The Full Armor of God — Ray Greenly

The Call to Put on God's Armor

The full armor of God. The full armor of God. Lord today, we need to be dressed in the armor and we need to be on our way to the battle. Lord, would you make plain this word to our hearts? Thank you. Jesus quicken us now by your spirit.

Lord deliver each of your servants that have come to this house. I pray in your holy name Amen. When I was a child My father had a very strong sense of being on time. He didn't like to be late anywhere.

And for dad If a meeting started at two o 'clock If you got there at two o 'clock you were late. You had to be there at 130 to be on time. Because his dad said there might be songbooks that need to be passed out.

There might be trash that needed to be picked up. He carried that philosophy Everywhere he went. It wasn't just a church. He also had a very strong sense about Getting to the right place. Now the problem was he had absolutely no sense of direction and He never believed in backing up.

My dad believed that you could get anywhere you wanted to go by going straight ahead. Now obviously there's a conflict between getting there on time and Refusing to turn around and go back and So dad was sometimes in an absolute quandary.

He didn't know what to do and His wife Orpha sitting beside him would say Matt all you have to do is turn around and go back and He'd say here's a road that turns right? We'll make our way around in a circle.

But then he would get he and mom utterly lost. Because mom would say that roads not on the map Matt and so dad wanted to be on time so dad With his strong belief on being on time and his strong belief on not turning around was in conflict.

Mom would read the map. Dad didn't believe in maps. Dad thought maps were foolish because you couldn't read him anyway. And they were always turned upside down for where he needed to go and He believed you could follow your nose and get there.

Your nose points straight ahead go straight ahead. Are you seeing any potential conflicts? Are any of you like this you follow your nose? Now unfortunately, if you want to get where you're supposed to go your nose will most often be pointed the wrong direction and Then when you follow the practice of not turning around and going back because that would be a shame to your ego.

How do you get where you need to go? But see there's an even larger problem that I faced as a child dad would say we're going to leave at this time and For me that meant he's going to leave 15 minutes later.

Because by the time I got dressed and played doing this and played doing that. It was a guarantee I was going to be 15 minutes late. So 10 minutes before dad said we had to be ready. He would be coming and saying come get in the car.

I Wasn't ready. I wasn't dressed so dad would scoop up the clothes and Take me in whatever condition I was in to the car where I would dress in the car on the way. Now that's okay when you're three or four years old.

But when you're in high school, that's a problem. Do you understand if you're going to go somewhere? You have to make a Determination that you're going to go and you have to begin the journey or you don't go.

So my question to you is today. Where are you headed? Are you on a journey? And are you following your nose on that journey? Stubbornly holding on to what you think is the right direction. Even saying God told me so two years ago.

Not allowing that God might have changed the direction since two years ago because you veered off course. Because that nose smelled hamburger over there and off you went in the direction your nose pulled you.

Where are you going? Did you know? That the direction you go will determine the destination you arrive at. It sounds so foolish and so simple, but it's so profound. I used to say it another way if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting.

There has to be a change of direction or. Everything will just continue as it is now. Are any of you tired of it as it is now. If you are there has to be a change of direction. Now to determine whether you're happy as it is now you have to determine where your course will take you in the end.

Now when I played outside as a child. Riding my bike racing with my brothers. We could use a tremendous amount of energy playing tag on our bikes. We started from the house. We raced all over on our bikes playing tag, and we ended up at the house sweaty tired.

Laughing. But we arrived where we started. All of that energy was expelled, but it didn't take us to a new destination. Compare that to the man Who starts on his bike? To go to California. Now that man has something very different in mind.

Than my brothers and myself playing tag around the house. We're riding the same bikes. We're we're extending our bodies. We're. We're giving all the energy. It looks like we're really pushing hard. Where are we going?

Where are you going? Are you clear in your heart where you're going and Have you set out on that destination? I want to read some scriptures to you out of the book of Ephesians that are frightening. I'll begin in chapter 6 verse 10 finally.

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God. So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Do you notice it does not say put on the full armor of God so you can go down and have your pictures taken?

