Pulling Down Strongholds

Well, praise the Lord. I appreciate the Lord's presence this morning. And I'm just trusting the Lord to order my thoughts this morning, but I'll tell you what, we almost could have played the men's service, the men's meeting this morning because virtually every thought that I had was expressed there and so well by so many people. I'll tell you, the Lord knows what He's doing, doesn't He? He knows what we need. And a lot of the songs and thoughts expressed this morning have to do with warfare and the fact that we've got an enemy, don't we? And I believe the Lord wants us to know more about Him and how to stand and how to live because He's called us to live in the midst of what you could describe as a prison planet. I'm thankful that the Lord came to let out the prisoners, didn't He? And there's an answer for I don't care how deep in prison somebody is in sin, there's an answer. Jesus Christ can come and open that door. He has done everything necessary to fully defeat the enemy forever. Thank God. But the fact is, we know from Scripture that Satan doesn't quit because we come to Christ. In fact, he doubles his efforts and he knows how to attack every one of us. You know, we all have weaknesses that we brought with us into the kingdom. We all have characteristics that are personal. We know how human nature works. We come into this world longing for love, longing for meaning, longing for a sense of purpose and belonging and what is life about. And of course, we have what we wind up with all these desires. And so, you know, the devil has opened access to the human nature. And that's why this world is described as being under the power of darkness. There's a real power that is at work. But I'll tell you, the more I go, the more I realize that God wants to set His people free, to bring us to new levels of freedom.

But if that's going to happen, we're going to have to know some things and we're going to have to learn how to stand in faith and how to recognize the enemy when he works. Now, you know, obviously the devil can attack in many direct ways. And he can tempt to sin. He could tempt people with pride. He can basically appeal to any aspect of human nature. And if we yield to him, we are giving him power. We're giving him hold. We're handing over the reins in certain areas of our life. And most people don't even realize they're doing it. They're simply following, you know, whatever happens and whatever desires arise on the inside. But think about how Satan works. What is the main way that he approaches us? Well, with lies. And lies are what? They're words. They're thoughts. He comes by speaking. Think about it. That's how God works. He works by speaking, thus saith the Lord, and His words go out and they have power in them. Jesus said, the words that I speak are spirit and life. That's true of the devil too. Because when the devil speaks and that word is taken in on the inside and listened to, there's a degree of his influence that comes in and there is a bondage that happens. And you know, the Lord has kind of brought some things to my own, needs in my own heart to light. Thank God.

Thank God He does. And I believe with all my heart God wants us to learn more about how He works and how the devil works so that we can stand up to Him. Now, you know, a lot of, well, Christians obviously can be tempted with sin, but I guess the areas I'm thinking most about are thoughts that just come into our minds. You know, we don't even think about, you know, where does that thought come from? Every one of us has thoughts that occur to us all the time. And we could imagine, oh, that's just me. Well, maybe. But I'll tell you, there's a devil who knows how to plant thoughts in our minds. And if we don't realize that and we're not aware of that, then we're wide open targets because every one of us has personality weaknesses that the devil knows how to exploit. He's been studying us his whole life, his whole life, our whole lives. He's been around a while. But he knows exactly where my weaknesses are. And if I'm not aware of how he works, I'm going to listen to that and take it in and it's going to affect me. And if I listen long enough, I'm going to wind up in prison. And I'll tell you, how many believe God wants to set His people free? He didn't come to leave us in prison, and He didn't come to leave us with a miserable struggling life. He came to give us a peace with God. Thank God. I don't know how long I'm going to share what I have. I mean, you could go a gazillion directions with the thoughts that I've had, but I want to kind of focus on some really basic stuff. There's things that affect us all in one degree or another, some more than others. But all of us, all of us have thoughts that come into our minds that do not originate from God, do not originate from us. They originate from Satan or whoever, whatever emissary he has assigned to work on us.

