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All right, Ephesians chapter 6 and look at verse number 10. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 10 reads, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The title for the sermon tonight is The Whole Armor of God. And so we're starting a new series. I've been wanting to start this series for a while, but I just wanted for there to be more of us. So now that we're able to meet with 20 people in this building, I thought well now's the right time to get on to this new series on the whole armor of God. And what I want you to notice first of all, point number one immediately is, you know, we often talk about the armor of God. You've got to have the armor of God and that's important, yes, but notice how the Bible defines or explains it. It's the whole armor of God, okay? So if you want to put on this armor, you want to be this soldier, you want to get into the battle. It's not just putting on some of the armor. You know, the shield is good, but the shield is not good by itself. The helmet's good, but it's not good all by itself. You need the whole armor, you need to put it all on in order for you to be an effective soldier for the Lord. And so we must wear it all. Now the reason I've been so interested to get into this topic is, if you can please keep your finger there and go to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 for me. 1 Thessalonians 5. And the reason is because, you know, I was preaching through, before all the restrictions came, I was preaching through the end time series. Remember that? We're going through the end times. And I wanted to follow up the end time series immediately with this series, the armor of God. And the reason is because in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse number 1, just to get the context there, it says, But of the times and of the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. So we can definitely see that chapter 5 and 1 Thessalonians 5 is about the end times. It's about the coming of the Lord. It's about the day of the Lord. Drop down to verse number 6. It says, And of course, when I went through the end time series, I talked about the need for us to be watching, to be paying attention, to be excited for the coming of the Lord. Verse number 7, it says, But let us who are of the day be sober, notice the next words, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. So yes, we ought to be watching. We ought to be excited about the end times, the coming of the Lord. I don't know when that is. I'm not going to pretend that this coronavirus pandemic is part of the end time events. I don't know. All right. But what we are instructed to do is to make sure that we're of the day, that we're not of the night, that we're watching and paying attention, and we're putting on the armor, and we're putting on the breastplate there of faith and love. We're putting on that helmet of salvation. This points us toward the armor of God. And so yes, it's awesome that we're seeing all this technology come about. Could this be the future mark of the beast, the financial markets? Could this be a collapse of the current markets? Could we be seeing a change in the governments of this world to become a one-world government? Is the antichrist around the corner? Maybe. But more important than that is what I know for sure, and what I know for sure is that you need to put your armor on, and not just the armor. You put on the whole armor, all of it, all of it. And so point number one is wear the whole armor. Now, last year, I did a series on the fruits of the Spirit. Now, what you'll notice in this series is that there's going to be a lot of overlap because when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, it's about walking in the new man. It's about walking in the Spirit. Amen. And when it comes to putting the armor of God, it's the same thing. It's about putting on the new man. It's about walking in the Spirit. And so there are a lot of similarities. There is a lot of overlap, but they kind of point to two different aspects of the Christian life. When we talk about the fruits of the Spirit, this is more about you being someone that God can mold, that God can change on the inside, that He can undo some of the bad habits and the bad characteristics that you have about yourself and for the light of the Lord to shine through in your life and also your relationship with other people, especially your brethren. A lot of that has to do with the fruits of the Spirit, about not being emotionally out of control, making sure that you're stable-minded, things like that. But when it comes to the armor of God, yes, there's overlap, but this has more to do with facing an ungodly, wicked world. It has to do with getting into the battle. And listen, if you're saved, it's not a choice. You're in the battle, okay? You're a soldier. Whether you like it or not, you're a soldier. And you say, well, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm battling. Well, maybe you're a casualty, and I don't want you to be a casualty of war. And we must be ready for this battle. We do live in a wicked world, and we need to sometimes go on the offense, but many times we just need to be on the defense. Many times we just have to be protecting ourselves from the harm of the devil. Okay, and this brings us to point number two. Well, actually, if you can please help you keep a finger in Ephesians 6. Let's go back to Ephesians 6. Point number two is our battle is not carnal. Our battle is not carnal. And what I mean by that is we're not physically getting guns, getting swords, getting horses, and going to fight another nation, all right? Now, I'm not saying there's never a time for that. I'm not saying that that is an unchristian thing to do. Boy, I wish we lived in a righteous nation. Boy, I wish that the wars that our nation would get involved in are righteous and good wars, but I can't always be sure. I'm not saying there's never a time for that. I'm not saying it's ever wrong for a Christian to get involved in that, because what did we see with the nation of Israel? We saw that many times God would raise up an army to defeat a wicked, heathen nation. So there's nothing wrong with that in of itself, but now that we're in a New Testament period, now that we don't have a physical nation of God, but a spiritual nation of God, we are still called to arms, but the call to arms is not a