The Whole Armour of God - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

Intercession for Persecuted Believers

Lord we're never weary of asking the teachers to pray. We're aware that there's no school on earth, no school of languages that can teach us the art of intercession. We think of our Lord Jesus Christ when he prayed we're told that he sweat as it were great drops of blood and the writers of the Hebrews reminds us of the Son of God who understood the sin of men, who understood the diabolical power of Satan more than we shall ever know until you reveal it in eternity.

We read there in Hebrews 5 that he prayed with strong crying and with tears. I don't know if there are other candidates here this afternoon but Lord I ask you to teach me to pray like that. There may be no virtue in our mere emotion but Lord God of hosts unless our hearts are stone we ought to be moved with compassion and concern that Satan has been able to lead some of your choice saints into captivity.

We're aware that the history of the church of Jesus Christ is written with blood. The blood of the martyrs has always been the seed of the church. And Lord there have been waves of revival in that country.

This would seem a roadblock that Satan is using through a system to try and hinder that which possibly could spread to the very ends, north, south, east and west of Africa where the men of white or black or yellow whatever color they are their hearts are black without God.

We are reminded again Lord that when prayer was made for Peter and others you sent an angel. This would be new to us but we pray God in heaven that it may please you even to send a visitor from another world to them in their misery, in their darkness.

Lord maybe those men in prison are the most free men in that country. The man who put them there is in bondage. He's in chains heavier than chains of iron or chains of gold or chains of any other metal.

He's in bondage to satanic power. His mind is satiated, saturated with evil desire. He's a man of cunning, he's a man of strategy. What he's forgotten is that he's a creature of the day and his breath is in his nostrils and he can't last very long.

And so we pray again arm of the Lord awake and put on strength. We do agree as our brothers pray that there will be a divine intervention that something will happen. We would that in this nation some man might stand and dare to be counted.

Some man might speak even in the legislature somewhere in Washington and startle them. Maybe fall on his knees in an outpouring of prayer that would make those men wonder what on earth had happened. Lord there's vain is the help of man your word says.

We pray for this young man who may be in a solitary prison there in Cairo. Be his comfort, be his strength today. Maybe many times he's sung as we have sung well the whole realm of nature mind that it's not so easy when it's one who is alone going to lay his life down.

But seems to be a life that has hardly been lived yet. Lord we think of those millions we do not hear of in China than elsewhere. Your word does say that precious to the Lord is the death of his saints.

We know again it doesn't matter how long we live it's how we live. We think of the young man Stephen and the church must have been shot to its very toes. That the young man who had the anointing of God, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of power upon him.

Nobody could gainsay his preaching. His face was like that of an angel. He had authority to cast out demons and yet somehow it seemed as though Satan got the upper hand. And he took the captain away from that early church.

And it seemed Lord the very moment he died as though you took the mantle off him and put him on that man called Saul and he didn't even know about it. It seemed you got a greater man out of the death just like a great acorn may, a great oak tree may come out of a tiny acorn.

Stephen's Martyrdom and the Baptism of Suffering

So we think of that young man laying down his life and Saul being haunted. By the fact that that young man could pray like his Lord when he died. Father forgive them. That he could stand there and see into eternity and say I see Jesus standing.

That must have been an exciting death. That must have been a wonderful reception because Jesus it seems as though you stood up to receive him when the word says you're sitting at the right hand of the Father.

As though there was excitement in heaven that this young man wouldn't quarrel about this or compromise or seek in some way to get out of the grip of that terrible murder that was to be his own when his head was to be severed from his body.

As our brother Joe prayed this afternoon we recognize again our ease, our comfort. I think here of the words of Jesus when those disciples wanted to go with him. And he said there is another baptism. Are you able to bear it?

We hear so much about the baptism of water and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We don't hear much about the baptism of suffering. We don't hear much about the baptism of identification with something that would break our hearts and maybe keep us half time from eating and half our time from sleeping and half our time from other things.

