THE ARMOR OF GOD: BELT OF TRUTH - EPHESIANS 6:10-20

Let's sing a song, Ms. Morton.

Be of joy, may redemption be the theme of our song. Grace, we have been saved, and by grace we shall proclaim to the corners of the earth that Christ has come. Let the nations be glad. Let the peoples rejoice, for salvation belongs.

With the praises of the Lord, for salvation is gone.

Nations be glad. Let us be glad. We rejoice when we get to come and be with the household of faith and to be able to worship our great God. And as other Christians all over this globe are going to be gathering for the Lord's Day.

And we have a very special Sunday today. Every Sunday's special, but when we get to bring the baptismal out, now that just, there's something seems unique about that Sunday. We love to be able to see the working of salvation in the heart of an individual, identifying themselves with Christ through the ordinance of baptism.

And we almost didn't get to have it this morning. We think maybe some of the kids, as they were running through the middle, stepped on the valve in the back, and it's been leaking like crazy. But a bunch of the men got together right before service and tried to stem it from leaking too bad.

So if you have water at your feet halfway through the service, it's just coming from the back. Just baptism water, you'll be all right, all right? We deal with what we've got this morning, but we are excited.

And as we get ready to worship, we like to go to the Lord with a call to worship. We like to go straight to His words, typically from the Psalms. And we've been jumping through Psalm 119 and portions of it.

If you've read Psalm 119, it's a lot of verses in there, so we're not going to do the whole thing. But small portions of Psalm 119 to get our hearts and our minds geared, wired, directed towards the one that we're here to worship today.

So if you're a guest with us, this is a read in response. So there's a section on there. If you could pull up the first one, I'll show you. One half, I will read that portion of the psalm. And then as a people, you read back the second portion.

Because this is typically how these psalms were sung, as a back and forth, that you could see in the cadence of how they are written. But let's go to the Lord with a call to worship this morning, where the psalmist says, my soul clings to the dust.

When I told of my ways, you answered me. Make me understand the way of your precepts. My soul melts away for sorrows. Put false ways far from me. I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord.

Run in the way of your commandments. Let's go to that great God and Savior in a prayer of adoration as we prepare to worship Him together. Dear Heavenly Father, we stop now. We come before you. We bow before you.

You, you are the one worthy of praise this morning. You are the one that brings salvation. You, Heavenly Father, are the one that chose us before the foundations of the world. Jesus, you are the one that came and redeemed us and purchased us.

Holy Spirit, you are the one that seals us and as a guarantee for our glorious inheritance. And all of this is done to the praise of your glory. There's nothing that we bring to the table this morning.

There's no way for us to boast today. For we brought nothing. You have done everything. We trust you. We thank you. The fact that the Savior came and now the nations can be glad. Let the nations be glad because the good news of Jesus Christ has come and brought light to man in the midst of this present darkness.

For you are good and gracious, faithful. We thank you for that. And Lord, we pray this morning that you would be honored as we prepare to do the ordinance of baptism with our brother Kyle. Lord, we pray that you would be honored in this time.

Lord, be with us as we sing, as we pray, as Pastor Jeremiah preaches your word later on. Lord, we pray that your name would be magnified.

In our hearts.

We thank you in Christ's name.

Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. Kyle, where you at? There you are, come on up, man.

Come on up.

So most of y 'all have seen Kyle and Lydia around. They'd kind of moseyed in through those doors one day and I'll let him kind of share it if he wants to, but everything changed at that point. Yes, like all their plans kind of got thrown out the window as God was working sovereignly in them.

And he has shared a desire to be baptized this morning and later on, actually, we're gonna be presenting them to the church for membership. So that's exciting. But Kyle has said that he would like to share his testimony in preparation for this.

I grew up going to church, like most of us here, I would say, in the Bible belt, being taught the word of God and the gospel and knowing these things to be true because we were taught them. But only in my head and not in my heart.

They were true in my head, but not in my heart. So around 13, I had a confession of faith and was baptized. And after I remember having a joy for the Lord and wanting to live my life for him for a short time, then probably around six months to a year after my baptism, my parents were planning to separate.

And when I heard this news and realized what was happening to my family, I couldn't understand why God would allow such a terrible thing to happen. So not understanding how God works and not knowing the one true God of scripture, but thinking that God is the God of my circumstances, I put my anger and frustration towards God and turned from him and told God that I would not live my life for him.

And from that point, I started to look to the world for my satisfaction and started to become a two-faced person. I was continuing to grow up and go to church and being involved in things, but at the same time, still very angry with God and hating him and seeking to live my life without him.

