3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 2013: Showers of Blessings

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Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

John Lomacang

False Armor

If you have your Bibles, I'd like you to go with me to the book of Ephesians.

And the message is entitled, False Armor.

The text I'd like you to focus on is Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 11.

Now, because I only have 50 minutes left, I'm going to preach like a New Yorker.

And if you miss anything, get the DVD and play it all over again.

I'm going to come at you fast and furious and intense and solidly based on God's Word.

The Bible says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

The New York Times, January 7th, 2006, under an article entitled, the Pentagon study links fatalities to body armor I Discovered that in this article a false sense of security in battle was revealed And just so I have not committed this to memory I want to read the article so that you can get it exactly how it was written in the New York Times.

It says as follows, a secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80% of the Marines who had been killed in Iraq, from wounds to the upper body, could have survived if they had extra body armor.

Such armor has been available since 2003.

But until recently, the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to the troops, despite repeated calls from the field for additional protection according to military officials.

The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war.

In other words, they sent soldiers into the field with substandard body armor, knowing it since the war began, and repeatedly refusing to send body armor, even though they knew that their soldiers were in jeopardy.

It says, the vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of American troops.

And I repeat again the statistic, 80% of the fatalities that occurred in Iraq could have been avoided if the troops had been covered by the best armor.

That's a lot of fatalities that we could have avoided.

The armor was available, but the request for protection was denied.

The weakness of the armor was known since the war began.

Now when I read that article, I immediately with my preacher's mind, I saw that there was a spiritual parallel there.

Ever since the war began on earth between good and evil, false armor has been given to those living on the earth.

And The reason why fatalities will increase in the end, the reason why there will be so many that are lost, as the Bible says in Revelation, as the sands of the seas, is because even Christians are settling for false armor.

Armor that is not sufficient enough to protect us in this time of intensifying battle.

I believe as we get closer to the end, the battle between light and darkness, between truth and error, between Christ and Satan, between good and evil is going to intensify.

Thus it behooves us that we have the best armor.

That's why Ephesians says, put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil.

Oftentimes we read the phrase by the Apostle Paul, the wiles of the devil, and fail to comprehend the deeper meaning.

Paul is not talking about a wild devil, because Satan is very organized.

He waits when his prey is least suspecting.

He is not a wild devil, but a wily devil.

He has, I suggest to you today, a file on every 1 of our strengths and every 1 of our weaknesses.

And he waits for the most opportune time to come at us with his temptations.

He waits like the boxer in the ring when his opponent is at his weakest to hit him the hardest.

I decided to study that word, the wiles of the devil, and in the dictionary I discovered these words are synonymous to the word wiles.

Trickery, a con, a hoax, a scam, a ploy, a stunt, deception and subterfuge.

In other words, things that really don't appear the way they really are.

Coming at you from an angle that you are not suspecting of conning you when you are completely unaware that you're falling for it and then my mind took me back to that 1949 cartoon called the Road Runner anybody remember that Wile E.

Coyote I said Wiley that all of a sudden you know I'm admitting I'm a little older than some of the young folk that are around here.

It was called Wiley Coyote before they called it the Road Runner and it was put together by Looney Tunes.

Anything put together by something called Looney Tunes you should question whether or not to watch it.

Coyote used elaborate plans, listen carefully, and complex devices to pursue his enemy, to pursue his prey.

The intention was to get the roadrunner to fall into a trap that would result in his own destruction.

I suggest to you today that Satan is using elaborate devices and complex contraptions.

He's using elaborate plans And his attempt is to try to trap us into falling into something that will result in our own destruction.

Thus, it's important that we put on the whole armor of God.

Peter said it well in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8.

You can turn it with me, but I'm going to read it as you're turning.

He said, "...be sober..." Say that word together with me.

"...be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." roaring lion.

I learned something years ago from Elder Brooks and every time I read that text I fail not to represent that or to mention that.

He said, in the jungles the lion that roars is the male lion.

The male lion roars and you hear the roar in that direction.

And the female is there to collect the groceries.

He roars from the chest in such a body shaking roar that you run as fast as you can and the female lion is waiting there with her basket to collect the groceries.

That's why when you hear the roar of the lion, you've got to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

You got to stand firm in the promises of Christ.

Ellen White says in Great Controversy page 593, this is an amazing quotation, she says, "'Satan employs every possible device to prevent men from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible.

For its plain utterances reveal his deceptions." Why would he want us to study our Bibles if it reveals his deceptions?

This is the best battle plan that we have to fortify our minds with the protection we need against the wiles of the devil.

She goes on to say, none but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict.

Because they spent time not with the devices that have preventing them from obtaining a knowledge of the Bible, but they've spent their time with the Bible.

Bible study, Something that's kind of getting old.

In a generation where they expect things to respond in a nanosecond.

We can click our devices and I'm a gadgetarian.

But I still love something that has never lost its inspiration to me.

I still love studying the Bible by turning its pages.

Amen I mean you cannot find that in any device.

False Armor

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