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You are listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Hello amen, and thank you for that introduction. Well, how's everybody doing? Do I look like or does my son look like me? Who said that? I'm going to put you in for a raise. That's awesome. God bless you all. What an honor to be able to be in my son's church and pulpit and preach for him. Uh he's tremendous, as you already know. And uh I just love him to death and thank God for him and uh of his biblical knowledge and all that he's been able to give the people here as far as truth is concerned. And I'm thankful for that. And like uh Brother Luke just mentioned, you know, we just did celebrate 50 years. I started the church there in Colorado Springs on July 4th, 1976. And that was a bicentennial year, and uh I pastored it for about 30 years and turned it over to my other son, Matthew, and he's now the pastor. But we were averaging over 1,500 in Sunday school and doing a great work for the Lord, and and now he's taken over and doing a great work for the Lord as well. And uh I got two sons that can really preach. I mean, man, they can now preach their dad, I'll tell you that for sure. Especially now. I'm 86 years old, and it's not easy. In fact, let me just tell you this, and don't get alarmed because I don't think it'll happen, but I don't know if my son ever mentioned to you or not. Well, I I was just preaching up in Montana, and while I was preaching, bang, I hit the floor. I've passed out probably the last ten places I've been, I've passed out at least two or three different times, and I don't know what happens. The doctor didn't know what's happened. Now I do have cancer that they just diagnosed me with. I have cancer of the lymphnoids, and then also I have cancer of the prostate. But I'm not sure if the lymph noids, because I got a tumor on the side of my neck, is shutting off some of the blood supply there or not. I don't know. Uh I mean I I hope not because I don't want to go crazy. I mean, you know what I mean. But but if I start to pass out, don't get alarmed, it'll uh I I I hit the last time when I was in Montana, I just told you about it. I was preaching and really letting it rip, you know. And uh at 86 years old, that's kind of hard to do, but I was doing it. And anyway, uh I got back to the pulpit after I'd wandered away a little ways, and I got back into the message, and bang, all of a sudden I didn't even realize it went down, you know. And the pastor thought that was part of my message. He thought I was illustrating something. Well, I was. I was illustrating, I was having a problem. But but he said I just kept on preaching right after that and went on as nothing else happened. And so praise the Lord. I'm I'm not expecting that to happen, but if it does, don't get alarmed. I'll come out of it. All right? But thank the Lord for the opportunity to be in here tonight. God bless you. I appreciate all that you're doing. Now we're gonna be going to the book of Ephesians here in just a moment, but let me just remind you of something, and that is this. I'm 86 years old, like I just said, and I I found this, and I think it's so neat, I gotta tell it to you. Uh there's a lot of things I just found here just recently. I have more time to study. Now, I go to church still at the same church that I pastored for all those years, started and pastored, but I'm I live in Canyon City. So I have to drive from Canyon City to Colorado Springs to all the services. And when I am home and not traveling out in revival meetings or conferences and all, I uh teach an adult Sunday school class. And so uh I'm still staying in the ministry as long as I can. I'm looking forward to what God's gonna do with me. But here, 86 years old. I don't know if you heard about this, but listen to this. There was an elderly woman in her 80s, and she just died last month. She had never ever been married, and she had requested that before she died, she made this request that absolutely no male pallbearers at her funeral. And then in her handwritten instructions for her funeral, she wrote these words. This is for her funeral service. She wrote, I don't want any male pallbearers. Why? Because they wouldn't take me out while I was alive, and I don't want them to take me out while I'm dead. I love that. All right. I said we're going to go to the book of Ephesians. And thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for your faithfulness of coming every Wednesday night. I've been following along in the messages that uh my son's been preaching about uh flight 66, you know, and uh I I think I've learned some things from him, which is great. I was just telling somebody here just a moment ago, when he was born, he was the first child, we had six children. He was the first child that we had where I uh uh uh when when he was being born. And so I I was the first one I went into. And so I was standing there, and my wife was, of course, giving birth to the baby, and which was him, and uh the doctor looked up at me and said, Are you all right? And I said, Uh I hadn't seen this before. He said, Uh, well, why don't you step out and get a fresh uh breath of air? And he said, uh, just step out of the room a little bit, and he said, I'll call you when when he's gonna be born. So I did, and pretty soon he did holler, and the nurse actually stepped out and said, Uh uh, Mr. Miller, you can come in now. The baby's gonna be born. And so the baby was born, and his little dean, as we called him, and uh as soon as he was, I'm standing there, and of all things, he's still attached to the umbilical cord. He's still a mess, he's still a mess, by the way, today. But but anyway, he he was a mess, just can't just being born, and so the doctor just in that mess handed him to me. And I'm looking at that and didn't know how to even wipe my hands, you know. I mean, and I thought, what am I gonna do with him? So here was the idea. I took him and placed him on his mother's stomach from