And while getting older, I continued to go to church and not caring much for church and was living in a life of addiction to drugs, alcohol, and a party life. Through most of high school to college, this was my life.

All I wanted to do was party. In the year 2018, my first year of college, I didn't even last a full two months till I dropped out. But I had a job opportunity to work at a refrigeration company. About a week or two before starting the job, my friends from high school and I went out and bought drugs one night to get high.

It was around 12 o 'clock at night and my friends had already passed out. So from that moment, I went and got into my truck and drove off. From the moment I left my friend's house, I lost most of my memory of what happened that night.

Till around five o 'clock to six o 'clock, I woke up in a jail cell. I got arrested for a DUI and around 12 o 'clock, my mother came, she skipped church just to get her son out of jail. And from the moment I got home and got sober, one of my first initial thoughts was that this was God.

God was doing this to get my attention. So from there, the next six months was an all out wrestle and war with God. I was continuing to try and live a party life, sneak out at night and just to go party and get high.

And while still trying to live this way, God was slowly pulling me away from that life. Until one night in my room, He brought me to my knees and put His grace on me. He made me realize I have no life without Him.

That I was separated from Him because of my sin and that He put my sin upon His son so that He would be just and justify the one who believes in Him. That night, God saved a wretched sinner. And soon after, God led me and some family to First Baptist of Russellville.

For the next five years, we served in ministry and in the church and going on mission trips. But while being involved in all these things, I had a conviction in my heart, not a hundred percent being true and just realizing I wasn't quite sure when I was saved.

It was either at the age 13 or 19. But through the years of reading God's word and going to Him in prayer, through the Spirit, God has convicted me and helped me realize that I was saved when I was 19.

So I come today to be baptized.

Powerful story of the fact that it is God and God alone who saves. We will always reject Christ. We will always turn away, as Paul says, but He and His faithfulness, if we belong to Him, and if God has set His love upon you, Jesus says, I've not lost one.

He's gonna find you, He's gonna awaken you, He's gonna bring you to new life, and He will keep you. And these waters, we say it every time, there's nothing special about this. This is tap water. There's nothing unique about this trough up here.

It is simply a picture of what has taken place in the heart, what God has done, that God has washed you anew, that God has put off the old, and He's thrown your sin as far as the east is from the west, and now He's given you a new identity.

You are a new creature in Christ.

Amen.

That's amazing, right? It is awesome. Well, come on, step in here.

It's joy in the Father's love Is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now, no love is greater Who can stand against us if our God is for us Neither death can separate His Son to joy now Our God is for Father's love Is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now, no love is greater Who can stand against us if our God is for us With joy now, our God is Christ, Christ He lives

Chapter four, the first six verses where Peter says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you, but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

This is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does. And we pray that we would walk in the Spirit, as we've learned in Ephesians over the past couple of months to be being filled with the Spirit, to walk and to live as He has called us, to walk and to live, but not in our own might, not in our own power, but in His might, as we're gonna be talking about today as Pastor Jeremiah preaches on the belt of truth from Ephesians, but let's go to the Lord in a prayer of confession and assurance this morning, because here's what we know, is the reality is we don't always walk in the Spirit, and we don't always do right, and we don't always obey His precepts.

And that's where we lean into Christ, because we know that it is of Him. We have great confidence in the fact that even though I fail, He is faithful.

Let's pray.

Oh dear heavenly Father, we come to you once again, and we bow before you humbly, acknowledging our sin, both individually, for each one of us, and also corporately, as a whole, as a people. God, we fall short.

Your precepts are clear, and they're true, and they're good. Your law is good and right. And though we see it, we often don't walk in it. We often, as a matter of fact, rebel directly against it. We run the other way at times, and we fail.

The flesh, we come to you this morning boldly. We're not afraid. We're not coming into your throne room thinking that you are angry with us in some way. We are coming into your throne room as our Father that sees the glorious righteousness of Christ imputed to us, given to us, even in the midst of this brokenness, that you have redeemed us, that you care for us, that you hold those that are yours, and you keep us.

But we stand in confidence this morning. That way we can say, as David, that we love your law. We love your precepts. We love your word. We love your truth, even though we don't always obey it perfectly.

So we ask that you would help us with the power of the Spirit, to be being filled with the Spirit, to walk in those. And when we stumble, Lord, that we would remember, that we would remember that our Savior is there to pick us back up.

He said, this child, I've even paid for that. It's done. Keep running. Oh God, let us be that people. We thank you, in Christ's name, amen.

