
We just saw that last week. Faith in a good conscience.
This is what we need in the battle.
Above all, faith. Why?
To quench the fiery darts of the wicked.
And this is what they would do in warfare.
At those times they would take darts of the arrows, and they
would try to take them and try to fling them towards the
Shields of those who were on the opposing.
Side and a lot of times. During those days, Shields we
made of something like wood. Metal Shields were a thing, but
they weren't always something that everybody would be able to
carry. We see metal Shields in the Word
of God, and when they we do see them, often times they were
precious, like the metal Shields that Solomon had in front of the
temple. And so by and large soldiers
would have wooden Shields because, well, that would be
enough to be able to prevent the darts and the arrows to be able
to hit them. But what happens when they were
firing darts? Well, you've lost your shield.
But what do we see that we have a shield that is not a
precarious shield like others would have that are field of
faith is able to withstand the darts of the wicked that the
Lord's when he when the faith that we have in our life is
strong and it's what he is. Remember through the spirit,
it's it's a a a spiritual gift. You know the faith that we have
that we see through the Holy Spirit.
What do we find that he is the one that will help us through
those things to quench the fiery darts of the wicked because
here's the thing he's going to attack you.
Satan will every day he is going to send those darts towards you
every single day and that's why we find the fruit of the spirit.
Faith is part of the fruit of the spirit.
Why because the spirit strengthens our faith as we
commit ourselves to Christ as we choose faith.
What does he do? He will strengthen our faith if
we allow him to be able to do so.
And then it says and take the helmet of salvation and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Your head, your
mind protected with what salvation?
That decision that you have made to accept Jesus Christ, your
behavior and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. Ironically, this is the only
offensive piece of weaponry we see here.
Everything else is defensive, but the offensive weapon.
What offensive weapon do we have?
Listen, all you need is the Word of God.
That's what Jesus used against Satan.
That's what Jesus used when he was talking against him, not
because he needed to speak the Word of God to Vanquish Satan,
but because he was showing us, as I've said before, the pattern
of which we are able to conquer Satan not with our own words,
but with the Word of God. And so if I was to give you some
practical preparations here tonight for spiritual warfare #1
is this prepare yourselves for battle?
Well, we see the preparations right here that we are to take
each of these pieces and that we are to put them on.
Well, how do we know we put them on properly?
How do we know we're doing and what we're supposed to be doing?
Well, verse 18 says praying always with all prayer and
supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
Pray and supplication. Supplication means praying on
behalf of others as well, not just praying for yourself, but
as we pray for one another, as we pray for the Saints, as we do
so and we persevere. Meaning this, don't give up.
Don't give up because you had a bad day.
Don't give up because you made a bad decision.
Don't give up because you fell. Get up, dust yourself off the,
the, the man who is, is righteous may fall down, but
seven times he will get back up and do that.
What you should do. What should we do?
Prepare ourselves for the battle.
That's number one. And we see that here in
Ephesians chapter #6 #2 how are we to fight this spiritual
fight? And again, these are very
practical things that I want to give you tonight #2 is this
guard your heart? Guard your heart.
Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 says this.
Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the
issues of life. The greatest possession of which
God has given you is not your money, it's not your home, it's
not your car, it's not anything else.
It's the heart that he has given you, the heart that we have that
we are to keep with all diligence.
On its own, it's evil, it's desperately wicked.
Who can know it but yeah, when the Holy Spirit cleanses the
heart, listen, we still in our flesh need to make sure that we
are keeping it with all diligence, like a gardener who
has a beautiful. Garden.
I don't. Understand anything about
gardens. We've been lifelong renters, all
right? I don't understand anything
about it. The best we can do with the
garden is have like a few potted plants on the porch and we kill
those two, all right? So we don't even do so well with
those. But I do know this way from
watching people that have gardens listen.
They're very meticulous about them.
They take great care of them. In fact, if you ask somebody
about their garden, get ready because you're about to start a
30 minute conversation. With them, because they're going
to tell you everything about that garden, they can tell you
everything they planted, they're going to tell you exactly what
they're. Used in the soil, how often they
water it, what the yield will be from what they're getting,
they'll tell you about their tomatoes.