which he just came, and I knelt down beside the bed where he was, and she held on him with her hand, and I held on her hand with the other hand, and I prayed, and my prayer was, Lord, this would probably be our last baby, and he's a son, and I would pray, Lord, that you would use him as a preacher. Would you call him to be a pastor? And look what God did in answering that prayer. He's your pastor because I prayed for him. Yeah, amen. All right, well, bless your heart. Well, let me give you a couple of statements too. Hey, listen here. Listen, in my whole ministry, I've been I've been uh in the ministry for 62 years. And in my whole ministry, I've had a bunch of different preachers, Dr. Jack Hiles, Dr. Lester Roloff, Dr. Bob Jones, all of the big timers. I got to be able to preach with them and for them and so forth, but they've always had some real good punching uh statements. For example, one of them said, aim high, but stay on the level. I like that. Now listen to this one Christ has gone to prepare a place for us. So we must prepare ourselves for that place. Isn't that good? And then here's another one somebody had said, What you are is God's gift to you. But what you make yourself is your gift to God. Hey, now let me let me just repeat that, okay? Now you stop and think about that. What you are is God's gift to you. But what you make of yourself is your gift to God. So if you make yourself a real follower, true believer that's going to honor the Lord, then that's your gift to God. Here's another one. Let me just give you a couple more. Following the oh, I love this one. Following the path of least resistance is the reason rivers and men become crooked. True, huh? And by the way, the real secret of happiness is not getting more, but in wanting less. Not getting more, but wanting less. Wise men think without talking. Fools talk without thinking. Amen. That's why I handwrite all of my notes. You know, because I want to make sure that I know what I'm saying. And so anyway, we're going to go to the book of Ephesians, and I want to remind you of some things. I've I've done a long study through the years, and I don't know what happened. I was preaching up in uh in North Carolina. This has probably been about six months, uh, eight months maybe ago. And I uh did a whole study on numerology, numbers. And I don't know, I called the pastor and I said, Did I leave my uh all of my notes about numbers there? He said, I haven't found them. I personally I think there might have been a thief in his church and took them, but uh but I'm kidding, by the way, but I I did lose them. And so anyway, I've been rewriting mine. Let me give you just a few of what I've been coming up here with and see if it interests you. It did me. And so, and this is just a few of them. But you can learn a lot by reading your Bible and looking at the numbers and counting numbers. I mean, they reveal so much truth. For example, the number one in your Bible, the number one, the number one is unity. How do I know that? Because in John 10, 30, Jesus said, I and my Father are one. That's unity. Then Ephesians 4.3 says, keep the unity of the Spirit, and when he said keep the unity of the Spirit, he said, There's one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all. Look at all the ones that bring unity. Then number two is the number of witnesses, and you're you'll find it in your Bible. Matthew 26, 60, for example, when Jesus is about to be crucified. They had to have two witnesses to be able to condemn him to be crucified. They couldn't find two witnesses to bring any charge against him. And if you read Matthew chapter 26, you're going to find they found two false witnesses. And those two witnesses that were even false were enough to get him to be crucified. So the two is the number of the witness, you see that all the way through the scripture. Number three is the number of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Or number three is the number of the resurrection. He was in the grave three days and three nights. So number three has to do with those two things. Number four is the number of the world. We have four seasons, we have four minerals, we have four corners, we have four winds, and it's all the number of the world. I like this one. Number five is the number of grace. The fifth mention of Noah's name, if you look at it sometime in Genesis 6, 8, the fifth time Noah's name is mentioned, it says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And that's the first time you'll read that. So five is a number of grace, and I could give you a lot of other scriptures here. Hey, here I'll show you, get this one. Number six is the number man because man was created on the you want to see something? Go to the sixth book of your New Testament. Go ahead. Turn to it. You know what that is? That's a book of Romans. But I'm going to show you something. Go to the sixth book of the New Testament. And then, if you will, find the book of Romans. That's the sixth book of the New Testament. Then, watch this. Go to the sixth chapter. We're talking about the number six. That is the number of a man. So go to the sixth chapter. The sixth book, the sixth chapter. Drop down to the sixth verse. The sixth verse. Now, if you will, count in that verse the sixth word. What is the sixth word? Oh. Six is the number of man. Here's something else a lot of people don't know. Did you know the number seven is God's number? And all the way through the Bible. Do you know what the number seven means in the Bible? It means perfect. It means complete. It means total. And it means holy. Now you got your Bibles open. Look at the first verse of the book of Matthew. The first book of Matthew, or I should say the first book of the New Testament, which is Matthew. And look at the first verse. And we're talking about the number seven. So I wanted to have you to do this, if you will. And that first and Jesus called himself the Alpha and the what?

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Omega.