God help us to recognize where those thoughts are coming from, because that's exactly how Satan approaches us, all right? Now you think about the vulnerability we have as people who have come, and this kind of relates a little bit to things we've said lately. We've come into an awareness that we are sinners. We've come into an awareness if we have any truth at all, we know we come short. We know there are many needs in us, many things that are wrong. So if you were the devil, how would you approach somebody like that that wants to serve God? What does the Scripture say? What does the Scripture call him? The accuser of the brothers and sisters in this case, in every case. The Lord knows exactly how to help us in this if we will listen. But I'll tell you, the devil is the accuser. And what does he do? What does that mean in real life? Every one of us has thoughts come to our minds that will remind us what we are and what we've done. Some of it will look into the past, and we'll look back, how could I have been like that? How could I have done that? Oh God, I'm so empty, I'm so ashamed, what do I do with that? Or we'll have a thought, an unclean thought, am I the only one that ever has those? You know, and where did that come from? Oh God, is that me? Is that really what I am? And just what happens is, and the issue is, is not the fact that thoughts come into our minds, but what do we do with them? And every one of us has ways of harboring those thoughts and thinking about them and allowing them to sit there and percolate in our minds, and they affect us more than we dare to realize. I guess the thought I was trying to recall a minute ago was referred to in our men's

meeting this morning. Most of you who can remember Brother Thomas will remember him using this illustration. He said, a bird may land on your head. You can't stop that. But now if he goes and begins to gather straw and come back and build a nest, you can stop that. See, there's not one of us here who can stop the devil from just dropping a thought in our minds. But if we embrace that in some sense and feel like I've got to deal with this, we are going to get in a bad spot fast. Because the devil will just absolutely pour on the pressure, and he will add distress and fear. All of those things come with this. Just an illustration of how he works and how the Lord works by contrast. I think I've used this illustration or this example in the past, but most of you know who John Bunyan is. The author of Pilgrim's Progress. He was a pilgrim minister way back in the day when there was some life in what they had and they were not part of the official church. He was actually put in prison because he wouldn't agree to be part of the official church. The Lord used him in great ways, but his testimony of coming to the Lord is really something. Because it didn't happen some little, you know, quick experience and it's over. It was a long period of time when he became aware of his need, and then a thought would come to his mind, and he'd begin to go over and over it again, and just get in such a state where it was just 24 hours a day, every waking moment, oh God, is there any hope? Where am I at? What do I do with this? Is this really what I am? It just went on and on and on. And he would struggle and cry out, and then, and so, the picture you see is the devil is

just talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, the devil's a chatterbox. If we listen, he will have plenty to say, and it won't, any of it be edifying or helpful. And then his testimony is that all of a sudden, a thought would come, and it was a different voice, and it was peaceable. Sometimes it wasn't even a whole sentence, just a short little thing, and then, boom, the light would turn on, and all of that stuff, he would hear it, and he'd believe it. See, that's pretty important. We better recognize the Lord's voice and believe it if we want to experience the freedom for which Jesus died and the blood was shed on that cross we were singing about. So anyway, he would believe that and be set free, and all of a sudden, hope would come because the other voice was taking away hope, was filling him with fear and anxiety, and what do I do? And all of a sudden, there was a voice that just gave rest and peace and hope. And then he would go through the same cycle, and I don't know how many cycles this went through before the Lord helped him to see, wait a minute, I'm listening to the wrong voice. Jesus died for me, and I'm believing in what he says. I'm believing the word of God, and that's the end of it. And look what the Lord did with that man. What he went through, the Lord allowed him to go through that, number one, to share with us and with everyone who ever read that testimony, the reality of the world we live in, and I'll tell you, the fact that there are multiple voices that will come into our minds and come into our hearts. God help us. There isn't a person here who doesn't wrestle with fear in some area of your life. Not one. If it's not one thing, it's not another. It's another. Where does that come from? God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and sound mind or

