Sermon
The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God - Part 5
The Battle Gear of the Kingdom - Part 2
February 21, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

What we're doing is we're thinking together concerning the concept, the doctrine of the kingdom of God. And the reason why it is such a massive subject, as we've already learned, there are over 130 verses in the Gospels alone that relate to the subject of the kingdom of God. In the morning times at 5:00 we've been going back through the Gospels with our prayer team and we were noticing, I think, in just two chapters in the book of Luke the gospel of the kingdom was mentioned 17 times. Now it's interesting that it's not a subject that's common with pastors, and again, I think it's because of its massiveness. So what we're doing is just taking and breaking the subject down, and we've learned this, that the kingdom of God has its commencement in the coming of Christ the King.

The kingdom, Jesus said, did not come with observation, in other words, it is not a kingdom that you can see the visible dimensions of. He says, My kingdom is within you, so immediately we understand when the reference is made to the kingdom of God, he is speaking of the spiritual reign of Christ within the human heart. And thus all of these verses relate to that aspect of Christian living, and Paul gave us possibly the best definition of the kingdom and that has to do with Romans 14:17 where he says the kingdom of God is not meat nor drink, but joy and peace and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. So Paul gives it that spiritual dimension.

And you say, well pastor, is that all there is to the kingdom? No, if you sat down and talked with a theologian or read a theology book you would realize that what I'm saying is the kingdom commenced with the coming of the King, and the kingdom will march on until the great culmination which may be an earthly kingdom. Many Christians believe that Christ will come and set up His kingdom here on earth for 1000 years. That may be the culmination, but we're talking about the commencement of the kingdom.

Now the reason why I consider this such an important subject is because many evangelical Christians do not believe that the kingdom has come. If you pick up notes from some of your study Bibles they will talk about the postponement of the kingdom, and here's what the theologian will say, and this is what the notes will say, it says that when Christ came because He was rejected by His nation God set aside the kingdom or postponed it, dropped in the church age, and when the church age is finished Christ comes back and sets up His kingdom here on earth. Now that does a tragic thing to the basic teachings of the gospel of Christ when you believe that folks. That is really a tragedy.

In fact you pick up one Bible, and I discarded that Bible many, many years ago because the writer of the notes in that Bibles said that Matthew 5, 6 and 7 have nothing to do with the church age. In other words throw it out, because it defines the way Christians will live when we get into the millennial kingdom. That's not what Jesus said, and so you have this theory that much, again I say, evangelicalism teaches today. When you rob this age in which we as Christians live within the church and you rob the church of all the power that Christ has promised us through the work of the Holy Spirit within our lives and you take that all out; you've got to throw out the miracles, you throw out everything else and that's why you have the theory that is taught which is called the cessationist theory that when the apostles died all the miracle stopped. That's not what the gospel of the kingdom says. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever and He can do just exactly today what He wants to do and it can be a tremendous time of great spiritual blessings.

One of the reasons why the church has diminished to such a point of spiritual weaknesses is because we've robbed the church age of the truths of the kingdom of God. And that has had a tremendous effect upon our evangelical churches. And so when Jesus came...you remember we learned this, He said, if what I do, if I cast out demons by the power of God then the kingdom is here, not tomorrow, not a 1000 years from now, not in a millennial reign, the kingdom has come in the coming of the King. Now as soon as you do that...then we learned something last week which we went back to that place in Matthew where Jesus is accused of casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub, and Jesus made the observation He said, Why would Satan want to break up his own kingdom? A house divided against itself is going to fall.

And then He went on to say something and it's a verse that is very seldom ever thought about, He said, when the strong man comes and wants to take over the house he binds the man of the house first and then you can take his soils. And this week I went back and studied that again and what Jesus was saying is, I walked into the of house of Satan when I came, this is his domain. When I won the victory at the cross I tied up Satan, I bound him. You say, I thought pastor we have to wait till the millennial time to bind him. You see, that's my point. If you transfer great spiritual truths to an earthly kingdom, Jesus said I have bound the strong man now go in and take his soils, and the great assignment of the church of Jesus Christ is taking the spoils away from Satan's kingdom, and that's the souls of men and women. That's the joy we have and the triumph we have.

We learned this week that one of the men who went to the men's retreat, Joe, is in heaven tonight. But Joe walked into this church a few months ago a sinner bound in the chains of Satan, and he had lived a life of sin, and Joe was marvelously transformed. We took him out by the power of God, by the grace of God we helped him to come out of his sin and God transferred him from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. What I'm saying is that because the kingdom is now, the power that Christ has given to the church is available now, and if we transfer this all out to the millennial time we've lessened and weakened the power of our Christian faith.