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Omega. Alpha is the beginning, Omega is the end. Now count the seventh word in that first verse of the beginning of the New Testament. Count it and tell me what the seventh word is. What is it? Well, I'll declare. There's the Alpha. He's the beginning of the New Testament. Now go all the way back to the book of Revelation and find the last verse. The very last verse. And watch this carefully because if he's the Omega, we've got to go to the Omega, which is the end. And the last word in your Bible is the word amen. Okay? Now, from the word amen, going backwards for the Omega, tell me what the seventh word is going back from Omega or from Amen. What is it? Well, I'll declare. He's the Alpha, the beginning, and the Omega. And he's the number seventh, which means he's the perfect one. That's what the number seven means. He's the complete one. That's what the number seven means. He's the holy and he's the prophetic one. And I could go on and on. But let me just tell you this. I won't have you look any more up. But if it's John chapter 3, where Jesus told Nicodemus, you must be born again, the number eight in your Bible is the number for new beginnings. And you'll find that all the way through your Bible. And you'll find that when Jesus is witnessing to Nicodemus, you'll find that Jesus mentioned the birth to be born again eight times. Because to be born again is a new beginning. But here's the one I want to come to, and then I'll quit boring you with this. Number nine. Number nine is the number of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. How do I know that? Because the number nine is related to the Holy Ghost, because in your Bible, you're going to find in the book of 1 Corinthians, there are nine gifts of the Holy Ghost. Nine gifts. Then if you go to Galatians chapter 5, there are nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. Then if you go over to 1 Peter, you'll find that he's the inspirer of the Word of God. Now watch this. Since the Holy Ghost is the one who inspired the word, and he's associated with the number nine, and he inspired the Bible, how many letters are there in the name Holy Ghost? Nine. How many letters are there in? I get this. How many letters are there in the word scripture? Nine. How many letters are there in the word or in the phrase word of God? Nine. How many letters are there in the word testament? Nine. How many letters are there in the words Holy Bible? Nine. How many letters are there in the word King James? Nine. And the King James is written in the year 1611. 1 plus 6 plus 1 plus 1 equals 9. 9 is a number of the Holy Ghost. 10's a number of the law. 11's a number of disorder. 12 is a number of perfect government. I wish I had time to get into that, but I won't do it. Number 13 is the number of rebellion, and it speaks about the Antichrist, the number 13. In fact, the number of the Antichrist is 666. And you'll find the number 666 throughout your scripture. And every time you find the number 666 in your Bible, it's either in a chapter 13 or a verse 13. Because 13 is the number of rebellion. I think I'll shout like a Baptist. I mean, I mean, that's pretty good, that's pretty good to think about how good God is to us. But we need to get into the we I need to get into the I'll never have time if I don't get into the message here. By the way, my son Dean, your pastor, got me on a channel on YouTube. And then my other son helped him get me all together. So if you would just subscribe to that, even if you don't listen to it. But I've got about 400 and some messages now, and it's under Dean Miller Evangelist. And you get on the YouTube and you have all kinds of different messages that I have preached and preaching all across the country. And I would love to have you do that. It helped me out. I don't make any money on it, but it just helped me out to have some uh subscriptions. All right. I'm gonna get into the Bible here in the book of Ephesians as soon as I turn to it. I ask you to do it, and I haven't done it yet. But let me give you this the the book of Ephesians, and I'm gonna give you a truth here out of the book of Ephesians that maybe you hadn't thought of before, but after you do, you're gonna love it, and you're gonna want to study it even more. And I know on flight 66, my son's gonna be coming to it, and uh you'll learn more about it, of course, even then. But here's what you're gonna find out it's the first epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote when he was in the Mamertine prison in Rome. This is the first epistle, and he wrote it to the mainly to the Christians and to the church in general. And let me uh just briefly explain to you why the book of Ephesians actually became one of my favorite books of the Bible. And the reason why I'm even bringing it to you tonight, because I love the book of Ephesians, and I love to preach out of the book of Ephesians, because I learned more than any other book in the Bible. In fact, don't ask me to do it now. I'm 86 years old and I don't have the same memory I used to, but I used to be able to quote word for word all six chapters of the book of Ephesians. I memorized the whole thing. And let me tell you why. I'm going to briefly explain why the book of Ephesians became my favorite book and the reason why it became my book to study. I was a brand new Christian. I was uh I was only 26 years old when I got saved. And after I got saved in Montana and I started going to church, I was then, after a few weeks, called to become a preacher. After I became uh or was called to be uh become a preacher, uh my pastor had invited a man from Denver who was the president of the Denver Baptist Bible College. And so when he found out I had just been called to preach, he talked me in. I was a at that time I was working at the Chevrolet Garage as a partsman, and he uh he talked me into maybe uh resigning from that job and moving to Denver and going to his Bible college. I did. When I went to the Bible college, then I had to find a church, and the church that I uh we looked for a church, and we'd never been in a city like that. Being raised in Montana, there's just no cities as big as what Denver, Colorado is. In fact, it was only eighty some thousand uh at that time. But anyway, Billings. And so anyway, here's what happened. I came to Denver and found a place to live, which was a miracle at that particular time for me. Tried to find a church. Now, some of you older people that may have been in this church for a long time will know