Trials test my faith. I set my hope on Jesus, amen.

Amen.

Win this life. Test my faith. I set my hope on Jesus. That's an awesome truth that we have, amen. We should proclaim that boldly, proudly. Amen, let's sing it out this morning. I set my hope on Jesus.

Trials test my faith. I set my hope on Jesus. When the questions come and doubts remain, I set my hope on Jesus. For the deepest wounds that time will kill, there's a joy that runs still deeper. There's a truth that's more than all I feel, yes.

I set my hope on Jesus. Who has set his heart me first, I set my hope on Jesus. Though the shame would drown me, I would cast my, I set my hope on Jesus. Though this heart of mine is prone to strain, give me grace enough to fear till I worship on that final Jesus.

Take all my Savior can face to money, because lights of glory, I'll know he lives, he lives, he lives, just because he is worth the living, just because he lives.

We praise you this morning, Lord. We thank you for this beautiful day, Lord, that you have made, Lord, and you have allowed us to come and gather together here in your house, Lord, and worship and praise you.

And Lord, just lift your name and magnify your name this morning, Father. It's all about you. Lord, I thank you so much for my brother Kyle, Lord, and saving him, Lord, and his baptism, Lord. How awesome.

Lord, I just pray, Jesus, that you would just be with this, be with the remainder of this service this morning, Lord. I pray that you would just bless Pastor Jerry Milam, as he stands before us and preaches your word boldly, Lord.

I pray that you would just give him the words to speak. Lord, if there's someone here this morning that doesn't know you, Lord, I pray that you would save them. You know every heart in this room. Lord, I pray this morning, as we prepare to take up our offering, Jesus, I just pray that you would bless the offering.

Bless this service. We praise you. We ask all these things in your name, in Jesus' precious holy name. In all of God's people said, amen. I don't know, y 'all may be seated.

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow, amen. Not just me, with my church family. God has blessed 12 Five tremendously here by his grace. People ask all the time, like, what are y 'all doing? How did you accomplish X?

And Pastor Nathan and I, Pastor Keith, we only get to say what we have observed God doing in the life of his people. If you would, please turn with me this morning in your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse 10.

I want us to continue to unpack and learn what it means to equip ourselves with the whole armor of God in the midst of spiritual warfare. And my prayer this morning is that we would have a better understanding that this spiritual battle that we are all in is about truth.

And so when I think about truth, I think about the most important question we could all ask, actually was uttered by Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus. Pontius Pilate said, so you are a king? And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king.

For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I've come into the world to bear witness to the truth. And everyone who hears the truth listens to my voice. And Pontius said, what is truth? And what is ironic is that he was staring at truth in the face, saying what is truth as though it cannot be known.

And so truth only comes from God, amen. And so that scene between Pontius Pilate and Jesus is a picture of spiritual warfare, how the kingdom of darkness wants to deceive you into thinking truth cannot be known.

So let's examine our primary passage this morning, Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse 10. Finally, Paul says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Paul reminds us, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

And Paul says, also for me that the words may be given to me to open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as they ought to speak.

Let's pray this morning. Heavenly Father, you are so gracious in allowing us to revere your name on high, this Lord's name. God, I pray that as we unpack the deep truths of your word, God, that our hearts and our minds would be renewed with the truth that is able to set us free, the truth that we can have salvation in Jesus Christ.

God, please equip us to be able to leave here to continue to fight the enemy in this evil day, knowing that he cannot contend with the truth. Lord, we love you. Please give us wisdom this morning to behold the mystery of the gospel.

Pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

And so something that's important as we begin to go back into our main passage, I want us to review the context. All of Ephesians has been pointing us to the person and finished work of Jesus Christ, that he is creating in himself a one new man, the church.

We are the citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are saints and members of a household. When we hear that word household, this means that we are a family. Ephesians has been showing us that the mystery of Christ has been hidden from all ages, how God is reconciling Jew and Gentile together by faith alone in Christ alone.

I wanna take your attention just for a moment back to Ephesians chapter three, starting in verse nine. As we talk about a mystery, a plan that has been revealed, this is the plan of redemption that God has been orchestrating from before the foundation of the world.

Back in Ephesians 3, nine, Paul says, the plan of the mystery hidden for the ages in God who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

This was all according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Notice he says that through the church. I meet a lot of people that say, yeah, I try to go to church when my schedule allows for it, you know?

And I'm scratching my head thinking, that is such a low view of church. I've heard some people say, well, if we would just all do our part, then the church just really isn't necessary. And I look back at verse 10.

