In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of truth in the life of a believer. He highlights the four-fold cord of truth, which includes the person of truth (Jesus Christ), the word of truth (the Bible), the spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit), and the church as the pillar of truth. The speaker encourages listeners to put on the belt of truth every day and stand in truth to avoid being deceived by the father of lies. He shares a personal anecdote about a missionary struggling with sharing the gospel and emphasizes the need to be rooted in truth to combat deception.

I was deeply touched this morning as I was walking over here. I think it's so neat that there's a lot of unsung heroes that have given their lives for the Lord and missionary service. And I think it's wonderful that you have named buildings after some of these people that are not known. And two people that they taught us about so much when I was in Bible college. I never dreamed that you would name a building after them. And I was walking up the dirt road and it said, Apartment A and Apartment B. You know, in college I always said, Missionary A and Missionary B. And now you guys named a building for them. That's encouraging. How do we help somebody that's losing? We're talking about winning. We're talking about being on the winning side. But what happens when you're not winning? What happens when obviously somebody is losing? How can I help them? And that's what this book is all about. So these books are extremely excellent books. And it's very reasonable. And you'll find them. This is your position in Christ. And this one is from that position. How do I deal with the forces of darkness when I'm losing or I sense a bondage in my life? Okay, it's Neil Anderson. And they're on the back table, Victory Over Darkness and The Bondage Breaker. Some other books, if you want to read in this area, as I said, I went back and re-studied. A little thin book answers it. There's a question that's going around, and maybe we'll deal with it one day in a little detail. And that is, what about Christians and the demonic world? Chuck Swindoll's little book, Demonism. It's real simple. It's a little pamphlet. And he deals with the Christians that he removes spirits from. And it's in there. Dr. Fred Dickinson, the head theologian at Moody Bible Institute, wrote a book this thick called Demon Possession and the Christian, A New Perspective. Now, he didn't like the title. Moody made him use the title. But so many of the conservative churches wrote Moody about that book because of the title that Dickinson didn't want anyway, that now Cosway's printing the book and Moody isn't. And if you want a real heavy theological explanation of every verse in the New Testament practically and all of the Greek studies on it and exactly what it's saying about the Christian and the demonic world, that's one of the books. But the book that's been the most helpful to me was, Dr. Unger wrote my textbook in Bible school, which was called Biblical Demonology. And in that book, he made a statement that Christians cannot have demonic problems. He wrote five books after that and said, I made a terrible mistake. I made a terrible mistake when I wrote that. I was writing it from sitting in the office. And the book he wrote that's probably, I think, is the classic book in this whole area of demonology is What Demons Do to Saints by Dr. Merle Unger, the theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary for years. That book was out of print because the conservative wrote Moody and said you shouldn't print this book and so on. But praise God, a good friend of mine was just made the vice president of Moody Publications and Moody Radio Services and all of that. And guess what's coming out this spring? Dr. Unger's book, What Demons Do to Saints. That's probably the most classic, the most... I mean, that man is brilliant. And he did a super job. And you will love that book. I know you'll love that book. It's just excellent. So that's a few books. Any area of your life that you don't want God to take control of, Satan has the right to take control of it. You know, there's only two forces, isn't there? That's all there is. And either you're being influenced by the Spirit of God or you're being influenced by the enemy. And we need to turn our life over to the Spirit of God and be influenced by him in all areas of our life. And this morning, I thought it would be nice if maybe we'd look at the armor. When I started reading books on spiritual warfare, I got discouraged. Because as I read the armor, if you've done any reading, everybody says the armor means something else. You know, I just want one book that tells it. And then I read someone else's and they say something else, and I'm going, don't do that to me. Now you've got me confused. And I think it's because the armor is typical. That's why we're getting more different ideas. And I'd like to give you more general ideas. And you can be specific, but the armor is significantly important. Warren Wiersbe and his wife put on the armor every single morning. We had a prayer, an armor prayer. I think we have Wiersbe's armor prayer in here. But we have an armor prayer that we got from Charles Stanley. And Charles Stanley says he puts the armor over his pajamas. And then he gets up. But it's amazing as there are men and women of God that are doing successful damage to the kingdom of darkness. These people are into warfare. And they're into putting on the armor. And they're into meeting the day with God's armor. And if you're being defeated in your life, you ought to ask yourself, am I putting on the armor? Do I understand what I'm putting on? I mean, I'll put on the helmet and all this. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about, what does this mean? It's truth that I'm putting on. Because it says, having done all to stand. And I haven't done all to stand if I don't put the armor on. That's exactly what Paul is teaching there. If you're not putting the armor on, you're not doing everything that you need to do to meet the day. And to meet the enemy of the day. And to meet all of the pressures and everything that happened in the day. God has given us his grace, which is the empowering. And God has given us the armor, which protects us from the attacks of the enemy. And any piece of the armor that you don't put on, you're in trouble. Because you become vulnerable in that particular area of attack. So let's look at the armor from my perspective, which I want you to know is the right one. Now you're going to get the truth, finally, you know. But as I was studying the armor and teaching this, I was teaching it in our church. We went to a marvelous church in St. Louis. The best church I've ever been to in my whole life. Hope Church. I don't know if any of you have been in St. Louis or been to Hope Church. But our pastor was 70 years of age and retired. And I said, that's wrong. I said, you're just now becoming credible. I can't believe you. You've been around long enough to say something. What a tragedy the church lost such a godly, godly man. Just is a neatest church. In Ephesians chapter 6, he tells us to take on the whole armor of God and we're to stand against the attacks of the enemy in the armor. And as I was studying the armor, I began to realize I had took the names of Satan. And I told you to do that. Just take his names. Look up those names. What do they mean? Because it tells me something of what he does. Because names are descriptive. In fact, everybody's name. Names visualize achievements. Do you realize that? And when a man had a wrong name for God's purpose, he changed the man's name. So his name would fit God's purpose. That's why it's important to give kids meaningful names. A good name is rather to be chosen than wealth and riches. And so you want to have meaningful names and to know what your name means. So that if a child knows what their name means, every time you say that name, it visualizes achievement. One child, if you've never done this, you should have done it years ago because it's gotten popular now. But the name Cynthia. Cynthia. And a girl says, well, she gets a baby book, looks up Cynthia, and it says Moon. And she goes, well, that's neat. Yeah, Moon. That's a lot of spiritual significance there. But it is quite spiritually significant. What's a moon? A moon is a reflector of what? Light. Whose light does the moon reflect? The sun's light. So Cynthia means a reflector of God's sun's light. Now, when a little girl knows that, and some kids say, Cynthia, let's go in the bushes. And that she's being called into darkness. When you call Cynthia to go into darkness, what does her name mean? To be a reflector of God's light. You know, it's neat to know. I mean, what is the meaning of your name? And give your children meaningful names and so on. So I did Satan's name. You know, it seemed to me that there was a piece of armor for every name of Satan. You know, as I began to put the armor down and look at what he does, because it tells me what he does, then God gave me armor to protect me from what he does. And it's interesting, even the order of the armor. Now, I feel, as Fred Dickinson and some of the others, that the first three are imputed truth. They're mine. Now, I need to stand in that, but they're mine. The other three I have to take up. The Greek seems to indicate that. And that's a big, you know, there's all this theological stuff. But basically, the first three seem to be those are mine, but the other three, if I don't pick them up, I don't have them. But let's look at them from that perspective. The first three is, Stand therefore, having your loins skirted about with truth. It's amazing. You know, the first thing we usually don't put on is the belt. And yet, it's the first piece that God says you need to put on is the belt. In fact, I think it's interesting for victory, before you put the armor on, Warren Worsby says, the first step of victory is getting out of bed. You know, it's amazing how many macho men are pinned by the sheets. If you can't get out of bed, you're in trouble. I didn't say want to get out of bed. I said, if you can't get out of bed, right? I mean, one of the battles is saying no to the flesh. And I'm laying in bed, losing the battle before the day started. Right? Did I tell you my favorite people of all the missionaries? I told you that, didn't I? The Gulf Force of China? I think we were sharing it. Did I share it with the group? See, you're old like me. I can't remember what I said. But getting up in the morning and all that stuff, you know, it's