self-control, depending on the translation, the same thought. I hope that God can help me. I know he's helping me. I'm going to say it more positively. The Lord's helping me to recognize that if I have a thought, and my reaction to that thought is to be afraid, that thought didn't come from God. That's pretty simple, but how many of us can just say that as a doctrine, as a belief, and it actually make a difference in our lives? God is trying to take the things that we know in our heads and have heard and make them real on Monday morning. Not even Monday morning, how about 12 o'clock? We walk out the door and all of a sudden the demands of life and the thoughts and the patterns and the habits that we've learned to think. You see why the Lord says that we need to have our minds transformed? Because we don't learn to think right. So many of our mental habits that have to do with fear and unbelief and focus on us and all of our lack, all of that comes from the enemy, but we learn to think that way and you don't just flip a switch and it's gone. God has to work in us. He has to minister his truth in such a way that we begin to actually lift our eyes and believe it. Then we can begin to wait a minute, say, wait a minute, devil, get behind me, Satan. I recognize where this is coming from. I don't have to listen to you. See that's the thing that I see that we've got to learn how to recognize Satan's voice because it talks to every one of us. How many of you realize that Satan has got spirits assigned? This is not to be afraid because we have the Lord, but there are spirits that are assigned to every one of us. They study us just like you would study an enemy on a battlefield. They learn our characteristics. They learn our weaknesses. They plan how to attack and how to

undermine our confidence so that instead of having the rest that Jesus promised, rest for your soul. We're filled with fear, anxiety, uncertainty. Where do I really stand? Do I really know the Lord? It's gotten quiet, hasn't it? Does this affect anybody? Yeah. We learn to put on the happy face and pretend it's not there. One of the things that we think will solve that is, well, I'm just going to push it down and pretend it isn't there. Just going to ignore it. Does that work? That's kind of like taking a sore that's become infected. What happens if you just cover it over and bury it and hide it? Does that go away? The Lord wants to lift everything into the light, His light, so that we could see it for what it is. Folks, if there is a single person here who's standing before God is depending on what you do, then not one of us here has an ounce of hope before a holy God. That's the hope of the gospel. Did Jesus pay most of it and leave the rest up to me? He paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. To His name be glory and praise. Praise the Lord. God wants us to learn how to fight. You know, there's a lot said about the armor of God and so much, everything was said was wonderful. But Lord, you guide my thoughts. There are scriptures that we know that probably need to just be, we need to be reminded of. 2 Corinthians 10, I believe this is the one I'm thinking of. Now, Paul was talking about his battle in ministry because he would minister and God would bring people to the faith and they would found churches and begin to establish them in the faith. And then people would come in behind him, motivated by another spirit, and they would mess it up. And he'd have to come in and really try to fight for truth and for Christ to take over the church and be the head. So anyway, part of this is talking about his own ministry and the battle that he was fighting. But all of these principles trickle down to you and me every day, because that's how we've tended to apply it. And that's right. Verse 3, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. I need more than psychology and psychiatry. I need more than positive, happy thinking. I need to recognize what's really going on, that we are living in a world that there's a spirit world around us, both good and bad. And we are here needing to interact with that. We're

