Billy Ritchie (00:00:08) - Escape from the jungle, all that sort of stuff, while I was another one that came around a few years back. And, uh, it was called, you are What You Wear. And Do you remember that? No, just me watching it. Ryland beautiful Ryland with another five, uh, designer specialists designed on people, uh, sorry, descended on people that were challenged with the wardrobe. Me. Yes,  looks like some of you could do with, uh, him and visited. And, uh, they, uh, spent time with, uh, those people and, uh, give them some new clothes to where, uh, that would change and revolutionize their lives. How many know that that doesn't really work? We can change the outside all we want, but there's something inside that needs to change. Eh, clothes wear out. They go out of fashion. If you wait long enough, they come round again, .

Billy Ritchie (00:01:07) - Um, but you know, we were made for Jesus, not for Gucci. Yes. And, uh, our whole thing is about becoming and being transformed into the likeness of Christ. There's something inside that is missing that needs Jesus. And when he touches us, everything changes. And the metaphor that is often used in the New Testament is taken off the old self and putting on the new self. That's what we must look at as we do that. And we've looked recently over this few weeks at the book of Ephesians, what Paul wrote to his friends in Ephesus and their pastor Timothy. And, uh, he was saying, you need to undress of everything in this world and you need to redress yourself. He puts it this way in Ephesians 4 24, put on the new self created after the lightness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Isn't that amazing?

Billy Ritchie (00:02:21) - And he reminds us that the Christian life, we've been talking this, uh, little while, that the Christian life is not a picnic. It's a battle against a powerful adversary. And, uh, we're, we're at war. We're not with the people around us, not with our next door neighbors, not with the people that we, uh, spend time with at work, um, who might see things a little bit different, but we are at war with somebody called the Devil. And uh, what we've been seeing this few weeks is that, uh, the devil has got craft crafty methods to drive the, our souls in society into ruin. And they are lies deceptive ideas, lies that play to our disorder desires. That's our flesh. The Bible uses that word to describe that sometimes our desires want something that are not particularly good for us and are normalized in the society, the world around about us.

Billy Ritchie (00:03:24) - And you see that war word come up in the Bible from time to time. And, uh, you know, we are serving in God's army. And it's not an option reserved for those people who particularly think they're devoted to God in a way that other people aren't. There aren't sort of some people who are in the battle and some people who are behind the lines not in the battle. You, you with me, each and every single one of us. You don't seem very happy to be in that battle by this say this morning. The choice is not whether you will be a Christian soldier or a Christian civilian, but whether you are a prepared Christian or a unprepared one, and, uh, you know, Paul recognizes the ferocity of the battle that we are in. He sees the scale of the job or the need that is in front of us.

Billy Ritchie (00:04:20) - He makes no bones about it. He's clear how difficult this fight is, how, what the scale of the fight that we are in, but he also recognizes the provision of God for that fight that we are in the scale is matched more and more than ever by the provision of God. That's what we've got in our lives. We've got God, and He gives us into our lives everything that we need for our life and the battle, whether it's against the devil, whether it's against the temptations and the sinful desires that we've got or the world around us. He gives us everything we need.

Billy Ritchie (00:05:05) - Don't you think that's good? Yes. He gives us every single thing that we need. I want to read to you starting, um, in, uh, where am I at Ephesians six, verse 10. And it starts out with a preacher's famous last words. Finally, this is my last point. And then go on for another 20 minutes. That, that word finally, it, it could be better translated what remains for us. I, I like the way that that is because in church we are very often what we do is we take verses out of context and use them in a way that God never meant them to, to be. Yes. Yeah. We do that all the time. You know what I mean? God has plans for you, da da da da da, find the prosper, da da. I understand all that. But look at the rest of the verses around it.

Billy Ritchie (00:06:02) - These guys were in trouble. So in the middle of trouble, you with me? And, and so it's important we place everything that we say and everything that Paul is going to go on to see what remains, what does that mean? Well, before we get to chapter six, we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yes. And, uh, we go back to see what he has been saying beforehand in chapter one, probably the most amazing outside of maybe Romans eight, uh, the purpose of God is laid out step by step in Ephesians chapter one, it is just the most amazing chapter, almost in it rivals Romans eight, I don't know which one's better, but the, the purpose of God is laid out. And, and Ephesians one and Ephesians two, and you get to Ephesians three. And he's laid this foundation of the supremacy of God and his purpose on this earth.