And by the way, there's like a tomato coming from a garden, you
know what I'm saying? Compared to the store.
But still, you'll have these conversations.
Nothing wrong with it, but people are proud of their
gardens and it takes a lot of work.
In fact, if you want to get cheap tomatoes, here's what you
do. Don't start a garden, all right,
because you have to get cheap tomatoes.
It's going to cost you a lot to take care of it.
They'll be better than what you find in the store.
But you say, why would you say that, pastor?
Because there's a lot of tilling and tending of that soil that's
necessary to get a good yield. You're going to have to make
sure you pull out those weeds. Why are you going to pull out
those weeds? Well, because those weeds will
steal the water and the nutrients that the good we'll
receive, they won't get it if you make sure that if you leave
them there. So you're constantly tending the
soil, you're tilling the soil, you're making sure that you're
watering, you're checking for pests, you're doing all these
different things. If you don't do it, your garden
is not going to be what it ought to be.
If that's true for a garden, how much more true is that for the
heart that we constantly need be tending?
The heart listen, because out of it flows everything in our life.
Proverbs 2826 says he that trusted in his own heart is a
fool, but he that walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth. Speak it, listen if you are
having. Trouble with your words.
If you have trouble with the words that come out of your
mouth, that they are not good and healthful and that which is
edifying to other people, listen.
That means there's a problem deeper in your heart.
Listen, things don't just come out of your mouth that you don't
know where they came from. You ever heard somebody say
that? Well, I don't know where that
came from. Well, I got an idea where it
came from. It came from your heart.
This is where it comes. This is why it's so important
that Christians use good sound speech.
This is why we don't curse. This is why we don't take God's
name in vain. This is why we don't laugh at
dirty jokes or tell dirty jokes. Why is that?
One of the reasons why is because if we do, it's a sign of
a heart that's really not exactly where the Lord wants us
to be. So we want to make sure that
we're using speech that's healthful and that's right.
Which means this. We don't just change the speech.
We go all the way down to the heart and check where's the
heart problem and go from there. So #2 Guard your heart number.
Or three, don't ignore the battlefield of the mind.
Don't ignore the battlefield of the mind.
Listen, you want to know where a lot of spiritual warfare takes
place? Are you ready for this between
your two ears? Almost all the spiritual warfare
that takes place comes right between these two ears.
I'll tell you I found this to be my observation as a pastor from
pastoring for 12 years and of course being a youth director
for seven years before that. Particular as a pastor,
especially in the digital age we live in with the podcast, we
have music. I mean, you realize on your
phone you have pretty much all the music that has ever been
created for all time within like two or three clicks on your
phone at any given time. You have Spotify, Apple Music,
Amazon Music, whatever you might have on your phone.
We have all of these things. We have Audible, we have
YouTube, we have all these different things of not even
counting the television and streaming and all these things.
I have found that a lot of people have these noisemakers on
all the time. You know why?
Because they don't want to think about what's going on between
their ears. I've counseled people before
that say something like this, so I rule out a bed about. 6:00 or
7:00 Pastor. As soon as I do, I turn on the
television and I'll just kind of have it on the background during
the morning. And then when I start going to
work, you know, I turn on the podcast or I turn on the.
The the, the audio book and then I go to work and then of course
you have things going on at work.
And then I go home and I go to the gym and I'm listening.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong listening to music.
I'm not saying there's anything anything wrong with a good
podcast or a good audio book. In fact, I happen to enjoy all
of those if they are things that are honoring and edifying to the
Lord. But I will say this, if you are
constantly. Listening to noise, it could
very well be because you don't actually want to pay attention
to what's going on between your ears and Satan has lulled you to
sleep. One of the things that we often
don't talk about as believers is this meditation.
And no, I'm not talking about crossing your legs and wearing
some kind of weird outfit and going on for a while.
I'm talking about meditating on the Word of God.
Listen, having your devotions is great.
I hope you have your devotions in the morning whenever you
happen to have them during the day.
We're going to look more at that in just a moment.
But I will say this, if you are not regularly just taking time
to not just read your Bible, but think about what you just read
for a while, you've got a problem.
