Put on God's Armor, Part 3

Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith.

I'm Sharon Ottz thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, Put on God's Armor, is a Satan-stomping word of the Lord. Paul wrote that the Church of Jesus Christ is in a cosmic wrestling match against the rulers of the darkness of this age. Anyone with an ounce of spirituality can attest to this, as Satan is ramping up his attack against the saints of God and all things Christian.

But we are not outnumbered or out-armed. We have the weapons of warfare that are mighty through God, so we can put on God's armor. Let me quote to you one of my favorite verses, Romans 16-20. And the God of peace, there's that word again, the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The God of peace is going to bruise Satan's head. Now I want you to think about those spikes you got on your killer shoes, amen.

And God allows you to get in a place where Satan is under your foot. And you're bruising his head. That word there, bruise, it means to smash.

You know, you've ever seen videos of people, how they used to make wine by putting a big vat of grapes and they get in there and smash them with their feet? Well that's what the word means, to smash, smash, smash. Let me tell you a good place in the New Testament that that word's used about Legion.

How many remember who Legion was? And said that he was so fierce that when they bound him with chains, he just broke the chains right off. Same word, crush and break those chains.

My God, break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. When you crush Satan under your foot, you're breaking the chains of fear off of your life. You're breaking the chains of discouragement and bitterness and unhappiness and all of those things, they begin to fall off of your life because you're crushing Satan under your feet. How?

Because you have the peace of God. The word shortly is a military term and it describes specifically of the soldiers when they're in formation and they're marching. And when they're marching in formation, and think about how that we see on movies we've watched, World War II movies and things like that over in Europe, when the soldiers are in formation and they're marching on those cobblestone streets. And how many know they make a loud noise, a loud noise, and people knew long before they saw them the soldiers were on the way because the military word means how they lift their knees up in unison and put them down.

Lift this one up and put it down. And when they all do it in unison, it's a loud noise. It says the soldiers are on the way. Well, I'm telling you, when you are at the Church of Jesus Christ with the body of Christ, when we get in formation and we are marching together and we've got on our killer shoes.

Amen. The devil hears us coming. He knows we're on the way. He knows he's about ready to get his head stopped.

He knows he's about ready to get his head bruised. You can't get out of formation. You've got to stay in formation. But the devil tricks people. He gets them out of church and they think I can stay home and watch Christian videos and Christian TV.

Well, what about your spot that's missing? You belong on the front lines. You're a soldier in the army of the Lord. Paul said endure hardness as a good soldier.

Amen. He's called us to be soldiers. You know what they do to AWOL soldiers? They put them in prison. And that's what the devil wants to do to people when they go AWOL. He wants to put them in a prison of bondage and they get so bound that they can't come to church.

My God, that's not in my notes. But imagine all of them with their spiked shoes. Here they come, marching in formation. You know, when I used to teach Sunday school, one of our favorite little songs we always sang was we're going to roll the gospel chariot along. And if the brother's in the way, we're going to stop and pick him up. And then if the sister's in the way, we're going to stop and pick her up and roll that gospel chariot along.

And the kids love this part. But if the devil's in the way, we're going to roll right over him. We're going to roll right over him. Amen. We're going to stop him.

Alright. Verse 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

We're getting now to some of the best parts of the armor. The shield of faith. I want you to know that it was shaped like a door. Shaped like a door. I know you see them round things and those shield type things, but I want you to think shaped like a door and that it was the right size so that when the soldier put it out in front of him, he was covered. He was protected from the arrows that were coming or the stabs or whatever.

Amen. It was made of multiple layers of very thick animal hide. Usually at least six layers of hide. It was so tightly woven together that it became so strong that it was as strong as steel. This leather, this animal hide, layer upon layer upon layer, that it was so strong it was as strong as if it were made of steel. But you know how leather is. Over time if you don't care for leather, it becomes stiff and then it can start fraying and crumbling if you don't take care of it. If you've got leather furniture, you know you have to wipe it down with leather cleaner and stuff because if you don't it starts cracking on you. I've got leather furniture in my living room that's ten years old and it still looks great. Because we buy that leather stuff, I just buy those wipes and just wipe it down and keep it moist. And we've got a pellet stove that puts out a lot of dry heat in the winter and that can dry leather up real quick.

