Crucial is The Armor of God in the Last Days
Scripture:
Ephesians 6:10–13
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Introduction:
When evil closes in on Christian's everywhere we are going to need to be fully armed with the armor of God's truth. To abide in Christ as the vine is to be able to stand firm in the midst of chaos and wickedness. We need our faith to be aggressive in these last days to speak the truth in love! Our spiritual war is not with flesh and blood but ideals, and deceptions like we've never seen before in our time.
I. Since we fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places:
1) We wrongly think that just because we are Christian the armor of God magically appears.
2) We must choose to be a part of the vine by seeking God with all our hearts.
3) According to John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
4) If we do not graft ourselves to the vine the armor of God is not applied.
5) Imagine whatever gets you depressed, lonely, hopeless, anxious, chaos, angry, or worried comes upon your mind like a never-ending flood. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
6) How are you going to calm your mind with the hope of Christ at a time so intense?
7) The word of God that is sharper than any two-edged sword must cut deep into the soul beyond prideful self-till it reaches our empty spot of weakness.
8) If we do not allow the word to penetrate our souls for the total need of Christ, we cannot be fully grafted into the vine, thereby becoming a nonbearing branch.
9) Grafting plants- You can make a downward cut on a plant and take another plant cut off and fuse them together.
10) By grafting one plant into a mature producing root, you will get a super plant.
11) By doing this the new shoot maintains the maturity of the root.
12) So, when we abide or graft ourselves into Christ, we maintain the maturity of the root.
13) We become more than what we are because of Christ.
14) That is why some produce 60-fold some 100-fold. Through Peter 3,000 were saved in one day.
15) We were created for God to be our source of all spiritual strength.
16) According to Ephesians, we are seated with Christ with all power and authority in chapters 1 and 2.
17) According to Romans 8:37, we are more than conquerors.
18) According to Philippians 4:13, we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.
19) According to Hebrews 11, we’ll have faith to move mountains and slay giants
Transitional
The wicked one’s time is running out so he will be so intense in attacking God’s people
II. The wicked one will be furious like a lion hunting his prey:
1) Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
2) Satan’s time is limited.
3) Remember the demons saying to Jesus have you come to torment us before the time!
4) Daniel 2:42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.
5) EU was formed on March 25, 1957: the Treaty of Rome was formed.
6) So, we have the revision of the old Roman empire the European Union where tens kings will arise out of the 27 countries.
7) The Great Reset is the name of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), held in June 2020. globalized world
8) The end of Time is ticking away.
9) This we know about the antichrist in Daniel 8:24–25 His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; He shall destroy fearfully, And shall prosper and thrive; He shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. 25 “Through his cunning He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule;
10) Daniel 11:21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
11) This man is gifted with the sin of pure evil deception.
Transitional:
End-time Prophecy is being played out right in front of our eyes. Lawlessness is in the air.
III. We must Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might:
1) We must be aggressive with our faith, be aggressive with God’s truth.
2) Verse 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
3) Meaning it is going to take everything we have, to abide in Christ just to be able to stand and resist his evil schemes.
4) We must be proactive in our faith, to grow stronger in faith every day.
5) We are grafted into the power of Christ.
6) Moses had to stretch out his rod before the Red Sea parted
7) Moses had to hold up his arms before the battle could be won
8) Joshua: The priest carrying the ark of God had to step into the river Jordan before the waters parted.
9) Jericho had to be walked around before the walls fell
10) David had to pick up his rock before the giant fell
11) Elijah had to pray before the rain fell
12) If you don’t take a stand for God’s truth the armor will not be applied
13) We need a faith that moves forward.
14) A faith that slays our giant with the rock of the promises of God.
15) We must have a mustard seed faith that will say to this mountain be removed into the sea.
Transitional:
1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
IV. Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You:
1) When we in our weakness surrender our all to God we have access to the power of the almighty God of heaven.
2) David did not ask about the strength of Goliath because he knew of the power of God.
3) Elijah wasn’t concerned with the man’s army that surrounded the city of Dothan because there were more with us than be with them, we’re on the winning side.
4) Samson knew the power of God when he slew his 1,000’s
5) After the dust settled Gideon knew of the power of God
6) Joshua knew the power of God when the walls of Jericho fell.
7) Jehoshaphat knew of the power of his God in 2 Chronicles 20:15 for God said Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
8) There is absolutely nothing that He will not do to bring glory to His name and do for the salvation of His children in times of need.
9) The farmer hired a new farmhand, bad storm came one night the farmer was panicking but the hired hand already secured the animals before the storm, the farmer smiled and went bad to bed.
10) We need to be prepared.
11) All our battles are His and so are the victories.