I pray God as a people here that we may be people with anointed eyes. If not why do we exist? We may as well get absorbed in another denomination or group. We know the birds that fly in the sky don't all have the same song and they don't all have the same plumage and they don't all eat the same things.

Lord I don't know we want to be like anybody else but we do want to be like thee. We read of our Lord Jesus that when he saw the multitude he was moved with compassion. He saw them as sheep going astray.

He used to sing Lord crucified give me a heart like thine. Teach me to love the dying souls of men and keep my heart in closest touch with thee and give me love pure Calvary love. Well this is what we need not a sentimental love not the love that we sing about even in some of our hymns.

But that love is so amazing and so divine. That love that you spoke of to your servant in John 3 .16 where it says God so loved the world. A love that doesn't give the surplus it doesn't give God the leftovers of its time or the leftovers of its money or the leftovers of anything.

But love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my all. Help us to get there and help us to stay there and help us to live there. Bless your word to our hearts in Jesus name. The epistle of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 6 again.

The Whole Armour of God in Ephesians 6

Ephesians chapter 6 let's read from verse 10 again. Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

One of the hymns that we love here and sing fairly often is How Firm a Foundation ye Saints of the Lord. And I found out this week that it was inspired after a person had been reading very carefully over and over again.

The sixth chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. It's true that he had gone into the first chapter he had read it carefully through but at the end all he could say was what a firm foundation God has laid for us in his word.

You know it's going to be terrible to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Again to quote Dr. Towles and not many. If any of us anywhere will look straight in the eye of God and say like Jesus did I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

And as Dr. Towles used to say the thing that troubles me is not what I've done but what I could have done. If only I'd been tuned in and heard his voice. If I'd only explored what Lowry calls again the possibilities of grace.

I say again that one reason I can listen to the Apostle Paul he hurts me sure he does. Again because a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. I read the other day where a man had been testing some of these 1977 cars they're not all good and he gave his comments on various ones and then he said of course there are others but I can't comment on those I haven't tried them out.

Now remember this is one of Paul's prison epistles. He's not a youngster he's an old man. My guess is he was pretty disfigured with all the stonings that he had. I think maybe his eyes slanted a bit and his teeth was screwed up where somebody had lacerated him with a stone.

I think he limped a little. After all they did cast him out of listless like a bag of bones saying that's the end of him. Well he's not going to get up and walk. Well he happens to know a thing or two you know and in Romans 8 he talks about the power of his resurrection quickening the mortal body and he found it there and he rose and he went on and did a job.

But again like the man who has tested the car this man has tested the whole armor of God. He's explored the possibilities of grace like no other man. He's drunk of the bitter waters of adversity and hardship.

He's given his back to the smiters. He's embraced things that men were 100 million miles away from. Sometimes he says he's in weariness and in fastings and when he's not in weariness in fastings he's in prison where he can't get food anyhow.

And the devil did an awful lot to him but he never got a squeal out of him. He never got a groan out of him. He never got a question out of him asking well Lord why did this come to me when I've done so much and others have done so little.

He never did that. So again I say that the man here is a mature soldier. He's had on the whole armor of God and he recognizes again and again and again that the Christian life is a warfare. We're not thought he says we don't wrestle with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers.

Writing to the Corinthians you'll remember he says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual and they're mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Nearly everybody builds a right to book on how to build yourself up in the faith.

Nobody talks too much about pulling down strongholds. Well the only reason you get built up is that you can pull down. We're not these nice boys showing the muscles you know it's an exhibition. Paul says in this epistle he tells us to put on the whole armor of God.

Now look you can put on armor without going to fight. You can parade. You can strut up and down and be a showman. But he not only talks about putting on the whole armor of God. He says take unto you the armor of God.

And there he implies you're taking it for a given situation and the situation of course is combat. Now in the first part of this book Paul has described what I would say is our heavenly calling and in the second section he's talking about walking worthy.

That you and I have to live every day worthy of the name that we bear. That we don't foul it up. That somebody doesn't say hey if that's Christianity I'm through with it. If that's your idea of a man of God.

