As a Bible scholar and compassionate pastor, Dr. Yousev gives you tools to stand strong in the strength of the Lord. In Dr. Michael Youssef's new book, Winning the Invisible War, Dr. Youssef reminds you that although the war isn't over, victory is guaranteed in Christ.
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Youssef has authored more than 50 life-changing books, including the soon-to-be-released. Winning the Invisible War. Leading the Way has ministry arms reaching into and across six continents, in 28 of the world's most spoken and understood languages. Doctor Yussef and leading the way, rely on the prayers and generosity of God's people to continue introducing the grace of God to the lost. Stand with Dr.
Youssef on the front lines of ministry. When you call 866-6566-6666-6666- Six two six. Four, three. Five six or learn more at ltw.org. Listen with me now as Dr.
Michael Youssef guides you to a practical understanding of what the Bible says about spiritual warfare and properly using the armor of God. In the last message, we saw how when Satan kept on coming to Jesus in the wilderness, tempting him and tempting him and tempting him again. Our Lord defeated him. over and over and over by the sword of the Spirit. The word of God.
One of that equipping that we're gonna look at today We're going to look at it closely. is the armament. that God gave us. Don't ever forget that God provided that armament for us in order to be equipped to defeat Him. There's only one offensive weapon, but all the others are defensive.
Himirat, please. These are our protective armor. They are a hazmatsut. for the hazardous warfare. There are our battle fatigues.
That we need to put on Always Always, always.
So turn with me, please. To Ephesians 6. Beginning at verse 10. Ephesians 6. Beginning at verse 10.
And I am going to divide this passage or this almost. into three categories. Three categories. The first category is the permanent uniform. That's the uniform that you wear day in and day out.
Then there is a defensive Weapons. That we Used to defend ourselves and have victory over Satan. And then there is. Uh one offensive weapon but also can be used defensively.
So look at the uniform. The uniform that has to be on all the time, verses 14 and 15. Stand therefore Having fashioned the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet fitted with the redness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Now I don't want to read too much into this, but this uniform has to be Worn every day. Every moment of every day. Those of you who have served in the military, only branch of the military, Who does not wake up first thing in the morning and put on the NFO? They don't walk around in their bathrobes. They put on that uniform.
Daily and get up. and do whatever they're called to do. That uniform is permanent. It is not you put it on and off, it is permanent. That's why I want to explain this to you because it's very important.
Every waking moments, when you go to work, when you socialize, you permanently put it on and that is why it comes first. The uniform comes first. This is our identity. This is our survival kit. I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ whole life characterized by this singular uniform.
When answering the critics, his Jewish critics in John chapter 7, verse 18, he said, He who speaks for himself Seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true. and no unrighteousness in him.
Now, beloved, The truth And righteousness, they go together. Truth. And righteousness belong to each other. That's why they're together in this passage. They And that's stagnant But they belong to each other.
They have a purpose. And it is to announce to the world. That we are Enlisted in God's army. There's that wide leather belt wraps around the soldier's waist. The belt helps a soldier.
to tuck his free-flowing clothes When they tuck this robe, whatever they're wearing, the free-flowing clothes back then, it will free up to the knee, they free the person. And Because in the battlefield or even an everyday working in the field. A free-flowing robe. is a great hindrance to getting anything done. But You can move faster.
when you tuck it inside the belt. You can run faster When it's stuck in the belt. You can be flexible in all of your daily activities if you're stuck. inside the belt. They've tucked him into the belt of truth.
When you talk Everything in life. Under the belt of truth You're not gonna fumble and stumble. And that is why the belt of truth, listen to me, is a permanent feature of the uniform. It's the first thing in the uniform. Without the bill of truth, You will fall for every false teaching.
Without the belt of truth, You will never be able to discern the truth from falsehood. Without having that belt of truth around you, you are going to fall for every trick. For every false Preacher. For every Fast talker. for every great communicator who misleads you into falsehoods.
And that is why biblical truth must be wrapped around you all the time. It helps for you to smell false teaching a mile away. Not only that, but it will help you to run away as fast as you could when you hear a false teacher. And the second item, which they belong together, In that permanent uniform is the breastplate of righteousness. In ancient times, that breastplate Is designed to protect your vital organs, your heart, your kidneys, your liver.
Your vital parts. They're vital organs. This is the bulletproof vest, if you like. Him or I please. In the spiritual war.
As I've said, truth and righteousness belong together. They belong to each other. And that is why they are part of this permanent uniform. The righteousness of Jesus Christ that He imputes upon us when we come to Him confessing that we are sinners and deserve hell and ask for forgiveness and He gives us His forgiveness, He puts on us that righteousness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Jesus Christ protects our spiritual vitality.