carnal fight. It's actually a spiritual fight, okay? And it's much easier to fight a carnal battle, because you know where to shoot. You can see the enemy. You know you're trying to take over or defeat the army on the other side there, but when it comes to the spiritual battle, many times it's just unseen. We can feel the effects. We know by the word of God there's the effects. We can see the effects that it has in the world, but you can't necessarily see the enemy, all right? You can't necessarily see that spiritual realm, but it's real. The spiritual realm is just as real as the carnal or the fleshly, you know, three-dimensional world. It's just as real, but it's something we cannot see. And look at verse number 12, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 12. It says, But we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against... Now notice the next thing. There's four aspects here of our enemy. If we're going to go to war, don't we need to know what the enemy's doing? Don't we need to know who they are, what they're capable of achieving? So this passage, this verse tells us all about our enemy. It says, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Verse 13, There it is, repeated twice for us, not just once. Hey, take the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. So the armor of God is about us standing in an evil day, that we won't allow the wickedness of this world to tear us apart as Christians, to pull us down, to become worldly, to become ungodly. No, our desire, our need, our call is to stand, to stand for God, to stand on the word of God. And in order for you to accomplish this, you need to put on the whole armor of God. But let's go back to our enemy, our enemy there in verse number 12. It says, but against principalities, principalities. Now, the word principality, well, it's quite straightforward, right? You think about what is a principal, maybe in a school you've got a principal, and that guy is the chief, that guy is on top, right? When we talk about principalities, this is talking about rank or chief or something that comes first, right? And so what the Bible's telling us here is that the forces of darkness, the forces of evil have a chain of command. There is a spiritual hierarchy in the kingdom of Satan. Satan's right at the top. He's got a kingdom. He's got an army. He's organized. He's prepared for the fight himself. You know, Satan is not some unorganized being. He's very organized. He's very effective. And he's been fighting human beings since the beginning. You know, the devil knows how you'll be tempted because he's tempted so many other Christians that have gone before us. And again, don't forget you are the same flesh and blood as anybody else. And if Satan can get a hand, a hold of somebody, he can get a hold of you. He can get a hold of you. He knows how the human being works, all right? And also, in Ephesians, I'll just read it to you. In Ephesians 2-2, it says, Wherein time passed, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. So Ephesians 2-2 refers to Satan as the prince of the power of the air. And of course, the prince means primary. It means the first. You know, and so the Bible's telling us once again that he is the chief in this ungodly dark kingdom that he has. He is right at the top there. And so you can see that when it talks about principalities, it's talking about it's a real army. It's a real fight. It's a real enemy. They're organized. They have chiefs. They have captains. They have soldiers. You know, these fallen angels, these evil spirits, they all have a rank. Now I'm not, you know, I've thought about preaching a sermon on just devils on its own and just the ranks that we see for the Bible, but I just, I found it a little bit too difficult. And to be honest with you, I don't like dabbling too much into things of darkness like that. I've heard sermons of that before, and quite often they will turn to occult material to see what they have to say about the devil, because surely they know about the devil. The devil lies to those people as well. You know, the devil lies to us. The devil lies to even those that love and serve him. You know, so you can't always, you can't even be sure by reading, you know, occult material and black magic and all, you know, Church of Satan material. That's not going to really tell you about Satan. The only book that tells you the truth about Satan, of course, is the Bible. It's the word of God. And look at verse, I'll just read to you, you're not there, but Ephesians 2 verse 3 continues by saying, among whom also we had our conversation or our behavior in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and whereby nature, the children of wrath, even as others. And so what the Bible is saying here is that devil, in the past before you were saved, the devil had a great influence in your life. Now even as a believer, the devil can have an influence. Even as a believer, the devil can come and tempt you. Hey, we saw even the devil going to Jesus Christ and in the wilderness going to tempt Jesus Christ. He can do that, but before we were saved, boy, we really had no chance with the devil. You know, the devil would put some temptation, some obstacle in your life, and you'd probably just fall over, commit that sin, and give in to that sin, that temptation, but that's a time past. And the Bible refers once again to the devil as the prince of the power of the air. And then also, I'll just read another passage to you. In John chapter 12 verse 31, it says, These are the words of Jesus, by the way. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And of course, the prince of this world, principalities referring to Satan once again, is the enemy of Jesus Christ. He's the prince of this world. Could you imagine that? So you can definitely understand if he's got this spiritual hierarchy that his forces, his influence, is affecting the entire world. It's affecting the entire world. And in fact, when you look at Ephesians 16 verse 12, the next point, it says but against principalities, and then it says against powers, against powers. You know what that means? It means that Satan, the forces of the devil, have power. They can do amazing things. They're able to accomplish great things. God has allowed them to have a certain amount of power in this world. Now keep your finger there and please go to Luke chapter four for me. Luke chapter four. And actually, you don't need to keep your finger there. Just go to Luke chapter four. Go to Luke chapter four and verse number five. We will go to the story of Jesus Christ in the world and us being tempted by the devil. And this is amazing because we actually see how powerful Satan is, how much power he has in this world in Luke chapter four and verse number five. The Bible reads, and the devil, taking him into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Okay? So, the devil's showing Jesus all the kingdoms, every nation, every power on the earth, he's showing Jesus Christ, right? In this moment of time. Verse number six, and the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. And if thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Could you imagine if Jesus worshipped the devil there? I mean, it just destroys the nature of the Trinity. The fact that Jesus Christ is subject to the Father, that Jesus Christ, you know, submits his will to the Father's will. Could you imagine, you know, if Christ decided to give in to the will of Satan there? It never would have happened, of course. But, you know, that's what Satan's trying to do. He wants to be like the Most High, and he would rather have Jesus on his side submissive to him, rather than being submissive to God the Father. But notice he says that he has there the power of all these kingdoms. He's able to deliver these kingdoms to Jesus Christ. So instead of Jesus Christ waiting for the end times, for the millennial reign, when he's able to come back and defeat the Antichrist and take the kingdoms there, the devil's offering the kingdoms right now. Hey, why do you have to go to the cross of Calvary? Why do you have to have this mission? Why do we have to wait all these years for you to come back? Hey, you can have it all now if you worship me. And, you know, I believe that these words of Satan are true. I believe what he's saying is that he has these powers over these kingdoms. And some people have preached this and saying, well, actually, no, he's just saying that. He's lying. He doesn't really have the power of these kingdoms. Well, if he didn't have the power over these kingdoms, then how can that be a temptation? He's dealing with Jesus Christ. How is Jesus being tempted if Jesus already knows you don't have power there? That's not a temptation, right? But, you know, this is actually confirmed for us in Revelation 11. I'll just read it to you. Revelation 11 verse 15. This is when God pulls out his wrath on the world and we get to the seventh angel. So it's toward the end of that seven year period. It says in Revelation 11, 15, And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And so you can see this future event. The kingdoms of the world are not owned. Now, let me be careful about this, because at the end of the day, God's in control of everything. You know, God's in control of everything in this world, and God allows the devil to have a certain amount of power, okay? But the power, the authority is taken from the kingdoms of this world. We know who the prince of this world is. We know who the God of this world is, and it's given to our Lord and to his Christ. So our Lord there will be, of course, the Father. His Christ will be Jesus Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. This would make no sense if all the power of the kingdom was already belonging to the Lord, already belonging to Christ. No, through this process, through the end times, through the wrath of God being poured upon the earth, through the destruction of this world, the transfer of power is given to Jesus Christ, and then we have the millennial reign of Christ where he rules there for a thousand years. And so, yeah, you know how principalities, they're organized. There's an organized structure. There's an organized army that we battle, but they're powerful. They've got power. They've got a global power, a worldwide power. You know, no matter where you go in this earth, Satan has some foothold somewhere, okay? So this is the enemy that we're fighting. You know, and when you start to realize this, don't you want to just get that armor on as soon as possible, right? Because, I mean, you can't escape it. As a Christian, you better be ready for war. You better get ready for that big fight. The next point is it said the rulers, maybe I should have told you the same in Ephesians 6, doesn't matter, it said the rulers of the darkness of this world, okay? The rulers of the darkness of this world. Now, what does that mean? You might have different opinions of what that means. I'll tell you what I believe this means, and I think, you know, this is quite accurate, quite correct when you compare it to other passages in the Bible. So if there are rulers of darkness, then what could that be pointing to? Could that be pointing to maybe our governments, our politicians? I don't believe so. I believe that's the next point. But I believe this is referring to people in authority that are trying to keep this world in the dark, okay? That's false prophets, false religions, false prophets, okay? Yes, in other religions that are not Christianity, but even within the realm of Christianity, there are plenty of false prophets. And let me tell you, these people are workers for Satan. Whether they know it or not, they are doing the bidding of Satan. They've been influenced by Satan, and this is where our battle is as well, okay? With the false teaching, false doctrines, false prophets that come into this world. If you can please turn to the book of John, go to John chapter 12. And while you turn to John 12, I'm going to read to you from Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. You go to John 12, I'll read to you from Colossians chapter 1 and verse 12. And pay attention while you're turning to John 12. It says, giving thanks unto the Father. Hey, we ought to be giving thanks to the Father, but why? Which have made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So we have the world which is very dark, but we are partakers with the saints in light, okay? And then in verse number 13, it says, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. So what does that mean? Before you were saved, right? You were under the influence of the power of darkness. When you didn't know the gospel, when you were fed lies, when you had a false gospel, when you had a false Jesus Christ, when you had a false religion, when you were trusting in works for salvation, you