Do you remember what that famous Indian said Gandhi? Somebody asked him if he liked Christians and he said no no no. I like Christ but I don't like Christians. In other words he says the model doesn't quite work now like the master.

Something went wrong. The potter didn't produce what we thought would be produced or there's something hindering. Now in the first part of the book therefore he's talking about the heavenly calling of these people in Christ Jesus.

He's very clear about it. He talks about their predestination. He talks about their edification. He talks about their vocation not vacation. In the second half he talks about walking worthy of our high calling in Christ Jesus.

Witnessing, Worship, and Warfare

You see really there are three great manifestations of the Christian life. Maybe there are more but there are three main ones. One is witnessing. The second is worship. The third is warfare. Now we know an awful lot about witnessing.

You can get all kinds of books on how to witness. There's not so much information around on how to worship and there's very little on warfare. There is an old volume, it's about this size, written by Goenel somewhere in the 1600s.

It's very ponderous and I don't get much out of it. But it reputedly is a classic. You'll have to wade up to your ears in old terminology and theology but he's managed to write about 700 pages on warfare.

As I say, I'm saying I don't like it too much. The areas I've dipped into it I haven't found too inspiring. But again here are the three divisions. Number one, where to witness. Number two, where to worship.

And number three, there's warfare. Witnessing is declaration. Worship is adoration. Warfare is opposition. Witnessing is manhood. Worship is Godhood. Fighting is devilhood against principalities and powers.

Witnessing is to tell others what God has done. Worshipping is because we know who and to some degree what God is. And warfare is to realize some of the greatness of the power of Satan. Notice again that the apostle urges us to put on the whole armor of God.

Family Order and the Father's Responsibility

Now I reminded you last week that this chapter, the sixth chapter, begins in the nursery and it ends in the armory. If you go in the previous chapter there's an exhortation to servants to be in submission to their masters.

Masters be kind to their servants. Wives to be in subjection to their husbands. In the sixth chapter children be in subjection to your parents. Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

Then it changes to honor your father and mother. Why? Because there comes a time when you don't have to obey your parents. There's a time when legally your parents have no authority over you. But you don't stop honoring them just because legally you're not bound to do everything that they say.

One proof of grace in the way we bring up our children is that they honor us. Now have you noticed this? I didn't notice this until yesterday. I'll do it today. In verse four. The ladies get off the hook here.

Because it says ye fathers provoke not. Notice the mothers are not mentioned. Ye fathers provoke not your children unto wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition. You see it's recognizing again the father is the head of the house.

In a godly home the father should be the king, he should be the priest, he should be the advisor, he's the shepherd. And there comes a time when he can't drive every opinion into those children. But he doesn't lose the heart of the father.

He doesn't lose his compassion. He's careful in his admonition. You know when I was a boy, I was a boy. I was as mischievous as a monkey. I gathered everything I could. I filled my pockets. My father would say, come here Len.

My pockets were like this. What have you got in them? Oh well I got a lot of things. Empty them out. I didn't ask you if you wanted to. Empty your pockets. Good night. I got marbles this size and this size.

I had a pocket knife, a piece of string. Something I swapped with another boy for something else. And it looked like a pawn shop by the time I got everything out on the table. And you know my father knew I didn't like that.

And then sometimes he'd say to me something like this. Len do you have your knife on you? Yes dad I have my knife somewhere here, somewhere. You know he got everything out of my pocket without telling me like empty your pockets here.

You know one day I was smart enough to fall for that. I thought you're crafty. You want to know everything in my pocket. That's what you want to know. And instead of me backing off and saying well daddy it doesn't matter.

Because sometimes you know I might have a candy I used half and stuck it in my pocket and it would go and lot of whiskers on or something. Alright something else. But he found out what was there. Now the apostle here says bring your children up in the nurture.

I like that word. Oh good daddy takes care of his children. I'll tell you what my children don't buy the clothes down the road. There they get the best of everything. My children get the best bicycles.

My children get the best food. My children get, you could say that in millions of homes. But tell me this, do they get the best spiritual nourishment? Somebody said very smartly. If we started dealing with children in the high chair we could get rid of the electric chair.