So through the church, the manifold wisdom of God, this beautiful tapestry is put on display. Why is that? Because all of history is his story of redemption. All of history is a beautiful tapestry woven together, pointing us to the person of Christ, showing us how he is reconciling Jew and Gentile by faith alone in Christ alone.

Now, our text there also said that it might be made known to the rulers and authorities, okay, in the heavenly places. I want to submit to you, this is a reference to Satan and his demonic hosts, the kingdom of darkness.

Notice the church is being put on display to the heavenly beings, right? How Jesus Christ is crushing, continually to crush the arch enemy of God. And that's because Jesus disarmed the strong man, Satan, and has put him to an open shame.

How?

By continually plundering the strong man's goods, regenerating hearts, saving souls, and transferring them from death to life. All of this continues in this present evil age. We live in a spiritual battle happening all around us.

And even though Christ's resurrection delivered the crushing blow to Satan, demonstrating his ultimate power and authority, Satan is relentlessly continuing to attack the church, scheming to creep inside unnoticed, setting up strongholds to divide from within.

Yes, Jesus Christ has won the war, and we are victorious by faith in him. But Satan is a sore loser. Jesus has cut off the head of the serpent. His body is still twisting and flopping around, trying to wreak havoc any way he can.

And so as the saints, we must daily prepare ourselves for battle. So if you will look back with me in Ephesians chapter six, starting at verse 13. Paul says, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And so before we delve deeper into looking at putting on the whole armor of God, I wanna discuss the backdrop that we might be able to withstand in the evil day. What day is this referring to? Is this referring to the last day of history that scripture says the great and dreadful day when our Lord returns?

No, that will be a glorious day for the saints when our Lord returns to judge all of the world in righteousness, consummating his eternal kingdom that cannot fail. I wanna submit to you that every day since the fall of Adam, since he sinned, every day has been cursed by sin and evil.

And the arch enemy of God, Satan, has been prowling around, working in the sons of disobedience. Ephesians chapter five, Paul instructs Christians, look carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time for all of the days are evil.

We talk a lot about how God is redeeming the time. We live in a present evil age, an age of darkness, but how is God redeeming the time? Through the saints. We are walking as wise. We are trying to renew our hearts and mind by trying to honor the Lord with our life.

All of the days in this present age are plagued with darkness. All the days are perishing. And please listen, saint. Paul is exhorting Christians here that all the days of our lives, we are to stand strong against Satan and his schemes.

And so when we talk about Satan, perhaps many of us have a distorted view of who the devil is. He's not a little green guy or red guy with horns sitting on your shoulder trying to whisper evil thoughts into your ear.

That's kind of the world's idea of Satan, just an expression for when you have evil thoughts. Scripture is very clear that this is a fallen angelic being who was cast from his high position in heaven due to his sin of pride.

Now, he seeks to constantly oppose the will of God and thwart him with all of his endeavors. Scripture tells us in Revelation 12 verse nine that he is the great dragon of old who was thrown down, an ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

So he's the deceiver, right? What does that look like? What are his schemes so we can be equipped to make war against him? If you would, please turn with me briefly in your copy of God's word to John chapter eight.

I want us to see another example where Jesus is encountering spiritual warfare and he gives us a perfect example of how we are to stand firm against Satan and his lies. So in John chapter eight, starting in verse 44, a little bit of the context here is the Pharisees are saying, well, Abraham is our father.

And since Abraham is our father, we are the children of God. And so Jesus kind of plays on their words. Oh, you think Abraham is your father? Let me tell you who your father really is. John eight, 44, Jesus says, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks, he speaks out of his own character and he is a liar and the father of lies. Verse 45, Jesus says, but because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is because you are not of God, okay? Satan is many things.

He is a fallen angel, a murderer. He is evil and the father of lies. And so verse 45, Jesus says, because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. This is one of the central things that I want us to meditate on this morning.

The spiritual battle that we are all in is over truth. Satan hates the truth. His primary means of spiritual attack is distort the truth and he uses those moments of temptation in your life to, in a sense, tell you how you cannot trust in the promises of God and he wants you to doubt the truth.

Remember what Pontius Pilate said? What is truth, right? The secular world divorced from looking to God and what he has revealed to us says, truth cannot really be known. So what do you do? Live life how you want, right?

That is a distortion of what God wants us to do. We know that we are called to live for his glory. And so Jesus points out another truth. There are two kinds of people in this world. Look with me at verse 47.

