Sunday Morning Worship Service July 19, 2020

Good morning, good to see you on this Lord's Day.

I mentioned to one gentleman when he came in this morning, I said, did you bring your spoon to

deal with the soupy, soupy air outside today?

It's very thick, but we're grateful for the comfortable room that we have to meet in

today, and thank the Lord for his giving us this opportunity in this place to

worship, to gather together, to serve him with our voices, and with our

ears, and with our hearts, and with our minds.

So a couple announcements just to mention in your bulletin to highlight.

One, on Wednesday nights, we started a couple of weeks ago this series called Epic, and

this is a guy, Tim Chalice, he did a worldwide tour a

couple years ago looking for artifacts

related to church history, and we've been to Jerusalem and Rome, and last week we

went to England, and this Wednesday night, we're going to Ireland and Scotland, and find

some interesting discoveries in those countries, and encourage you to come to see that video

series Wednesday night at seven o 'clock.

Then next Sunday night, please note that we have a quarterly business meeting.

We haven't obviously been able to do one of these for a while because of not meeting,

but we'll meet next Sunday night at the end of the service, just go over finances,

and just update on a couple of things, so that'll be next Sunday evening at the end of the service.

I have a pretty good blurb in there about the library, the church library, if you haven't

visited that or haven't been to it in a while, you might want to stop in there.

A couple of new titles that might be of interest to you, and if not one of

the new ones, then there are plenty of old ones that are there as well, so take advantage of those resources

that are available to you, and just a reminder that for the indefinite

future, not doing an offering, passing the plates in the service itself, that

there's an offering box on the foyer table, and you can just drop your offering in that

box and be taken care of just by way of reminder.

So we begin the service today, Psalm 9, verses one and two.

Say, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you.

I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

And let's do just that as Jim comes and leads us with our opening hymn.

Jim?

Thank you, Pastor.

Number 55 in your hymnals, number 55, sing praise to God, we'll just sing

together.

Let's stand together, please, just the first two verses.

First two verses of number 55, sing praise to God.

Stand together, please.

♪ Sing praise to God who reigns ♪.

Father, again, we thank you for your goodness to us,

and Father, we thank you for the word of God, which gives us light to our paths

as we walk through this journey of life.

We thank you for the Lord Jesus, for all he accomplished on the cross of

Calvary.

Father, guide pastor as he brings your word this morning, help

the spirit of God work in our hearts and our lives as we hear your eternal,

everlasting word.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

The theme of our service this morning is controlled by Ephesians 6, verses 10

and following, where Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and to

take on the full armor of God and so forth.

And our psalm reading is from Psalm 27.

You may have noticed also the bulletin cover fits right in with that theme today.

God is my strength and power.

Psalm 27, verses one through six, encourages from this psalm that when the Lord

is our light and salvation, we need not fear even this fierce foe that we

face in our lives.

Psalm 27, on the back of your bulletin, you can follow along as we read this psalm together.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled

and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.

Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion.

In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me.

He shall set me up upon a rock.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.

Therefore, will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy.

I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of this song together.

Jim.

And along with that, number 577, be strong in the Lord.

Number 577, just the first two verses of that as well.

Be strong in the Lord and be of good

courage.

Mighty defender is always the

same.

Mount up with wings as an eagle ascending.

Victory is sure when you call on his name.

Be strong and strong, be strong in the

Lord and be of good courage for he

is your guide.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord

and rejoice for the victor is yours.

Put on as provided and

place your defense in unfailing care.

Trust him for he will be with you in

battle.

Lightening your path to avoid every snare.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the

Lord and be of good courage for he

is your guide.

Be strong, be strong, be strong in the Lord

and rejoice for the victor is yours.

As we pray together this week, we want to remember our missionary of the week and encourage you to pray for Chuck and Ruby through the

course of the week.

Chuck and Ruby Kempf.