were under the influence of the power of darkness. And God has stepped in with the gospel message, with the preacher, through the word of God, through the born again salvation spirit, he's delivered you, he's translated you from that power of darkness into the kingdom of his son, which of course is referring to the light there. But look at John chapter 12 in verse number 46, John chapter 12 and verse 46. So I just want to show you that parallel, right? Before you were saved, power of darkness, translated, now you're in light, okay? And so when we talk about the rulers of the darkness of this world, who is it that's trying to keep people in the dark? Who's trying to keep people from knowing the gospel, from knowing Jesus Christ from being saved? It's all the false religions, all the false prophets in this world. They're working for Satan. Once again, whether they know it or not, they're working for Satan. John chapter 12 and verse 46, Jesus says, I am come alight into the world, and whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. Amen. Praise God that we no longer abide in darkness because now we've believed on Christ, we've been saved, and we have Jesus Christ who is the light. Please go to John chapter 8 verse 12, John chapter 8 and verse number 12. John chapter 8 and verse number 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The light of life. You know what, brethren? As a saved person, be thankful you're in the light. That's why when we look at 1 Thessalonians 5, it says let's not sleep as others sleep. Hey, we ought to be people of the light. We ought to be children of the light. Hey, we've been saved. Praise God, we have His word. We have the truth of His word. Of course, that is part of the armor of God, but we've been delivered from that darkness. We're no longer blinded. Listen, I'll just read to you Matthew 15 verse 12. I didn't read it to you before, but Matthew 15 verse 12, it says, Then came His disciples and said unto Him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But He answered and said, so he's talking about the Pharisees, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. And of course the ditch is a picture of hell. It's a picture of everlasting fire. It's the lake of fire. And so we have blind leaders who are in darkness, but they're also leading the blind. And again, this is a work of the devil. The devil wants nothing more than to keep people from getting saved, from seeing the light of Jesus Christ. Now, if I can get you to turn to Micah. Micah, turn to Micah chapter 1. Micah chapter 1 in the Old Testament. Micah chapter 1. Because the fourth point of our enemy, the fourth reference there of our enemy, was spiritual wickedness in high places. Spiritual wickedness in high places. And I have touched upon this in the past, and I've mentioned how the high places represents our governments. And I believe that. I believe that. But I kind of want to show you where I draw that parallel, because when you read through your Bible, and you read about the high places, this has to do most often with people that set up idols. And this is common. This is even common today. You'll find that people set up idols, they find a high place, they find a hill, they find a mountain, they find somewhere where they can put a false idol, some false god, and so it's kind of been exalted. It's kind of been elevated because it's set up in those high places. And many times when the Israelites would turn and worship some false god, they would set up their high places. Then we have a godly man that steps in and destroys those high places. And so yes, it is a reference to idols, and I believe you can apply that here if you want. But I want to show you how this ties in with government. So Micah chapter 1 and verse number 5. Micah chapter 1 and verse number 5. It says, For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? So we see that the high place here of Judah is Jerusalem. And of course, God compares also Samaria. And the reason why he's mentioning these two cities is because in the northern kingdom, their capital city was Samaria. And in the southern kingdom, the capital city was Jerusalem. So if we wanted to apply this for Australia, we might say at the end of Micah 1.5, and what are the high places of Australia? Are they not Canberra? And of course, when someone refers to the capital city, they're referring to the governing bodies. They're talking about those that are passing the law, that have influence and authority over the nation. And so he's pointing to these capital cities as a picture of the high places. Just like the high places were used for the idols, well, there's a lot of ungodliness. It shouldn't surprise anybody, right? There's a lot of ungodliness. There's a lot of ungodly laws, laws that have been passed through our government. And this is a reference to those high places. I mean, when it comes to authority in this world, there's no higher place than the authorities in our governments. And so if the devil has power worldwide across the nation, doesn't it just make sense that his power is going to reside in many of these governments, many of our politicians? Now, I'm not saying that all politicians are ungodly, wicked children of the devil. All I'm saying is if you want to be prominent in this world, you want to be loved by the world, you want to be received by the world as a politician, you will have to be someone that serves the devil, right? Because we saw the devil is able to give power of kingdoms to people like he offered to Jesus Christ. And so many politicians have sold the soul to the devil. Many politicians just are there to damage Christianity, damage any understanding of what a nation ought to look like if it feared God. The laws that are passed by God, these governments are trying to tear these things down. And so Satan has power across the globe, across the globe. And I don't say this to you to bring you fear, all right? I say this to you so you can wake up and say, I need the armor then. I need to get into this battle where I didn't realize that the forces of the devil were so widespread and so powerful, and in order for me to be able to fight, in order for me to be able to stand, in order for me to remain bold and strong, I need to get that whole armor of God. And so, yes, I do believe spiritual wickedness in high places refers to our governments, but not just our governments, but other places of authorities or other