H. M. S. Richards once told me, “Tom, don’t stop to throw stones at the devil’s dogs. Just let them yelp and keep doing what God called you to do. If they can distract you from your mission, Satan will have accomplished his.”

I’ve never forgotten his advice. Now when those dogs yelp, I pray for them, I love them anyway because if they get converted they can make great Christians. But I keep my eye on the prize and I don’t stop to throw stones at them.

When you become a Christian, you not only inherit God's blessings. Did you know you inherit God’s enemies as well, and that the Lord’s foremost enemy is Satan, whose purpose it is to destroy God’s work in the world and in our lives? But Jesus came to the earth, died and rose again from the grave to “destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).”

Satan is a fallen angel and is only a created being. He is in no way equal to God the Father or Jesus His Son. While Satan is superior in intellect and strength to every human being except Jesus, he is inferior to God in EVERY way! Believers have the POWER of the INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT of the resurrected Christ, and the Holy Spirit will protect them. The Holy Spirit will assist them in battle.

In addition, we have been given the whole armor of God “to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Each piece of that “armor” is to be “put on” to help believers overcome temptation and the attacks of the evil one.

1) HAVING GIRD YOUR WAIST WITH TRUTH (Ephesians 6:14), the Bible tells us that we are to gird up our waist with truth. Every morning we are to study the Word of God and we’re to put truth in our heart – every single day.

The waist or abdomen was generally thought to be the seat of the emotion. To gird this area with truth means to commit your emotions to God and to believe His truth over our own emotions. We often allow ourselves to believe a lie because of our jealousy, fear, or self-pity. Christians must be committed to TRUTH regardless of the outcome! We have to believe in what’s right.

Now, don’t you just sometimes long for something that’s true? In this world, the movies are all lies, the movie stars are all lies: those big, thick, pouty lips: injected. Those curvaceous, hourglass figures: liposected. Those perfect little noses: dissected. Christian values and principles: rejected.

Don’t you long for something true sometimes? The music, the culture, the videos, the values, the movies – Young people, you need to be careful when you’re watching Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, and all those other fantasies. Because there is a Dragon in those fantasies weaving his web and subtly changing you so that someday you will bow to the antichrist and wonder how you were so well prepared to give in.

Be careful when you watch things to pay attention to what is true and what is false. And make sure you understand the difference. I don’t care if he’s a cute little guy with glasses, if it’s witchcraft and sorcery, it’s satanic. Uh oh, (I) quit preachin’ and started meddlin’, didn’t I?

There’s no such thing as “white magic.” There’s no such thing as a “white lie.” The word “pharmachia” is the word we get “sorcery” from in the Greek. “Pharmachia” is where we get our word for “pharmacy.”

Sorcery, spiritism: whether it’s in the form of a cute little guy named “E. T.,” whether it’s a cute little boy with glasses casting spells on people, or whether its Walt Disney’s form of spiritism with a little guy in a hat named “Mickey Mouse.” You need to be aware of things like that! There is a spiritual battle going on for the mind and it’s going on in the movies, and the books, and the music. The Bible says to gird your mind with truth, to put truth around your waist. And don’t you just long for truth?

Young people read the Bible every day. Read Christian books. Study things that are true. If it’s false, make sure you recognize that it’s false.

This one young man said to his dad, “It doesn’t matter what you watch, dad. I mean, who cares? It’s just a little bit of the show is bad. Only part of it was vulgar and crude.”

So his father baked his son some brownies. And after the son took a few bites, he says, “Oh, son, I just wanted to mention to you that I put just a little bit of doggie doo in the brownies.” Horrified, the boy spit it out and said, “Dad!, What?”

“Oh, but it was just a little tiny bit!”

“Are you kidding me?”

“But it was just so small, just a little bit.”

He said, “Eeeew! How could you do that to me? It’s ruined!”

He said, “Well I though you said just a little bit was okay. If it’s okay for your mind, why isn’t it okay for your brownies?”

Oh! We all think just a little compromise. It’s just a little bit of garbage. It’s just a little bit of trash in my mind. Guess what, it doesn’t take very much to pollute the whole human being. And sometimes that first compromise leads to the next and the next until finally you end up totally away from God and apart from His kingdom wondering how you got there. You got there (because of) that first compromise, when you said just a little of the dirt of this world was okay. We need to be careful about truth! Gird your waist with truth! If it’s not true, if it’s not of good report, what’s that point?

2) HAVING SHOD YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE (Ephesians 6:15).

Proper shoes are a must when your legs are your normal form of transportation. I have a wide foot - and it is very difficult to find shoes that fit comfortably. So over the years I've had to buy size 13 just to fit my foot into it. My heel was once cut in half in an accident. Consequently, I have suffered with significant foot pain most of my life. When your feet hurt – believe me – you can hurt all over. As we travel through this world, our Christian mission is to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Peace and Reconciliation. We must keep our eyes on Jesus and keep going towards Him –that's always the right direction to walk in.

3) HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Ephesians 6:14).

The breast is usually thought of as the place of the soul. The heart must be kept pure and righteous because sin gives a foothold to the enemy. Confession and forgiveness based on the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ is the ONLY answer to our sin problem.