Chuck is engaged in full -time itinerant evangelistic work and

ministry, preaching in churches like ours all over the country.

And needless to say, the last several months he's been not able to do that.

So just pray for the Lord to continue to provide for them.

The last email I got from him, he said folks have been very good about even

supporting.

We support him as like a missionary a little bit every month and other churches do as well, which has all

been very helpful to them through this time.

But pray for them and for Ruby with her ongoing medical needs.

Also pray for Lynette Heineck.

Mark and Lynette serving in Costa Rica.

We've had them in our prayers often in the last several months.

Last week we prayed about their daughter being able to get back to the States due to the

lockdowns and so forth.

She was able to get home, get back to South Carolina.

I got back Wednesday, I believe it was, or Thursday.

But then Wednesday night, after Elizabeth, their daughter, left,

Lynette ended up going to hospital and went to the emergency room with some severe abdominal pain and

they admitted her.

She's, as far as I know, still in the hospital.

Has a pretty severe infection, internal infection.

So pray for her.

And then continue to pray for Bob Klein, undergoing chemotherapy for cancer.

He's supposed to have a treatment tomorrow.

Continue to pray for the recovery of Maxine Gommer after her fall last week.

She's coming along, but pray for her.

And continue to pray for Kathy McAllister, healing from knee

replacement surgery.

Let's continue to pray for our nation and its turmoil and upheaval.

Pray for our state.

You probably got the news in the last couple days that the Speaker of the

House in Illinois, Mike Madigan, is under federal investigation for

bribery.

And I can say off the record, about time, it's off the record.

But then also saw that so is Governor Pritzker, not for bribery, but for this

tax scheme that he came up with a couple years ago that have all the toilets removed from his mansion

next door to where he lives, so he wouldn't have to pay taxes on it.

Saved him about $330 ,000 in taxes.

But that kind of, we get that kind of news.

And what does that do for our trust and confidence in our leadership?

And we have that kind of problem, not only on the state level, but on the national level as well.

So let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we?

Our Father and our God, we come before you today realizing how desperately we need you.

We are a needy people.

And we are weak, but we're grateful that you are strong.

We face a foe that is very powerful, but you are more powerful.

We face constant onslaught from this wicked foe, and yet

you have given us provision for dealing with it.

We need your help.

We need your strength.

We need to be strong in Christ.

We pray that as we're encouraged by your word to fight the good fight, to take on

this armor that you have given to us, that we would not only be

challenged to do so, but we would be encouraged by what you have provided for us

against, to deal with this enemy that is so determined to destroy us.

Father, we thank you that there is with you great mercy and forgiveness.

And every one of us in this room would have to confess that in the course of this past week, there are some of those

fiery darts that have pierced through and have caused

us and led us, enticed us to sin in some way, with our tongue,

with our attitude, with our thoughts, with our actions, even with our

feet.

And Father, we confess to you that we are a sinful, needy people.

Even as Isaiah had to cry out to you that he was a man of unclean lips and dwelt among a people of

unclean lips, we cannot come before you this morning without the awareness of

our own need of cleansing and forgiveness.

And we're so grateful for that forgiveness that is ours in Christ Jesus, that the blood of Christ cleanses

us from every spot of sin.

So we plead that blood for ourselves today, confessing our sins,

but rejoicing in the provision for our cleansing.

Thank you for your mercy and for your grace.

We do pray for these missionaries that we support, for Chuck and Ruby Kempf.

We pray for them today and pray that you'd provide Chuck with some opportunities to preach and

doors to open up again as churches open up again.

Pray that you'd continue to provide for them and meet their needs.

We pray for Lynette and ask that you would touch her body and give healing to her

in this time of physical need and affliction.

We pray for these in our church family who are also suffering in some way or another.

Think of Bob and going through the chemotherapy and the side effects of that and so forth.

Give him grace to endure it.

I pray for Jerry that you'd just encourage her and give her strength, strength to endure.