We realize that when Christ bound Satan...you say well He didn't bind him because he's really running around -- yes he is, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But greater is He that's within us than he that's in the world. What we have found, that Satan is doing everything he can so we're involved in a great spiritual war. It's the war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, and because we are the children of God and we are a part of His kingdom we are caught in this fray, and that's what Paul is talking about in the subject that we have concerning the spiritual warfare that goes on in our world and in our lives as we make our way to our eternal place, our eternal home.

There are so many aspects to this. One of the things that has fascinated me, and I have never in my 50 years of ministry done a series on the parables of Christ. So I purchased all these books recently and I'm doing a study on the parables of Christ and realize that most of them have to do with His kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is likened onto; the kingdom of heaven is likened unto; the kingdom of heaven is likened unto, and He gives these beautiful parables, these great spiritual truths but most of the parables relate to His kingdom. So in the very near future to our series in the kingdom we're going to take lessons from the parables that relate to the kingdom of God.

And then when we think about the occupation of the kingdom -- we are all servants -- and thus the occupation of the kingdom is servanthood, and so we're going to spend some time talking about servanthood. Do you see how massive the subject gets? It comprises so much of the Scriptures. So tonight I'd like for you to join me as we take just another aspect of this spiritual armor that has been given to us in our war, our spiritual war with the enemy of our soul. Let's read it from the Amplified.

It reads: "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. Put on God's whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and deceits of the devil]. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against [the master spirits who are] the world's rulers of this present darkness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Therefore put on God's complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].

Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and moral rectitude and right standing with God. And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace. Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one]. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To the end, keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people)."

Let's follow closely. I have a number of extra notes that I'd like to give to you tonight if I possibly can work them in. Let's begin our lesson -- Sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground. He soon finds that he faces an enemy who is much stronger than he, that is, apart from the Lord. And that Paul should use the military to illustrate the believer's conflict with Satan is reasonable. You see he himself was chained to a Roman soldier, and his readers were certainly familiar with soldiers and the equipment that they used in their day.

And as Christians, we face three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. "The world" refers to the system around us that is opposed to God, that caters to the "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." "Society apart from God" is a simple, but accurate definition of "the world." "The flesh" is the old sinful nature that we inherited from Adam, a nature that is opposed to God and can do nothing spiritual to please God. By His death and resurrection, Christ overcame the world. And Jesus said: "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation; and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! FOR I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you]."

Isn't that a marvelous phrase? You see we don't pick that up in English but in the Amplified what Jesus is saying, I want you to know I tied the strongman. I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you. In other words, as believers we do not fight for victory. It's already been won. We fight from victory. The Spirit of God enables us, by faith, to appropriate Christ's victory for ourselves.

The intelligence corps plays a vital part in warfare because it enables the officers to know and understand the enemy. And unless we know who the enemy is, where he is, and what he can do, we have a difficult time defeating him. Not only in Ephesians chapter 6, but throughout the entire Bible, God instructs us about the enemy so that there is no reason for us to be caught off guard.

The enemy has many different names. Devil...it means accuser, because he accuses God's people day and night before the throne of God. Now we go to the Revelation passage, and we referred to it one other time, but it is a tremendously revealing passage. Remember we talked about it...spiritual warfare. It says: "Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels went forth to battle with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they were defeated, and there was no room found for them in heaven any longer. And the huge dragon was cast down and out-that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity, the world over; he was forced out and down to the earth, and his angels were flung out along with him.

Then I heard a strong [loud] voice in heaven, saying, Now it has come-the salvation and the power and the kingdom (the dominion, the reign) of our God, and the power (the sovereignty, the authority) of His Christ (the Messiah); for the accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out! And they overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony, for they did not "love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing]."

Then Paul writes: "What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." So the accuser has been cast down. Paul says, who can bring any charge against God's elect?

Now Satan means "adversary," because he is the enemy of God and he is also called the tempter, and the murderer and the liar. The words of Christ, "You are of your father, the devil, and it is your will to practice the lusts and gratify the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false."

The Devil is also compared to an angel of light and "the god of this world." Paul writes to the Corinthians, For such men are false apostles [spurious, counterfeits], deceitful special workmen, masquerading as apostles (special messengers) of Christ (the Messiah). And it is no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. [But] their end will correspond with their deeds."

And then in Corinthians again, he says, "For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers' minds that they should not discern the truth, preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God."