important. I'm a night person that became a day person, because I couldn't be both. So in order for me to get to the office and begin to start ministering at 5 o'clock in the morning, I have to go to bed a little earlier at night. I can't do both ends, or else I eat the bread of sorrows. And I'm what the Word of God says is a vain person who stays up late and tries to rise up early. So you may need to turn your clock around. You can do it. You know, I never thought a night person could be a morning person. It took time, but it happened. It says, put on this belt, in the belt of truth. Isn't that interesting? It's the very first piece. Now, if you study the armor, in fact, the drawings you have are interesting. This was the result of a signing school class I was teaching. We had an artist in the class, and he drew me the fellow with armor. And he had the English shield, and it was the night. And I said, oh. I mean, I usually try to be real gracious and kind. It's real hard for me not to be. You know, even though I'm groaning on the inside, I smile on the outside and all. And I'm going, oh, no, I just can't. This isn't right. And I just said, oh, I'm sorry. I said, this isn't it. I said, this is an English armor. This has nothing to do with the Roman army. And he said, okay. I said, I'll draw you the right one. And he went to the library and got a three-volume set of color photos or color drawings of what the Roman soldier wore every few years. It changed. We figured out when Ephesians was written, he looked in the book of the fellow in the library in history felt that this was the most close to what they would have worn at Rome, and that's what you're looking at. Now, he put a couple crosses on it that were not there. But outside of that, that's pretty much what the Roman soldier wore at the time Paul wrote the book. So you've got a pretty accurate picture of a Roman soldier with a belt. And if you realize, there's certain things that hook onto the belt. But what's really significant here is that the thing we're to put on is what? Basically is what? Truth. Why is truth so significant? Who am I going to meet today? The father of what? The father of lies. And God says, you must put on the truth or you can be deceived. Have you ever been deceived? You know, they tell me that the cereal box is that it's just settled. Right? It says it's just settled. That's why you only got a half a box of this stuff. Isn't cereal exciting? Six dollars, you know. But it's got one of those things in there that decodes. You know, that's encouraging. You know, or whatever. To be deceived, there's something about being deceived that really upsets you. And be careful. You have one who is looking for ways to deceive you daily. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. He says, be careful. I don't want you beguiled or deceived like he was. And then he says, be careful that you don't receive a spirit of a different kind. This is the next verse. Don't be deceived. Be careful. If I was a fish and my son would obviously be a fish, right? And I'm going to have a father to son fish talk. I'd say, son, I want to tell you something. Every time you see a worm all scrunched up, don't go for it. Because there's a hook in it. You know, in Satan's attack, there'll be a whole bunch of truth all scrunched up. But you know what's in it? Just a little hook-a-lie. A deception. It's just amazing. You know, you're walking down the hall and you're going to get a cup of coffee if you know where they hide it. So the visitors don't get any. Drink up all the good coffee. And you walk over to the thing and you see somebody and you say hi and they don't speak to you. But you know what he's like anyway. And you get all these thoughts, you know. I wonder who he thinks he is. And it's amazing what can go on up here. All this deception. You know, I remember, and these are Wycliffe translators. Remember these gals spoke at one of the colleges I was teaching at. It was really neat. And the girl was sharing how she was getting upset by her partner. It's hard to believe, isn't it? They were out in the jungles someplace, somewhere, and she got all her stuff unpacked first. She got the side of the place that didn't leak. She always went to the river first as if they're going to run out of water, you know. And always brushed her teeth and was always first. And that was just eating her up. And, of course, the enemy was helping and he was fanning the fires a little bit. And, boy, I'll tell you, they almost came to blows over nothing. But just a lot of thinking here. Why is this not right? Why is she always first? You know, why? All this kind of stuff. Boy, be careful. Don't be deceived. Be careful. Put on the truth. And ask God to make you sensitive to truth. And that you would not take the hook of deception, of being deceived in any way, as you come against the father of lies. Talking about deception, we just told you of a young missionary. Overseas for less than a year. I didn't even tell you about him. I just talked to him last week. Went over to share the gospel. Came back. The head of the mission said, if you were in the Middle East and someone was shot and they were dying and you had ten minutes to share the gospel, then what would you say? And he said, I'm not sure. I don't know what I would tell him. He