Recent events and growing cultural attitudes have highlighted the truth that Christians of today are in a war much beyond words and ideals.
This is a war requiring intensive preparation for battle and to be equipped to stand firm and to press forward. Thank you for joining listeners around the world for Leading the Way with pastor and international evangelist, Dr. Michael Youssef. Now in just a moment, Dr. Youssef continues a powerful teaching to challenge and to equip you to march into the unique challenges of 2025. Words of challenge first proclaimed in the pages of Ephesians chapter six, where we're told that it is mission critical for Christ followers to put on the full armor of God. Up next, more of what that means for you and the next steps.
So listen carefully as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this episode of Leading the Way. Ephesians chapter six, verses fourteen to seventeen. He gives us seven, seven pieces of equipment. The pieces of the armor equipment which God provides for his children. This is God's provision. Don't underestimate it. Don't undermine it.
It is God's provision for his children. Why did God give us those seven pieces of equipment so that we withstand the onslaught of Satan and his demons? And that is why constantly we must remind ourselves, we must constantly affirm these seven pieces of equipment. We're going to look at the first three today and then the rest in the next message.
Please listen to me. There can be no true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ without these first three. You can't be with any of them, but those three are permanent. And so the first one is the belt of truth. The second is the breastplate of righteousness.
And the third is the footwear of the gospel. Look with me please at the first half of verse fourteen, Ephesians six, first half. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with the belt of truth. That's the old translation and I love it.
And the NIV puts it this way. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled or wrapped around your waist. A Roman soldier puts on a tunic and the tunic basically is a square piece of material that has three punched holes in them.
One for the head and one for the arms and they are absolutely essential when you're relaxed, when you're resting. But the Christian life is a combat zone and because of that combat zone and back then combat was hand to hand. It was a long distance in shooting but it was literally hand to hand. And therefore this tunic will get in the way if you're fighting hand to hand. That is why this tunic actually if it's left alone floating around in the breeze, if you leave it untucked before the battle, that tunic must be cinched up and tucked in that heavy leather belt known as the belt of truth in order to be all around the waist and nothing floating around. And even today you see on television some of the Arab countries like in the Gulf states and so on is wearing those beautiful white flowing cuffed hands and that's fine. You know when they're resting it's okay but you have never ever ever see any of their soldiers dressed like that. It might be the whole nation dressed like that but not the soldiers. And in the old days either they took those off during the battle or they pulled them together and tucked them inside their belt.
Hear me right please. Having your tunic tucked inside the belt is a sign of readiness. It is a sign of preparedness. And my beloved friends any serious minded soldiers must always always always always be in a state of readiness. And for us believers who love the Lord Jesus our readiness for the spiritual battle, for the spiritual war always starts with the truth. Can I get an amen?
Listen to me. Without the absolute commitment to the accuracy of biblical teaching a person will be carried about and tossed about with every wind of doctrine. They will be carried away with the trickery of some very clever communicators and let me tell you something I know some of them are very brilliant communicators. They will be deceived by the sweet talkers.
And the only way that you confront these deceptive spirits is by the truth of the word of God. And that is why the belt of truth is a permanent fixture. It's a permanent item.
It's a permanent equipment. You don't take it on or off but it needs daily. Even moment by moment I don't know how many times a day.
Daily, daily, several times a day. Be affirmed. Be affirmed. Be affirmed. Your commitment to biblical truth cannot be put on and off. 2 Timothy 2.4 Paul says no soldier, and that's what we are, no soldier who is on active duty gets entangled with the affairs of this world and every day's life activities. Think about this with me. That tunic, the free flowing rope is the affairs of this world.
Okay? And in the battlefield you cannot be worried about these ropes flopping around in the breeze. But girding your waist with the belt of truth is your total commitment to the truthfulness and infallibility of the word of God. The belt of truth. The best plate of righteousness.
Look at the second half of verse 14, Ephesians 6. Now of course in modern days we, many of our police officers, they wear a bulletproof vest, especially when they go into these urban war zones that we've been experiencing in this country. Now in Rome the soldier would never go to battle without the breastplate. It's unthinkable.
It's impossible. And it covers the vital organs. I wanted to humor out because this is important, the heart, the lungs, the intestine.
And often it's made of hard leather, very hard leather, and then some metal on top of that hammered in it in order to conform to the body. In the Old Testament they often refer to the heart as the mind. The Old Testament referred to it as the heart. The bowels referred to in the Old Testament as the seat of emotions and feelings.
Hello. Everybody is feeling these days. But guess what?