The devil or Satan has helpers. In the Williams translation of the Scriptures it reads like this: "For our contest is not with human foes alone, but with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark world; that is, with the spirit-forces of evil challenging us in the heavenly contest." And so this suggests a definite army of demonic creatures that assist Satan in his attacks against Christians. Hold your notes right there because I've added some to mine here. I went into one of the theology books and this is what it said about those creatures that help Satan in his work. It says, Scripture and experience offer abundant evidence that there is a fast number of evil spirits who like their devilish leader are free to roam the heavenly places and over the earth. With the devil they too fell into condemnation through pride, and since they have been the adversaries of both God and men.

Now the Bible is emphatic on the point that those who traffic with demon spirits...it's forbidden. Now let me pause there for a minute. You and I probably...what I'm speaking of is these men who supposedly hear from voices beyond the dead. Thank God my television went out about three weeks ago and I've decided I'm not going to replace it. But I was watching one night and I saw this man, I think it was on Larry King, and people were phoning in and said would you talk to my mother who died 40 years ago? That is of the Devil, and according to the Bible it's forbidden, it's demonic, and I was absolutely floored to see that kind of stuff taking place on television. But that's godless and it's condemned by God.

As to the nature of demons, Scripture makes it plain that they are intelligent, they are wise, there are powerful, that they have knowledge, they have feelings, they have wills, they have emotions. I'm reading here from my notes folks. The manifold activities of these demons occupy considerable space in the Bible. It's amazing how many times you find in the Scriptures these forces are referenced. They cause grievous vexation, suicide, lunacy, and mania. They disseminate uncleanness. They are the source of lust. They manifest supernatural strength and seek counterfeit worship. They are guilty of error and deception, lying, of witchcraft, heresies and false teachings. They can oppose with jealousies. They can cause us to steal, to fight, to tell fortunes. They can possess men at will. They travel and they imitate departed dead. He goes on to say, but first and foremost believers must realize that demons can be made subject to them, even as they are subject to Christ.

Now I stop here for a moment. In reading many of the manuals, I read something the other day that just absolutely floored me. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who is the top man in the church of England, writes in one of his writings that he's read his Bible through and he can't find a thing said about Satan. Now I don't know what Bible he's read, but he sure doesn't read the Bible that Christians read because throughout the pages as I've pointed out there are literally hundreds of references. So here's my point: The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities which we cannot see, demon powers, and they have all kinds of ability to combat us Christians if we let them. Thanks be unto God we need not fear them because we are more than over-comers and they must flee. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So we are going to learn how to resist the devil so he doesn't in any way hurt us.

Now back to our notes: So a spiritual battle is going on in the world, and in the sphere of the heavenlies and you and I as believers as Christians are a part of this battle. In our text, Paul, in his admonition concerning this battle, indicates that Satan is a strong enemy, and that we need the power of God to be able to stand against him. He says, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." The Lord's strength is more than sufficient for the battle, and our strength is never strong enough to oppose Satan, but when we are strong in the Lord, even a little of His strength is sufficient to win the battle. "I can do all things, Paul says, through Him who strengthens me.

Now strength is a common want of every one of us; we want not the knowledge of our duty but we want the power to do it. We all know more or less the bitter struggle between impulse and conviction; we have all been tempted. We are tempted every day to give up what we know to be right for what we feel to be pleasant. We struggle, some of us to resist, and we find our struggles in vain. We set out in the morning with the full intention of doing what is right, and we find before the day is half over that we have preferred the interest of the moment to the known and undoubted duty. We would fain fear God and keep His commandments, but we find it so hard as to be virtually impossible to disentangle ourselves from the intricate ties which bind us to common modes of action, or to resist the accumulating influences which lead us to accept current maxims and morality. But the remedy lies within our reach.

The Apostle, writing as one who had felt all this as strongly as we can feel it, bids us to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The strength by which we are to live must be not ours but Christ's. It will come to us not from human nature which we inherit at our birth, but from the Divine nature which His Spirit breathes upon us, and His power that dwells with us.

Come with me to page 5. We talked about the belt of truth and tonight we want to talk, down at the very bottom of page 5, the next piece of armor...the second piece of armor that Paul presents in this passage is the breastplate of righteousness. Now remember, we're talking about that ability that God gives to us in this armor that helps us to resist the attacks of Satan and makes us to be more than conquerors through Christ. So the breastplate of righteousness -- now we're at the top of page 6.