said, I really believe that we ought to love one another and keep to be attitudes. This is a conservative Bible college graduate in less than one year. Came back extreme liberal. Unbelievable, isn't it? I mean, it's unbelievable. This guy was the most outstanding student that school has ever put out. Brilliant. And has been wiped out in less than a year. He doesn't know what he believes. He's not sure that salvation is real. And he's sure that scripture is not inspired. In less than a year. The enemy did a number on him. And he is terribly deceived. Now, I know this guy is going to get out of it. I'm trusting God he's going to get out of it. But look at all the wasted years. He's struggling now. I don't know if I believe what I believe. Terrible, terrible thing. But, you know, I've asked this. I want to ask you this. But I ask this in churches. And this is the attack. What kind of attack? Can you have it in your notes? I'll ask, how many people here ever wondered if God's word is really true? Ever wondered that? Can you imagine translating it and wondering if it's true? I'm sorry. I'm laughing. That's terrible. I mean, can you imagine the conflicts? Here, I'm translating this. I'm sure it's true. I am sure it's true. But, you know, those thoughts are coming. Is this really true? Did Jonah really get swallowed? Are you swallowing now? Did it really rain? Was it really a whole flood? On and on and on. It's just amazing. And if I don't put on the truth, and I begin to receive some of that deception, I'm headed for severe troubles. And that's why it says put on truth every day. Stand in the truth. You know that the belt of truth has four cords? Four cords. Remember, a three-fold cord is hard to break. What about a four-fold cord? The belt of truth. First of all, there's the person of truth. Who's the person of truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have been given what? The word of truth. And we have been indwelled by who? The spirit of truth. And he says that we are to get together in the church, which is called the pillar of truth. It's interesting, isn't it? Four-fold cold of truth. Put on the truth every day. Stand in truth, and you'll stand well. If you don't stand in truth, you're not going to stand. And I need to know what? Truth. I need to be in the word of truth, not just for academia, not just for my job, but for myself. For myself. Get into truth for yourself. So be sure that the first thing you put on is truth. The second thing that we're told to put on, the belt of truth, the next one is the one that helped me the most of all the armor, the breastplate of righteousness. You know, often the major attacks that we have as Christians follow tremendous victories. You know, we see that with Elijah. And I had gone to the Pacific, and I never dreamed that the young people in Australia would be so excited about the series I was doing. I mean, I'd never been to Australia. I didn't know. And we were doing How to Develop the Character of Christ, How to Have the Attitude of Christ. It was a series. And the teenagers and the college students were pouring into the churches. And then they would say, well, you only spoke an hour. Would you come to a house? I'd go to a house, and the kids would be, there would be like 200 kids in a house, and I'd have to step over them. They couldn't see me. They'd be in rooms sitting all over the floor. I couldn't believe it. It was just awesome. You ever had something like that? It's wonderful. God just allowed you to, it was such a blessing. And just all over, Tasmania and Australia and New Zealand and Fiji and just everywhere I went, God just, it was the right time for me to be there. It was just beautiful. And I came back. I'll tell you, I didn't need an airplane. I was flying, you know. It was just so neat. I was so thrilled that God had used me in such a way. I just couldn't believe that God would use me like that. And I got back, and I drove on, we have a, our mission has a, a little different than this. We have a square mile of property with the mission I was with. And as soon as my car went through the gates of the mission, I went into a depression. I mean, you can't believe it. It was horrible. I thought I had been depressed before. I hadn't been. I think I mentioned it was like being on a, in Australia, you get on these trains, you know, and all of a sudden you go in the tunnel. And I was on the train, and I was heading for the tunnel, and I didn't want to go in that tunnel, but I didn't know how to get off. The thing was moving, and the doors were shut. And I was like, I'm a victim. And I went into that tunnel, and it got deeper and deeper and deeper. I had irrational fears. Man, I'd tell anybody they'd lock me up, but I didn't want to be locked up. I'm the most normal guy at that mission. But my phone would ring, and I'd go, I can't answer that phone. Now, if you'd ask me, why can't you answer the phone? I don't know why I can't answer the phone, but it's going to be awful. That's why. Now, was it ever awful? No, it was never awful. But I had irrational fears. It, every day, got worse than the day before. But the one thing I never thought about was maybe resisting the enemy. Isn't that smart? I mean, I never even thought about that for three months, that possibly this could be the enemy. It never even