Lord has been convicting me about this and I'm trying to
work on this and I feel like I go in cycles with this where I
will be on my phone not even constantly but just more than I
need to be and I'm reading about stuff I don't even care about.
I'm reading about stuff like. Why?
Why am I reading about what's going on?
You know, with, with, you know the harvest in Rwanda, you say?
Well, what does that have to do? With things I don't know, I just
pulled it up right here, so I'm going to read about it for about
5 or 10 minutes. What do I care about what,
what's going on? You know, with the Russian ruble
in contrast with the euro, in contrast with the American
dollar. I never even thought about it
till it came up on my phone. But now I'm really interested in
it. I'm going to scroll for 10 or 15
minutes and reading something that has nothing to do with
anything that deals with my life.
But I haven't thought about the Bible all day.
Well, how are we going to win a spiritual warfare if we're not
even really paying attention to the fact it's going on in our
mind? What is Satan try to do?
He tries to build up strongholds within our mind.
That's why it says in 2nd Corinthians 10 versus 4 and 5,
for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
But mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought, every thought to the obedience of Christ, that is
a sobering verse that we're to bring every thought into
captivity. That lustful thought has to be
brought into captivity. That angry thought has to be
gotten to captivity. That bitter thought has to be
gotten to captivity. That selfish thought has to be
brought into captivity. Every single thought has to be
brought into captivity. We're not to allow our minds to
just run away with themselves. Now listen, I understand that
there are times when that does happen, but what does the Bible
say when it starts to happen? What do you do?
You got to bring it back in. In fact, first Peter chapter one
verse 13 says this. Wherefore gird up the loins of
your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to
be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ
girding up the loins of your mind.
You may understand that during this time that that men would
have wore robes, and those robes were long and flowing, but if
they had to run and they get somewhere quickly, they had to.
Gird their loins, meaning this again, the loins, that
midsection, they would take that belt that they have around them
and they would wrap that long flowing robe around them.
In such a way that they would cinch it up and all of a sudden
they could run and there was nothing that was encumbering
them. There was nothing that was
flowing freely. And all of a sudden, same
outfit. But now that it's been cinched
up, now that they've been girded up, he can run and nothings in
his way. And what do we need to do when
our minds get a little bit that things are flapping?
In the wind, what do we need to do?
Gird up the loins of our mind and cinch things up and ask the
Lord to help us. Lord, my mind is going out of
control. I've got these thoughts of fear.
I've got these thoughts of anxiety.
I've got these thoughts of anger.
And I I can't get rid of him and listen.
Sometimes the thoughts, even of themselves, are not sinful
because they're temptations from Satan.
He's putting those in your mind. He's putting them in your mind.
He wants you to be able to dwell on this.
In fact, sometimes maybe even say where did that thought come
from? Why do I feel angry all of a
sudden? I was just sitting here and now
I'm angry. Listen, that thought that came
into your mind in and of itself is not sinful.
Here's the question. What you do with it is going to
be sinful if you dwell on it. Just as if there was a an
immodest woman that was to walk past me and I happened to see
her in my line of sight. Just seeing her wouldn't be lust
because, well, I wasn't looking for.
But if I turned my head and looked again, what I do with it
would end up being lustful. It's the same thought with those
emotions that bubble up. Listen as it bubbles up in and
of itself. You don't even know where they
come from. Now, we know the originator
comes from Satan, but you don't know from left field how it came
into your mind. But here's the question.
What are you going to do with it when it gets there?
You know, dwell on it for a while, like a like a tooth that
sore that you just kind of bite on a little bit just to make
sure it still hurts like that don't make a lot of sense.
You know, people do stuff like that all the time.
Does this still hurt? Yep, it still hurts.
Satan loves to have you do that and dwell on things that hurt
and things that aren't good. Cast them down.
You say, well, how? How do I do that?
Well, it seems like we have some tools here in Ephesians chapter
6 that will help you look committed to prayer.
Give it to the Lord every single time it comes into your mind.
Stop what you're doing. If you're driving, keep driving.
But I'm just saying stop what you're doing and say I'm not
thinking about anything else until I give this to the Lord.