But we take care of it and it still looks great. Now they had to take care of their leather shield. Every morning they would rub it down with oil. They would take a cloth that's saturated with oil and they would rub and rub. And I'm sure those guys had enough muscles they could rub really good.

They would rub it and rub it to keep it soft and supple. Well you know where we're going now in the Spirit. Every day we need the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit. Every day we need that anointing. We have to have daily time with the Holy Spirit to keep our shield rubbed with the anointing of God.

To keep it strong and impenetrable. David said in Psalm 92 10, I shall be anointed with fresh oil every day. Amen. And that mostly is going to occur in your prayer time and in services too. You have the laying on of hands.

Amen. We have to every day be anointed with fresh oil. Then we're going to be able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.

Now here we're going to have another application. First of all the word quench means to extinguish by dousing in water. To extinguish by dousing in water.

So now we have to have another application. We have the oil to keep the leather strong and supple so it doesn't fray and crack and deteriorate. But now when we're actually getting into battle and we're going to face an enemy who's shooting arrows the tips are hollow and inside of it they have put fire. So that means that when they shoot that arrow at that leather it could cause it to catch on fire. Unless the soldier does something. And what the soldier does is he takes that leather shield that's already been saturated in the oil to keep it strong. But now he takes it to the river or to the water source and he saturates it with water.

How many your spiritual mind is clicking up there. Amen. So now when the fiery darts hit that shield that has been wet and saturated with the water it distinguishes it immediately. And I'm telling you if you haven't found out yet the devil has a lot of fiery darts that he shoots.

Amen. He shoots those fiery darts when it hits that shield of faith. And let me tell you we all have the same shield of faith. Romans 12 3 says God has dealt unto every man the measure of faith. He's given us all the measure we need to have a strong shield.

But then it's up to us to care for it. Because Romans 10 17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing the word of God. Amen. And then saturated with the oil of the anointing of the spirit. And then Ephesians 5 25 tells us that the word of God is water by the washing of the water of the word.

That's on us. That is up to us to get in the word of God and let it be the water that allows our shield to be saturated so that when the fiery darts are shot at us they're extinguished. Now before I close on this part he said above all do not think that that means it's the most important piece of the six pieces. Don't think above all means this is the most important one. That's not what it means.

The Greek word refers to the position. It means out in front of all. And that makes sense because when darts are coming at you you need to get that shield out in front of you.

Amen. That shield's not going to do you any good if it's hanging over here on your side and fiery darts are coming your way. Or you're in hand to hand combat with the devil up close you need to have that shield out in front of you. And where it says taking the shield of faith the word taking means you've got to pick up something with your hand.

You've got to pick it up. And this is how we protect ourselves against satanic attacks. We take that shield of faith and we get it out in front of us. And therefore we are impenetrable. Amen.

All right. And let's look at verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. The helmet of salvation. It was made of brat most of the time and it was custom fitted to the head of the soldier.

It was not one size fits all but it was custom to his head. It was so strong nothing could penetrate it. Not even a hammer or a battle axe. How many know what a battle axe is? It's a hatchet. And when they came at you with a hatchet they were trying to slice your head in two. Or behead you.

Amen. And if the head was not protected the rest of the armor was useless. Once you get a devastating lethal fatal blow to the head it doesn't matter about the rest of the armor. The human mind as we spoke of a moment ago is the arena where Satan best wages his war. So our minds have got to be protected from satanic attacks of fear and deception and lies and doubt and all of those things. And when we have a full knowledge of our salvation and who we are in Christ, where we are in Christ, what we possess in Christ, we got our helmet on. We're protected by God's word. Amen. And it's only those who have not been rooted and grounded in God's word they don't know about the weapons.

Or they may have heard of them but they don't know how to use them. You've got to have your helmet on. You've got to know what your salvation entails and how to employ it. And the last one, now this personally is my favorite, and taking the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. The word here for word referring to the Bible, the word of God, we are accustomed to it being logos, L-O-G-O-S, which is the written word of God. But here the word is not logos, it is rhema, R-H-E-M-A. The word rhema in Greek simply means something that is spoken. It means to utter out loud with your voice.