entered my mind. And I was like, I would go to bed at night, deeply depressed, and wake up the morning worse. Has that ever happened to you? I mean, I was worse. And I thought, what can I do? It was just getting worse. It was awful. I would sit and stare, and everybody would be afraid of me, and they'd leave. Some of the teachers said, oh, you came in the office and sat and stared, and we all, one by one, walked out. I didn't miss them. I was just staring at the wall. I was so depressed. But the one thing that just thrilled me was the breastplate of righteousness. I felt so unworthy. I felt so awful that I would weep every morning thinking that Christ was willing to give to me His righteousness, and that would guard my heart. And I was being attacked by the accuser. I was being attacked by all of this, but I knew I had the righteousness of Christ. You know, that's so beautiful, because when Satan came to Jesus in the Gospel of John, Jesus said this, there was nothing in me he could lay his fingers on. Isn't that wonderful? Is that true of you? Can Satan find some things to lay his finger on in your life? In you, he can. But if you put on the righteousness of Christ, guess what? There is nothing that he can lay his finger on when he points at you, right? Because I'm standing in Christ. And I can't tell you. You know, we're amazed at the amount of information the spirit world knows. I don't ask the spirit world for information, but this youth pastor we told you about that was just here two days ago that was so bad, the worst case of demonization we've ever had in our life. This young man was staying with a medical doctor in another state, and we were speaking in that major city as we're doing in all the major cities in America teaching pastors on the spirit world this year, and we stayed in this doctor's home. And this young man was there. And that is 1,500 miles away from where I live. And the young man said, you know, there's so many things going on in my life. I'm sure there's some kind of demonic thing happening. Would you pray with me? I said, sure, I'd be glad to. So a missionary from Austria, this heart surgeon, and myself met with this young man. And when we prayed, he faded off, and spirits were there, spoke out of him and all of this. And they said this. They said, Logan, you're in trouble. That's interesting. I said, why am I in trouble? They said, we know what church you go to. And they said the name of my church, 1,500 miles away. So I thought, well, why am I in trouble? It's a good church. They said, we know these men in the church. They named the men. One of them, I can't pronounce his name right, but the demon's dead because it's a foreign name. And he said, we know that these men are fighting with each other. And one of them supports you, and he has just gone almost bankrupt. And I said, that's a lie. He doesn't support me. They said, oh, we know. He gives money to the center. They knew who my supporters are. I couldn't believe it. Bill Gothard was in the home. He couldn't believe it either. He was not there, but he knows that Bill was there because Bill was sharing with the pastors. The pastors said, you better start believing in demons. They know all about you. You better start knowing about them. I called this man on the phone. He hadn't yet told his wife about his financial setback. The only person that knew was him and the spirit world and some financial people. But 1,500 miles away, they were talking out of a youth pastor that had never been to Sioux City about people there in a church in the trough. It's amazing. And you know, when you sit down, if you ever do this, you have a fear. I've read these books. Demons in Many Lands was a book we had to read at Moody Press. It's about 100 years old. And you sit down, and you're going to pray with somebody, and they go, aha, we know about you. And you go, oh, brother, everybody's here. I'm going to have my sins reeled off by this person, so forget it. I'm not going to get into this. But you know, when they do that, when we sit down, they're accusers. They'll do that, and they'll say, we know all about you, Logan. And I said, yeah, I know all about me too. And I said, I want you to know one thing. I'm not coming against you in my flesh. I'm coming against you in the righteousness of Christ, and you can find no fault in that. And we need to realize that. We meet the day in the righteousness of Christ, and the accuser of the brethren can find no fault with Christ's righteousness. Aren't you glad he's giving it to you? Aren't you glad I can face the day, not in my righteousness, because all my righteousness is what? Filthy rags. But I stand, not looking within, trying to find something good. You know, that was part of my depression. I really believe. I kept trying to find something good within me. I couldn't agree with God. There's got to be something good in me. And I'm really not all that bad. I'm really quite a nice guy. Don't ask my kids. I really am. You know, I kept thinking, I really am. It was a real battle. I just couldn't say, Lord, I am. I think that was the problem. I don't know what was the problem. Three months it was terrible. But I just kept grabbing the righteousness. Because you know, in those days, if you got a wound in the chest or in the head, it was almost always fatal. And