going to interact with it whether we want to or not. But God wants us to know about it, not with fear, not to make us afraid, not to take away our hope, but to help us to be wise and aware. The weapons, Paul says, that we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. You know, the more we listen to the enemy and actually believe what he says, the stronger the hold gets. And so much of what, when it comes to people coming to the Lord, one of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to paint such a picture of ourselves to ourselves that we're struggling to have hope. If you look at yourself, you ain't going to find any hope. My eyes need to be there based upon his promises. Thank God for the hope that we have. But the more I think about me, the more I conscious of my needs, what does that do for me? If I'm just focused on that, I'm zeroed in on that, and that's all I can think about day and night. Man, you can get in a bad place in a hurry. God help us. But we have divine power to demolish strongholds. We're the ones with the upper hand if we only knew it. We have the right to say it is written. Wasn't that Jesus' defense against the enemy when he came? And the devil, it's been said many times, the devil knows how to quote the Word. He'll tell you things that are true, but he always puts a spin on it so that it turns truth into a deception and an error. But oh, how he can disguise his lies. Paul warned this church here that the devil comes as a, well, Peter says a roaring lion, but here he says as an angel of light. Sounds good. It sounds right. You know, that's right. That's right. I am. I am this. I am that. But what is his purpose? His purpose is to bring us into a place of weakness, of fear, unbelief. I wonder how many believers there are who reach a point where, or are at a point where they could speak a word of encouragement to somebody else because they know what's true, and yet they themselves are living in a state of fear, uncertainty, and unbelief. Do you think just maybe the Lord wants us to lift, wants to lift us out of that to where we can truly look to the Lord and believe He actually loves me? And all the things that the devil can point, can point out in me that are weaknesses, are needs, even

failures where I just, I messed up again. I just, oh, you know, he's going to be so tired of me trying to come to him for, what was he thinking? And the devil is just painting a false picture of the Lord and of us. And all we do is just lose heart and listen to his lies. And we're in a world of hurt. I would say by your silence, by your quietness, that I'm not the only one who experiences this. The truth is we all do. Sometimes it gets worse than others, but every one of us is affected by Satan's lies that are tailored to our particular needs. I mean you could be a young lady and you just longed for love and you want to be valued in your life. You want someone to care about you and take care of you. Oh God, do you think the devil doesn't pull on that and use that to lead somebody astray? Whatever it is, the devil is going to pull our chain and work if we let him. But Paul says we've got divine power. The reality is we've, what do we got on our side? We've got the blood that was shed that cannot be undone. If Jesus paid it all, then I need to recognize that that includes me. Everything that's wrong with me, He has given, He's called me to put my faith in Him. It's not in me. I know I can't fix me. I know the only help that I have is going to be Him in me. In my eyes, when I'm in need, I need to be lifted to the Lord. Praise God. I've got a place to go. And not only the blood, the reality of what the blood stands for, but it's the Word of God. It is written. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have the privilege of standing there clean in God's eyes. But oh, the devil loves to get our eyes so focused here in some need that I've got to do something about. My God, help us. We demolish arguments and every pretension, every high thing, I think, King James says, that excets itself up against the knowledge of God. The devil will come up with an alternative theology, but it's all designed to destroy our hope, to destroy our confidence, to cause us to look at self all the time and see what's wrong with us instead of what's right with him. God help us to put in practice what we know to be the truth. There are things that make every one of us anxious, and if we don't, I mean, we can talk

about Ephesians or Philippians 4, 6, is it? Be anxious for nothing, put in everything, and we can say, oh yes, that's wonderful, and not do it, and be anxious. Is that what God has called us to, a life of anxiety and fear? Does He have peace? You know, Satan has his own version of wisdom, doesn't he? But God has wisdom too, the wisdom that is from above, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. There is such a difference between God's voice and the devil's. The devil can come and give you Scripture and tell you true things about yourself if he's just going to look at you and your need. But here's the thing about how the devil talks. He will throw in a dart, a fiery arrow, he'll throw in a thought, and it's believable because maybe he's talking about you and your weaknesses, and you say, yeah, that's true. But he doesn't just tell us the facts, he interprets them. What does this mean? Oh, this must mean I don't even really know the Lord, or I couldn't have had a thought like that. Well, the thought wasn't yours to begin with, and your human nature hasn't improved a bit. We just need a new nature that we can learn to live by and grow into. We died on that cross, it's a fact of history in God's reckoning. God wants to teach us to reckon that and to see it and to live according to what God says and not what the devil says. When the devil comes, how does it make people feel? What does the voice of the devil do in our hearts and our minds? Does it bring peace? If there's a thought, no matter how reasonable it sounds, but all it does is bring anxiety, fear, a sense that this is just something, I can't let this go, this is true and I've got to deal with it. And it brings distress.