this, but the church that I finally found to attend was pastored by a man, Dr. Ed Nelson. Ed Nelson was the one who actually helped get this church, Front Range Baptist Church, started. He was the one from Denver, pastoring to South Sheridan Baptist Church that I attended to get this church started because he had a brother here that was interested in getting the church going. And so anyway, you're a result of the same kind of a pastor I am, Dr. Ed Nielsen. But anyway, I went to his, uh started going to his church as I was going to Bible college, and he said to me one day, he said, Brother Miller, he said, here's what I'd like to have you to do. He said, I've noticed and been really concerned that God is going to really use you one day. And so I would like to be able to just ask you a big favor. He said, There's two families up in a town here in Colorado called Walden, Colorado. And he said, they want to start a church. He said, I realize you haven't gone through Bible college yet, and you're only in your first semester, and so you're not even really grounded in the Word. But he said, if you'll agree to go to Walden every weekend and get a church started, he said, I'll supply with you or for you, I'll supply the materials that you need to start out with by teaching these materials. Well, guess what book he was given to me the materials on? It was the book of Ephesians. And so I began to study his lessons to be able to teach to those two families, and that church began to grow. We were actually meeting in those families' ranch house in Walden, and it began to grow. We outgrew his ranch house and had to look for another place, and we found a place called the VFW, and uh went there, rented that, and that's where we started our first church services with NDVFW. So I said all that just to let you know. I was I was interested in the book of Ephesians because that's the only book as a new Christian I really began to study. I mean, it wasn't a Bible college study. I mean, it was a study that was going to help others, but it was helping me probably more than it was helping others. So here's what I discovered. The thing about it is, my wife and I were given to us a trip to go over to the Bible lands, and one of the areas we got to go to was over into Rome, and we got to actually go into the Mamertine prison. And we got to see the condition that the apostle Paul was in when he wrote that book of Ephesians. I'm telling you what, it just absolutely moved my heart to see what Paul gave to us. Let me explain to you something. When you read the book of Ephesians and study it, here's and you'll do that through my son Dean. But when you do that, you're gonna find in the book of Ephesians the doctrines that we as fundamental independent Baptist believers believe. You're gonna find almost every doctrine that we hold to in the book of Ephesians. You'll find the doctrine of salvation, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. You'll find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. You find the doctrine of the church, Ephesians chapter 5. You find the doctrine of prayer, Ephesians chapter 3 and verse number 20. You find the doctrine of the home and the family in Ephesians chapter 5 and 6. You find the doctrine of grace in Ephesians 2, 8 and chapter 6, verse 24. You'll find the doctrine of the ministry, in other words, God calls different ones, pastors, evangelists, and so forth. You'll find that in Ephesians chapter 4. You find the doctrine of the devil in chapter 4, verse number 27, and in Ephesians chapter 6. You find the doctrine of soul winning in Ephesians chapter 6, and all the doctrines, all right there in the book of Ephesians. And God began to work on my heart as I was trying to study it to be able to get the truth from it so I could relate to the other people who he had asked me to teach to get a church started. So nearly every doctrine we believe and are instructed to practice are in the book of Ephesians. That's why you need to learn it. You need to know it, you need to study it. It'll bless your heart and feed you the truth of God's word. Now, the author was Apostle Paul, and like I said, he was in prison, and he instructed us, the Christians and the church, while he was under some horrible conditions in that prison. When they took us to that prison to see it, I could not believe it, but I began to love that Bible book, Ephesians, even more, since that was the first epistle he had written while he was in prison. And here's what we discovered. The guide took us, my wife and I visited that prison in Rome, and like I said, it was called the Mamertine prison, and the guide gave us a tour. Now let me just briefly give to you what that tour did to my heart and ought to do to all of us. And that tour that he gave to us of that prison, it absolutely was unbelievable that Paul would have written what he did from those conditions. Here's what they were. First of all, when you when you drive up to the Mamertine prison, you're driving on pavement, and we got out of our car, we met the guide, the guide took us, and then we we went we went from the pavement, and then we went into dirt, off the pavement into dirt, and then there's a great big circle, like a like a tunnel. And he said, and in fact it had a sign, Mamertine Prison. And so he said, now we're gonna take you in here, and I want you to see this. And we were walking now on dirt, and then he said, I hope it does you don't mind, but you're gonna get your shoes dirty and maybe even a little muddy, and of course, my wife, you know, having on more dress shoes than I did. And so we we began to go into that tunnel where the prison was, and as we got, by the way, and he had uh a big light on his uh helmet up here that he could shine because there's no electricity in there, and so it was in the dark, and so we're walking into the dark down, and as we walked a little further into that kind of a tunnel area, then we got into some wet because the moisture would run off of the rocks off the side of that uh that prison and and the water would uh come onto the dirt and make mud. And so we walked further and further, and we all uh followed him as he had the light. Now, what I could not understand is this. When we got down back there about, oh, I'm gonna say maybe a hundred yards, 7,500 yards, it actually was cold. We're back there, it's wet, it's damp, it's cold, and it's totally dark. He shut his light off just to show us how dark it was. It was pitch black back there. And then he showed us some parchments that uh in those days that you