I'll tell you, you start receiving wounds in your heart from the accuser of the brethren, it can almost be fatal. And you need God's protection. And you need to put on that protection every day. Thank God you're standing in Christ, that the enemy could find no fault in him or no fault with him. The third piece of the armor that you want to put on is with our shoes. The gospel of peace. Now, there are many applications for the gospel of peace. And you can make your applications. And you know, in battle, one of the worst things that could happen was to lose your footing. You can imagine in a sword fight, slipping. So we need to stand firm. Now, I'll just make an application that's interesting. Most of the people that come to us feel, and if they're really severely demonized, they feel that they've committed the unpardonable sin. I mean, it's just like one of the symptoms. We have all kinds of check sheets and everything that they check off their problems and the kind of problems they're having. So we can determine whether it's just a psychological problem, whether it's just a physical problem, or whether it is a combination problem where it's a demonic and a physical, demonic and a psychological. You know, what's going on here? And try to determine the full extent of the whole thing. But it's so amazing how they feel that somehow God has cast them off or they've committed the unpardonable sin or maybe they were never saved in the first place. And we're talking about missionaries and pastors, evangelical missionaries and pastors, men that have had good ministry. There's people that have come to us that if I said their names, you would know who they were. They were having tremendous battles and losing, and they knew it, and they were crying out for help because they didn't know how to get the victory or they just couldn't seem to get the victory in these things in their life. And you cannot always tell by looking. I'll share one I shared with before. And he doesn't care I share. The area director for Campus Crusades over I don't know how many states, 14 years. And this fellow had a breakdown, went to Minnith Meyrick Clinic and spent a lot of money, came out of there, was on drugs and didn't seem to help. He had another breakdown. Had shock treatments at St. Luke's and they scrambled his brains and he couldn't remember anything. His wife said it was like living with a zombie and she could never go through that again until finally his brain came back. And here he is, high in Campus Crusades, high leadership, and yet something is radically wrong and all the treatment of either the Christian counseling didn't work, the secular counseling didn't work, and yet he's still struggling. I mean, badly, and he's about headed for another downfall. A couple of the campus leaders of some of the universities for Crusades called me. I hadn't started working with Crusades and said, could we bring this man here? There's got to be something more wrong because nothing's working and obviously there's something wrong. And I said, sure, bring him in. I was at the mission and they came to the mission. One guy had been a football player at his university and now he's over at that university. This guy had been their boss. And now with these breakdowns he had to get out of the ministry. He just couldn't function. So they brought him in and we're sitting there and we just prayed. And so we started praying and this fellow started sobbing uncontrollably. Well, I knew the demons were crying through his body. So I mean, here these guys don't know me. Here's a guy sobbing and I just said, Joe, are you crying? And they're saying, if this counselor can't tell crying, we better leave. He's got some real problems. I didn't mean I don't hear crying. I'm saying, Joe, are you the one that's crying in that body? And he said, I don't think so. But he's sobbing and tears are running. His nose is running and he's sobbing and crying. I hadn't done anything. I'm just praying. I'm going, oh no, this is going to be one of those tough ones. And so then I just started praying some more and Joe fell on the floor and he started crawling like a snake on his stomach. Area director for Campus Crusade. Just writhing. This football player and this other guy at two campuses reached down to pull him up and they can't get him off the floor. Because you don't realize you don't deal with a demonized person with force. You deal with authority over the demons. So they couldn't get him up. Couldn't get him off the floor. He's just a little guy. After we got through praying, I thought, I'm not going to stop praying. This is just to try to get me to stop praying. I'm just going to keep praying. God's protection and all of that. We got through praying and as soon as I stopped, he got up off the floor and he sat down. He looked at me and he says, do you think I have spirit problems? I said, do you usually crawl like a snake at a prayer meeting? He said, you know, it's the most unusual thing. He said, I knew I was on the floor. I don't know how I got there. I just felt myself being forced down. It was like I was taken over and I don't know what happened. That man is wonderfully free today. Wonderfully free. But his demonic problems came out of psychological. Now we do have psychologists in our clinic. We have medical doctors