Did that come from God? It's as simple as that, but oh, it's hard to recognize. Oh no, but it's true. No, it's not. God helped us not to learn how to recognize the difference between God's voice and the devil's. And we sing the song, How Lovely is the Voice of the Lord. The Lord can tell us about our needs. Everyone here who's come to the Lord, the Lord's had to at some point tell you about a need in your heart. But when He does, does it make you fall into a pit of fear and anxiety like, I've got to do something? Or does it come with a sense of, I love you. I have the answer to your need. I just need you to ask me and trust me and believe me and put this thing in my hands. I got it. I've taken care of it at the cross. There's love and it leads to peace. By the way, what happens when you, well, as Peter says, cast your burdens on the Lord, but we bring our anxious thoughts to Him. There's some praying. There's some transferring of the burden to Him, and now I don't carry it anymore. What's the result of that? Peace that passes all understanding shall do what? Keep or guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That's what God has revealed that He desires for every single person that knows Him. To be able to enjoy an actual practical peace. It's not necessarily. some exhilarating emotion all the time. But if our lives are full of stress because of thoughts, that ain't the Lord.

And as soon as we can recognize that that's the issue, what are we listening to and how are we dealing with that? Anybody here not ever affected by this? I don't see any hands. Anybody who is? Yeah. Yeah. But I'll tell you, God longs for His children to enjoy His peace. In the midst of our need, He comes with a hand of love that reaches out. He says, give me your heart. Give me the issues of your life. You don't know what to do. I know what to take. I know where to take you. I know how to handle you. Just give me your heart and I'll direct your steps one step at a time. Be anxious for nothing. I care. You look in the mirror and you see nothing but brokenness. The Lord sees that, but He sees it through the eyes of love. He sees it through the eyes of what His Son did on the cross. Praise God. Does that change everything? Yes, it does. God wants us to enjoy the peace and to be able to tell the difference. Look at so many scriptures. I'm not going to look at a whole lot of them, but Colossians 3, I think, is the one I'm thinking about. It comes after Philippians, doesn't it? I thought they'd moved it for a minute.

Anyway, a lot of practical instructions about being able to keep our minds fixed on Him and let the old stuff go and take on the new and be this kind of a person. It's all because of Him. But here in verse 15, it's an interesting scripture. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Now, the word rule there is very much like an umpire or a referee. We're all familiar with sports contests where there's a referee and if someone has a foul, they can call it and they can recognize, hey, we're playing by the rules here. God has given us a referee if we understand it. If there's a voice that's speaking to us and the fruit of that voice when we begin to meditate and think about it is not peace, foul, throw the penalty flag, whatever. If it's not the peace of God recognizing that, even if, like I say, even if God shows us a need, He does it in such a way that it leads to peace. We don't have to sit there and, oh God, what do I do? Or just, well, I guess this is the way it is. I'm just that, that's the person I am. I had that bad thought, it must be what I really am. You can go, you can go on so many rabbit trails that the devil knows how to exploit. But the truth gets really simple if we can grasp it. We need to recognize that the devil will speak to us and when he does, his words generate fear, anxiety, strife, a feeling that I've got to, I've got to fix this. I've got to do something to make this go away. Why do you think some people turn to drugs for no reason? There's a pain that's in here. There's a need, there's a weakness, and they've just got to figure out some way, any way to dull that. Alcohol would be the same way. Oh God, God wants to heal every heart. He wants to set, He came to set captives free.