It doesn't say put on the full armor of God so that you'll be warm. It doesn't say put on the full armor of God because you look so handsome in it. There is a purpose there is a A reason behind putting on the armor of God and that is to stand against the devil schemes and.

The devil intends to destroy you. Now if you're not aware that the devil's trying to destroy you it's probably because you're not headed down the road. He's blocking. The devil doesn't bother if you're riding your bike around the house.

He starts to get concerned when you set a destination and you begin to head toward that celestial city, then he gets very angry and Then he begins to set up his schemes to knock you down. To take you out.

The Spiritual Battle Is Not Against Flesh and Blood

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. My struggle is not with you. Even if you disagree with me my struggle is not with you. Even if you get angry with me, my struggle is not with you. My struggle is with principalities and powers.

Demons who rule. Who have authority? Who can do all kinds of strange things? Who can cause? Sickness depression discouragement financial loss. Demons who have the power to wipe out families to cause strife between husband and wife to cause chaos in the life.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. If You think this is merely a matter of your Making a decision setting up your strategy for accomplishing that and then going and doing whatever you want to do.

You've missed a whole piece of the battle That could take you out. You think my feelings are my own. No, they're not. Your feelings are manipulated by dark powers. I've seen people who are Completely Sane in all that they do suddenly be faced with the gospel and become insane in their Stubborn rebellion and in their anger against the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've seen people who who smile and are very gracious and then suddenly discover That I'm a conservative Holiness Christian and a sneer goes across their face and this wonderful smiling person Becomes a raging lion.

I don't have a fight with them. My battle isn't with them. It's with the demon power that's controlling their heart and their mind. Now we're going to talk about a number of issues. We can't cover them all but let's touch some of the most important a human person Can be pushed This way and that way by demon powers.

If they are unconscious of these powers They can be convinced that what they think and what they feel belongs to them while in fact, it's all been slipped in by these principalities. So a person can say this is the direction I'm going and they're being led utterly astray.

Because they haven't understood the way these demon powers function and operate. What their ways are the Lord says therefore? Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground.

The Day of Evil and the Need to Stand

What is the day of evil the day of evil Cain discovered? Was was when God rejected his human flesh offering and the Lord said to him sin is Crouching at your door and you must master it. The day of evil was when that crouching roaring lion of demon spirit came after him and He was defenseless.

He had no armor on he could not stand against the devil and He was taken out. He lost his home. He lost his job. He lost everything of value that he held. He became a wanderer so the day of evil that comes for all of us is When the devil puts his sight on you and says I'm going to take you out.

He'll use even good people To try to take you out. But he determines I will not allow you to reach the destination of the celestial city. I'm going to cause you to curse God and Kill yourself now. There are many ways to kill oneself.

With a spoon a knife and a fork is one of the most common with workaholic attitudes with Busyness with lust for whatever attracts my eyes. The devil has many ways to cause me to take myself out. But let's look at The weapons both offensive and defensive That God has given to us.

Put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and After you have done everything to stand. Let me give you the actual literal meaning of these words.

Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes You may be able to stand Perfect in all things so he's saying a Day of evil is going to come against you. You need to be able to stand perfect against that evil and Not let it touch your heart.

He goes on and after you have done everything to stand that's not a good translation. A better translation would be. And After having conquered all Stand so there comes a time in the battle when we stand perfect against that and There comes a time when the battle is over and we have conquered.

Almost always the devil will come in waves. Remember When he tempted Jesus it said he left Jesus for a more opportune time. What did that mean? It meant that Jesus had the armor of God on. He was ready for the battle and when Satan came with everything he had against Jesus Jesus overcame.

He stood complete and perfect in God. And the devil couldn't touch him. So the devil left. To come back at a more opportune time. I wish the devil could be beaten one time and then he'd leave us alone.

But he doesn't operate that way. He comes in waves. He comes and if we stand he'll be back. It comes and if we don't stand he takes us under. And then he leaves us for dead and As we try to scramble back to our feet.

He'll come back to knock us down again and some of you haven't been knocked down time after time. In fact, it's hard to even get on your feet. Some of you haven't even gotten up from the battle. You come in here.