I think this is curious to me, I think it's remarkable. The armor started off with the written word of God, the truth. And now it's ending with the spoken word of God. When you know the written word, then you can use it as a sword against Satan. But you've got to know the written word. Amen.

You've got to know the truth. And when you know the truth and you speak it, it becomes the sword of the spirit. Let me say this, you've got to be spiritual because it's the sword of the spirit. It's the Holy Spirit's sword and you've got to be a spiritual person in order to use it.

Amen. Now, we have to read this verse because they dovetail and that's Hebrews 4.12. And it says, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now, interestingly, here in Hebrews, where we see this word, it becomes a two-edged sword or a sword that has double blades.

Amen. Do you know if you read the book of Revelation, it describes Jesus with a double-bladed sword coming out of where? His mouth, not in his hand. He doesn't have it in his hand. He's got it coming out of his mouth.

Why out of his mouth and not in his hand? Because the Greek word for two-edged sword, the Greek word for two-edged is dystomos. Dystomos. D-I-S-T-O-M-O-S. It's actually two words.

Dy means two. And stomos means mouth. So it's not a two-edged sword, it's a two-mouthed sword. A two-mouthed sword. So when we put Hebrews 4.12 in with Ephesians 16, we get the whole picture. We see that the sword of the Spirit is a two-mouthed sword.

It has two blades, but it's two-mouthed. And it becomes a two-mouthed sword because it is spoken. The Word of God is spoken.

Now let me tell you how it works very quickly. You're praying about a situation, and suddenly while you're praying and meditating on this situation, a verse out of the Bible gets quickened to your spirit. And all of a sudden it's answering your questions.

It's answering the situation that you're involved in. It's like the Holy Spirit took a yellow highlighter in your Bible and highlighted it. How many highlight certain verses that really speak to you? Well it's like the Holy Spirit just came down on your heart and highlighted a specific verse for you. In that moment, you have received a rhema word from the mouth of God.

Through the Holy Spirit, God is spoken a word to your spirit. It is so precise. It is so sharp. It cuts right through your doubts. It cuts right through all of your indecision. It cuts right through all your intellectual reasonings.

It cuts right through all of your logic. It pierces through all of that emotional thing that you've got going on. And it pierces your understanding, the understanding of your spirit, not your brain, but your spirit with counsel and direction.

And as you meditate upon that scripture, and you're thinking, this is so good, oh Lord this is so good, and you're just so happy he's given you this verse and you know you've just got to quote it. You've got to read it out loud. You've got to speak it out loud. And the moment that you speak it, it becomes the two-edged sword. It becomes the two-mouthed sword. The first blade was created when God spoke it to your spirit. But the second blade is not created until you speak it with your mouth. It becomes a supernatural sword when you release it out of your mouth.

And saints, this is the one weapon against which Satan has no defense. And that is why he tries so hard when you're in a hard place to give you spiritual lockjaw. Tries to get you to clam up. You're so pressed.

You're so oppressed. You feel like you can't pray. You can't talk. You just want to go in your room and curl up in the dark in a fetal position and shut your mouth and lay there and be miserable.

And I'm telling you because this is what I used to do. Amen? And it's like I couldn't open my mouth. I would think of things I could say. I would think of verses that I could say, but I wouldn't open my mouth and say them. Until I got wise.

Amen? Now let me tell you quickly in the time I have left about this sword. There were three types of swords that the Roman soldiers used.

Three types. Number one was very long and heavy. It was so heavy it had to be carried with two hands. It was only used for sword practice. They would have sword practice every day. He would pick up that heavy sword with two hands and these were some strong muscular guys.

And they would use it to hit against trees or hit against columns. What were they doing? They were building up their muscles.

They were building up their strength and their stamina. But they had to use two hands to do it so they could not use this sword in battle. That was the first kind. The second kind was a long skinny sword. More like a lance. Because it was so long it couldn't inflict much damage to your opponent.