He came to open prison doors, not to put us in them. Satan will do everything in his power to bring us down to a place of fear, of bondage, of anxiety, all of the things that we've said, but I'll tell you, if we've got Christ in our hearts and we've put our hope in Him, you see, it's pretty obvious why we need to put our hope in Him, there ain't none here. Jesus has paid it all. My hope is in Him. I'm just going to step out and I'm going to believe what His Word says. I'm going to confess it. I mean, everything that I'm saying has been said in the men's meeting this morning. I'm just basically repeating. Doctrinally, I haven't said anything new today, have I? We've heard this a gazillion times more or less, whatever a gazillion is. But I'll tell you, the more I go, the more I run into situations and awareness, the more my awareness grows of how much I need this. Because my head could be full of all this knowledge. But if I live in a place where the devil's talking to me and I'm not recognizing it and I'm listening and I'm trying to figure it out and cogitate and react to the thought and deal with it, what's happening? The devil is just pouring in his influence and bringing me to a place of weakness and distraction. God has a place for us in this world to be a light, to reach out to others, and to bring them. I mean, we want this to be the Lord's house. We sang about it this morning. We want this to be a place where people in need can come and find love, not approval for their sin, but deliverance from it in the Spirit of love and all that Christ did for us on the cross. But I want us to experience it more in Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Thursday afternoon, in the middle of the night, no matter when a thought comes, to be able to say, wait a

minute. I recognize you, devil. I don't have to listen to you. And not to get in the middle of a battle and say, I'm just going to push it down and forget about it and pretend it isn't there, but to bring it out into the light and say, this is what God says, devil. Don't have to listen to you. Get thee behind me, Satan. Do we have that authority in Christ? But in order to use that authority, we better be able to recognize when it's needed. Let's ask God to help us, to give us greater discernment, to know how to evaluate when the devil is talking to us, no matter how reasonable it sounds, and when the Lord is talking to us. The Lord is not a ... what's the word? He doesn't jabber on and on and on. I can't think of the word I was looking for, but anyway. But the Lord knows. Chatterbox, I guess, is the word I was looking for. The Lord is not a chatterbox. He can say a simple thing and it has a profound power. What did He say when light was needed? Let there be light. Complicated, but real and powerful. The Word of God is just like that for us. If we believe it and stand on it and step out on it, God will back it up because it's His Word. Praise God. To God be the glory. I think that's probably enough for you get the point across, but I'll tell you, God needs to teach us how to think.

Every one of us needs our minds transformed so that we can see ourselves, we can see the world, we can see the devil, we can see the Lord, most importantly, in a true light. He will teach us and He will train us. You're going to go through things where the Lord's going to allow the devil to talk to you. Jesus was sent to be tempted, but He's going to do it not to bring us down or to defeat us or to make us anxious and fearful, but to teach us how to fight, to teach us to stand on His truth and get stronger and be in a position to help somebody else. Praise God. And if I fall on my face, then I get to really learn something. But you know what I learned? I learned that God loves me still, that He's provided. He knew all about that and He's provided for that and I don't have to be afraid. Praise God. God drives out all fear, doesn't He? There's no place for fear in His kingdom in that sense. I mean, the kind that I'm talking about. Yes, we fear the Lord. We respect Him. We take Him dead seriously, but I'm not afraid of Him. He's a loving Father who longs to share everything with me if I just put my whole hope in Him and trust in Him and believe His words. So let's learn how to ... discern and how to think His thoughts, how to see Him and see ourselves in the proper light. This is where I need. But I need Him to make that real in my heart, not just read words on a page. He's doing that and He will in our daily lives as we learn from Him. To Him be the glory. Praise God.