It protects our vital spiritual organs. It reminds us. that Jesus accomplished our salvation on the cross and Satan can never take that righteousness away from us. When Satan tries to assault you with doubt over your salvation, when Satan accuses you of past sins from which you've repented a long time ago, when Satan tries to accuse you of sins that God has forgiven you a long time ago, or tell you that you are not good enough for salvation. That breastplate of righteousness of Jesus Christ that we are wearing reminds us that it is not our self-righteousness that saves us.
It is not our efforts or hard work that saves us. We cannot achieve that righteousness if we work 24-7. But it is by grace of God that we are saved. And that is not of our own, lest we boast. But it's a gift of God.
Remember That the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not ours. Saves us. That, my beloved friend, is going to equip you. to joyfully Joyfully, Obey the word of God. That some people see the word obedience to the word of God as a burden.
I have to do it. No, but when you have that breast of righteousness of Jesus Christ on your chest, You are delighted in serving God. You are delighted to obey God. Let me say it again. Truth and righteousness belong together.
And that is why those who have paper breastplates Paper breastplates of self-righteousness. of work salvation. Satan will pierce. Every time. And quick.
and he will load them with guilt. He will tell them. Do they not? doing enough. that they're not good enough.
that they are not righteous enough. that they're not serving enough. But when you put on the breastplate of righteousness of Jesus Christ that bullet-proof vest, when you put that armor-proof vest, When you put on this dark Prove vest. That breastplate of righteousness Satan can never pierce. That breastplate of righteousness.
will remind you to say to him Every time he assaults you. In the words of Romans 8.1, There is now no condemnation upon those who are in Christ Jesus. The third part of that permanent uniform are the boots.
Now, of course.
Now we have very heavy boots because of the nature of warfare. Back then, they had very tight sandals, wraps all the way, sometimes in the knee, but sometimes it goes up. At least halfway. But it tightly fit. It had to tightly fit because of the desert and sand and climbing mountains and it's a different kind of warfare as we have today.
The gospel of peace is that irrefutable truth That in Christ and in Christ alone, we now have peace with God. The peace that we experience now in this life Regardless of the political turmoil, regardless of the economic turmoil, regardless of the pain and suffering, regardless of the circumstances that we pass through, regardless of the evil forces that are attacking us all the time, regardless of what people say or do to us, regardless of what fiery darts Satan throw at us. We have the peace of God. Because we have peace with God. And you only can have that through Jesus.
If you go around your Christian life, Wearing flip-flops. You're going to get your feet burnt. You're going to lose your peace. You're going to lose your peace. You won't have peace.
Beloved, in the spiritual realm, These flip-flops Will it be your own ideas about God? whether they are owned philosophy. Whether you want to do your own thing, whatever they are. They will burn your feet. But when your feet are firmly protected with the very solid, imperishable boots of the gospel.
You will always feel safe. No matter what happens. No matter what happens. And with these boots, You can kick Satan out to Timbuktu. This is the uniform.
This is all we permanently wear. Day in and day out. This is what we put on daily. every waking moment. That's what you're living.
Thinking and behaving should reflect. Can I get an amazing? Secondly, I'll come to the defensive weapons, verses 16 and 17. The shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. Do you remember?
back in the book of Exodus. When God was delivering his people out of the slavery of Egypt. And it was plague after plague after plague. Finally, God said to Moses, tell the people. To slay in a lamb.
And then they take that blood of the Lamb and put it on the posts of your doors, of your houses. on the top and the sides. Yeah. I often think about this. I really do.
And it's just my own thinking, so It may never have happened, but knowing what they were later on and what we saw, Most likely some of the attempted to say, Lord. We're in the land of slavery. What does this blood on the drawer will do? That's the silliest idea as we've heard. Lord.
The previous nine plagues did not even move the needle with Pharaoh. Lord. Pharaoh did not budge with all the other things that you have done. What would this painting of the blood on the doorpost would do? Oh, they could have said Let us vote.
We need to vote. But now. even though they did not understand everything of what God had in mind. Yet they obeyed anyway. And we know what happened.
In the middle of the night. The angel of death came. and took the firstborn of Egypt. And every time he sees the blood on the doors, He bypasses. He passes over.
That's why we get Passover. That's what Passover means. But praise God we live in the New Testament. Praise God, we live in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, the blood of Jesus Christ and only the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured on Calvary protects us completely.
Once you are marked by the blood of Christ. You are untouchable. until you get all the way home. You are untouchable by God's judgment. You are untouchable from evil.
The blood of Jesus says, Passover. Don't harm! No power of hell can pass the blood of Jesus. No authority can undermine the authority of God's word. The blood-washed believer is God's territory and the evil one cannot invade.