Whoever is of God, hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. You are either a child of God or you are a child of the devil. If you're a child of God, then you receive the truth and love it.

You're a child of Satan, then you oppose the truth and hate it. The devil has been laboring to distort the truth from the very beginning and all of his feeble efforts to thwart God were only setting the stage to be crushed by Jesus Christ.

The apostle John also says in 1 John chapter three, the reason that the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. By this, it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. John also says, I write to you little children, children of God, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.

The spiritual battle that we are in is over truth. We contend for the truth that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We know that the truth is salvation is only found in Jesus Christ alone and by faith alone in his name.

Day after day, we endure the brokenness of this world dominated by the power of the evil one. The Lord will sustain us in this battle, amen. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow. So if you would please turn back with me to verse 13, because as we're gonna see is we are able now to be on guard and to stand firm because we are looking to the warrior king, Jesus Christ.

Paul says again in verse 13, take up, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day having done all to stand firm. So this stand firm, Paul is not saying look inward and try really, really hard to overcome the evil one.

He does talk about standing firm a lot, commissioning the Christian. He says elsewhere, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong. Something that he's bringing out though by standing firm is not looking to yourself, but as a lifelong pursuit to give God glory.

This applies to all the saints. And in my conversations with many people, I hear many stories about how, oh, well back in the days of college, I used to share the gospel a whole lot. Let me tell you years ago how I was able to engage in really good discipleship.

But my question is, what does that person's life look like today? This issue is not about what a believer has done, but how he continues to stand firm because in this present evil age, the battle of spiritual warfare is not over.

So yes, we are to stand firm. This is a lifelong pursuit. And you may say, Jeremiah, I don't think I can stand each and every day. I don't think I have enough strength. And I would say, you're right. That's the whole point.

You do not have the strength in and of yourself because you will fail. Paul told us back in verse 10 in our main passage, finally, be strong, not in yourself, but in the Lord and in the strength of his minds.

Dear Saint, our strength is not looking to ourselves, trying really, really hard to overcome sin and Satan because our strength comes from the Lord. Earlier in Ephesians chapter three, I wanna draw your focus.

We may have it on the screen. Paul tells us about this strength and our power that comes from the Lord and his spirit. Paul says in chapter three, verse 16, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant to you and be strengthened with the power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

That makes sense. It's a heart of faith. Loving Christ, walking with him daily. We get our strength from the Lord by resting in him. Do you see kind of the paradox? How do you get your strength? How do you stand firm?

By resting, by resting in his finished work. And so in our main passage, Paul mentions taking up the whole armor of God. This is the second time that he mentions this because back in verse 11, he says, put on the whole armor of God.

The life of a believer is not just waking up some mornings and saying, well, I better put on my armor today, right? Oh, well, you know, I was going about my day and I just forgot to be equipped with the helmet of salvation.

It doesn't work like that. All right, it's not waking up and saying, man, I just don't feel really good. I'm gonna stay home and I don't really have to put on the armor of God. That's not the imagery that Paul is communicating.

This armor is once for all. We permanently are equipped with every spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly places. So since it's not a matter of just waking up and remembering to put on the body armor, what's the point?

Why is he commissioning Christians to put on? Really, we need our hearts and our minds renewed. We need to remember what Christ has already done for us. He mentions this back in Ephesians chapter four, exhorting the saints.

He says, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And here's the key principle, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Put on, similar language, right?

Put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. The armor's already there. We already have the new man's clothes on. So what do we need? To be reminded of those truths.

We must continually have our hearts and minds renewed and transformed by the truth. And so with this, all Christians are called to be thinking theologians, always setting our hearts and our minds on the things above, not the things of this earth, right?

The things below are our own resources and our own strength. That will be a massive temptation to look to our own resources, looking to ourselves, trying really, really hard to fight the devil in our own mind.

You know what? He is counting on us to do that. He will be tempting you to fight in this battle with your own efforts. And so Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, he says, for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

I want you to see that we are not to look inward to our flesh, looking to our own resources to contend with the enemy, right? That's what Adam and Eve did in the garden, and they failed. No, our weapons come from above.

We war against the kingdom of darkness with truth. That's what Paul goes on to say in verse five for 2 Corinthians chapter 10. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

I want you to see that this spiritual war that we are in is over truth. You notice our weapons come from above, meaning that when we hear somebody opposing the knowledge of God, we meet him with love, but we point them back to Christ and his word.

And so some people say, well, that seems like that's a hard thing to do. You better believe it is hard, right? Even Jesus confronted the Pharisees and said the intense words, you are of your father, the devil.