I had a thought come to me as Phil was sharing this morning, it's from, you know, we had made reference this morning, I think he did too, to that passage in Ephesians 6 about the armor of God. And of course we know that passage well, but that's the whole thing, isn't it? There's a lot of things we know well that God wants to make more real in our lives, you know, and take from here and put them here. But the passage there where he's talking about, toward the end there where he starts talking about the different pieces of armor in Ephesians 6 and verse 14, he says, Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. But I kind of feel like in some ways what the Lord's talking about this morning, it's when we take the belt of truth and then we stop there. Because if all you have is the truth and seeing the truth about your need and the reality of the fact that you have a need, but then you stop there, that's a good prescription for self-torment. That's a good prescription for being in a prison. If you only take the belt of truth and then that's it, well then the enemy can come and tell you, quote, the truth about yourself and your needs and your situation. If that's all we had, we'd be in a difficult place. But that doesn't stop there. Because the very next thing after the belt of truth is the breastplate of his righteousness being in place. See, he will not show us our need and show us the issues that he's dealing with in our lives without also showing us the answer, which is the fact that he has already paid for these things. He has made a way for us to overcome. And if you miss that, if you stop at the belt of truth, I mean, how many people are stuck there? And that's all they're seeing in the mirror every day. But there is an answer to that. And that is the fact that he has shown us his righteousness.

And the thing about it is, if there's any consciousness at all toward God and we feel that need when he shows us the truth and when we come into contact with these things in our lives, and we feel a need, you know, and a conviction about that, you know, if we don't... Well, the scriptures, it's like this. Paul wrote this. Some of us were just talking about this the other night. It comes back to my mind. Paul wrote this about some of his fellow Israelites. He said, I bear them record. They do have a zeal of God. There's an inclination toward God. There's a mindfulness of God there, but it's not according to knowledge. And so being ignorant of God's righteousness and how that works, being ignorant of that, what they do instead is the instinct is, well, I got to do something. So being ignorant of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their own righteousness. I've got to find a way to do something or to fix it or to, you know, help myself or improve it or whatever. That's the normal human reaction to that feeling if we don't see God's answer, if we don't see his righteousness. But the problem is, then he says, not only have they gone about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. That's what it comes down to, because that's what we get down to is we have to submit to the fact that we need a savior. We can't save ourselves. Adam and Eve, when they fell in the garden, their first inclination was to sow some fig leaves together and say, all right, this is bad. We messed up, but let's at least make it better. You can't make it better. God said, no, you can't do that.

He had to kill that lamb and take that cloak or that fur and make clothes that could cover them. Of course, being a symbol of what he was going to ultimately do about the problem permanently. But there's a submission in that on our part that comes and we have to submit ourselves to his righteousness that, yes, with all these needs, God, I can't fix it. I can't do it. I can't even improve it. All I can do is lean on the fact that you've already done it, that you took all of this on you. Because you remember like Naaman, right? You remember the story of Naaman. We've talked about that many times, how he came to Israel, he had heard there was a prophet there that could cure him of his disease and he went there. And just like he was used to doing and the way they did things, he brought all kinds of gold and silver and clothes to pay tribute to their God. That's what he expected to happen. And of course, later, you know, we found out his servant basically said, look, if this guy wanted you to go do some great thing to get this healing, you would have been all over it and would have gone and done it. But he was not happy about the fact that he got told go dip in the river seven times. Because it was too easy. You know, how many people are stuck on it can't be that simple? How many people are stuck on it can't be that easy? Well, it's not easy in one sense because it cost our Savior everything and it costs everything from us in the sense of laying our life down. But in the fact of qualifying ourselves before God, how many people are stuck on it can't be that easy? Just like Naaman may not go away angry, but whatever the response is, it's not submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God. because there's an instinct to want to do something,

just like Adam and Eve did. And what he's showing us is, that's not how my righteousness works. When I give you the belt of truth about an issue, first of all, to bring people to Christ in the first place, but it's the same all through our lives with the things he deals with. When I show you the truth about a need, I show you my righteousness next to that, so that you don't get defeated. You don't get discouraged. You see that there's an answer, I've done it. And you know that, thank God, that's what Eve over in Hebrews 10, where he's talking about how much superior what Christ did was to the old system of sacrifices. One of the things he pointed out, that is an indication that the cleansing was successful, that it actually worked, is that not only do you cover the sin under the law, but actually the guilt would be cleansed. That's what he gave as an example. He said, you keep offering these year after year after year in the law, but if they were really effective, you wouldn't have to keep doing that because God would have taken away even the sense of guilt. That's an effective cleansing. And when we have a cleansing, but we holding on to that guilt,