Do we have any righteousness of our own? No.

4) TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION (Ephesians 6:17).

A helmet protects the head, including the brain, and thus the thoughts. When we have the assurance of salvation in our lives, it becomes a MIGHTY defense against doubt, fear, guilt, insecurity, jealousy, and all kinds of works that are bred by them.

Now, this shield is a wonderful thing. The fiery darts of the devil will be warded off and deflected. The armies of that day would take arrows and spears and dip them in pitch (tar), set them afire and shoot them at their enemies. The “fiery darts” of the devil are: doubt, fear, and guilt, and all the “works of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16-21). Our FAITH acts as an invisible shield to deflect those false accusations of the enemy. You need your faith!

How important is it to have a shield to hold up? How important is faith? How much sense to you think it would make for me to put all this stuff on and then to go and lie down on my bed and go to sleep? Sleep all night, and then take it off in the morning, and leave it off all day, and then put it back on before I go to bed and then lie down on the bed? How much sense does that make?

Well, to me, that makes about as much sense as Christians who say they never read their Bible but maybe at night, just before they go to bed, they’ll get their Bible out and read a little bit, then go to sleep.

The Bible says to gird up the loins of your faith first thing in the morning! To wake up, to set the alarm, not to be a lazybones and sleep in but to wake up, get your Bible out, study God’s Word, get down on your knees, have prayer, and begin your day with prayer. Get your armor on! Get your chaps on! Get your jacket on! Get your helmet on! Get your shield and go out and battle with the devil! And you need to get your armor on when you first go out. Right? It makes no sense to go all day with no armor, no prayer, no Bible study, then come home and right before you fall asleep, read you’re Bible, and conk out. Now that’s great. Read your Bible before you go to bed. That’s a nice, fun thing to do. But by all means also do it in the morning and get yourself ready for the battle of the day. Do you think you’ll have a more successful Christian life if you do that?

Now we also want to talk a little bit about faith here. Do you know the difference between belief and trust? How many of you believe God? How many of you trust God? How many of you understand the difference? I’m going to tell you the difference.

The World Trade Center – a guy went up on top of the two towers before they were destroyed. He strung a cable across and he took a wheelbarrow, and he got a big crowd up on top, and he got on that wire and walked all the way across between the twin towers where all the people were. And they were all cheering and yelling. And he says, “How many of you believe that I can walk back across that wire with this wheelbarrow?” They all raised their hands. “How many of you really believe that I can walk this wheelbarrow all the way across that wire?” Oh! They all raised their hands. They cheered, they were yelling, all excited. And he said, “How many of you trust me?” They all cheered and yelled. He said, “Okay, get in the wheelbarrow.”

Guess how many of them got in the wheelbarrow? I think now you understand the difference between belief and trust. God wants you to get in the wheelbarrow. Will you do it?

Then you have two offensive weapons.

6) TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT (Ephesians 6:17). The sword was the soldiers’ OFFENSIVE weapon that he used to defeat the enemy and win the battle and the war. For Christians - our “sword” is THE WORD OF GOD. In Luke 4, Jesus used the Word of God as a sword to defeat Satan himself. Believers serving the Lord know that the Word is LIVING and POWERFUL! They know it is the ANSWER and DIRECTION for EVERY problem, circumstance, or situation. The Living Word is POWERFUL, EFFECTIVE, and INSTRUCTIVE.

So you have the Holy Spirit: when you accept Christ, you get the Holy Spirit in you.

If you are NOT a BELIEVER, if you’ve never confessed your sins to God, if you’ve never repented of them, then I’m going to give you a command: “Rear March!” You’re going the wrong direction! Turn around! If you've never placed your trust and faith in Jesus for your salvation and eternal life, be advised – the ONLY prayer God commits Himself to answer for you is the prayer of a sinner seeking salvation. But after becoming a Christian, God commits Himself to answer ALL of your requests, according to His Will for your life. His answer may be a resounding “YES!!” or it might be a discouraging “NO!” or it could be a
frustrating “NOT YET” – or “WAIT.”

Regardless, we should be constantly praying and seeking God's direction. For our lives will be better and we will fight the most formidable enemy in the world – Satan – much better if we resist him through the Holy Spirit and through prayer! REMEMBER – The War is already won by Jesus! We are more than conquerors through Him. And if you will trust Him and “get in the wheelbarrow,” if every day you will put on the armor of God, if you will read your Bible – may the first breath out of your lips be for the presence of Jesus to fill your heart and mind. Will you read His Word, put on the armor, take the sword of the Spirit with you, pray without ceasing, and walk using the shield of faith to protect you, shodding your feet with the gospel of peace. When you have the gospel in your heart: that Jesus died on the Cross (after He lived a perfect life) for your sins and rose on the third day, and His resurrection is your resurrection. Because He lived a perfect life, died for you, and rose again, you can have eternal life. And you don’t have to earn your way to heaven; salvation is a free gift!

So, do you have the gospel of peace?

Do you have the breastplate of His righteousness?

Have you put on the belt of truth?

It is my prayer that you will both accept Christ as your personal Savior, and put on the armor of God so that you can have a successful Christian life.

If you would like to trust God this morning, would you raise your hand right now?