So beat up. Because you don't have the armor on. So let's look at what the armor is. Verse 14. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Truth here is not the Greek word logos.

That you find in John the first chapter in the beginning was the word. It's also truth. In the beginning was the truth. That's not the word being used here. The word for truth here means to have absolute confidence in.

Knowing what you know? So that there can be no wavering in your knowledge base. You understand what the battle is, you know what's going on and nobody can tell you that what you're Understanding about Jesus is wrong.

You know the truth. I Mean one of the first attacks the devil will make. Time after time he'll say you don't know what you're talking about. You're crazy, you can't do that. Trying to break down my absolute confidence in the truth.

Now I spoke about this a minute ago. The problem is when we're absolute confident in our truth, but our truth is a lie. Now we're in serious trouble. So the truth has to be reflected out of the scriptures.

The truth is out of the scriptures out of Jesus so we have the belt of truth buckled around your waist. In those days the buckle was large. It was a protective item for this part, but it was also an Identifier.

It had the name on the belt of who I'm fighting for. The Roman Legion would have a sign of the Roman Legion on the belt so I'm going to first of all Have the belt of truth buckled around my waist. Then I'm going to have the breastplate of righteousness in place.

Righteousness. Right behavior. I'm going to have in place no disobedience in my life. I'm going to have no willful sin. I'm going to have no rebellion in my spirit against God. I'm going to have no bitterness in my heart toward a brother or sister.

I'm going to have no Accusations against another. I'm going to be standing righteous before God by the blood of Jesus. Not declared righteousness, but real righteousness. Everything is submitted to the Lord Jesus.

Righteousness as a Gift and a Life of Obedience

Today the breastplate covers this area. You understand that this area right here from here to here Is called the zone? Where if you're shot there you die. The breastplate covers the vital organs of the body.

Righteousness Covers the vital parts of the Christians life. If you don't have righteousness you have no defense against the enemy. Now this would be horrible news If I was responsible for working up righteousness.

But righteousness is a free gift these Both offensive and defensive weapons are given to us and become who we are. Truth is not something I buckle on and unbuckle. Righteousness is not something I put on for the battle and then take off when I want to play these Defenses against the devil are who we are.

What we are it's who we become in Jesus Christ so righteousness. Righteousness Comes one step at a time as the Holy Spirit exposes an area of my life that is unrighteous and I cry out to the Lord over that and I ask him to please change that to change my heart to change my mind to change my behavior and I Stay before the Lord and I cry out to him over this until the behavior is changed and love takes its place.

That's a prayer closet transaction so I wake up in the morning and I say I Don't have time to pray. I don't have time to Worry about anything except Going to do what I've got to do. Well, are you dressed?

When you head out the door Are you gonna try to get dressed in the car on the way? Some of you actually go out in the morning. Head toward work naked. Hoping you can Pull your clothes on as you're on the way.

I'm gonna shoot prayers at God as I'm on my way. Bless me. God bless me. God. That's not how you make sure you're dressed in the clothes. That righteousness is something that It becomes who you are. It's It's acknowledging that Jesus is the head of your heart and your life and all is given into his hands and he's Everything for you and so wherever you go.

With the breastplate of righteousness. Love is all that's going to flow from your heart. You'll have no condemnation for anyone. You'll have no bitterness and no anger. There won't be bickering between husbands and wives.

There won't be Irresponsibility. We'll be walking honest before God with integrity. Now what I'm describing is Not something I can afford to take my whole life to get to. If I do I'll be dead. This is something that needs to take a few hours, maybe a couple days.

Maybe a couple weeks at the most and then be finished with it and be through for most. That doesn't happen because We love our sin. We love our rebellion and as long as we love our sin and we love our rebellion We're subject to the arrows of the enemy that will pierce us and take our lives.

We are in a war zone. If you have the illusion That life is a bowl of cherries. Wait till you get to the pits. Life is not a bowl of cherries. Life is a war zone and we need the breastplate of righteousness to cover the vital parts and Only God can give us that righteousness.

Readiness from the Gospel of Peace

Stand firm then with the truth buckled around your waist. With the breastplate of righteousness in place and With your fit with your feet fitted with a readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. They would have Their lower leg completely covered with heavy leather if you take a man's leg out.