places of high influence in our world. So you might refer to, you might think about those that are pushing, especially in this day and age, forced vaccinations, mandatory vaccinations, the Bill Gateses of this world. These are children of the devil. I have no doubt that man is a reprobate. I have no doubt that man is a child of the devil. But you know what, he's got a little bit of influence. And he's able to obviously lobby governments and have, you know, he's got some power. I mean, who is this guy? You know, he created Windows. I like Windows. I didn't like the Windows 7. I think I gave up on Windows, but I'm back on Windows 10. I don't mind Windows, right? But who is this guy? This IT guy trying to get into our health. And of course, bringing in poison to be pushed into our bodies, but somehow the media picks him up and plays him. Somehow he's able to have great influence in this world. Bill Gates. Hey, the central banks, you know, that's owned by the Rothschilds. Many of these Jewish families owned these central banks. They've got power. They've got more power than many governments. They can tell any government what they want to do, and they'll just do it, okay? Because they're able to dry up the finances. They can just destroy an entire country if they wanted to. They've got so much power. They've got the power of money within the world. These are other spiritual weakness in higher places. Hollywood. The music industry. These things that, yeah, okay, they might not have authority in government, but they have a great influence on people. They have a great influence on children, on the next generation. They try to make these celebrities, which are the scum of the earth, to be the heroes, to be the celebrities of the children, of teenagers. This is spiritual weakness in higher places, and so the devil, boy, he's ready for the fight. He's been fighting for a long time, and his army is getting stronger and stronger. Look, in our own strength, we're never going to take it down. We know that ultimately that Jesus Christ will tear it down. We know that. We've seen that already in the End Times series. We've seen how Jesus Christ will have the ultimate victory, and I want to be on the side of victory. I want to be on Jesus' side. If God says we need to put on his armour, then we better put it on. We better put it on and do what Jesus wants us to do. Now, please go to Matthew 12. Go to Matthew 12, because I want to touch upon something a little bit more relevant to us today. Don't you hate that word, relevant preach? Anyway, this is more relevant to us. Matthew 12, please. Matthew 12 and verse 22. So, the question is, was this coronavirus pandemic orchestrated by Satan? Because, like I said, he's got power worldwide, and I mean, didn't the entire world just stop because of this pandemic? I can understand where your logic might lead you to think this was the devil's plan. I'm here to tell you that I don't believe the devil had anything to do with this, okay? Now, I'm not saying that he won't take advantage of it. He's a smart fellow, that guy, right? The devil. He's a smart fellow, you know? And I'll show you why. Look at Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 22. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 22. The Bible reads, Now, what Jesus is about to say is true, okay? Everything Jesus Christ says is true. Just jot it down, what he said, I can rely on this, and when I build my understanding of this world, when I think about coronavirus and I think about other effects that are worldwide, I'm going to think about what Jesus has to say first, and if my view, if my understanding is not compatible with what I see Jesus Christ saying here, then you've got to throw out your theory. I don't care how much time you've invested into it. I don't care how much emotionally you're attached to it. I don't care how prideful you are because, you know, you don't want to let go of that understanding, but you go back to the words of Jesus. He says every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? Listen, does Satan cast out Satan? No, the only one that can cast out Satan is Jesus Christ, okay? And why would Satan cast out Satan? All it does is it hurts his kingdom. All it does is it destroys himself. Jesus is saying, look, this is not, Satan does not cast out Satan. Beelzebub is not casting out a devil. If I'm casting out a devil, it's by the Spirit of God, says Jesus Christ, okay? You read the rest of it. And so he's saying, look, if he was casting himself out, his kingdom would be divided and he wouldn't stand. Now, what did we read in Ephesians chapter 6? Does that sound like a kingdom divided? Does that sound like a kingdom that doesn't stand? No, Ephesians 6 sounds like a very powerful, very united kingdom, very powerful, very united and standing strong and getting stronger by the day when we read Ephesians 6, okay? What I'm saying to you is this. And I know we love church. I know we love soul winning. No doubts about it. You know, this pastor loves those things, right? And sometimes we can get emotional about it because we weren't able to do it the way we were used to before all the restrictions. And so the immediate thought in your head is, well, that devil. The devil's done it. See, the devil's stopped the worship of God in his house. The devil has stopped the soul winning, you know, that we were doing. Well, here's the thing. It's not just our church, okay? Even the false religions had to stop. You know, even the Muslims had to close their mosques. You know, even the Jews weren't allowed to meet in the synagogues. You know, even the Buddhists weren't allowed to meet, whatever they do. I don't know, right? I mean, even the Pentecostal Charismatic Church was preaching their false gospel weren't allowed to meet. People couldn't even go to get your palm read or, I don't know, you know, bring up your lost relatives by some witch. You know, I'm saying that, what I'm saying is even the forces of the devil, even the influence of the devil was stopped. Even Hollywood was stopped. The cinemas, you couldn't go to cinemas and be influenced by the devil. You couldn't even go and get drunk at a pub. Hey, the devil's got power there, all right? What else? Australia's number one religion. Sport wasn't even on the agenda. Boy, but you guys survived, praise God. Listen, you know, this is why I can't, I'm going to go with Jesus Christ. This is, you know, Satan has a