We've got rid of that unfortunately I think. But anyhow that's it. And the responsibility is the father. Yes the mother, the mother has responsibility sure enough. But the emphasis here again is on the father.

Ye fathers provoke not your children unto wrath but bring them up in the nurture and in the admonition of the Lord. Now in verse 10 again he says finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Personal Responsibility and Spiritual Discipline

Put on. We don't stress human responsibility enough. You can pray till you're blue in the face and there's a some things God won't do for you. Do it yourself. You tell the Lord you're going to spend the next six Saturday afternoons praying instead of doing your garden and see if anything grows.

Not only that in the spiritual realm. He says keep yourself from idols. He says keep yourself in the love of God. He says you lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset you. He says flee from youthful lust.

Don't have problems with lust. What were you doing lounging around the bathing pool the other day with half nude girls there? You were feeding it. Well why pray about it? Flee. Run away from it he says.

Flee from youthful lust. Now will you notice what he says put on the whole armour of God. Why? Why? Why do I need the whole armour? It goes right from my head to my feet. Why? Because human personality is corrupted and weakened and I need the whole covering that God can give me.

Notice again he doesn't say I want to make some suggestions to you. I say this is pretty devastating to me at least. You know he says this is God's armour. It is not Paul's armour. It isn't a basic theology of somebody else's.

He says this is the armour that God Almighty has provided because you see now you've come into the kingdom of God that Satan has every right to turn every part of hell upon you if he wants to. That's why he says put on the whole armour of God and stand and withstand when you don't understand.

Put on the whole armour of God. He doesn't say take a course in psychology and beef your mind up a bit. He doesn't say change your diet and build your body up a bit. He doesn't say you need the latest book on how to influence somebody and win somebody else that the Greeks have just put out.

He says come into the armoury. If you go to England or some other countries, there are one or two places in this country, even in Canada, you can go into an old castle. I didn't get too lost in the china and the priceless ornaments but I'll tell you two things I liked in those castles when we toured them.

One was the library. I like to see those ancient manuscripts. I like to see those illuminated decorations in the front where a book has been dedicated to a king or somewhere else. It took months and months to do that page.

It was done so delicately by a man who spent his life until his eyes were almost boggling. Oh those beautiful illuminated addresses in the front are wonderful. But you know I also like to go in the armoury.

And when we got into the armoury it was something to see. Oh there were guns going so far back. Why I remember seeing a gun longer than myself. I wonder how the man wielded it. I remember the countless swords that were there.

I remember a thing called a halberd. It's something like an axe with a long handle. And I could have stayed for hours in that one room looking at all those weapons. Say, wouldn't they be pretty ridiculous today?

What's the good of having a big helmet? You've got two little holes in it and clanking down the road as though you're going on to land on the moon. And a fellow's gun over like that and he drops an atom bomb and you wouldn't even know anything was around.

The tactics have changed. I noticed a man say quite recently, well how is it that five, six hundred years ago there wasn't much said about the occult and spiritism for the simple reason they weren't living in the days we're living in now.

This is a bombardment from hell. This is Satan's last visitation to the earth trying to sweep multitudes, millions of people to destruction. And the best way to do it is to get through this little thing here on the top of our shoulders.

That's why again the apostle says here, wherefore take unto you, pardon me, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wild, the trickery of the devil. You know in all the epistles Paul wrote, fourteen if you take Hebrews, he only mentions the devil four times.

I get a little irritated. I don't often get irritated. My irritation is sanctified though. I don't get irritated about things concerning myself, I get irritated about things of the kingdom. When somebody says, you know what the devil said to me today?

Said to you? I don't even know you're living. A demon maybe. I've said more than once and I got a letter from a young man this week who was in a meeting we had a while ago and he turned my phrases around, but that's all right, I knew the thing had gone home.

If Satan has a danger list and he says, look there are ten men on earth that I hate more than anybody. I wouldn't mind being the last one on the list, never mind the first. I would like to be a thorn in the side of the devil.