He's out of the pot out of the fight. He's wiped out. He can't walk. So the Lord is saying protect your feet. Protect your feet with a willingness to go wherever you need to go. To love somebody go wherever you need to go.

To reach out and take a hold of them in love. All of this is about not collecting money or stuff. It's about pulling men and women out of the fire and Saving them for eternity. It's about the work of changing from wickedness into righteousness if you get taken out.

Because your leg is taken off you'll bleed to death. What makes sure you're not going to have your leg taken off is when you're going where God has called you to go. To do what he's asked you to do. You're protected.

Protected. But if you're off on your own journey, and you're lost following your nose. You're subject to being taken out. So he's saying Stand firm with the belt of truth. With the breastplate of righteousness and with your feet fitted with a readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Don't be ready to be defensive. Don't be ready to be angry. Don't be ready to judge. A Gospel of peace is what we bring. Peace you know in the Hebrew is Shalom meaning all provision is given. All hospitality is offered.

Shalom means I invite you into my family. Who is it that you need to be inviting into your family that you've been blocking out? Who is it that you've been giving not a gospel of peace, but a gospel of self-righteousness a Gospel of judgment.

Sin's Deception and the Call to Repentance

Let me talk for just a minute about sin. Sin is not passive. It is aggressive. It's alive. It's embodied in evil spirits, and it comes against you to destroy you. But it doesn't come like that. It comes with Madison Avenue marketing.

It comes all gussied up. It comes looking gorgeous. But after you walk into it It's like a Venus flytrap. You don't get out the way you got in you only get out via the cross. So some of you this last week Have walked in sin, and there's darkness as you sit in this congregation today.

There's darkness on your face. I've lived long enough to know that when I see darkness on the countenance of a person. It's because they have been indulging freely in sin. What will mark a man's face more quickly than any other is?

Pornography. It will turn a man's face dark. It will cause him to be bitter and angry. It will cause him to have rage in his heart. It will cause him to feel unclean. It will cause him to be just miserable.

Gambling. Lust of every kind. It mars the features of the face. It Causes us to turn aside from the light because the light hurts our face. It causes all kinds of defenses to be put up. Is your face marred today by darkness.

What does your heart say? Be honest with yourself. I'm not asking you to speak to anyone, but yourself and the Lord is Your face marred by darkness today. Have you been walking in sin and wickedness this week?

The devil's trying to kill you. He's trying to destroy you. In addition to all this take up the shield of faith. The shield of faith being spoken of here is a full length of full body shield. Full body shield.

The Shield of Faith Against Flaming Arrows

You know some shields were about so big around carry them on the arm covered with metal but some shields were rounded so that a man could stand behind that shield when the arrows came or a man could get down and hold it over him when the arrows came because they would come in waves and if those waves of arrows Find you outside from that shield you'll die and So in battle they hide behind that.

That huge shield that would be a full body shield to protect them from darts from from arrows. Tipped with poison. He's saying that shield is faith now again faith Is firmness. Firm. Stand on the promises of God.

Not moved from the promises of God. It would be interesting to me. I wish we had time to come to each one of you and ask you what promise of God are you standing on? This week what promise of God has carried you through this week.

If you have no promises you have no defense and The arrows can take you out. I mean look at Psalm 91 from the arrow that flyeth by day. The pestilence that stalks by night. A Thousand will fall on my right ten thousand.

Why don't they come near him because he has the shield of faith. Shields are heavy and why do I want to luck a shield around? I mean, what would you think today if I'd walked in here and everywhere I go I had this great big full-body shield.

I'm carrying around with me. You'd say pastor. There are no Indians here. You know, what are you carrying the shield around for? There's no danger here. We're safe. You know, do you think somebody's gonna come in the church and shoot you if you feel spiritually safe.

And you don't need a shield. Somebody lied to you without a shield. You'll die now a shield takes one arm to carry. Basically that arm becomes useless for anything but carrying the shield it consumes half of your strength.

If you lay the shield down it's much easier to walk and run and jog. But you have no protection. So the Lord is Instructing us to spend half of our time on the promises of God. You had a 40-hour workweek.