united kingdom. He's not going to cast himself out. And the fact that, yes, we've been influenced with the rest of this world. Yes, you know, I don't like it. I'm not saying that I like it. I'm not going along with it. I think it's all okay. It's not that, but I know for a certainty that this is not the Satan doing it. Whether this is a judgment of God or whether it's just our sin-cursed world. And this is just what we have to deal with sometimes. I don't really know. I don't have all those in place just yet. I don't have all those thoughts. But one thing for sure, I know that Satan's kingdom is united. And Satan does not cast out Satan. And there's been plenty of Satan being cast out during this time. You know, it's not just good, godly churches of Jesus Christ that have had to stop, okay? So, you know, please be careful. Be careful about what you listen to. Be careful what you fill your minds with. Make sure whatever it is, you know, there's a lot of good stuff on YouTube. There's a lot of good stuff on the internet. But many times those people aren't even saved that bring out that information. And they're going to have all their wild theories. They're going to have all their rabbit holes to go down. And some rabbit holes are true. Some rabbit holes are just there to distract you, okay? And just to become unproductive, you know? And we can still be productive even in these days of restrictions, all right? So I really wanted to cover that. I think that's really important, okay? Please go to Romans 13. Please go to Romans 13 now. Romans 13. So let me just refresh your memories, what the first two points were. Number one, wear the whole armour of God. And number two, our battle is not carnal. Number three, sin leaves you exposed. Sin leaves you exposed. If you're in a state of sin, or you're in a state of unconfessed sin, you haven't got the armour on. It's not there. You've taken it off, you don't even know. Okay, you may have had it on, then you went into sin, and right now, in that state, it's not on. Okay, it's off. And if you don't have the armour on, you're going to be prime target for the devil. All right? Romans 13 verse 11. Romans 13 verse 11 reads, And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. So this salvation is not the salvation of the soul, but the salvation of the flesh, the rapture, okay? It's nearer than when we believed, okay? When we first believed, yeah, when I was in the past, but now, today, it's actually closer to the day that we will receive salvation of our bodies. Verse number 12. The night is fast spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. So that's our sins, of course. And let us put on the armour of light. Okay, so the armour of God, he's referred to as the armour of light. And we already noticed and understand that we are walking in light, because we're believers of Jesus Christ. But see, you can only put on the armour of light if you first cast off the works of darkness. So if you are doing works of darkness, the armour's not on. Okay, and if the armour's not on, you're going to be exposed. And of course, when you sin, and you're prideful about it, and you just want to go to the Lord and get that right, you're just prime target. You kind of already are the casualty, but the devil's going to try to take you down. The devil's going to try to get you out of the wall completely, you know, never to fight once again. Hey, we need to make sure that we cast off the works of darkness, confess our sins to the Lord, try to live righteous and upright lives, so we can be having that armour on as much as we possibly can. Okay, as much as we possibly can. Verse number 13, let's keep going. It says, let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, and boy, isn't there a lot of rioting going on in the United States. You know, all that fire, all the destruction there of people's properties, and all the theft that's going on, all the rioting. Hey, is it done during the day? It says, look, let us walk honestly, as in the day. No, rioting is done in the night. Right, it's the works of darkness. It's nights, you know, getting involved in rioting is not going to allow you to put on the armour of God. You know, all those people in America right now that are rioting, they haven't got the armour of God on. You know, if some of them are saved, I don't know. But right now, they're prime targets for the devil. They're going to be swept away with, you know, the forces of this world. Rioting and drunkenness. And by the way, you know, rioting here in the Bible is actually more about overeating, kind of more about gluttony, because it's got there not rioting and gluttonous. It's like, you know, just giving yourself into pleasure. You know, just giving in to drinking, giving yourself into food. But then it says this, not in chambering and wantonness. So chambering is like your... I don't know if you've ever heard the term your bed chamber. Now, that's an old English way of saying your bedroom. Okay, so chambering is basically sleeping around, you know, committing fornication. And wantonness is just another sort of an old word for sort of sensual, you know, stuff. So obviously, chambering and wantonness has to do with being, you know, sinning against your own body, you know, in fornication, in lust, those kinds of things. And then it says in strife and envying, in strife and envying. So the Bible here gives us a list of sins that if you are involved in some of these, you definitely don't have the armor of light on. It's definitely not on, okay. And strife, of course, is conflict. You know, if you're always involved in conflict, envying. You know, if you desire something that belongs to another person, that's you envying that person. Hey, if you struggle with envy, you haven't got the armor of light on. You haven't got the armor of God on, okay. So I'm saying this because we must understand point number three, sin leaves you exposed. If you're committing some of these sins, and we have a few here, you definitely don't have the armor on. You need to get rid of that. You need to get rid of those works of the darkness in order for you to have the armor on. And also, I'll just read to you in James chapter three, verse 14, talking about strife and envy. And it says here in James chapter three, verse 14, but if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom, and notice this, this wisdom, that's the strife and the envy that you have in your