Calls believers to 'put on the armor of light' by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, emphasizing that this is a time for spiritual warfare against the forces of darkness. It highlights that light is the greatest weapon against darkness, drawing parallels to the defensive power of light against wild animals in Africa and the radiant face of Stephen. The message urges listeners to reflect Christ's glory by living in His presence, confessing sin, and yielding to the Holy Spirit, thereby manifesting their identity as children of light and dispelling the darkness around them. The ultimate application is to live in unbroken communion with Christ, allowing His life to be manifest through us, so that others may recognize our fellowship with Him.
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Read together the verses we've been considering throughout this week. In fact, we've been considering Romans thirteen from eight through fourteen, but particularly verses eleven and twelve. I'd like to read eleven and twelve and add verse fourteen. And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to wake out of sleep, For now is our salvation, is our salvation, nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.
Let us, therefore, put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light, fourteen, and put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh. to fulfill its lust. I realize there may be a slight difference as this is the New Schofield Bible with some variation due to archaic words or Old English in some way. There is a paraphrase on part of this that I'd like to read. I think that if we take a paraphrase as a commentary on the Scriptures, this is fine. If we take it as the Scriptures, it's a big mistake.
And my heart is sad in many homes where I go out, go. out in Africa to find that the paraphrase is replacing the actual scripture in many places. We should guard against this, but certainly not deny ourselves the use of the opinions of other men in the interpretation of the scriptures by a paraphrase. Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the weapons of light. Weapons because apparently the Greek word hopla there is plural. the weapons of light. Let us live becomingly for people who are in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in immortality, sorry, I second, twice I mispronounced that word, immorality and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and put a stop to gratifying the evil desires of the flesh. Charles B. Williams in Pauline Epistles, published by Moody Friends. And so there's the contrast. Instead of the works of darkness, there's the armor or the weapons of light. We're in a spiritual warfare in a time of darkness against the spiritual wickedness in high places, in heavenly places, as we read in Ephesians six and twelve. We are against spiritual foes. We must use spiritual weapons. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
I think if you had lived on the mission field and worked on the mission field where heathenism is rife and where there is blatant giving over to wickedness in an open way, perhaps you'd realize the spiritual wickedness more even than in this country, where there is a veneer of civilization and respectability, although less evident in general than in days gone by. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And then comes that wonderful verse which has sustained me many times in temptations.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We've heard about the Lordship of Christ. Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And then the weapons that are spiritual will be effective against this one who is a defeated foe. We're not going to combat as did Peter with his sword, cutting off Melchizedek, In that day the Lord was betrayed, we have spiritual weapons which are potent, and Satan's doom is sure, because we have been delivered from the power of darkness, and we've been translated into the kingdom of his dear son, and we have spiritual warfare, a spiritual warfare in which we combat with spiritual weapons.
Praise God that Satan's doom is sure. Through death, The Lord Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death. They annulled the force and power that was Satan. Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. And so it is not necessary that sin should have dominion over us. The possibility, the wonderful possibility of walking in the Spirit, in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is the portion of every believer. We are soldiers, as II Timothy II speaks about the believer as a soldier, and it's wonderful to be on the winning side.
The armor of God, according to the different aspects of the spiritual warfare, there are various references to the armor of God, various facets in explaining the same thing. We have In Ephesians six, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand or to withstand in the evil days, and having done all to stand. You know that scripture, our loins gird about with truth, the breastplate, the righteousness, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of faith that we might be able to quench the fiery darts, those burning thrusts of the wicked ones.
and the helmet of salvation to protect the head, the mind. We need that these days, a helmet of salvation that our minds might be protected. And the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, in the offense against the evil one, resist the devil. Submit yourself to God and resist the devil that he may flee from you. And then prayer, the warrior's intercommunication with headquarters. Then there is In Second Corinthians six, the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. I'd like to read the portion in First Thessalonians chapter five, verses five through nine.
Another aspect of the spiritual armor. First Thessalonians five and beginning with verse five. We are all children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober-minded. For they that sleep sleep in the night. And they that are drunk are drunk in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him. Putting on... the breastplate of faith and love and for in helmet the hope of salvation. And then we have the reference in the portion we've been studying this week, put on the armor of light. Against the powers of darkness, the most potent weapon is light. Mr. Grant in his numerical Bible has written this, and I have quoted, I would like to quote it for you.
because it's a precious portion, precious commentary. Light is the greatest weapon against darkness. We're the children of light and of the day. Walk in the night and in the darkness. We walk in the night and in the darkness, but the darkness is passing away. The hour of dawn is approaching. It's already time to be aroused out of sleep. Our salvation, final salvation, of course, is getting ever nearer. But for us already the light shines upon us. If it has not come for the world, for us it has come. We are in it in such sort that we should be reflecting it.