You know, you could have two or three days where you feel like
you're not doing anything because you keep praying on it
over and over again. But do you trust that God can
give you the victory if he promises he can in his word?
Yeah. That you're able to take those
mental ruts that you have and to fill those ruts in and replace
them with trenches of truth to. We'll look at this in a moment.
Memorize Scripture that can help you with those issues.
Praise God for that. Don't, don't ignore the
battlefield of the mind #3 #4 know the rules of engagement.
Know the rules of engagement. Now, again, not understanding
about warfare, not understanding about the military.
I do understand that the rules of engagement are the guidance
that is given for warfare. It's the way that you know you
can wage a good fight. It's the way you go to war.
A good warfare. If we're to war a good warfare
listen, then we got to know the. Rules.
We got to know how to fight fairly.
We have to know how to fight with a good conscience.
I heard it said before that you could take the word Bible if you
could make it as do an acronym and look at it as basic
instructions before leaving Earth Bible.
And there's a lot of truth to that, isn't it?
And that's why knowing the rules of engagement, going back to
what's said here in Ephesians chapter 6, you need to know the
word of God. You need to understand what is
in the word of God. A Christian who is negligent in
their study of the Bible will not be able to properly really
engage in spiritual warfare. I just want to put this to you
at the most basic level I possibly can.
You cannot wage spiritual warfare.
You cannot win against the forces of evil that try to
prevail against you if you're not in your Bible every day.
I don't know a plainer way to say that to you tonight than to
say that you must be in your Bible every single day.
Say well, tell me what I should read, pastor.
Tell me where I should read. Tell me how many chapters I
should read. Listen, Start somewhere, but be
in the Word of God. Listen.
Start small as I've said before, so that you can at least start
the habit and grow longer later, but you would be better.
To at least. Just start the habit.
But if you're not in your Bible every day, then you're not able
to have the word of God be able to penetrate your mind as you
want to. Now listen, I understand that
there are times when things are hard, there's difficulties,
you're sick, you got up late, you're going to work and those
kind of different things and and you're not able to read your
Bible like you ought to. But I'll tell you, here's a
temptation and many of you are probably like me.
I have my Bible reading time in the morning.
That's what I find. To be the best time to be able
to read my Bible. Because as the day goes on, at
least in our home, it seems like the responsibilities of the
home, the family increase. So by the night, it's very much
more difficult to read the Bible than it is in the morning when
it's quiet and you got a cup of coffee and the world just feels
quiet. Nobody's texting you, nobody's
calling you, nothing like that. It's a really good time and I'm
not saying you have to. I've heard people from this
pulpit say that the Bible says you have to read your Bible in
the morning. The Bible talks about people
meeting with the Lord in the morning, but there's no command
in the Bible to read the Bible in the morning.
Listen, whenever you read it, praise God for it.
But I will say for many of us who do read our Bible in the
morning, I do know this and Satan gets us here.
You get up late, something goes goes wrong and you don't read
your Bible. And then just for the rest of
the day, you don't read it, but you watch 3 episodes of a show.
If you listen to a podcast to and from work, listen.
Wouldn't it be better for you at least to listen to your Bible
reading on your on the road than to not have the Bible at all?
Now, I much prefer to read my Bible with the Bible in front of
me, but I would rather hear it being read to me on my phone
than I would by than to not have it at all.
Because here's the thing, I have 30 minutes.
I could have an hour in the car. I could listen to an hour of
podcast, well, because they say, well, I got to read my Bible.
I've got to have it in front of me.
No, what you need to do is you need to have the word of God
penetrate your heart. And that means that it's such a
priority that you say this, if I miss in the morning, something
else has got to go later in the day so I can read it later.
And again, I know that things happen.
And listen, if you miss your Bible reading for a day, I'm not
saying that you're a failure. I'm not saying that all of a
sudden your spiritual life is going to collapse like a House
of Cards if you miss it for one day.
What I am saying is this is it that much of A priority in your
life that is a priority that Trump's almost every other
priority? I mean, what other priority
could be? I mean, we know there's some
things of the physical that sometimes have to take place
sometimes if you're so I'll that.