that are available and all of that. We want to treat the whole person, right? Not everything is demonic. Not everything is psychological. Not everything is medical. Sometimes it's all three. Sometimes it's only two of them. And we need to try to discern. Because once you lose your footing, once a person begins to lose their footing, they're in trouble in the battle. And so the sandals of peace. And I think literally that the sandals of peace have to do with me knowing that the battle has already been won. You know, the most unbiblical thing I could say to you if we meet is say, Brother, do you have the peace? No, pardon me. Brother, do you have the victory? That's not biblical. Are you a Christian? You've got the victory, brother. What I need to ask is, are you standing in it? The victory has already been won. We don't have to go out and get the victory. We need to stand in the victory that is already ours. Isn't that right? Who's the victor? The Lord Jesus Christ. And if I am in Christ, I can stand in His victory. And if I stand in His victory, I'll have peace. In the midst of the battle, knowing that the battle has already been won. I'm just having... I mean, the war has been won. I'm just in a skirmish here. And if I keep that in mind, I can have peace in the midst of the most fierce battle. Because who do I meet? I meet my adversary. The one who is opposing me. Whenever you start out to do something for the Lord, you have an opposer who's going to oppose that. And I need to realize that I already have the victory. The gal that I love is Corrie Ten Boom. I think I'm even going to hug her. I usually don't hug ladies, but I think I'll hug that lady in heaven. What a blessing she's been. And you know her story. You know how she turned that Billy Graham film they did, and she was doing that needlepoint, and was all that tangled stuff, and she turned it over to Christ as victory. You know what's interesting? This is just a freebie. You know what's interesting about godly people that I've seen, is that godly people don't know they're godly. Do you ever notice that? If you ask Corrie Ten Boom who was godly, who was godly? Her sister. Right? That's her sister, wasn't her? Because she says, you don't know me. That's my sister. Isn't that neat? You know, as we get conformed into the image of Christ, the more we get conformed, and the more we look at Him, the more we realize that God's got an awful lot of work to do in us individually, doesn't He? And we just say, well, good Lord, just keep going, because we're changed in that image. Let me share one other thing with you, and that is in suffering. You know, it says that don't be surprised when you suffer. And all of us are going to suffer. Now, who likes to suffer? Now, you say, well, I've never suffered. Don't get discouraged, brother. You will. It's all part of the program. Because without the fires, there's no purifying. And I have to go through the fires. I hate going through the fires. I don't even like the word fire. There's something about it I don't like. I don't like going through the fires. You know what's interesting is you read in Peter, where it says don't be amazed that you're going through fiery trials. And don't shove it away, but rejoice. But remember when the three Hebrew young men were thrown into the fiery furnace, what was burnt? Just the ropes that bound them. They were set free in that. And you know, those on the outside, looking in, what did they see? They saw the Lord Jesus Christ manifested in their sufferings. But you know, I've looked and looked and looked, and I see nowhere that it said that the three young men saw the Lord Jesus Christ. But others, watching them suffer, saw Christ. Isn't that true? If we suffer and draw from God's grace in the battle, that people can see Christ in our countenance, that's where He's seen. He's the health of our face. That's where you see Jesus, is in the face of people. And as we're suffering, and if we draw from His grace, people will see Jesus. And that's what we want them to see anyway, isn't it? We want them to see Jesus Christ in our life. But as we go through the sufferings, it's amazing what the enemy can tell you as you're going through these things. And you need those first three pieces, because the first three pieces of armor that we looked at are positional truth. We have that, don't we? We have the victory if we're Christians. We have the righteousness of Christ, and we've been given truth. We have that. Now I need to stand in it. The next three pieces, I have to pick them up. And if I don't pick them up, and I don't use them, I will be defeated in my battle. And the enemy will pick an area where I'm very vulnerable. And we've talked about that. If I know my vulnerable areas, then that's the piece of the armor I may need to stress the most right now. This protection I need so much, because that's the way I'm getting attacked. The next piece of the armor that we have... Let me look here in my Bible. I turned the page. The next piece that we have is taking up the shield of faith. What is faith? What is that? Faith... This is what I think faith is. Simply believing what God has said. The problem is, it's not simple. That's all He wants me to do, to believe what He said. I like to give you an illustration of this. Jesus was at Tiberius, and