They would be so far away from you if you used this particular one that maybe you could get a few cuts here or there. But nothing lethal. Nothing deadly because they were too far away. Oh but the third sword, and this is the one, this is the Greek word that Paul used. The third sword was Makara. It was more like a dagger. It was no more than 19 inches long. And it could be used with one hand. And that was very important because you need the other hand for the shield of faith. And so this was just a dagger, a small thing.

But because it was so small it could only be used in up close combat. I mean when you are looking at your enemy and he's only 19 inches away from you. Close combat. How many know sometimes we get in those kind of battles with the enemy.

Sometimes we're in those ones where he's out there and we just do this a little bit and it's over. But them kind when it's close combat. My God, that's when you've got to have the sword of the spirit. This sword was curled at the tip. Think of a sword that went out and was curled at the tip. Serrated on both edges. So when it was plunged into a person's body it did terrible damage.

Because of the serrated edges. It literally shredded a man's insides. And when he pulled it out it did more damage. This sword literally struck terror in the hearts of soldiers. Nobody wanted to be in combat with someone who had this Makara two edged sword. And by using this particular Greek word, Paul is telling us that we have a sword of the spirit that literally strikes terror in the heart of Satan. It strikes terror in his heart. He doesn't want us to use this sword. That's why he's always trying to get us to shut our mouth when we're under pressure. He doesn't want to face this weapon.

He knows it will shred his lies to pieces. It's that Rhema word that the Holy Spirit drops into your spirit. And the devil never wants you to open up your mouth and speak it. It's not the red word.

It's not the meditated word. It's the spoken word. It's when you are in close combat with the devil and you don't know how you're going to take him out.

This is how you do it. You open your mouth and you speak the word of God to the devil. To the devil. Amen? When God called Joshua to take Moses' place to lead the children of Israel into the land of promise. And he told him to meditate on this word day and night. How many know that verse? And he says, and be courageous. And he said, be very courageous. But he also said, and let not this word depart out of your mouth. Out of your mouth. He didn't say out of your mind. He said out of your mouth. Because if you're meditating on the word of God, you've got it in your mind.

But there comes a time when you've got to open your mouth and speak it. Amen? Who was the person, more than anybody else in the whole Bible, Old or New Testaments, that showed us how you used your sword against the devil? Jesus. In the temptations, when Satan came against him three times, what did Jesus say? It is written. He reached all the way back every time in the book of Deuteronomy and pulled out a verse that says, it is written.

Every time. And Satan being the coward that he is, he waited that Jesus had fasted forty days. He was in the wilderness alone, couldn't call for the brothers and the sisters to come pray with him.

All by himself for forty days in the most hospitable surroundings and now hasn't eaten and he's hungry. That's when the devil showed up because he's a coward and he's a dirty fighter. But every time that he came, Jesus said, it is written. So saints of God, your takeaway is this. You have got to meditate on the word of God, get God's word in you, daily get in the spirit and get that anointing. You can get that anointing singing.

You can get that oil by singing. You'll get that anointing to keep your shield supple and strong. And then you've got to get the word of God every day so that you keep it moistened because you don't know when the enemy's coming. You don't know when he's striking.

You don't know when those arrows come out of nowhere. And you have to have your shield saturated with the word of God. And if we do this and put this whole armor on and use it like we're supposed to use it, we will be able to stand against his wiles, his tricks, his ruses, his snares, his devices with the whole armor of God.

Amen. I hope you're being stirred by this devil-trouncing message put on God's armor. We are in a cosmic warfare against satanic forces entrenched in the heavens. On our own, we are no match against their powers and the wiles of the devil. But we have supernatural weapons that are divinely powerful. When we put on all six pieces of God's armor, we can stand. Paul studied the armor of the Roman soldiers who guarded him 24-7 and he received revelation of the spiritual armor given to the church. Each of its six parts is integral to our protection defensively and offensively in putting Satan under our feet. It's not the whole armor of God if it's missing any piece. It creates a vulnerability that Satan sees as opportunity to strike a wounding blow. Don't give it to him.

Familiarize yourself and your spirit with each of these parts of the armor of God, what they stand against and how to use them victoriously. Order Put on God's Armor on CD today for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK211, mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order from our e-store online at soundoffaith.org where MP3s are available. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK211. Until next time, this is Sharon Notzien, Maranatha.