You can't even read. The Bible, I understand that
those things that happen, but under normal circumstances it
should be your highest priority. Why?
Because it is the rules of engagement.
It tells us how we are to wage the war.
Listen, if you are tempted in a certain area and you have
difficulties in certain areas, which by the way, you know who
I'm talking to, everybody, as I've mentioned you before, all
of our temptations can be different, but we all are
tempted in different areas and Satan knows what buttons to
push. Have you ever even tried to
memorize Scripture that deals with your area of temptation?
Do you have them on note cards? Do you have them written down?
Do you, do you have it on an app on your phone?
You know, there are Bible apps that can actually help you with
Scripture memorization, that can help you on a daily basis to be
able to learn and memorize Scripture.
And oftentimes I hear people say things like this to me.
Pastor, I have trouble memorizing things and I want to
help you with something. I don't want to be unkind.
Well, I want to be a little bit unkind.
All right, no, I don't want to be unkind, but I do want to be
very clear about this. Everyone can memorize what they
want to memorize, OK, Unless you are very elderly and have issues
that are mentally like Alzheimer's, dementia, those
kind of things. What I'm saying is a lot of us
can memorize a lot more than we want or that we think we can
memorize. You memorize the way to work.
You memorize. You don't.
The things that we memorize, it's the things that we do often
and a lot of times say, well, I can't memorize this Bible.
Well, you read it three times in a week.
Well, you're not going to memorize it.
Why don't you take one verse and say three times a day I'm having
an alarm go off on my phone and I'm going to study that for two
or three minutes. You know what you'd say?
I'll memorize one verse a week. You might find you could
memorize more than one verse a week that way.
You know why? Because you're around it.
And it's amazing that people can tell me all the stats of
baseball teams. They can tell me about how many
episodes of their favorite television show there were and
what characters were written on and died in the show and what
seasons and what episode. And they can tell me about the
dialogue and different things like that.
What do you ask about the Bible? You got a deer in the
headlights. Look, listen, if you want to
memorize the Bible, you can memorize the Bible.
I don't know another easier way to say it than that.
Take time to memorize. Write it on note cards, put them
around your house. Do different things like that.
Say I struggle with certain sins.
Well, it seems like God's given us the answer for those things.
Everything that pertains to life and godliness is in this book.
And so will you take the Word of God and use it?
It is the rules of engagement. Well, how do I fight against the
lust? What does the Bible say?
How do I fight against the bitterness in my heart?
What does the Bible say? How do I fight with this angry
spirit I deal with all the time? What does the Bible say?
How do I deal with the the fact that I'm more motivated by self
than by anything else? What?
What does the Bible say? And if you don't know what it
says, find it. And once you find it, commit it
to memory. That's what it comes down to.
Know the rules of engagement #5 cling tightly.
To the truth. This is a combination of #3 and
4 three is don't ignore the battlefield of mine #4 know the
rules of engagement. Cling tightly to the truth.
You know the fog of war. You ever hear of that?
The fog of war. The fog of war leads to a lot of
mistakes. You know, sometimes we don't
even see that necessarily warfare.
We see it in sometimes very difficult circumstances,
tragedies. I think of the Boston bombing,
the Boston Marathon bombing, you know, several years ago, some of
the reporting that came out the first few hours afterwards was
completely false. No.
Why? Because they're reporters and
they're the media. No, no, that wasn't reason why,
although that doesn't help but. Because in the fog of war, if
you will, those first couple hours.
People are hearing people swap stories and tell stories, and
some of them are not true or some of them is what maybe what
people perceive to happen and not what actually happened.
And so it takes a while to understand exactly what happens.
And I've heard that in warfare that can be even more so the
case, the fog of war, you think you know what's going on, but
you don't exactly know what goes on.
And because of that, there can be grave mistakes if you're not
careful. In our battle with Satan, he'll
attempt to divert your attention with many half.
Truths. And sometimes outright
falsehoods. That's why it says this casting
down imaginations. There are often times I've had
difficulties with other people and that I have got riled up in
my heart and I'll have to go to that person and say, listen, I
want to talk to you about the situation.