hearts, descendeth not from above. Hey, it doesn't come from God. It says, but is earthly. Notice the next words, sensual, devilish, devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Hope you're still in Romans 13 because I want to compare Romans 13 with what we just read there in James. And so envy and strife, the Bible says here, is earthly, sensual, devilish. Now when you have the ish, you know, like a suffix at the end of a word, that means that it belongs to. Okay, it belongs to. So, you know, if you're struggling with strife and envy, you're being devilish, you're being like the devil. You know, these are characteristics that belong to the devil. Okay, actually just on the way to church, Isabel and Matthias were talking about some book Isabel wrote, and I think Matthias said it's girlish. Okay, so what he means by that is that story kind of belongs to a girl. It's not a boy story, right? And so something that is devilish is something that belongs to the devil. Strife and envy are characteristics that belong to the devil. You're still in Romans 13 verse 14 because we talked about getting rid of those works of the darkness, but in verse number 14 it says, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Alright, so earlier it said put on the armour of light, and then in verse number 14 it says, But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, what does that mean? This is how we keep saying we want to be more Christ-like. Let's be more like Jesus. Well, you know what Jesus did? He had the armour on. He had the whole armour of God on all the time. And if we're someone that is able to get rid of these works of darkness, we're able to put on the whole armour of God, we're not going to be devilish, we're not going to be like the devil, but we're going to be like Jesus Christ. Okay, so Jesus Christ was a soldier. He was someone that went and fought against the devil. He even cast out Satan, right? We see that he's our general, he's our leader, and he wants us to join the army. I mean, we're in the army, I shouldn't say join. He just wants us to go and fight in the army, right? Stop staying, trying to be neutral, stop being a casualty. Hey, there's a war going on and you better get ready. You better start putting on this armour of God. Now please go to 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel 17, 1 Samuel 17. We'll get to our fourth point here. Go to 1 Samuel 17. And my fourth point for tonight is other forms of armour will not be enough. Other forms of armour will not be enough. Look at 1 Samuel 17 verse 31, and this just leads us into the story of David and Goliath, and of course the story goes that the Philistines were at war with Israel, and instead of the two armies just killing hundreds and thousands of soldiers, the Philistines decided, hey, we'll just send one soldier, Goliath, our very best soldier, to fight your very best soldier, and whoever wins, wins the war. And if you lose, you become servants of the winner. All right, so this leads up to the story, and of course everyone's afraid of Goliath, but there comes one young shepherd boy that says, man, I've defeated the bear, the lion. I can take this guy on. Hey, I've got Jesus. Hey, I've got the armour of God on. You know, it's the attitude of King David, or not King David yet, but young David. Look at verse number 31, 1 Samuel 17 verse 31. And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, And he sent for him, and David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant keep his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. And David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. Okay, so we know this story very well, but what we're about to read now is obviously Saul wants to give David the best chance to win this fight. And Saul, of course, he's been in battles, he's got his own armor, and he tries to give his armor that he's brought in to David. So let's look at verse number 38. It says, And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head. Also he armed him with a coat of mayo, and David girded his sword upon his armor, and he assayed to go. So he assessed it. He's put on the armor, he says, he does an assessment, you know, he's holding the sword, he's got the helmet on, probably doesn't fit his head properly, I don't know, and he says, look, this is just, this is not going to work. I can't fight in this, right? And then he says here, and he has said to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them, and David put them off him. Okay, so does David get the best armor he can find there from Saul? Well, he tries it on, but it's not going to do the job. Okay, and like I said, the fourth point here is other forms of armor will not be enough. You know, if David put on Saul's armor, he wasn't going to win the battle. He was going to be weighed down, he was never going to match Goliath's strength for strength. Goliath would have won that, and of course we know what David does, he takes his sling and the rocks, and from a distance he's able to defeat the giant, and for the power of God. But the point I'm trying to bring you here, guys, is we see that King Saul means well, he means well, he gives his armor to David, hoping that that's going to help David to win, hoping that that's going to protect David. But what David needed was, of course, the armor of God. He didn't need an armor that was passed down from another man. And the spiritual application that we can take from this is that your church, or your pastor, is not the armor of God. Okay? You can't think, I'm going to be successful in the fight, I'm going to be able to battle and soldier on as long as I have New Life Baptist Church all the time. As long as I have Pastor Kevin here preaching three times a week, I'm going to be flying for the fight, I'm going to be fighting for the Lord. No, that's not the right armor. Okay? I can't give you what I've got and expect you to wear it. Okay? You've not proved it. It's not going to fit you. It's not going to work. Now, is going to church, is listening to preaching from your pastor important? Is it something that's necessary and good and something God wants you to do? Absolutely. But you need to go and put on the right armor. You can't just come to church, not put on the armor of God, and think you're going to be fine in the battle. You're going to be destroyed. You're going to be taken down by the enemy. Okay? You need to put on your own armor, is