could write on, which the Apostle Paul would have written on for our uh our Bible, and then he showed us some candles of the old-style candles, and he said the only light that the prisoner would have is this candle. That'd be the only light that they would have back here in this prison. And so then, like I said, the water running off the walls as we got further back and it got more muddy, and we came to the cell that he was in. And so there was a display of the of everything that the apostle Paul would have been living in. And here's where my heart went out. I had to visualize in my mind that the Apostle Paul wrote such great and glorious and wonderful and powerful words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the condition that he was back there in that cell where it was totally dark and the only light he had was a candle. He would have been cold because it got cold back there. He would have been in the mud, and there he and there he would have had a bottle of ink, a feather for his quill to write, and then the parchment to write. And you got a book of Ephesians where it's printed with type, clean paper, it's gorgeous, and it's got all the truths in it that you and I need to live by. And the Apostle Paul, under those conditions, gave to us some of the greatest truths, and I began to love the word of God even more when I saw how and what conditions Paul was in when he wrote this particular book. The first book that he had. And by the way, then the guy uh the guide told us, and he shined his light, and he said, Look over here. And we looked over there, and there was an old kind of a wooden bench, and on it was a bunch of uh armor from a soldier who would have been the one assigned to guard the apostle Paul. So while he was under that condition, he had a guard, a Roman soldier guard, to watch him watch over him. Now, here's why the reason why I'm telling you that that's exactly what God used, that soldier who was dressed in his armor to guide or to guard that prisoner, the Apostle Paul. And when you read on Romans chapter 6, to put on the whole armor of God, that was the Apostle Paul being led by the Holy Spirit to look at each piece of armor that the that the guard had that the Christian needs when we have our enemy that we're gonna have to fight. And he looked at, and the and and the and the Lord inspired the Apostle Paul to write down each piece, and I might be able to get to that here in just a few moments, but uh the the truth of the matter is every piece that these that the uh guard had to watch the apostle Paul is the same piece that God told us to get to stand against our enemy. That's why he said, put on the whole, don't leave any piece off, whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And so if we don't put on the whole armor of God, we don't have the guard's armor to keep us from being attacked by the devil. Have you ever wondered why you have such a terrible time of living a good, godly Christian life in this day and age? It's because some of you had don't, every morning in my life, and I don't, I'm not an example of anything, I'm not claiming to be an example, and I'm not trying to show you that I'm a good guy at all. I'm just simply saying every day of my life, before I ever rise out of that bed, I lay there and I pray, and then when I pray, I start putting on the whole piece of armor. I ask God right there. The first piece is gird thyself about with truth. Truth. We can't live without truth, and gird thyself about simply means encircle, about means encircle, encircle your whole life with truth. It's exactly what he's talking about, and I'll give you the rest of that in just a moment. But I'm trying to say, I stood in that prison and I literally, honest to goodness, wept, thinking that the apostle Paul, God bless him, that suffered enough in that prison under those conditions to give us the truths that we could use for us today. So let me preach to you a little bit. Here's what else I learned, and I want you to get this. Don't miss this. I learned in my teaching and preaching, and not necessarily all from the notes that the Dr. Ed Nelson gave me, but in my own study, that the Apostle Paul was a good preacher, and he did what most of us preachers do. He made an outline of the passages that he wanted to preach. And in this one, what he did. In chapters one through three, he teaches the Christian how to sit. What are you doing right now? What position are you in right now? Sitting. What position does that do for you? It gives you rest. You're resting. You're not walking, you're not standing, you're resting. So chapters one through three, and I'll prove it to you in just the Bible, teaches the Apostle Paul said, you need to learn to sit, learn to rest. Which simply means rest in the fact that you are really, truly, genuinely saved and on your way to heaven. Don't be doubting, don't be confused, don't be fearful. Rest. So he teaches us all of that in the first three chapters how to sit and rest in our salvation. Then in chapters four and five, just like a little baby, a little baby, we give birth to our children, and a little baby, the first thing that learns to do is sit. They set him up, and we have to put a pillow maybe behind him because he might fall over time, but he learns to sit. Then what does he do? He learns eventually to walk. And I'll show you in just a moment, chapters four and five, the Apostle Paul teaches the Christian, after you have learned to sit and rest in the fact that you truly, genuinely are saved, now learn to walk like a Christian. Now learn to walk. And then in chapter number six, where he says, put on the whole armor of God, he teaches the Christian how to stand. To stand on our walk, we have an enemy who's going to try to get us off the walk and get us into the old world and get us into sin. And so the enemy's going to attack us, and so we need to learn to stand with the armor to be able to beat the devil out of the devil. We need to beat him. And so he teaches us how to stand as a Christian. So the Apostle Paul, in the six chapters, the first three teach you how to sit. Chapters four and five teach you how to walk, and chapter six teaches you how to stand. Now watch this. I want you to go to your Bible. I want to show it to you. Chapters one and three, let me show you this. I don't have time, of course, to go all the way through it, but I just want to show you a couple of things. Look at chapter number one of the book of Ephesians. And by the way, just to sidetrack myself a little bit, but in chapter 1, verse 1, you'll see that in Christ. Seems like maybe I need to hold that up or something. But notice the word in. The faithful are in Christ. Look over chapter 3, in heavenly places. Look at verse number 4. In him. In him. And then you go all the way through the Bible and you'll find it again like in verse 10. In Christ. In verse 11, in whom? And then you go all the way through in verse 12. In Christ. And you find that that phrase so often. And here's the blessing that you need to sit and rest in. Look at verse number 20. Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And what's the next word? Set. Set. God set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Now hold it. You want to rejoice? Just rejoice about this. Jesus came to earth, died for the sins of the world, paid the price for our sin, and we accept him. And when we accept him, how many times did I just read to you and it's all the way through your Bible? When you accept him, you are in him. You're in Christ. Alright? Where's Christ right now? He's in heaven. In what position? Sitting. Why? Because he finished his work. He's resting from what he had done. The creative act that he did and the saving that he did and all the things that he did while he was here. He's sitting, he's resting, he's in a position to sit, and guess who's in him? I don't know about your salvation, but I know about mine. I am in Christ, which means I am as good as being in heaven right now because I'm in Christ, and where is he at? In heaven. I'm going to be in heaven one of these days when I die, but I'm already there in form in Christ because He died for me and I'm in him. What a wonderful truth. I'm as good as being in heaven because I'm already there. I'm in Christ. Now here's something else. Watch this. Go to chapter 2. And you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world. I sure did, I'm sure all of us have. According to the prince of the power of the air, that's the devil. We walked according to his power, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, verse 3, among whom also we all had our conversation, which means lifestyle, in time past, in the lusts of our flesh, yes, fulfilling the desires of the flesh, yes, and of the mind, oh, and were by nature, notice, the children of wrath, even as others, just like unsaved people are right now. But I love those two words in verse 4, but God. I was in that condition, but God, who's rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. Now watch this, and hath raised us up together and made us what? Made us what? Oh. He made us sit. What's a position of sitting? It's a position of rest. And he's already saved us, and we are in Christ, and we need to learn to sit in a position of rest in the fact that we are as good as being in heaven right now because we are in Christ, rest in the fact. You know what happens to most Christians? I've been practised like that for about 62 years. A lot of Christians go through life as a Christian doubting, wondering, have no assurance. Let me show you something else. Take your Bible, go to 1 John for a moment. Watch this. Go over 1 John. I love this. I love this. I wrote a whole bunch of Sunday school lessons on this particular book as well. But look, watch this one. 1 John. And you're gonna love this. This is gonna speak to your heart because it really did mine, and I know it will yours as well. But look at 1 John and look at chapter number 2. We're talking about Jesus. And notice here's here's how you can rest. The Bible says, and by the way, if you want to do, if you really want to challenge sometime, read just those chapters of the Bible. There are only what the five uh five chapters. Read those five chapters, take out a pencil or a pen and underline each time you read and come to the word K N O W. The word no. And then after you've met underlined every one of the words no or knoweth, count 'em. And you'll find that you'll underline the word no in the book of first John, only five small chapters. You will underline that. I mean, it just absolutely blows my mind, but you'll have underlined that forty-five or forty-six times. Think about that. Forty-six times. Now, here's something else you need to learn. If you read that Bible uh chapter, first or the chapters of first John, and take out a pen and underline the word love, you'll come up with the same amount of number. Forty-six times you'll underline the word love. What's God trying to get you to know? K and O W. He's trying to get you to know that he loves you. So 46 times he uses the word love, and 46 times he uses the word no. Now, do you know that God loves you? And do you know that you are in Christ? Are you sitting and resting in the fact that you're going to heaven? Because here's what God said. Here's how you can know it. Watch this the word no. Talking about that in verse number three of chapter two. Watch. And hereby we do what, class? Know that. We what? Know him. How do if we keep his commandments? So what happens if we don't keep his commandments? You can still be saved and not keep his commandments, but they're going to be if you don't keep his commandments, then you're not going to always know. Now watch this. Verse number four. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Oh my goodness. Now here's the truth I want you to get. You don't have to keep his commandments to be saved. That doesn't say that. It says hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. You can have the assurance of your salvation when you keep his commandments. We have a number of commandments that he's given to us as a church, as a Christian. For example, we have the commandment of going soul-winning, being a witness. I can still go to heaven and never witness to anybody. But I'm not going to have the assurance and know all the time the devil's going to attack me on being disobedient and get me to doubt whether I'm saved if I am not a witness. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. I can know I'm saved if I keep the commandments. What's another commandment? Another commandment is forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. That's a command. In other words, attend church regularly. Now I can go to heaven by being saved because I'm in Christ and I've trusted Christ as my Savior. But if I don't go to church, the devil can use that against me to get me to doubt whether I'm really saved because I forsook going to the church that Jesus built. So you're not keeping the commandments to be saved. You're keeping the commandments to know that you're saved. So you can sit, like the Apostle Paul said in the book of Ephesians, you can rest and be assured that you know you're going to heaven. There's a lot of different commandments I could give you: tithing, prayer, searching the scriptures, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and so many others. And so you need to learn to rest in the fact that you're saved. And that's why the Apostle Paul said, sit. Sit in your own heart, rest in your own heart that you are truly born again, and keep his commandments so you'll have that knowledge of assurance all the time. You know, the greatest thing to my salvation is not only that I'm saved, but I know I'm saved. Because when there's a commandment to be fulfilled, I'm going to fulfill it so that the devil can't attack me and get me to doubt it. I want to know it. Now, here's the second thing. Go back to the book of Ephesians. Chapters 1 through 3 tell us how to sit. Watch this. The Apostle Paul did this for us, and watch chapters 4 and 5. They teach us how to walk. Watch it. Show you something. Look at chapter 4 and look at verse number 1. Chapter 4 and verse number 1. I love this. The Bible simply says in verse number 1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, beg you that you walk. We've learned to sit now. Now we're going to learn to walk. How is the first time when he tells us to walk? Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. What does it mean to walk worthy? It means to walk with respect to God and walk with honoring God. Walk worthy that you're God's child. You're not the child of the devil. You're God's child. Walk worthy of who you're a child of. You're a child of God. Walk worthy of that. And then it goes on to say, as we go through the scripture, verse number 17. This I say therefore, in testifying the Lord, that you henceforth walk not, as the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. In other words, don't live and walk like the old world, like the world. The unsaved, don't live like the unsaved live. Walk not, it says. Now, let me give you this. Go to chapter 5, look at verse 1. Chapter 5, verse number 1 says, Be ye therefore followers of God as their children. Now watch verse 2. And walk in life. So he's teaching it. What did he teach us in chapters 1 through 3? And you're not going to be able to walk like he's telling you to walk until you've got the assurance on how to how to know that you're going to heaven. You can't walk right until you know that you've been saved and you have the assurance of your salvation. And so walk worthy of who saved you. And then he says, watch this, and walk in love. How are we supposed to walk in love? Look at the next two words. As Christ. How much did Christ love us? Did he sacrifice himself for you? Did he suffer for you? Did he die for you? Did he go through the torture and horror and torments of being beaten and crucified and bleed? He suffered beyond measure. And we're supposed to love our wives, we're supposed to love our husbands, we're supposed to love our children, we're supposed to love other Christians, and we're supposed to love God Himself as Christ loved us. Now try putting that on for a while. Wear those boots and see how they fit. Most Christians are not doing that. But God says through the Apostle Paul, as he writes this, learn to walk. And the first thing he's trying, or the other thing he's saying here, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us and so forth. Now look down at verse number eight. For ye were sometimes darkness. I know I was. But now are ye light in the Lord. Now watch this. Walk as children of the light. Not children of darkness like ye once were. You have the light of Christ. Christ is the light of the world. You have him in you. Walk as the light. And the only way this whole dark world's ever going to see Christ is when they see the light that's in the Christian as they walk as Christ. Walking in the light, not in the darkness. Hey, that's in your Bible. Do you understand that? That's not made up. That's not something you just come up with. It's in your Bible. Look at chapter 5 again and look over at verse number 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Now let's drop up to verse 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly. Walk what? Circumspectly. Walk circumspectly? Not as fools, but as wise. What does it mean to walk circumspectly? Well, I looked it up in the Greek. So let me tell you what that means. That means to walk very carefully. Can you just visualize with me for a moment? Do you have a good imagination? I'm going to close here in just a minute, so don't get impatient with me. But listen to me. Do you have a good imagination? Okay. Let me say I'm over here, somewhere in this old world, and that piano over there is heaven. And there's all kinds of eggs, raw eggs in the shell all over the floor here. And I'm on my journey to heaven, and each one of those eggs represents a person. You got it? Imagine now. Each one of those, I'm on my journey. I'm going to be walking my walk, my journey toward heaven, and all of these eggs that I'm going to be walking by and through represent a person. So I'm going to have to walk, the Bible says, circumspectly on my journey to heaven. I am not supposed to break, crack, hurt, destroy, or ruin any one of those eggs that represent a person. So I'm going to have to walk carefully. And as I walk all the way toward heaven, I walk carefully not to destroy somebody else. I walk carefully not to hurt somebody else. I walk carefully not to break somebody else. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul is telling the Christian. Walk circumspectly. Walk carefully. On your journey to heaven as you're making your walk in this life, don't destroy another person by the way you walk. Walk truly. Walk in the light. Walk in love. Walk the way God told you to walk. Walk as a Christian ought to walk. That's what the Bible's teaching us. So he first of all tells us how to sit. Then he teaches us how to walk. And in the last chapter, verse number six, he teaches us how to stand. I love this. Watch this. Verse number 10. Finally, my brethren, in other words, he said, I'm going to conclude this book. Be strong in the Lord. How are you going to be strong? Sit. How are you going to be strong? Walk. 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. Does anybody happen to know what the word wiles really means right there? The word wiles means methods. Did you know that the devil has had six thousand years of coming up with different methods to destroy man?