we're holding on to that, what the belt of truth showed us, but not looking at his righteousness, we just stay stuck there. God's got better for that. He won the victory for us. And he's giving us these weapons so that we can enter into that. Because after that, after the breastplate of his righteousness, he says, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of what? Peace. If our righteousness does not bring us into peace with being God, something's missing. If we don't have that sense that yes, you've done it, Lord, I've given this to you and you've paid for my sin, you bore on the cross when I couldn't. And now we can have this relationship and we can move forward together because now it's after that, that it says, in addition to all this, you take up the shield of faith. And that's what Phil was talking about this morning. These arrows that come, they do. He's right. The enemy's words, just like what Christ said, his words are spirit and they're life too, but it's a spirit you don't want to be part of. And it's that life is like a,

it's like a venom that the snake injects. You know, that's how snakes work. You ever seen a snake hunt? They don't go there and just grab something and start biting it a thousand times. They don't have to. They just go over there and bite it once because the bite isn't the big deal. The bite is a delivery system for something else. And then the snake can say, now I can just wait and just let it work. That's what these thoughts are that he does, that he gives. It's, I've injected the venom. Now I'm going to seal it back and just see if it works. Same thing with the imagery of a, you know, a flaming arrow. Same idea. It's not the arrow shot that's the big deal. It's the fact that it's on fire. If you don't do something about it, it's going to start spreading. And that's going to be way worse than the arrow wound. That's what, that's what he wants to give us the victory. And, but you can't take up that shield of faith if you don't know where you stand and why you stand there. That's why he lists this first. Yes, to embrace the belt of truth. We need to see our need. We need to see the truth. But I tell you what, don't forget about his righteousness.

And don't forget that he has fitted our feet with the gospel of peace. And there is peace between me and God. Now I've got a ground to stand on. Cause you take a shield and put it up against something. You kind of need to brace yourself a little bit, don't you? Cause it's hitting against you. You need to brace yourself. Now you got a sure footing you can stand on. Now you can brace yourself. Now you can take up the helmet of salvation and he can begin to work in our life. That's what we've talked about. Salvation is the changing of our mind, right? Renewing our minds that we don't think like the world, think like we used to. But if we don't have this first part, then when he takes us through the things that will renew our minds and change our thinking, we'll be so discouraged. We just stop and we get paralyzed right there. If we don't have this first part. And then you can take up the sword of the spirit. Then you can start hitting back because you've got a solid foundation. Not only do I reject the lie, now I'm hitting back with the truth. But you can't do that. That's why if we don't get this first part right, it's why God's emphasizing this today.

If we don't get this first part right, and you tell somebody, oh, just lift up the shield of faith and say that's a lie. They're not able to do that because they don't know where they stand and why. God wants us to know where we stand and why this morning that he has given us that ground to stand on in the face of all of our needs, all that he wants to show us, all that he will show us. He is holding up at the same time the breastplate of his righteousness. I have done it. I took that, I paid for that. Stop saying you need to pay for your sin or you haven't paid enough for your sin. I paid it and it was enough. We sing the song, it was enough to pay for my sin. It was enough that you died for me. That's what we're gonna have to claim. Lord, it was enough. And there is that submission in that, just like Naaman. Humble yourself, dip the seven times and be cleansed because God has that available. I believe that's what he's telling us here today. Folks, let's know the ground we stand on that our God has given us, his amazing salvation. His weapons are mighty. And we talked about that this morning at the men's meeting. Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We sang that song that we sing,

the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, but you can only wield them when we know what ground we stand on and why. So I just thank. Him this morning for this. This is from the Lord. I appreciate this. Thank God.