Billy Ritchie (00:06:56) - And he then prays an incredible prayer for the Ephesian believers. And after, uh, the middle of, uh, chapter three, he then starts to go on and talk about how we are to live. He calls our walk. Yes. So he lives, he puts a foundation of who God is, what he is about, what he's doing, what's happening to us. And then he says, out of that, live like this. Yes. And at the end he goes, what's left out of what God is? How we're to live and what's left for us to do because God's done all this. What remains for us is this. So, I mean, let me, let me go back and read it. At least it's not on the screen. This, let, let me read just one passage in that how we're to live and how we're to walk to the Ephesians. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk.

Billy Ritchie (00:07:57) - That's how we're to live. Yes. We must no longer walk as the Gentiles, the gentles used here as the people that don't know God outside of God, not following God, no longer walk as the dead gentles do. And their futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of the heart. They have become callous and have given themselves to sensuality, greed to every practice, uh, to to practice every kind of Ima impurity verse 20. But that is not the way you have lambed in Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught about him. Listen, as the truth is in Jesus, father of lies is the devil. Where do we find the truth? We find the truth in Jesus. So how we're to walk, we find the truth of how we're to walk in Jesus.

Billy Ritchie (00:09:04) - Verse 22. So put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through. What did we talk about before? Deceitful desires. Take this stuff off and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self. God has done marvelous things in Ephesians one and talks about how incredible he is. And he said, now you've gotta take off and put on the new self. There's something for us to do. Yes. Created after the lightness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Amazing. Yes. So what does he say back in Ephesians six 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. He says, there's a battle going on. We're against fa fashion, blood, we're against, prince Powell is in Paris. Finally, what do we need to do? We understand the scale of the challenge that is in front of us, but our provision is in God.

Billy Ritchie (00:10:17) - Finally be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might. The Greek is uses three different words for strength and strong. There he repeats it again. You mean if you say one something once, it's important. If you say something three times, it's probably even more important if you say it three times in the space of one sentence, it's probably even more important. He's trying to get something across to us. God is strong almighty. How powerful. And we don't need to be afraid. We stand in His might, in his power. He uses it. It it, it's something that's repeated from earlier in Ephesians. He uses the same words about strength and power in might. Where does he use that? He uses it in Ephesians one, back to describing how incredible God is and his plan and purpose. Yes. And he, so the, the words echo back what he's saying now, echo back to something they've just heard says.

Billy Ritchie (00:11:17) - And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might, that word of power again, that he worked in Christ when he raised them from a dead. So the same words that he's using about us, about standing in the might of God and the power of God. This power is the same power raise Christ Jesus from the dead. So the same power is working in us today, is working in Christ when he raised them from the dead and not only raised them from the dead, he seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but the age to come. That's the power. Finally, be strong in that power. It's not something that we can summon out of ourselves, but we stand in his power.

Billy Ritchie (00:12:20) - Verse 11, put on. So clothe yourself. Don't leave it on the hangar. Actually get it outta the wardrobe. Put it on, put on the what? The whole armor of God that you may able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil and heavenly places without God. We are over our heads, but God makes our strength perfect and our weaknesses. You told the Corinthians yes. So through his power, we can come against what sounds an incredible army against it. Therefore, so because we are faced with such an incredible foe, God says, therefore the scale we see, the provision we're going to encounter. Therefore, because of this take up, what the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm, two or three things that I see from those few verses. First, we need to recognize who we're fighting and understand and adapt. Our strategy says in two Corinthians 10, four, for the weapons of a warfare are not flesh, uh, are not a flesh, but have divine power to destroy. Strongholds

Billy Ritchie (00:14:11) - Talks about flesh there. Our weapons are not of the flesh. Um, and some of the weapons of the flesh are your willpower. So I'm gonna stand my own strength with my own willpower. And I'm going to overcome this temptation.

Billy Ritchie (00:14:34) - It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. You might as well forget it. Give it up. Now, the way that you stand against temptation is to stand in the mighty power of Jesus Christ and put on his armor, undress his way with his armor. And, and also the other thing about that is we understand who we're fighting. We're not fighting our next door neighbor or our husband that doesn't come to church or our wife that doesn't come to church or somebody who believes something different to us. We're not. We're fighting the spirit behind that. And how do we fight in that place? We pray right at the end of those, these, the, the the clothes and the armor that we put on, he gets to praying and always. So we change our strategy. We come before God and we pray and we ask him to fill our lives with his power and give his understanding to come against everything.