what I'm trying to say. You need to put on your own armor, and that armor, of course, belongs to God. Listen, your parents are not the armor of God. Your parents can't just pass their faith down to the children. Children, you have to have your own faith. You need to come to your own understanding. You need to be saved yourself. You can't just say, well, I'm going to be fine in the battle because my mom and dad were very faithful Christians. Now, is there anything wrong with having faithful parents? It's what God would love. What God loves is for parents to be able to teach on and instruct their children, get them in the faith. That's all well and good, but listen, you can't just rely on mom and dad. At some point, you have to say, well, I've got to put on my own armor. I need to put that armor on myself. Maybe mom and dad have the armor of God. I need to put on my own armor of God. Okay? You can't just have these pass-me-downs from men. You have to put on the armor of God. It's called the armor of God, not the armor of mom and dad, not the armor of pastor or whoever else that you might look up to. It's the armor of God. You've got to go to God and ask him for the armor. Your efforts to protect this outward body from the fluoride, from the chemtrails, from whatever. That's not the armor of God. It might keep you safe. Again, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with trying to look after yourself physically. Nothing wrong with a bit of exercise because the Lord can use you if your body is healthier and stronger. The Lord is able to use you to be able to accomplish things for him in your body. That's all well and good, but just because you look after the outward body, you still haven't put on the spiritual. It's a spiritual fight. Remember, it's not a carnal fight. It's a spiritual fight, and we need to put on the armor of God. Please don't substitute the armor of God with something else. Don't substitute the armor of God with church. Don't substitute the armor of God with your pastor or your parents or with healthy eating and looking after yourself. You need the armor of God, and whatever other armor you try to put on, it's going to cause you to lose the battle. It might keep you safe a little bit. I'm sure Saul's armor on David would have kept him safe a little bit, but he wouldn't have won the battle. So David would not have won the battle, and so other forms of armor will not be enough. This is why it's so important that we walk in the Spirit. We put on the new man. We put on Jesus Christ. We live godly. We live righteously because we need all the armor, the whole armor. Of course, as we get into this series, I'll be focusing on each piece of that armor. Please now go to Isaiah 59 because this leads on to the next point. Because David said about Saul's armor, he said, I have not proved them. I've not tried this before, Saul. I can't wear this. I've never fought on this before. It's going to weigh me down. But I want you to know something. This is point number five. The armor of God is proven. Point number five, the armor of God is proven. It's something that is reliable. You know if you wear it, you're going to win. You know if you wear it, you're going to stand. You know if you wear it, you're going to cause havoc in the kingdom and the power of Satan that he has on this earth. You know if you wear it, you're able to shine some light in this dark world. It's been proven. Who has it been proven by? It's actually been proven by God himself. You know God wears this armor? We read about it here in Isaiah 59, verse number 16. Isaiah 59, verse number 16. And this is a backdrop. Israel is in a weak state with the Lord. And the Lord looks at Israel and says, man, you're defenseless. You can be destroyed basically. Look at chapter 59, Isaiah 59, verse 16. It says here, The Lord saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his arm brought salvation unto them and his righteousness it sustained him. Okay, so the Lord is the one that brought salvation, righteousness and sustained the nation of Israel. Okay, because God looked down and says there's no one here that's standing up and being righteous. Look at verse number 17. It's referring to God. Hey, this is referring to God. God says, look, you guys look like you're in a weak state. There's no one there that's going to defend you. I better step in and I've got the armor of God on. Okay, the armor has been proved. Okay, it's proven. Verse number 18. According to their deeds, according he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies, to the islands he will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Okay, standard is a word, I think it's a German word, which is kind of stand hard. It's a military term. And so what it's saying here is that God puts on the armor and is able to defeat the enemies that come like a flood against Israel and he's able to sort of stand hard against them. So the Lord of course is the deliverer of the nation of Israel here, but I want you to notice the Lord is wearing the armor. He's got the helmet of salvation. He's got the breastplate of righteousness. And when we go through the series you'll notice that these are elements that make up the whole armor of God. So have they been proven? Absolutely. Proven to the point that even God wears it. Now you understand why it's called the armor of God. Because it's his armor. And God's saying here, you put it on. Okay, it comes from God. He's proven it. He's put it on. He's been able to defeat the enemies of Israel by wearing the armor. Well then, how much influence can we have in this world? How much victory can we have? How much defense can we have in this ungodly world if we put on the same armor that God puts on? What an amazing thing that God will put on the armor that he wants us to put on. And so, brethren, that's the conclusion. This is really just the introduction and we'll get to the armor in the subsequent weeks. But just in summary, let's go through the five points once again. Number one, you've got to wear the whole armor. Okay, it's not just parts of it. The whole armor otherwise you're exposed. Number two, our battle is not carnal. It's a spiritual fight. Number three, sin leaves you exposed. Okay, you can't have the armor if you're in the works of darkness. Number four, other forms of armor will not be enough. And number five, the armor of God is proven. It's proven by God. All right, praise God, let's pray.