20 of those hours should have been carrying your shield. I Suspect some of you haven't carried your shield ever or if you have you've discarded it because it was too heavy and You don't even know where to find it.

I've had people say to me pastor. What promises should I use? My answer is anyone that will stop the incoming arrow that wants to take your life. Just about any promise will do the trick. I mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist.

Just pick one of them up and go to work with it. Stand on it stand behind it. You see we don't want to do this because we believe That we are the prime movers in the world. We're not the prime movers.

The spiritual realm is the prime place that all moving is done in. It's done by Jesus or it's done by the devil or their representatives. I'm not the prime mover in my life. I'm not here today because I decided I wanted to be at the National Prayer Chapel.

I was sent here. I Was guided here. I was Commanded to be here. I'm here because this is where the war is. God's called me to so I have to have a shield of faith. To deal with the attacks that come against me daily.

You notice it says with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Could I give you some? Examples of flaming arrows. You know if I were talking about Indians today, I'd say, you know, this is the Navajo's Indian.

Navajo Indians arrow. You need to recognize that. This one's the Comanche's arrow. You need to know how they operate because you're gonna be traveling through their land and They'd like to take your hair.

Well Let's be honest if you're not going to be traveling through hostile land. You don't need any defense. You're traveling through hostile land. And these darts have fire in them. So let's identify a few.

I Never get anything, right? I'm dumb. Nobody loves me. I can't stand another day of this. Oh, there are other arrows. Hey, I can do it. I'm the man. I'm smart. I Have a mind I can figure it out. I Don't need God to tell me how I'm.

I've got a mind. I'll use it. God gave me a mind. I'll use it. Oh, there are arrows of every kind and each is tailor fit just for you. Life is hopeless. Life is wonderful. Depending on which arrow will get through your defense.

That's the one coming your way. I Can't stand my wife. I can't stand my husband. I wish she'd just if my husband would just. Then I could if mom would just do it my way. If mom would just stop getting on my case if these kids Would just grow up if these kids would just Shut up and listen.

I'm the fountain of wisdom. Whatever the arrow needs to be it will just fit perfectly your heart with fire. Now you notice 17 take the helmet of salvation. Again the helmet of salvation is the full understanding of righteousness by faith.

The Helmet of Salvation and Waiting on God's Direction

The intellectual understanding of how God works of what God's ways are. Do you know God's ways. Can I give you some of God's ways that I've discovered he always pays late by my schedule. That's a way of God.

He never sends the money early. He always sends it late. Because he wants to see if I'll go Do my own thing. He wants to know if I'll wait on him. God wants to know if I'll wait on him if I have a Dinner date with my sweetie and we're coming from two different places and I get there and She's not there, and I wait for ten minutes, and I see another beautiful little thing walk in and I say Hey, you want to want to have some dinner with me?

What do you think's gonna happen? The Lord says meet me here. The Lord doesn't show up on time, and I say oh, there's a pretty one from the devil. Do you understand God called Moses up on the mountain?

And let him sit for a week before he spoke to him. Why? He wanted to see if Moses would wait on him now. Moses had a pretty busy schedule. He had a million people waiting down there for his administrative expertise.

He had all kinds of things he needed to be doing with those people down there and Guess what they all did get in trouble with him up there. God was waiting to see if he would wait. I Mean I can see God now sitting up on the mountain.

The mountain is burning and it's blazing. Moses is down there sitting and God's up on the mountain sitting for a week. The fire continued to burn from the presence of God. Who'd he have up there that was so important that he would let Moses sit for a week.

One of the ways of God. Is that he won't do what you ask him to do when you ask him to do it. Because he's going to let you wait and see what you'll do another way of God. He'll ask you to do something.

That seems utterly impossible and he asks you to do that utterly impossible thing to see if you will go try to do it if You try to go do it. You'll mess it up. I discovered this the hard way by hearing God say go do that and then off.

I was to do it and God took a Vacation and then I'm in the midst of this thing doing exactly what God told me to do and God is gone on Vacation and I'm left holding the bag and My only defense is but God told me to do this.