Guess what? The mind and the emotions are exactly the two areas where Satan unleashes his most vicious attack. Satan creates a sinful environment designed to tempt us, or tempt us to do what? To think the wrong thoughts, to feel the wrong emotions, to cloud our minds with false doctrine and false teaching and false principles and false information.
Why? To mislead us and to confuse us. Listen, he loves to confuse our emotions and pervert our affections and pervert our loyalties. And sometimes you hear them say, but the Jesus that I know, the Jesus I know doesn't care about my sex life. The Jesus you know, the Jesus you know is nothing but Satan. You don't know the Jesus of the gospels. You don't know the Jesus, the Son of the living God. You don't know the true Jesus of the word of God.
Beloved, listen to me. Satan specializes in trying to snatch the word of God out of our minds and replaces them with his own perverted ideas. Satan loves to confuse the importance of the centrality of Christ in our lives by saying, but all that God wants for me is to be happy. How many times have you heard that? Happy?
No. All that God wants for you and for me is to be holy. You see, Satan wants us to joke and laugh about sin instead of mourning over it. He wants us to rationalize sin instead of confessing it, repenting of it, and asking the Lord to forgive us. He seduces us to get used to sin as inevitable. Well, you can't help it.
This is just the way you are. Rather than let it burn in our conscience until we confess it. Oh, beloved, our God and Father wants us to be protected.
He wants us to be protected from all the junk that's floating around. How? By the breastplate of righteousness.
It needs to be wrapped around the heart or a seat of the will and are entrusted with the emotions. Another question. What kind of righteousness is he talking about? Listen, certainly he's not talking about self-righteousness, okay?
You got that? He's not talking about self-righteousness because that's the biggest sin of all. My self-righteousness is nothing but a filthy rag. I don't think he's even speaking about the righteousness of God that is imputed on us. That's the righteousness of Jesus that is imputed upon us the moment we come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God imputes the righteousness of Christ into every believer.
Why? Because God has to look at you. He has to look at me. And without the prism of the righteousness of Jesus, I'm in deep trouble with God the Father. But when he sees me through the prism, when he sees you through the prism of the righteousness of Christ that is imputed on you when you came to him in repentance and faith, he sees you as perfect. Now, I don't know about you. That tears me up.
Perfect? I know I'm far from it. God only knows that in heaven. But that's the amazing grace. And so, you don't have to agree with me on this one. You're not going to lose your salvation.
It's my personal opinion, so take it or leave it. The reason I'm saying it's not the righteousness of Jesus that's imputed on us is because you cannot put on what you're already wearing. You already have that. You are permanently dressed in that imputed righteousness of Jesus. We're all covered and dressed of his righteousness alone not only throughout this life but for all of eternity. God's imputed righteousness is protecting us from hell.
Did you get that? The imputed righteousness of Jesus protects us from hell itself. So what is the righteousness that protects us against Satan's attack in this life?
Listen carefully. What is that breastplate of righteousness? What is it that you put on as a spiritual armor constantly, always, every moment of every day? It is the practice of daily obedience to the word of God. It's that practical righteousness which I call obedience basically. The righteousness of obedience, in fact, rigorous obedience is the evidence that you have an imputed righteousness of Christ in you. The righteousness of obedience is the practical workings of that imputed righteousness of Jesus. Please don't miss what I'm going to tell you.
Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. That imputed righteousness that God places in us when we first come to Christ and receive him as the only Savior and Lord of our lives makes it possible for us to practice this type of practical righteousness or obedience. Let me please, please, please categorically tell you that if it was not for Jesus' righteousness that he gives us by the Holy Spirit, trying to live in obedience is an impossibility. If I ever foolishly think or say to myself, I have decided to live in obedience or practical righteousness on my own strength, I promise you I will not even stand for a few seconds before I get clobbered by Satan. On my own, I'm as weak as water.
God only knows the truth of what I'm telling you. On my own, I cannot even put on the breastplate of righteousness. But because of the Holy Spirit who brought the righteousness of Christ into my life, I can do it every single day. Putting on the breastplate of righteousness means that I am daily, several times a day even, moment by moment leaning on the strength of Jesus for my obedience. God supplies its source and I offer my total dependence on him for this practical righteousness. God puts on me, Christ imputed righteousness, but I must rely on him for practical righteousness of obedience. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. Verse 15, the footwear, the footwear. I was thinking this week I said, which he calls the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, but I was thinking if any of our ancestors ever come back, they'll be shocked. I know they'll be shocked for a whole lot of other things, but I think they'll be shocked to how many shoes we have.
I really do. And my goodness, we have so many variety of shoes for every conceivable occasion. I mean, we have workout boots, we have dress shoes, we have leisure shoes. And what about even within athletics and sports? We have basketball shoes that's different from the football shoes, that's different from the tennis shoes, that's different from walking shoes, that's different from running shoes.