unknown 55:23

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

It might be the method of drugs, it might be the method of adultery, it might be the method of rebellion, it might be the method. He's got all kinds of different methods. And the Bible teaches us right now that you need to be able to stand against the, as I'm making my walk, my journey to heaven, there are the wiles of the devil that's going to try to get me to be destroyed, so I cannot enjoy my journey to heaven. So he's going to, he's got methods. And now watch this. For we wrestle, verse 12, which means war. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, in other words, another person, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses in high places. So here we find out who our enemy is and how he acts. But here's what I want to give to you real quick. Watch this. There's the Apostle Paul sitting in the cell in the mud with a candlelight, and he's got his quill and his ink and his paper, and he's writing the words down, and he looks out the cell, and he sees that Roman soldier dressed up in all of his armor to guard him. And now the apostle Paul says, by the Holy Spirit, that told him, that's what the Christian needs as they're making their walk, and the devil is attacking them in their walk and trying to destroy them. They need that armor, just like that guard needs that armor. I love this. Watch it, and I'll be done. Watch this. Verse 13. Wherefore, what's the word? Next word. Oh. You don't have to buy it? Well, I declare, you don't you mean to tell me that you don't have to borrow it? You don't have to make it? You mean God made that armor available and all you have to do is take it? In fact, if you'll notice carefully, I want to show you something else. Look at verse number 16. Above all, what's the next word? Taking. There's the word take again. Let's look at it again. Verse number 17. And there's how many in the Trinity? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And there's three takes right there. And each one of them have the availability to give to you what you need to make your walk? If you put the and the armor is available for every single one of us. And all you have to do is in the morning, when you start your day, is take it. Don't make it, don't borrow it, don't dream it. Just take it and put it on. And what are you going to put on? Let me show you. Watch it. Verse number 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, don't leave a piece off, that you may be able to withstand. We're talking about up there in verse number 11, where it says, be able to stand. Now we're talking about those who will be able to withstand in the evil day which we're living in right now, and having all done to stand. So there we have the word stand, withstand, stand, and stand. And verse number 14, stand, therefore, having your loins gird about with truth. Now I'll be very quickly with this, but I want you to get it. The first thing he saw, that Roman soldier that had all that armor. He had a belt-like thing that came all the way, gird yourself about. That belt went all the way around that Roman soldier. And the apostle Paul said, That's what a Christian needs. He needs to have his whole life all about him of truth. Well, wait a minute now. Who does the Bible say truth is? Jesus said, I am the way and the what. So our life ought to be girded and circled about with Jesus. Every day. Our life ought to be encircled with Jesus. Well, wait a minute, now what else? The Bible's very clear. Look at it. He goes on to say, and I love I love the whole armor of God idea. And then he says, Have yourself gird about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Now when that guard that took us in there to see this, the guide I should say, took us in there to see that, he pointed out each one of these pieces and how they were worn. And that breastplate it's talking about right now, the the the belt that girded about the about the soldier, there was a slot in that belt, and he showed it to me. And the breastplate had another slot, had a little stem on it that fit through that slot, and the breastplate covered the whole chest area. Well, what's in the chest that's so important? The heart. And look what it says there. And it says, and having on the breastplate of what? Righteousness. Don't have me turn to it because I don't want to take the time to do it. But I can prove to you that the Bible says Jesus is our righteousness. So it's put on truth, that's Jesus. It's putting on righteousness to cover our heart, indwell our heart, protect our heart, and all through the Bible, out of the heart comes the issues of life. And we'll live for Jesus if we put the breastplate where the devil can't get to our hearts. Because we have the breastplate of righteousness. Now watch, go on. I want to go a little further and a little faster. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of what? You want to see who the peace is? Turn back in Ephesians right there. Let me show you something. Go back to Ephesians and look at chapter 2 and verse number 14. For he is our what? Peace. Who is our peace? Jesus is our peace. So so far, who's the whole armor of God made up to be? He's the truth that our life encircles. He's the breastplate of righteousness, which our heart is protected. And in our walk, he's the peace, the gospel of peace, as we walk through this life. We have the peace of the one that's guiding our direction through life. So he's our peace. Now here we go. I want you to get it. I'm almost through to give you the opportunity to get it out. But look at verse 16. What's the first two words of verse 16? Above all? You mean above truth? You mean above righteousness? You mean Lord above peace? Yeah, above all. What gets you saved? For by grace are you saved through. So what's the most important piece of the armor? And that's why he said, above all, I love it, taking the shield of faith, wherewith he shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The wicked is the devil. The fiery darts is like arrows that are on fire. And the devil has, where does he get his fire from? Where is he going? Where does he come from? He's coming from hell, and so he's got hell fire on the end of all of his darts, and he throw those darts at your heart to pierce your heart, to have a little bit of hell in your life. But if you put on the breastplate of righteousness, and if you have what it says here, and and take the shield of faith, you got that faith, those fiery darts of hell cannot even get to you because you have the shield of faith. And our faith is Christ. So we find that we put on the armor and he's the truth, Jesus is, and we put on the breastplate of righteousness, he's our righteousness. We have the gospel of peace shod, and he's our peace. And now we have the shield of faith, he's our faith. And look at verse number 17, and take the helmet of salvation. Who's our salvation? Every piece of armor that God said you put on, the whole piece of armor, is to clothe yourself every day. If you want to be protected from the devil, put on Jesus. And look what else it says right there in verse 17. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Who's the Word of God? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was God. You know how, and I am, I'm I'm dumb. But do you know how 64 years I have been in the ministry for 62, almost 63 years, almost ever since I've been saved? Do you know how I made it this far without going into a lot of sin, adultery, wickedness, vile, ungodliness? Every morning for all these 60-some years, I wake up in the morning and put on Jesus. I gird myself about with truth. I put on the breastplate of righteousness. I have my feet shod with the gospel of peace. I want, I'll go all the way through it. I tell God I want to take the steps that He would order me so I can have the peace on my journey and so forth. And I can stand, and I have been standing, and I'm not bragging, and because if I am bragging, I'm bragging on Jesus. He gives me victory when I put on what he's made available, and all I have to do is take. He gives me the victory to be able to live for him and not for the devil. Well, God bless you. Thank you for letting me have this time with you.