When God tells you to do something he never means for you to do it. He means for you to wait on him and ask him how he'll do it. You see I'm not the doer. Jesus is the doer. If God says do this then we go to the Lord and we say, okay Jericho has to be taken.

But I can't take that 40-foot wall down God. What's your plan. And then he'll begin to unfold his timing and his plan to take Jericho out? And I have to have a meeting with him where he'll come and say I'm not for you, and I'm not for your enemy.

I Come as the commander the Lord of hosts. You see when God tells me to do something I think then God ought to be on my side, but God doesn't pick sides. God has his agenda and The question is will I wait on God to step forward to accomplish?

What God wants to do. Will I meet with God? And will I listen to him and then walk step by step as he calls me to walk? Now I don't care if we're dealing with a healing of the body. If we're dealing with a marriage situation if we're dealing with a job if we're dealing with work and profession in Every area God will always operate the same way.

He will say do this and he means wait and get directions. And if we wait and get directions, he'll unfold for us what he wants us to do. He'll unfold the victory for us. If we go do it on our own we'll hang.

Because we'll end up following some rabbit from hell. So you have the helmet of salvation and now the sword of the Spirit. Which is the Word of God? This is the offensive weapon. Every attack of Satan on Jesus was met by a quote from the scriptures.

The Sword of the Spirit and the Word of God

That's why we read it and read it and meditate. Nothing that you hear on the television will defend you when the devil comes. No piece of music will defend you when the devil comes. No computer Will defend you when the devil comes.

When the evil hour comes this is the only weapon. Weapon that will defeat his power. Now in verse 18 He says in pray in the spirit on all occasions. Prayer is not. I'm almost afraid to say this to you prayer is not in Scripture a Weapon to use against the devil.

You want to talk about spiritual warfare. Prayer is not what we use in spiritual warfare. I know that goes against what some of you have believed all your life. It's not true. Prayer is the communing of the heart with God.

Prayer is just the conversation. We have is a telephone a weapon. I'm going to use against the devil. No. All prayer is is the telephone? That's all prayer is it's a telephone. There's no power in prayer.

The power is in who you pray to. So Paul does not include prayer as one of the weapons again. Look at what the weapons are truth. Knowing absolutely for sure from the scriptures. What is true, and what is false?

Righteousness. That is your behavior is. The weapon against darkness. The choices you make that's the weapon against darkness. Your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. You're ready to go pour out your love everywhere you go.

That's the weapon. That's how you survive. A shield of faith. Absolute confidence standing firm in Jesus Christ on the promises. The helmet of salvation. Understanding righteousness by faith holiness justification.

Understanding intellectually the gospel the good news and the sword of the Spirit. The scriptures. Those are the weapons. Prayers just the communication on when do I use the weapon and how do I use it?

That's why I say to you. I only pray because I need answers. Prayer is not some exercise. I you would never see me with my cell phone dialing numbers and holding it to my ear and Talking into my cell phone, and you say who you're talking to.

I don't know. I'm just having some yoga time. No, I Only pray when somebody's connected on the other side. If there's nobody connected I hang up and dial again, so I pray. Because I need something in the physical realm to change.

My weapon is not prayer. My weapon is the promise of God. Now it says pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Prayer at the dinner table. Prayer as I'm riding in the car.

Prayer as I come to church. Prayer when we gather for intercession. Prayer in my private prayer closet. All kinds of prayers. Constantly that connection with heaven should never be hung up on. Don't hang up on God.

You know what would happen with the US military. If you took out their communications network. Suddenly they have no longer any commuter any Computer connections. They have no telephone. Come in. What's going to happen.

Everything is utter confusion and breakdown. Don't hang up on God. Some of you dial God, and you think he's not even listening. So you just hang up on him. Don't hang up on God. He hears every prayer you utter.

Prayer, Alertness, and Mutual Encouragement

Some he can't answer if there's unrighteousness in your heart if there's sin. You don't have your equipment on and if he sends you into battle you're going to die. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind be alert and Always keep on praying for all of the Saints. So we cover each other with our prayers. How as I'm talking with the Lord about you, I'm saying is there anything I need to do with that person.