I might mention that out in Africa it's well known that the greatest weapon against wild beasts of night is a light. You don't find an African making a trip of night without a torch blazing. And I remember one time going out just in back of our home at the Yankundi many years ago when the wild animals were more near at hand and we saw them more frequently. And I had a torch. Those were the days in which we had our sanitary facilities out in the backyard and we had to go out at night and I had this torch in my hand. And as I went out and shined the light just beyond the veranda, there was a leopard standing in the backyard between me and the little house out beyond.
And as soon as he saw that... flashlight, off he went. The best weapon against darkness is light. For us, the light shines upon us. We are of such a sort that we should be reflecting the light. Heaven is open to us, and the glory in the face of Christ already shines upon us. I'm reminded of Stephen, as he was there, a martyr for the Lord Jesus Christ. As he was there giving testimony to the life and work of the Lord Jesus. And he saw the heavens open. And the Lord Jesus standing there at the right hand of God.
And they saw his face as the face of an angel. Brilliant and glowing with the glory of heaven. Put on the armor of light. This is what it means to me. We are like Stephen, we are on earth. But the heavens are open and the glory of the Lord is there. And by faith we see him. And the glory of his presence can well be reflected in our lives. We who are not the children of darkness but the children of light. Mr. Grant says we are of such a sort that we should be reflecting it. Heaven is open to us and the glory in the face of Christ already shines upon us. Practically to enjoy this is to manifest.
is to manifest it and manifest what we are. To enjoy the reflecting of the light of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by our fellowship with him through the open heavens is not only to manifest him to the world round about us, but to manifest the fact that we are children of light and not children of darkness. It's to put on the armor of light. Who is unaware of what a defense light is in itself in the midst of darkness? The evil deeds of men are done in darkness. Light reproves them. How blessed to walk in the joy of that which manifests for us what we are, and which by its presence in us rebukes evil, and which by its presence in us rebukes evil, and breaks, as it were, the power of temptation.
But we have, therefore, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in a practical way. It is, in fact, but to sit in the sun, and the sun makes its mark upon you. And that means the heart laid open, laid hold of, and no thought made for the provision of the flesh, but with its lust, these things belong to darkness. I had the privilege not so long ago, being in the wonderful land of Spain down at the Mediterranean on the beach there. I know what it means, expose yourself to the sun, and it leaves its mark upon you. Wonderful thing to expose ourselves constantly to the glory of the Lord Jesus and the wonder of his presence.
His mark will be upon us. Men will take knowledge of us that we've been with the Lord Jesus. And as we go forth the glory of his presence, it will be with us. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse fourteen. That you put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He is our light. He is our defense against the darkness. And then we have the references concerning putting off the old man and putting on the new man, which really is not referring to putting on Christ in that sense, rather the regenerate man. But leaving the theological niceties there, let us realize that as we have put on the new man, and that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, that we have put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, To put on the new man.
To put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the armor of light. The new man is created after God in holiness. In righteousness and true holiness. The regenerate man has put on these things which characterize the new life which we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in that sixth chapter of Romans it's so evident that to walk in newness of life, verse four. is to live with him and to live unto God, verses eight and ten. We're alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If we are dead in Christ, we believe we shall also live with him and live through him and in him even now in testimony to those who are round about him.
And so the injunction comes, yield yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. It's the practical appropriation of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. In my own life, this is how I have before the Lord, sought to lay hold upon him, and sought to put out of my life those things over which I have some control, living constantly, longing to be constantly without, off between me and the Lord, that would separate the glow of the glory of his presence.
that men might take knowledge that we are in fellowship with him. I think this fits into Paul's remark to the Galatians in chapter two. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Any man be in Christ. He is a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. We have now life And the life is the life of our Lord Jesus Christ imparted to us. Paul speaks about when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory in Colossians chapter three.
Many people are occupied with strivings after holiness, strivings after a victorious life. When what is called... What is the call for us is to yield ourselves to the Lord and let him do the work, to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit of God, that he himself might fill us, emptying ourselves of those things which defile and which are of darkness and allow him to fill us with his wonderful life, emptying ourselves of those things which usurp the life of Christ in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit.
If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now the injunction, as we were saying, as Paul has written to the Ephesians, he filled with the Spirit. Oh, the Lord might give us this. We yielded this to himself in casting off the works of darkness, in throwing them away as something refuse that we should hate, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, to allow the Lord Jesus to possess us. You were once darkness, but Now are light in the Lord. Your light walk as children of light. Be filled with the Spirit. How in a practical way can we be filled with Him if we tolerate the works of darkness in our lives?
The two are totally incompatible. How can we protect ourselves in the combat with evil forces unless we are covered with the armor of light? But if we are in league secretly and privately and individually in league with the forces of darkness, how can we protect ourselves with the armor of light? Victory in the spiritual conflict is because of our association with the Lord Jesus Christ. And by letting him, by his spirit, fill us and use us and characterize us by the light of himself. Mr.