I mean, it's mind-boggling. Ah, but when it comes to the soldier, listen carefully, there's no joking about this one. When it comes to the soldier, it is a whole different ball game than sports shoes or sneakers.
Why? Because their life is dependent on the shoes. The soldier's feet need to be protected from the rough road, from the hot roads, and from the rocky roads. Soldiers cannot fight well if they're not able to stand strong in the battle. In addition to the durability of a soldier's shoes, they should have good tractions. Some say that the old days they used to have spikes so that they can really stand strong. Now, the spiritual footwear that the Apostle Paul is talking about here are of equal importance to the military as it is to the spiritual soldiers.
Listen to me. If the Christian soldier is carefully girding his loins with the truth, and if he regularly moment by moment depends on God for practical righteousness, but not feet properly fitted with the preparation of the gospel of peace, then stumbling, falling, defeat is inevitable. A good pair of boots will help the soldiers march, climb, jump, and fight no matter what he faces.
Whatever he needs to do to win. Here the Apostle Paul probably quoting part of Isaiah 52.7, how beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news. A number of theologians have applied this particular piece of equipment, the footwear, spiritual footwear, to the preaching of the gospel, to preachers, to evangelists, and even witnessing. But it's not about preaching and teaching here. This is about fighting the spiritual battle. He's not talking about traveling about, but standing firm. He's not talking about evangelizing of the lost.
You know I'm all there, right? But he's talking about fighting the spiritual enemy. Look at verse 15 again. See, before we were saved, we were dead, dead, dead, dead, and mired in sin. Before we were saved, we're at enmity with God. Before we were saved, we were at war.
We were at war with everybody, but certainly we were at war with God. But once Christ saves us eternally, we have become reconciled with God. And we only do not have the peace of God, but we have peace with God.
We're friends now. The gospel of peace is the truth of Christ. The gospel of peace is the gift of Christ. The gospel of peace is the truth that I am purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ alone.
Therefore my feet are protected from the fire of hell. We stand confidently in God's love. We stand confidently in God's promises that he will fight for us when we come to him. Any believer who stands in the power of Jesus Christ, not on their own, they need not fear Satan. Some Christians fear Satan.
I don't. You should never fear Satan. He's a defeated foe. And God is giving us all this equipment in order that we too defeat him and have the victory. Whenever Satan attacks us, and I'm talking from experience, trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Whenever Satan attacks us, as long as we are standing solid in our spiritual combat boots of the gospel, God will never, will never, will never fail to fight for us again and again and again.
How? Because the gospel changed us from being enemies of God to becoming the children of God. We change from being enemies of God to being defended by God. We were once at enmity with God, now we're his children. We were once lost and confused. Now we have all of the resources at our command.
Listen to me. If God be for us, say that with me. If God be for us, who can be against us?
If God be for us. But in all these things, we are overwhelmingly conquerous through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power or height or depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Have you moved from being an enemy of God to being a friend of God? If you have questions, please reach out to Leading the Way pastors and counselors. They would love to have a Jesus conversation with you.
So start yours at ltw.org slash Jesus. The team at Leading the Way often pictures people listening in to Dr. Yusef. We imagine that you're listening while you're commuting or maybe you set aside time each week to watch the television program. But many are connecting in far corners of the world and in multiple situations just like a woman we recently heard from who's living in France. Let me summarize a portion of the note we received from this Sudanese woman living in Europe. Marwa grew up in a remote Sudanese village where Islamic customs stifled her dreams and her identity. She shares how at the age of 10, she began questioning the traditions that her family and her community imposed upon her. Later as a college student, moving to France to attend university, she was introduced to Christianity through a devout French family. She was immediately drawn to the love and the peace that she found in Christ's teachings and that she saw in this family. She was especially comforted by the words of John 3 16. But she kept her faith journey private, especially when it came to sharing with her family, because she knew that rejection would be the result. Well, after a season of listening to Dr. Yusef's teaching, she connected with leading the way staff. And then following several conversations, she accepted Jesus as her Savior. She excitedly is growing in her faith, but she still does fear backlash from her family.
She's determined though through the help of her friends that leading the way to grow deeper. So please know that when you're supporting Dr. Yusef, through your prayers and your generosity, you're making it possible for teaching and resources to reach people all around the world. Please pray for this woman and her continued growth. And if you're able partner with Dr. Yusef, give us a call at 866-626-4356 or online at ltw.org, ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-08 15:06:45 / 2025-01-08 15:14:33 / 8