17.Why are the saints to put on the full armour of God?

So we may be able to hold our ground in the day of evil.

There have been many evil days throughout church history. Each Christian believer will have his own share of evil days. There is an even greater day of evil looming on the horizon, as we see human beings loving themselves and pleasure more than they love God; as we see people abandoning themselves to wicked spirits.

What is the saint to do in the day of evil? He is to stand, to resist all the pressure Hell can bring to bear on him.

One way in which an enemy can disarm an opponent is by assuring him that he is in no danger. Once a nation becomes convinced there is no more threat of danger it will relax its vigilance. That is the time for the enemy to attack! This is precisely why Satan has introduced the concept of the "pre-tribulation rapture." The ‘rapture" deception has very successfully convinced the believers that there is no need for them to prepare to stand in the evil day. They have been disarmed. When the evil day comes, and it certainly shall come, the believers will be swept off their feet being able neither to help themselves nor anyone else.

Notice the expression in verse 13: "and having done all [accomplished and worked out everything], to stand." The above expression is speaking of mature believers who have survived the first fiery ordeals of discipleship and have become established and settled in their Christian pilgrimage. They have set themselves to endure all things to the end so they may be saved.

The task of the mature disciple is to stand. At this time we are on the defensive. We are to stand, holding the ground that Christ has given to us.

When the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven, the Body of Christ will attack, falling on sin and sinners with relentless fury in the fullness of the Spirit of God.

Our task now is to stand firm against all the wiles of fallen angels.

The following are the pieces of the saints’ armor—armor that we must put on so we may be able to resist Satan during the times when the pressures of darkness war against our spirit. The belt of truth buckled around our waist.

It is the truth that sets us free. We must worship God in spirit and in truth.

All of Satan’s ability to harm us proceeds from deception. He must deceive us into stepping away from the protection of the angel of the Lord. Truthis of supreme importance in the Christian struggle against fallen angelic leaders.

The loins of a man speak of his hips, his strength to fight. If his hip is punctured or broken his fighting days have ended until the hip is healed.

How does Satan lead us away from the protection of Divine truth? By appealing to our love of sin and our self-will. Satan cannot harm us while we are abiding in Christ. Satan leads us away from the protection of Christ by tempting us to live in a lie, to steal, to fornicate, to follow our own will and ambition, by appealing to our lust of the flesh, our lust of the eyes, and our pride of life.

If Satan can deceive us into removing ourselves from the protection of God he can overcome us easily. Therefore truth becomes all-important. Satan has been very successful in our time in his program to deceive the saints. One of his remarkably successful efforts has been in the area of convincing the saints they should be prosperous in the world, enjoying every material advantage. Satan uses Old Testament passages, promises of material abundance, such as those made to Israel if they would obey the Law.

After saints have become convinced that it is the will of Christ that they enjoy every material advantage, it no longer is possible to teach them of the demands of Christian discipleship. They will not hear it. They will flee from the cross. They will not arm themselves with a mind to suffer. They no longer are of any use to Christ. Satan has knocked them out of combat by causing them to abound in worldly goods. Cunning, don’t you agree? Satan uses the Scriptures to lead the saints astray.

Satan cannot harm Christ or any person who is abiding in Christ. He does not have that power, his authority having been stripped from him on the cross of Calvary. If he would overcome the saint he must be successful in persuading him to believe a lie.

Antichrist does not possess the power to harm God’s people spiritually, because the Divine promises of Scripture will remain true even throughout the great tribulation. However, Antichrist, according to the Scriptures, will overcome the elect in some instances. He will overcome some of them by showing himself friendly to the churches so that the Christians will believe that the world will help them worship and serve God.

Antichrist will overcome other Christians by frightening them with economic pressure, prison, harm to their children, torture, confiscation of their property and comforts. Some of the believers will panic and abandon their faith in the Lord, removing themselves from the Christian warfare. This will be at a time when the peoples of the earth will be looking to the churches for the wisdom and power to survive the horrible spiritual darkness that will blanket the earth just before the Lord returns.

Both of these tactics of Antichrist, friendliness and threats, are being used successfully in the present hour, and both are based on a lie.

The first tactic is the overcoming of the saints with material prosperity, persuading them that the world is their friend and that they are at home in the world and should be enjoying it because they are God’s children. The Scriptures teach us clearly that the world hates Christ and that whoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God and of Christ. No Christian warrior entangles himself with the affairs of the present life. We are to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ. We are to set our affections on things above, not on the things of the world.

The second tactic is a scare tactic. In many places today the Christian people are being tortured and cast into prison. The lie emphasized here is that God cannot keep His elect from harm. God can and does keep His elect from true harm and danger, spiritual harm and danger, because we and our children obtain a better resurrection if we become privileged to suffer for the name and sake of Christ.

No matter what the great tribulation brings to us in the way of suffering, not one word of the Thirty-fourth, the Thirty-seventh, or the Ninety-first Psalms can be changed by the enemy. Every saint should learn well the contents of these three Psalms. They will stand during all periods of tribulation, including the great tribulation. The Spirit of Christ gave these Psalms. They, along with many other passages of the Scriptures, are God’s assurance to His little flock. Those who place their trust in the Lord will overcome the devil in every situation.

We can pass successfully through every period of trouble if we will place all our faith and trust in the Word of God. We can escape all the spiritual dangers that will fill the earth and finally stand in victory before the Son of Man.

Having on the breastplate of righteousness.

God will work only where there is righteousness. God will not perform His works of deliverance where there is lawlessness and unrighteousness. No saint will be able to stand in an evil hour if his chest and heart are not protected by righteousness.

There are two aspects of righteousness and both aspects are of critical importance in their place. Both aspects of righteousness form the one breastplate of righteousness.

The first aspect of righteousness is imputed (assigned) righteousness. Imputed righteousness is the acceptability to God that is freely given to every sinner who comes to God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gift of righteousness through the blood of the cross.

The second aspect of righteousness we may term actual or observable righteousness. Actual, observable righteousness is the keeping of God’s commandments. It is the fruit of the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer’s personality. All of our past sins have been forgiven on the basis of imputed (assigned) righteousness. The Christian salvation brings forth a new creation. If no new creation of actual, observable righteousness is coming forth, salvation is not operating in that individual.

Can you imagine how effective the Apostle Paul would have been, how much faith we would place in his epistles, if he were a fornicator, an adulterer, a liar, a thief, a drunkard, a murderer, a worshiper of demons? So it is true that no Christian can stand in the evil day if his heart and chest are not protected by both imputed (assigned) and observable righteousness.

No fornicator, no liar, no drunkard, no dabbler in the occult, no murderer has any place or inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We engaged in such abominations before we were saved but now we have been washed from that behaviour.

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