Newell in his book on the Romans speaks about being panoply with Christ. It's perhaps a complicated thing to think of that, but to be saturated with such a point that the very loveliness of Christ surrounds us. Walking in the day in a time of darkness, darkness is all about the believer, but the believer is surrounded with an aura. You may question that at first, as I have, a distinctive atmosphere that surrounds a person yielded to the Lord. Not to glorify the person or to advertise a holier-than-now attitude, but because of wearing the Lord Jesus as our garment and the covering of light, the darkness is dispelled because the two are incompatible.
The light of the Lord, the light of His presence, gives the Christian a different character. You can often pick out a Christian because of that, let me use the word aura, that atmosphere which surrounds him, that godly atmosphere. I know some in this country, I could give you their names, some who so very evidently give evidence by their lives and demeanor that they belong to the Lord Jesus, that the light of his presence is there. And I know some in Africa, who radiate the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I could tell you, I could give you a good fifteen minutes on Ezekiel Inguerra and another fifteen minutes on Paulo and Zicaco.
These men of gods and on Esoteria and Zidda. I could tell you something about these people who live in fellowship with the Lord, sensitive to his leading, constantly spending hours in his presence. And to be in their presence is a benediction. You know people like that. Oh, that we might indeed covet that. to be radiant with the Lord Jesus, rejoicing in a practical way in the enjoyment of the light of his countenance, living in the light of his presence with no shadow of known and unconfessed sin that prevents fellowship. Knowing the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, Second Corinthians four, four, six, reflected in us and mirrored in us to reflect His glory and changes to His likeness from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord.
It's a progressive thing. It doesn't happen overnight. The life lives for God, walking with God, with the Lord day by day. Paul labored as a mother with child until Christ be formed in his converts. He could say Christ is in you, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, They that follow me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. When we walk with the light, with the Lord, when we walk with the Lord and the light of his word, we have fellowship with him and with his people. And the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin.
Paul said, Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. This is Scripture. This is the possibility. This is that to which we should all aspire before God in the power of His Holy Spirit to reflect the wonderful person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The answer is a continued unbroken communion and fellowship with Him. in which we keep short accounts with Him, in which sin is confessed with sorrow and forsaken.
We know the cleansing of the Lord Jesus, and we know the joy of communion with Him. In this article we've referred to several times that we've, Brother Smart published in Missions Magazine for this month of October. We've mentioned our brother Yosia Buzzo. He's just one of many. When I was with him in one room there on this evangelistic tour at Chabi, who shares the room, and at half past two in the morning, the kerosene lantern went on very early for me. I'm not up that early. And he had had a hard day of preaching the gospel out in the village, a way down the river, a way down the hill, the scarpent, the ruined Zory of Scarpent, down the place called Simuliki in the valley, the river down yonder.
And yet he came back tired at night with a group of men who'd been preaching down there, and threw himself in bed with practically no supper at all. At two-thirty in the morning, there he was, lighting the lantern, going into the other little room, and down in his face before God, opening the word. And I waited and tried to doze off, but I dozed off a little bit, but afterwards I came to, and he was still at it. And we had a little talk in the morning, and he said, you know, I always must get up early. He said, I'm never asleep later than three-thirty, because if I don't have that time alone with God every day, my day is just not right.
He said, I have thirteen children, and he said, when the children get about and the noises there in the family, I just can't be alone in the presence of the Lord. And so he gets up morning after morning at three-thirty or three o'clock or four o'clock, and he's alone with the Lord. And there's a man who has been tremendously used of God and is being used of God. His ministry is that fresh ministry that comes from those who are drinking at the living street. Let us in our own lives consider not some of the theological niceties that perplexes perhaps the paradox of being crucified with Christ back yonder at Calvary and now we're to put off the old man.
put on the new man, the newness of life. There is a confusion there if we very, it does not exist, but it is in the minds of some. You can just accept the fact that the Lord would have us put on that armor of light in this time of conflict against the forces of darkness and be in fellowship with him, to cut out the less important things in our lives, to give our Lord Jesus the preeminent place in our lives, in our time. The night is far spent. that day is at hand. Awake, now is our salvation, nearer than when we believed. Put off the works of darkness. Put on the armor of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Make no provision for the flesh. And others, as we fellowship with him and reflect the glory of his person, will perceive, even in these mortal bodies of ours, the person of the indwelling Christ. May the Lord, through his power, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, enable us to walk in a godly manner before Him with sin confessed and cleansed, enjoying an unbroken communion, a constant dwelling in the light. And in some measure, our lives will be as the faces of Stephen, as he was seen having the face of an angel, as the face of an angel.
And they'll take knowledge of us that we've been with the Lord. We love him and know his power. May the Lord bless his word.