Billy Ritchie (00:15:32) - It is a roundabout. Second thing I see is he says, stand, stand, stand with stand, stand again. He wants us to stand sometimes all we need to do is soldiers of Jesus. It's a stand stand. You know, that word withstand we've just read is the same word as James and Peter use when they say resist the devil. P James Ford. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. You ever watched the, the doc long time ago before the redid it? I used to as a little child. I used to watch Dr. Who and I had the cybermen and I used to behind the sofa cuz I was scared that the cybermen and, and they had a saying, and I can't do the accent. Resistance is futile. Christian resistance is not futile. Resistance is all we need to do to stand, stand in the might of God and the devil will flee and Jesus will come to resist to stand.

Billy Ritchie (00:16:47) - What does it look like to stand for Jesus in a world where the devil's lies are making a complete mess of everything with the disorder desires and the lies he's speaking into people's lives. Going back to the first week that we talked about is that we live as exiles in a foreign land. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our king is the king of kings. And we live in a world that is foreign to us, live in an exile because all everything around us is foreign. How do we live in that place? We live as dissidents. That's how we live. We're not home in this place. Everything about it. I'd love us to do a series on Revelation sometimes because I believe that revelation is not just something about the future, uh, sometime way down the road. It's about how we are to live is Christ followers, is dissidents in a world that's dominated by what, what revelation calls Babylon, . And I think we, we we're in that. Now we see that effect. If you read through the description of Babylon and you look around at our world now, you can see it all around him. We have to live as dissidents in that place as, as, as followers of Jesus. And if you look at the start of revelation and you look at the churches that are, are there some of these sins, some of these things that are mb Babylon seem to be seeping into the church.

Billy Ritchie (00:18:15) - And, and, and, and Jesus said, if you've got an ear, listen here, don't let this stuff come into your life and into this world. We've got, I mean, in Babylon leadership is corrupt. If you read it, go and read it. What happens? What's happening in our church at the moment across the world, leadership is becoming corrupt. You don't have to look too far. And we have gotta stand against this stuff is dissidents to say, we, we, that's not part of our kingdom. We live a different way that's about fighting. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Walk in what love. If you read through the rest of chapter five, it will talk about walking in light, walking in wisdom, walking in, purity, integrity, sober of spirits, submitting to each other, honoring each other just before the, the, the, the passage that we've been reading today. Uh, submitting husbands to wives, parents to children, master to servant talks about this beautiful picture. And this is the context that he places this thing about how we're to fight to put on the full armor of God to help us to submit to one another. Husband and wife, parent and children. You're looking at me, we are now . This is the fight. This is the place. He places this in the context of honoring one another, submitting to one another.

Billy Ritchie (00:20:07) - That's a fight that we've, we've got in our lives as dissidents living for his kingdom in this place. So to to stand, not to be ripped and take away our faith, our love, our joy, our peace to be stand, not stripped naked. Third thing I see is that we have to put on the whole armor of God. He says it twice, put on the whole armor of God. That word whole armor or whole armor of God, that that word is in in Greek is panoply and it's translated into the UK or, or English, I should say. Panoply means a vast array. I love that. Put on the vast array. That is God. I I i I love the way that that's put. So put on the whole armor of God. What is that? I'm not gonna have time to do it today. I've got five, five minutes, but I can't go into all these things.

Billy Ritchie (00:21:11) - But it says stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as three shoes for the feet, that having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Verse 16, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now listen, I know that Paul, the in, in those days, um, the, the, the, the Roman Centurions and Roman soldiers were everywhere. So I can understand how Paul sees all these soldiers and centurions going around about him and they're all decked up in their gear. And, and, and he uses that metaphor to try and communicate to us something. But there's something deeper and bigger going on here than just him looking at a Roman soldier.

Billy Ritchie (00:22:10) - The Roman soldier triggers a memory in him because remember Paul is a pharisee. In fact he says he's a pharisee of the Pharisee. So he was taught in, taught in the Old Testament and helped him to dig into everything that was there. And he was, he's remembering back in Isaiah, um, when they're talking about the, the, the Messiah, the king, who is the come, who we now know is Jesus. He remembers that there are certain things about armor that are talked about in relation to Jesus, our Lord. Yes, you with me? So go back. In fact, I've put an article on the website so you can go and dig a little bit deeper this week. But God's armor putting on God's armor, the belt of truth is the belt that gaves the messianic king in Isaiah 11 verse five, the ate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation come from the divine warriors arsenal.