I was fortunate. I was in Bible college. The president called me up on Christmas time, and he looked like he was going to fire me. And I thought, this is probably a big joke. And he said, someone has given an anonymous gift to the college to send you and your wife to Israel. And I said, is there enough to get back? He said, yes. I'll tell you, if you're ever traveling there, don't miss Israel. You don't want to miss Israel. It's such a blessing to walk through. The scriptures just come more alive. We were at Tiberius, and now we're down at the Sea of Galilee. And you can look across. And I thought, so much went on here, back and forth, from Capernaum over to Tiberius, and so on. And we have to go back. And I looked at these little Jewish fishermen, and I thought, I wonder which one looks like Peter, and which one looks like... Because you get the pictures of these heroes. American heroes are all... And all these little Jewish guys, you know. And like I expected, you know, these little fishermen. But Jesus got to the boat, and he said, fellows, let's get in. We're going to the other side. They got in the boat, and they started to cross, and there was a terrible storm. Remember that? Terrible storm. And Jesus was sound asleep in the boat. Just sound asleep. And these were sailors. Now, when I flew here to speak to you, you know, if the stewardess opened the door and leaped out, and then the radio man came through the parachute and jumped out, and then the co-pilot and the pilot, I think, maybe we're in trouble. They left the plane, you know. And so when you got sailors saying, we're in trouble, guess what? You're in trouble. You know, it's not how much water the boat's in. It's how much water's in the boat that's the problem. And they couldn't keep the water out of the boat. And you know what they said? And I know that you've said it, if you've got any age on you. They said, Lord, wake up. Don't you care? That's what they said. Look at Mark. Don't you care? You ever said that? Has Lord ever been to the Philippines? Or has he ever been out here where I am? Lord, don't you care? And he got up, and he stilled the storm, and he looked at the disciples, and he rebuked them. He not only rebuked the waves, he rebuked the disciples. In fact, some people feel, and there's some Greek theory that would indicate this, that he was rebuking demonic forces that were causing. Remember, we saw that in Job. The spirit world can use the elements, natural elements to attack us, in Job. And so, they felt he was not only rebuking that, he was rebuking the forces behind that. Then he rebuked the disciples. You know what he said? Oh, ye of little faith. That's not kind. Now, how could he say that? What did he tell them? He said, fellows, let's get in the boat and go where? Out into the middle and sink. That's not what he said. He said, fellows, let's get in the boat and go where? To the other side. And when Jesus says we're going to go to the other side, we're not going to sink in the middle, friend. And I don't care what your circumstances are. Get your eyes off what? Circumstances and back on the Lord Jesus. Raising support for new missionaries can be a sinking experience. You know, after a couple of years. And you get your eyes on churches and who could give, and they're not, and all this stuff. Get your eyes on the Lord. A real trick of the enemy in the battle. And what do I need to do? I need to raise up the shield of what? Faith. And faith is believing what God has said. And when those missiles come, raise up the shield. And what will that shield of faith do? Quench them. Because I believe not circumstances. And I don't believe the thoughts I may be having. And I don't believe what people are saying. I believe what God has told me. And when those darts come, I'm going to quench them. Father, we're thankful that we can trust you. That you're worthy of our trust. That your word is true. And when you tell us we're going to the other side, we're going to get to the other side. And Father, I ask right now. We didn't cover all the armor, Father. And you know that. We have to do the rest tonight. But Lord, if there's a piece that we talked about that's significant to someone here, may they lay a hold on it. And just really make it theirs. And just rejoice and praise you for this efficiency you've given us for today. And the protection that we have so that we can stand against this enemy of our souls. The enemy that would like to slow down the work of evangelism. Taking light into darkness. Turning people from the ways of darkness to light. Rasking them out of the hands of the enemy into the hands of Christ. So Father, we pray that the Spirit of God would just minister to us in such a way that when we read your word, that we'd have such confidence that we could not be shaken by the circumstances, the trials, and the sufferings of life. That we would hold on to the truth and keep holding on in spite of all that we see. That you will never leave us. You will never forsake us. And your love for us is so deep. Your concern for us, that you know even our hairs. A sparrow doesn't hop that you don't see. And you've promised that you would not allow us to go through any trial, any circumstance that you would not equip us to have victory in. And we thank you and we stand in that truth. Amen.