I'm not even saying this is about you, but the Bible says
casting down imaginations. I'm afraid that maybe I have
thought something about you that's not right.
Can we just talk about the situation?
You know what I've found nine times out of 10 when I do
something like that, I found out there really was no issue in the
1st place and it was just something that Satan had built
up in my mind. And by talking to that person,
you know what I've done? I've casted that down, an
imagination that I built up in my mind.
You say, well, that would be awkward to do.
Well, that's why we don't do that, because it's awkward.
We don't feel good about that. But I would tell you this, the
peaceable fruit of righteousness that comes afterwards when your
mind is cleared of that which Satan has built up in your mind
is such a wonderful thing. Listen, Revelations chapter 12.
Revelation chapter 12, verse 10. He is the accuser.
Of the brethren, he will lie to your face.
He creates this fog of war in the midst of the spiritual
battle that we're in. John 844 We just read this this
morning. Year of your father, the devil,
the lusts of your father. He will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a
liar and the father of it. Listen, don't trust what Satan
is trying to whisper in your ear.
He's trying to cause confusion. This is why you need to be in
the Word of God. And one of the greatest
deceivers are your emotions. One of your greatest deceivers
are your feelings. Your emotions and your feelings
will often lie to you. Now, are we thankful for
emotions? We are.
Are we thankful for feelings? We are.
Listen, God is the one who gave us emotions and feelings.
I'm glad that when I deal with people that I'm not dealing
with, you know, like AI, like I'm dealing with real people
with real emotions. You understand what I'm saying?
I'm thankful for that. It's what makes life worth
living in a lot of ways, these emotions that God has given us.
But listen, you are to govern emotions and emotions are not to
govern you. That's why when you might feel
on a Sunday morning, I don't feel like going to church.
Well, who said your feelings had any control over that?
Well, there's a lot of times I don't, you know, I would say a
lot of times. There are times I don't feel
like going to church. Be careful, I say.
I've never. Feel like going to church?
No, There are times that even as a pastor, it's a Sunday morning.
I think, oh boy, you say, well, that's not very spiritual.
I know that's what we're talking about.
I know it's not. But I'm talking about the fact
that I'm a real person and I deal with this and listen, my
feelings don't really have any say in it.
I'm going. I better get it right with the
Lord before I go. That's why I tell parents, you
know, don't ask your children if they feel like going to church
or not. Listen, they need to be in the
House of God. That's why we made a decision
even before we were full time in the ministry.
Our kids were going to be in the church Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and Wednesday night. Why?
Because I want them to get more of this and they're getting
anywhere else in the world. I'm going to give them as much
of this as I possibly can. I don't want the school
downloading into them. I don't want the.
Television. Downloading into them.
I want the Word of God to be in them more than anything else,
but Satan doesn't like that. And our emotions get to this
place where I'm. Like I don't.
Feel like doing this or I don't know if I'm Listen, what does
the word of God tell you to do? That's what you need to do #6 be
willing to train. Be willing to train.
I think we're going to stop here tonight in just a few moments
because I got six more and we're not going to make it.
But that's not the point is The point is to get what we need to
be, not to necessarily get through the list that I have
here tonight. I want, I want to be a help to
you tonight. I hope this is a help, but be
willing to train again. There's so many things about
this that go with warfare, but I've heard this said before.
The more you sweat in boot camp, the less you bleed in war.
The more you sweat in boot camp, the less you bleed in war, the
more that you get when the stakes are low.
The better you will do. When the stakes are high, and
listen. Why do we have?
Sunday school and Sunday morning and Sunday night.
And Wednesday night and then last month we had a missions
conference, which is also a Thursday night.
And a Friday night. And then we have outreach on a
Saturday and don't, don't you? Don't you think we have lives,
pastor? And now listen.
I want to be careful about this because there was a time in our
independent Baptist movement where I feel like the thought
was that you need to be in church 7 nights out of the week,
4 weeks out of the month. And if you weren't seven nights
out of the week and four weeks out of the month, then you
weren't even a spiritual person. And what ended up happening,
there was a generation, if not more, of people who were in
church a lot, but they lost their families when their kids
got older because they're never even around their families.