Billy Ritchie (00:23:07) - In Isaiah 59 17, the feet shored with the gospel of the readiness, uh, uh, to, to go, to proclaim the arrival of the men. Mason Messianic kingdom is Isaiah 52 7. Um, in Psalm 119, David declares that the Lord is his shield. The sword of the spirit. The word of God is the weapon wielded by the promised servant of the Lord. And Isaiah 4, 9, 2, just to say this is not just some SPUs armor we're putting on, we're putting on God's armor, the armor that Jesus used as he stepped in to come into this world. And we stand in the same way as he did with clo clothed in his armor. And we can put that on in the same way that he lived as fully man, fully God in this place, living by the Holy Spirit inside him, clothed in God's armor to make a difference in the world around him. That's the armor that we put on. I haven't, I haven't got time to go into all the different things. Maybe I'm a two or three minutes left. I can mention one the belt of truth. Jesus. The truth is in Jesus. Yes. That's what we read. Where where do we find the truth? Where, where, where, where do we find that? Well, I believe we find it in the word of God.

Billy Ritchie (00:24:36) - His word James thought last week about getting into God's word. Well, the foundational part of our armor that you put on first, that holds your trousers up not in their day but nowaday. You can't go the battle with your trousers line around your ankles, can you? Is that you fasten on the belt of truth. And we find the truth in the word of God. We so often I hear this word banded around nowadays my truth. Well, Jeremiah, in Jeremiah it says, the heart of the human is wicked and it knows no truth. So when it comes to truth, I don't really trust myself, but I can trust his word cuz that really does tell the truth. Now I can know that you can use the Bible to justify just about anything

Billy Ritchie (00:25:41) - I know. But if we really try to come to it and understand as God telling the truth and we interpret context and context and we spend time, I believe that there's that all we need for life. When, when speaking to a group of Christians, the brother of Jesus, put it this way and I'll change some of the words to truth because I believe that they are truth, but be doers of the truth. Not only he, not heroes, only deceiving yourself for if anyone is a hero of the truth and do and not a doer. He's like a man who intently, uh, looks intently at his natural face in a mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and forgets what he was like. But the one who looks at the perfect truth, the the truth of liberty. And per perseveres being no hero who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. I can't overly says we need to fall in love with God's truth, with his word. What do you do when you love somebody? Well, maybe you forgot you've been married so long, you just want to spend every moment of every day, don't you?

Billy Ritchie (00:27:11) - You guys are pathetic. Come on. Can you remember the day when you loved something so much that you slept and dreamt about it all night and woke up in the morning and still was just desperate for it? There was a, uh, a guy back in, around about 1971. He became a Christian, uh, through some, uh, American soldiers who were in Vietnam. And he became, uh, a Christian and a follow of Jesus. And obviously America went. He he'd been an interpreter for the Americans and a Christian and the vie didn't like that very much. So they took him and imprisoned him and tried to indoctrinate him over months and months and months. Wouldn't let him see anything else, wouldn't let speak to anybody else. And he was on the point of breaking.

Billy Ritchie (00:28:13) - And uh, he was asked, um, or part of his role, they told him he had to start cleaning out the toilets so he became a toilet cleaner for Jesus. So he was at, at his wits end, ready to give up thinking I'm just going to collapse into this in inter I'm just gonna go like, forget everything. And he's cleaning out the toilet and he's picking up these bits of toilet paper what he thought was toilet paper that were messy. And, and he realizes there's some English on the toilet paper. The, and, and he, so he picks it up cause he had not been able to read anything outside of what they gave him. And he sticks it in his pocket and he takes it back to his cell. And in the quietness, he cleans it and wipes it. And he finds it's a fragment of Romans, Romans eight, who can separate us from a love of Christ.

Billy Ritchie (00:29:20) - Hey.

Billy Ritchie (00:29:24) - And day after day he goes back to the toilet and rescues another fragment of God's word to him. Isn't that amazing? That's

Billy Ritchie (00:29:45) - How we love the word of God. Maybe the whole world wants to pile a load of crap onto it, but it's still the truth and it stands throughout all eternity. And we love it like a way we've never loved it before. Hey, amen. Cloth yourself with a belt of truth and then dig in this week looking at some of the other things that we've talked about. My time's completely gone. Um, there's gonna be some people at my right and my left at the end of the service and they would love to pray for you. If you need prayer, remember we've got, let's do lunch at the end and also you can give on the way out as well. God bless you. Have a great week.