I would like to embarrass the devil. I would like the devil to say, oh Rave Neal's just woke up again, I wish he'd have slept longer. Or Rave Neal didn't go to bed, oh I wish he'd have gone to bed earlier.

I would like to take all the power that God can give me and stand against the wilds of the devil. He's making his life dead. That's why there's such a glut of books on the occult. Did you notice what happened just recently, where a boy went to a place in New Jersey, three boys together and one of them said, listen you murder me and cut out my inside and cook it and I'll be reincarnated as a devil, please do it.

And the teenagers did it, fourteen years of age. They murdered him, they took his inner drought. They made an altar and offered his blood and his intestines and things. When the police came they said, well he asked us to do it sir, he's going to rise from the, be careful what you do, he's going to rise from the dead.

How is it Anton LaVey can get so many intellectuals following him? How is it a bookstore in Michigan on the edge of a university can sell ten demon bibles to every one bible it sells, of the Christian faith?

Spiritual Warfare and the Demonic Realm

All right the apostle says that, as I say again, he mentions only four times, he never says Satan spoke to him. Have you ever noticed that? I've said almost facetiously, I think Satan said, come on demons gather round I've got good news for you.

What is it? They chopped Paul's head off, you can all have a half day off. The apostle Paul's dead, we can relax a bit. You see the other man was going to be like him, I got rid of him, that young fellow Stephen, seventeen years of age, boy I cut him out.

But you know what, I think somehow this man has never forgotten it, he could see that boy's blood spilling, he could see the eyes of that boy, he's never seen those eyes, they'd be like the headlights of a car as we would say.

He sees the eyes of that boy, he hears that boy saying, Lord forgive them, they don't know what they do. This man thinks he's exterminating Christianity, he's not, he's watching the trees. He's not cutting off a branch, he's going to bear more fruit.

Isn't that true of the church of Jesus? Men of flog, Gilmore went to Mongolia, how long did he stay? About seven years, before he had one converse. I preached there in almost the black hall of Calcutta once, in that church of Carys, and felt unworthy even to put my hands where that godly man had been.

I remember one day looking at C .G.'s stud, the last time he came to England. Because of course he was a Babe Ruth of English cricket, and I thought he'd give us some tips on cricket. He never knew the rubber cricket field apparently, never mentioned it.

All he did was glorify the Lord and say, you backsliders, why don't you get to Africa and save the love. If we'd have listened to him then it would have been a different Africa. But you see this is what God asks.

Again he doesn't want your lousy sins. What do you think God does with sins? He doesn't launder them and put them back in the earth. He asks for your heart, he asks for your life, he asks for your spirit, he asks for your body.

Put on the whole armour of God. Why? Because you're going to need defence in every area, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. There is no part that is not vulnerable to the devil unless I have me on the whole armour of God.

Put on the whole armour 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 and against powers and against the rulers of the darkness.

Take unto thee the whole counsel of God. Put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Verse 14, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.

And then a breastplate of faith. Some of you have read about an ancient country called Sparta. Do you remember a country called Sparta? Where the mothers, do you know how they bathed the babies? Boy you couldn't do it down here.

Do you know how they bathed their babies every morning? When the mother fed the baby, do you know what she did? She went and rolled it in the snow. Oh, goodness me, give it pneumonia. Oh, you'll have the health authorities after you.

She didn't happen to know about that. She rolled the baby in the snow because she said, that babe, when it's been rolled in the snow and I rub it with a towel, I'm doing something to build it up. The king of Sparta said every baby boy that's born in this country is born a soldier.

I wish to God we told everybody that comes blubbering to an altar sometimes, not because they want to get saved, but they want to get rid of a bit of guilt. I wish we'd said to them, listen, you're born again of the Spirit of God, you're a soldier, you've got no rights.

I noticed a bunch of soldiers this week are going to sue the government because they say, you tricked us into being a soldier. You're not telling us, you told us some things we should get and we're not getting them.

