What does Christmas mean to you? To some people it means hard work – The stores are crowded with shoppers; the Post Office is overflowing with mails and the trains and buses and aeroplanes are carrying record crowds. To some people Christmas means a visit home. Surely this is the best time of all the year to be with loved ones. To some people Christmas means a sad memory. They look back over the year and think of the loved one who has left them since the last Christmas. To some people Christmas means revelry. They talk about Christmas liquor; they connect whisky with the blessed Name of the Saviour. But to millions of people, Christmas means nothing. They do not know Jesus. December 25 for them is just another day.

But Christmas means everything to the real Christian. It means that God loves him with all His heart. It means that God has regarded his lost condition and has done something about it. It means that God has given him the best Christmas Gift that even God could give. It means that his Saviour is born – born to set an example with His life – born to die for his sins, - born to be raised for his justification; - born to ascend on high and make intercession for him; - born to give him the hope of His coming again to gather all believers unto Himself. Christmas means that he has a Companion for life – a Friend in the hour of death, - a loving Brother for eternity. Yes, Christmas means everything for the Christian.

Romans 1:16-17: 

In these two verses Paul defines for us what the Gospel is. The Gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ, in His blessed person and in His mighty work. To lose Jesus is to lose the Gospel. One of the strangest things in the religious life of the world is that the world would like to have Christianity without Christ. It would like to get rid of Jesus and at the same time keep the Gospel. The world would like to have good news from God without the Son of God. Christians must stand with the Apostle Paul and proclaim that apart from Jesus Christ, God has no good news for any man. Eliminate Him, and there remains no good news for the world, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of fiery indignation. (Hebrews 10:26-27)

Ephesians 6:17 

“And take ... the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God

                                                                        

 John 10:31-36

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"  The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?  If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),  do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? NKJV

Here we are to look at the sixth piece of the whole armour of God which the Apostle exhorts the Ephesian Christians to take unto themselves and to put on. While it is the sixth of the entire series, it is the third in the second division into which we have seen that these pieces of armour can be divided.

Here we are again this week to continue our discussion on the Whole Armour of God. Please post your comments; we are sure they will help us do a better job. God bless you.

This message is part four of the sermon series on the Whole Armor of God. Thus far we have dealt with having your loins girt about with truth. That is the foundation of everything, and we have interpreted the word truth as standing for the whole truth concerning salvation, the great message of salvation which is, of course, the peculiar message of the Bible. But next we must proceed to put on the various parts of the armour, and here we come to the piece which the Apostle describes as the “breastplate of righteousness”.

Today we continue our series on the Whole Armour of God by beginning a study on the individual pieces of the Armour. You need every piece of the Armour but let us examine what each piece represents.

Ephesians 6:10-11

It is obviously important today that the Christian understands the full implication of this statement. This statement is definitely addressed to the Christian. The world on the other hand ridicules statements like this. To us it is full of help and of real encouragement especially so when we think of the difficulty of living and the confused times in which we find ourselves. Life had never been easy for the Christian but ours is particularly bad for the world is not only outside but now comes into our homes with the newspaper, magazines, television and the wireless and other media. So ours is a time full of difficulty, stress and anxiety.

The theme suggested for this passage is Renewal as in 4:23 where Paul tells the Ephesians “you must be renewed”. This renewal, moreover, implies a complete, basic change, a detachment from the world which they have formerly served, and an attachment to Christ, their newly confessed Lord and Saviour. In Paul’s own words, it is putting off the old man and putting on of the new man (vv 22, 24). Now the idea of this spirit-born total transformation governs the entire section (4:17-6:9). Throughout what Paul is saying is “Be done with the old and adopt the new”. He is continually contrasting these two kinds of disposition and behaviour. Thus he urges that falsehood be replaced by speaking the truth (4:25) sinful anger, by that which is not sinful (4:26); stealing, by sharing (4:28), corrupt speech; by edifying words (4:29) ; bitterness, anger, and wrath, by kindness, tenderness and love (4:31-5:2); filthiness and coarse wittiness by the expression of thankfulness (5:3-4).

We had in our earlier talks (4:1-6 and 4:7-16) given a picture of the growth of the Christian and the growth of the Church in Christ. But such Spiritual growth is possible only when the old godless way of life is rejected. That life led step by step in a certain direction – away from God, away from the truth. The Christian must walk towards God. Previously his life was guided by selfish desires. This way of life is to be put off as a person puts off old ragged clothes, throws them away, and never takes them up again. The new life he is to put on like a new set of clothes.

Ephesians 4:7-16
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." (Now this, "He ascended" — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

In Chapters 1-3, the apostle has said a great deal about the calling of the Christian and the privileges and blessings that he has in Christ. His praise and prayer rise up to God at the thought of these. Now he goes on to speak especially of how the Christian ought to live because of this high calling. First he speaks of the humility which should be shown by each Christian. And from this he goes on to speak of the unity of the Church, with all its members, with their different gifts, working together in love.

Ø Vs 1-3: Here, as often in Paul’s letters, we have the word “therefore”, which makes us think back to what has gone before. He has said many things about the “calling” of the Christian. He is called to know God in Jesus Christ, to know His grace, to be a child of God, to be one of His own people, to inherit His kingdom, to be a messenger of the unsearchable riches of Christ, to lay hold on the love and power and wisdom of God through prayer. Paul is saying; “Think of this high calling, and live in a way that is worthy of it.” He says, “I Paul, the prisoner, appeal to you to do so” He does not remind them that he is a prisoner so as to make them pity him, he wants, rather to remind them that he does not regret having to suffer imprisonment or anything else for Christ’s sake. He wants them to be willing to do anything for Christ, to follow wherever His call leads them, and to show in a worthy way that they are people whom God has called. But how must Christians live if they are to live worthily? A life like this will be seen in the quality of their personal life, and in the quality of their life together as a fellowship.