So I want to. Be careful at Liberty Baptist
Church so we don't over program here.
I try to be very careful about that.
Try to be sensitive about that in the very best of way to know
that we're not here so much that you don't have, that you block
out the life that you have and the other responsibilities that
God has. Listen, even if you don't have a
family, God has responsibilities for you that you need to take
care of. You want to be careful about
that. But I will say this church is a
boot camp, and the reason we're here so much is this, and the
reason we want you to be here so much is this.
Because the more you sweat in boot camp, the less you believe
in war. Why do I do want our family to
be here every time the doors are open?
It's a sacrifice, absolutely. It's a sacrifice, but it's a
sacrifice that is worthy of the time and the effort.
Because I know this, when I come in contact with all the forces
of evil outside of this building, I know that I'm better
prepared because of what I've learned while I'm here.
I want my children to be here because I want them to grow up
in the nurture, the admonition of the Lord to hear those
things. I'm thankful that I have two
adult children who love the Lord, who love Jesus Christ, who
love souls. And listen, I understand when
children become adults, all bets are off.
Listen, everyone has to come to the Lord their own way.
But I do know this, I want to do everything that I could.
My wife and I, it was a conscious decision by both of us
that we want to do everything that we could to make sure that
they had as much of the Bible in them so they could make the best
choices possible. And I would tell you this, it's
not convenient to bring your kids to church.
It's not easy to bring your kids to church, especially like when
the kids start throwing their shoes at people.
I won't mention what his name is.
It's not convenient. It's not easy.
But I look at two daughters that I have and I say this every
minute of every hour of every day was worth it.
It was worth it. And listen, the glory goes to
the Lord because we've got a lot of things in our life that we
said, you know what, we would love to have started over again
with what we know now. Actually, let me be clear, we
don't want to start over again. But I'm just saying, like you
said, you want another child. No, I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying if I could with them again.
Anyway, what I'm saying is I've learned a lot since then.
We have learned a lot. And I wish we could, you know,
correct the mistakes that we made, and God and His
graciousness filled in the gaps where we missed.
But I'll say this. Listen, you want to be in the
House of God. It's not well, the pastor wants
the attendance to be really high for who nobody cares.
And I mean, this is the very without being weird, it's all I
can go around saying. You know how many people we had
at church? We had 60 people at church.
Nobody cares out there. There's not a person on earth
that cares. I don't go call another
passenger of the week. How many people do you have at
church? I went to how many people?
We had church. So if I did that, somebody said
we had 200 say well, well, we had 60.
Never mind. It doesn't matter.
You know why I want you here? Not so I can brag to the town or
brag to other pastors. I want you here because I know
what church will do for you and your family when church is done
right as I believe it is here at Liberty Baptist Church.
Not just because of me, but because of the great Spirit
that's here. It's a great fellowship that's
here. When it's done right, it ought
to strengthen each and every one of us.
You don't want to miss that. All the other things that people
make priority of. Listen, make the House of God a
priority. Last Sunday, about 70,000 people
gathered at Gillette Stadium. There were three inches of snow.
It was just three inches. Us Hardy New Englanders, we
don't mind 3 inches. But I will say it's amazing that
3 inches people still get to work 3 inches, 70,000 people and
all the employees will make it to Gillette.
But there's a lot of people and I'm talking generally speaking,
not specifically will say this. I don't want to go to church
now. Thank the Lord at liberty.
We had a great attendance last week despite it.
So that's a wonderful thing. What I'm saying is this, don't
allow anything other than the things that God prevents you
from being in the House of God to be in the House of God.
I say this with people at home tonight and I'm not looking at
you. This isn't romper room.
I'm not calling you out looking at you tonight, but say some of
you, you have illness, you have difficult things in your life
and you can't help not being here tonight.
I understand that the Lord understands that because the
Lord has brought these things into your life for a particular
time, a particular purpose. But I will say, unless you're
providentially hindered, this is the word that we use often, be
in the House of God. Why?
Because there's a real fight out there and you got to train and
this is our training ground. There's so much more I want to
talk to you about, but we're just going to stop here and
we'll pick it up again next week.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.