The heart, the bowels, and the organs of his body were protected from the sword in hand-to-hand battle. The heart is symbolized as the thoughts and the thinking process of our life. The bowels are symbolic of the emotions and feelings that govern our affections. The mind and the emotions are the two areas where Satan most fiercely attacks believers. He creates a world system, a sinful environment by which he tempts us to think wrong thoughts and to feel wrong emotions. He wants to cloud our minds with false doctrine, false principles, and false information in order to mislead and confuse us. He wants also to confuse our emotions and thereby pervert our affections, and our morals, and our loyalties, our goals, and our commitments. He desires to snatch the Word of God from our minds and replace it with his own perverse idea.

Now the protection against these attacks of Satan is the BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Righteousness is to be taken and wrapped around our whole being, as it were, just as ancient soldiers covered themselves with breastplates of armor. Now let's stop there for a moment. We think of a breastplate as something that may just cover the upper portion of our body, but many of you have gone to museums where you've seen those ancient soldiers who had that entire piece wrapped around them and there were sheaths of steel all around -- very, very heavy...some of them weigh 60, 80, 100 pounds. But these layers of steel all the way around clear down to the thighs, that was known as the breastplate because it covered the important part of their body...their organs, and their heart, and their bowels.

Paul is obviously not speaking here of self-righteousness, which is not righteousness at all but the worst form of sin. You say Pastor help me to understand, what is righteousness? Okay, righteousness, the simple idea that's resident within the word of righteousness is that of doing what is right. When we say righteousness we're talking about simply doing what is right, not only in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of our fellow man. So he's talking about cloaking ourselves with deeds, words, and actions that are God-like that please God and please man. That is known as righteousness, doing what is right.

The breastplate of righteousness that we put on as spiritual armor against our adversary is the practical righteousness of a life lived in obedience to God's Word. Here's the scriptural answer to What is righteousness? What is it that's right that we should strive for that makes our life, that protects our life from the onslaughts of Satan? In fact, all of this page and the next page are just simply Scriptures. Let's see what righteousness really is.

"Strip yourselves," remembered now we've learned these are words of admonition and instruction. God doesn't do this. We strip ourselves "of former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion: And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]." Remember, Paul writes in Romans, I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies as living sacrifices. And verse 2 is the changing of our mind into Christ's likeness. And so he's speaking, what is righteousness? It's asking God to help us to set aside that old nature and clothe ourselves with His nature.

"And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image [Godlike], in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it." In other words, righteousness is always living truthfully, speaking truthfully, totally avoiding anything that's false or hypocritical. You see when he says put on righteousness these are the areas that we've got to work on.

We go on: "let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another." Remember last week we talked about the belt of truth. Not only knowing the word of God, but when we put on the belt of truth we make the decision that we're going to live in total honesty, we're not going to have any falsity, there's not going to be any hypocrisy, we're not going to have any sham; with God's help we're just going to be as pure and clear and in honest, as honest as we possibly can be.

And I tell you when everything you say is honest, you never have to remember what you said. If you start telling a lie you've got to remember what you said so you can cover yourself, and immediately Satan's going to catch you there. So he says we are to be honest and express the truth with our neighbors.

Then he goes on, "When angry, do not sin." Let's stop there. We all get angry. Even Pastor Sheley gets angry, just ask some of the folks in the office. There are just some things that set me off, and sometimes after I blow off I've got to go back and apologize. To be angry is natural with us, but it's learning how to control anger. You see that's righteousness; it's realizing that we're human beings. Sometimes we need to ask God to help us with our temper, but when I've had anger I immediately resolve the matter, and I have to do this frequently. There are reasons that I do get angry. But, he says, when you get angry, so he doesn't say it's wrong to get angry -- that's human -- but what he's saying is do not sin. That is, "do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down." So righteousness is learning to control anger and immediately resolve the matter.

I was talking with a family and the family has had some, over the years, some tensions in the family and they start yelling at each other and it isn't very long the household becomes filled with anger and it's uncomfortable, so we talked about that. Many years ago in the early years of the computers, back in the '60s, I walked into a home and across every door jam this was written with a computer, and that's what amazed me, I said, how did a computer write this? But it said, Absolutely No Yelling In This House. So I said to the man what's all this? It's over every door? And he said, well Pastor we have a rule in our house nobody raises their voice other than in joy, but if you raise your voice in anger you go to your room for the rest of the day.