And I'll tell you something, Jesus never tricked anybody. Once when he needed recruits more than anything, do you know what he said? He said, listen, don't sign on the dotted line a minute. Oh no, don't get swept away on emotion.

Don't think I'm going to have a revival like this every meeting and feed 5 ,000 everybody excited. Don't think your ears are going to tingle because you see somebody raised from the dead. I want to tell you something.

If you're going to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, sit down and count the cost. I don't want your sins, I want your life, I want your spirit, your soul, your body, your mind, your will, your emotions, everything.

Most young men say we were tricked into it. Jesus never tricked anybody into it. We're always saying to people, you need to be saved, you know, the Lord can give you peace. Yes he can. Do you know why he gives you peace?

Because you'll think you're going through hell sometimes and the only thing he'll keep you sane is the peace he gave you to go through that situation, that's all. He guaranteed peace. No he didn't. He guaranteed my peace I give you.

But he also guaranteed me that peace. He says listen, in the world you shall have tribulation. Don't you make any mistake about it. The world isn't going to love you because you're righteous, it's an unrighteous world.

It won't love you because you're holy, it's an unholy world. It won't love you because you're pure, it's an impure world. It won't love you because you're truthful, it's a lying world. It won't love you because you're honest, it's a deceitful world.

I remember going down the street in the city of Bath in England. The Romans were there in 55 BC. Oh there was such a commotion and then people said, look, look, look. And a lady apparently had been cleaning in her room upstairs.

There were these two-story houses and she had the windows open. And she must have let the canary out for some reason, another habit of flying around. And it had come out of the window and it was perched on a window sill.

She had a window here, one here and one that didn't open. And she was reaching, almost falling out, trying to get a net over that bird and it flew away. And as soon as it moved, sparrows came, dozens of them.

And they pecked and they pecked and they squealed and they howled until finally they got that little thing. They just murdered it. It happened to be the wrong color, it happened to be yellow instead of being the color of a sparrow.

And it was easy to see and they destroyed it. And you know immediately we're born again with the Spirit of God. We come out of the kingdom of darkness into light where targets for Satan. Make no mistake about it.

Truth, Faith, and the Armor of God

But again the word is here. What does he say? He says, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth. Now I don't doubt that that's what he meant. And I don't doubt that the loins are these things here what I understand is to be very strong if you're going to wrestle.

And he's talking about wrestling. But I do remember that there's another word, isn't it, in Peter. Where Peter says in 1 Peter 1 verse 15, wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Gird up the loins of your mind.

And I said and we get to it here. The thing I'm concerned about this afternoon in this suit of armor that we're wearing there is a breastplate. Now the breastplate for instance again with the Spartans.

When a young man went to fight for Sparta his mother always stood at the door they said. He'd received his uniform, his shield would cover him from his head to his feet. And his mother would say now Jack remember you come home with that shield or on it.

He came home with his shield all bloody or he came home on it. It was the deal on which they carried his body home. But he hadn't let go of the shield. The shield covered him. He could peep over it but it was a protection against the whole of his body.

And therefore the Apostle here talks about the shield of faith. And girding up the loins of your mind and putting on the helmet of salvation. Isn't it interesting here that in this warfare, and I'm quite serious in this and kind, that there is no mention of gifts of the Spirit.

Have you noticed that? And have you noticed in the gifts of the Spirit there is no gift of exorcising demons? Now in these days there's an awful lot of emphasis on this. I get magazines from different parts of the world and I find some of them, so and so, deliverance tabernacles.

There are no deliverance tabernacles in the New Testament either. There are gifts of evangelists, there are gifts of prophets, there are gifts, and again it's multiple isn't it, there are gifts of healing.

But there is no gift as such to tell us to, as an individual, a personal minister of casting out demons. Now it is true that Jesus said to his disciples, go into all the world, preach the Spirit, heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out devils.

But he didn't say, Peter that's your particular ministry. You know again, and I like this, you may not but I do. I like this because you see it says that when God gave gifts unto men he gave to one this and to another that and to another, but he never said that about the fruits of the Spirit.