Listen. Satan may come through doors of sin that you leave open. He may come through doors of your unpredictable emotions. He might come through the doors of your feelings and living by your feelings. He might come through the doors in times of trouble and crisis when you're confused.
He might come through the door of your cooling love for Jesus. He might come through any route, any of these routes, whatever route the enemy uses, whatever door he pushes on and comes in and you allow him, whatever fear he instills in you. The moment you plead the blood of Jesus Christ. He will run. You run!
Do you believe that? This is the shield of faith. That's the helmet of salvation. The blood of Jesus. The Roman soldiers had two different shields.
And they're used In a variety of ways. The small one is about two feet in diameter and is worn on the arm of the soldier, especially when he is in a hand-to-hand combat. That was very important. The other kind is the body shield. This five feet by two and a half feet, the full one.
Two. Words.
Some of you probably ask us, well, how do you know the difference? How do you know what Shield is talking about?
Well, two different words in Greek. I'm not going to bore you with Greek. But Paul uses. The one that is five feet by two and a half. That shield is designed to protect the soldier completely.
They were not very tall back then. They just get behind that thing and they are covered. completely from head to toe. It is made of wood and covered by metal. And then sometimes they rub oil on it.
In order to retard the flaming darts that sent their way, they put a little fire in the dart and they throw it at him. The fiery darts of temptation that he sends your way. Whether they'll be doubting your salvation, whether it'll be questioning God's love for you, whether it be questioning that God cares for every detail of your life, or getting you to distrust God, whatever He throws at you, that shield of faith. is the pleading of the blood of Jesus Christ. That will extinguish all fiery darts.
All fiery dots. What about the helmet?
Well, the helmet of salvation protects your mind. It protects your mind. In the spiritual realm, let me tell you, I've said this before, and I'm going to keep saying it because we're seeing it now with our own eyes. That the biggest war The biggest war. It's not the wars that are taking your place all over the world.
The greatest war is the one that takes place between your two ears. The battle for the mind. And that's what Satan is after. If Satan can muddle your thinking, If he can model your spiritual thinking, if he can model your moral thinking. He's two-thirds of the way in.
And that is why that helmet of salvation always protects us from falling in the traps. That we are not saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And that is why daily intimacy with God helps to place that helmet firmly on your head. This is the way. God did not call us to hide from the enemy.
God did not call call us to outsmart the enemy. God did not call us to be clever with the enemy. He called us to plead the blood of Christ. and to protect the mines by the helmet. God called us to stand.
actively. actively. We'll stand. Believing the Word of God. Believing the authority of the Word of God.
Believing and taking and using the authority of the Word of God. That will put your enemy to flight. Trust me. Try it. We thank God for our defensive weapons to thank God for our permanent uniform.
But thirdly I come to the one. offensive, which also can be used defensively. Verse 17. And take The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We saw in the last message how Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan again and again.
How? How did he defeat him? By the word of God. And I will never stop and I'll never cease. And I'll never miss an opportunity to remind you that if Jesus believed, trusted, and quoted the Old Testament, Then do not listen to any false preacher who tells you we need to be unhitched from the Old Testament.
Actually, it's a second century heresy. Just got dressed up. for the 21st century church. The word of God is a sword. It's a sword.
And that is why many false teachers and preachers working on blunting that sort. They're blunting that sword. Until it lost its power. It can't never lose its power, but that for them and for their people, sadly, Question? How do we use the word of God?
As an offensive weapon. When we seek to lead people to Christ, Listen carefully to me, please. When we seek to lead people to Christ, and rescue them. from the grips and the clutches of Satan. The best weapon.
The only effective weapon is the word of God. No clever marketing technique, no button switch, no appealing to emotions, not manipulating people's emotions. This will never work. Will never work. And when you see somebody become a Christian, or because of their emotional got manipulated, I promise you, and they get excited and they may join a church, that two, three years later, they're gone.
They're gone Remember. Is the Holy Spirit the third member of the Trinity? Who inspired the writers of the Bible? Therefore, he is the ultimate author of the Bible. And that is why the Bible calls the word of God the sword of the Spirit.
And that is why the believers who make themselves to be a valuable channel. For his power. God will use. God will use. And the more we yield, The more we yield to His spirit, The more the Word of God dwells in us richly.
and speak through us. Beloved, listen to me. I'm getting close to the end, but listen to me. The Word of God is flawless. The Word of God is faultless.
The Word of God is complete and authoritative. The Word of God is the source of all victory. The Word of God is effective and decisive. The Word of God is the source of all truth. God's word is the source of joy, peace, and spiritual vitality.
Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way Audio. and his biblical challenge to put on the armor of God. A key in winning the Invisible War. If what you heard from doctor Youssef or this station has prompted some faith questions, then please consider talking with a leading the way pastor or counselor.
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