He said, we've got two boys and they were always squabbling and sometimes we'd raise our voice and I've spent a day in my bedroom too. But he said I'll tell you, when we did that we started bringing the temperature of the house down where people learned how to control their conversation. I said, now that's a good idea because I've got three boys, and so I went home and I had to write mine because I don't believe in computers. So I put it over the doors and you know, if you know my boys, and some of your work very closely with my boys, they have a very controlled, very quiet disposition. In our house we never allowed anger, words of anger, ever to be said. It was just totally forbidden. That brought a sense of righteousness into the home because we were trying to do what God's word says, when you're angry don't sin, but make sure that the whole matter is cleared up before the sun goes down.

Ladies and gentlemen, if we practiced that as couples...we're going to get angry at one another, two human beings, you can't miss it. If somebody tells me, Pastor, I've been married for 50 years and it's been a honeymoon all along. I would say you're the biggest liar I've ever met, because that's not true. If anybody tells me that you can live with someone else and call it a honeymoon for 50 years, I mean, we're human beings and you can't do that, but you learn how to righteously and godly live with one another. Right?

That's part of righteousness. That's putting on the breastplate of righteousness in the home and in our relationships with one another. There's nothing mysterious about this folks. It's just doing what God says that's right, and that's righteousness, and as a result He'll bless us because of righteousness.

Let's go on. He says, "Leave no [such] room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him]." I tell you, if couples would resolve their anger before they went to bed every night, we wouldn't have any more divorces. Right? If we solved those before the sun set or if we made sure that when the day was over we made sure that everything that could have been misunderstood we cleared get up. Don't let the sun go down on something that's wrong. Don't do it. Get it cleared up. You'll find that if you live that way God's blessing will rest upon you. This is putting on righteousness.

Let's go on. He says, "Let the thief steal no more." That means you take ten minutes for your break and not 15 minutes, because if you take five minutes more you're stealing from your boss. Right? The point is there are so many areas of life that we just budge, or push out, and we're not honest. And so it says stop stealing, "but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to" save and pile up $1000 or $1 million. That's not what it says. Do you see the reason he gave us for making money? Not to lay up treasures here on earth. He said God blesses you see that you're able to give to those in need, and that's righteous. It's selfish and it's greed to hold back when you can help someone and bless someone who is in need. That's why God gives us the strength and the capacity to work and so the righteous thing to do is when I find somebody in need, see what I can do to help. That's righteous. It's unrighteous not to.

You say boy this really gets down to where the rubber meets the road, right? That's righteousness. But if we covered ourselves with deeds that were right before God and men it's amazing. I'm going to read for you in just a minute before we close, no, I've got to read it now. I've listed some of the blessings that God gives to the righteous. You can read the rest of the Scriptures. I've written them down. The manifold blessings resulting from acceptance of divinely provided righteousness and practical righteousness lived out in our daily lives are tremendously rewarding.

The righteous are blessed with prosperity. Now use say Pastor, you're not preaching prosperity, are you? No, I'm just reading. Isaiah 3:10 says, Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. So one of the benefits of doing what is right gives God the opportunity to bless what we have and make it more than sufficient.

Secondly, the righteous are surrounded with divine favor. This is found in Psalm 5:12. Look at what it says, For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield. In other words, do you get the picture? God says if you're trying to do what's righteous and you're really living is out, God will put a shield of His favor around you. Boy that's good, isn't it?

Then he says that the righteous enjoy peace and quietness and insurance. In Isaiah 32:17, The work of righteousness will be peace, And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. You see there are tremendous benefits of putting on the breastplate of righteousness.

Thirdly, the righteous are constantly guarded. 1 Peter 3:12, For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. If we're living every day seeking to do what's right before Almighty God and doing what's right before our fellow man, God's eyes are upon us and He's looking out for us. That's good.

The righteous have enlightened minds and glad hearts. This is found in Psalm 97:11, Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.

Now time is gone, but this is a very simple lesson. When I do my very best to please God, and say dear God today everything I do I want to honor You and I want to bring You honor, and I want to be honest and godly with my fellow man. If I do that, the shield of God's favor is around me and Satan is going to miss every time he tries to upset me. I have success when I wear the breastplate of righteousness. And Satan can't touch me, because look at it, I mean if he does, nobody can criticize -- you can't say anything bad about that guy. He does is very best. He lives godly and he helps. Anybody who starts talking about somebody that good, they know the other guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Satan is not going to get through to you when your life is covered with godly deeds. Amen? It's simple. Let's pray.

Father, the lesson tonight is so simple that if we make it our passion and our goal to live right before You and to do rightly by our fellow man and to live godly, we position our self in a place almost that protects us and Satan cannot get through to us because Your shield of favor will be wrapped around us. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you for allowing Your word to make this truth of righteousness very clear, in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you folks. God bless you.