Father, we pray for Kathy, continue to strengthen her body and give flexibility

and physical strength to her knee.

Reduce the pain that she's experiencing every day.

For Maxine, continue to heal her as well and I pray for her wrist to heal without incident

and pray that you would just give her physical strength as well.

We do pray for our nation, Father.

We are burdened and we are grieved over what is taking place in our country.

We pray that you would use the strife and division,

the depth of anger and hatred, you would use all of this to bring

people to repentance, bring them to humble need of acknowledging their need

of Christ.

I pray that in this time of national crisis and turmoil, that it would result

in a great spiritual harvest to the glory of Christ.

We think of the problems even in our own state.

We know how much of the financial problems are due to corruption and greed and

cronyism and all the rest of that.

And we're reminded this week of how high up in the offices in our own state

the seeds of corruption can flourish.

Father, we just pray for justice.

We pray for leadership that will be virtuous.

We pray that righteousness would be upheld, that unrighteousness would be

rooted out.

And then, Father, we pray for needs in our congregation that folks just

can't express today.

There are some whose hearts are heavy, they're burdened, and they just can't

express those burdens publicly at this time.

I pray that you would give comfort.

I pray that your spirit would soothe and be the

paraclete, be the encourager that whispers in the ear, that gives comfort and

encouragement to the heart.

We thank you for your word and for its power that your spirit can use to that end.

Now, Father, again, we pray, continue to meet with us in this service, and may our

thoughts be focused on you as we open your word in just a few minutes, and may you challenge us by it.

This we pray in Jesus' name.

All right, Jim will come and lead us in our last hymn before the message.

And just a reminder, Children's Church, we'll meet, and children be dismissed as we sing the last

stanzas of that hymn.

Jim?

And, Pastor, turn in your song books, your blue books, that is, to number 52,

O Church, Arise, or we'll just sing the first and last verse, that is, the first and fourth verse of

O Church, Arise.

So, O Church, let us arise together one more time.

Let's stand together.

And verses one and two of number 52.

Excuse me, one and four.

O

Church, arise and put your armor on Hear the

call of Christ our Captain For now the weak

can say that they are strong In the strength that God has

given With shield of faith and belt of

truth We'll stand against the devil's lies An

army bold whose battle cry is love Reaching out

to those in darkness.

So spirit come, put strength in every

stride Give grace for every hurdle that we

may run Of us serving

good and faithful As saints of old still

line the way Retelling triumphs of his

praise We hear the calls and hunger for the

day When with Christ we stand in glory Thank

you, please be seated.

Our scripture reading this morning for text for our message is Ephesians chapter six,

verses 10 through 13.

Ephesians six, verses 10 through 13.

Paul is nearing the end of this letter and almost like the preacher who says, and finally,

and then keeps going, he says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power

of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the

darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand and withstand in the evil day and

having done all to stand.

Brief prayer.

Father, open up this passage to us today.

Help us to see the value and the importance the critical importance of it.

So we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, in ancient Greek mythology, there's that story of the Trojan War.

Perhaps you're familiar with it.

That battle between the ancient Greeks and the citizens of

Troy, the city of Troy.

And Virgil in his epic poem, the Enid, he writes about that battle and he tells

an incident in that battle.

A very famous incident about the Trojan horse.

And that story and that imagery of the Trojan horse has been used in a lot of different

ways throughout history.

But you remember that story of the Trojan horse, right?

The Greeks had a terrible time.

They were trying to lay siege to the city of Troy.

They were getting nowhere in breaking down that siege.

So they finally came up with this plan, this scheme.

They built this hollow, large, hollow wooden horse, rolled it, put it on

wheels, and rolled it up to the gate of the city of Troy, where

after all of the soldiers, the Greek soldiers, looked like they were in full retreat and

were leaving.

It was just one guy who came up with his horse and he made the announcement to the

citizens of Troy that this is an offering to the goddess Athena from the

Greeks, please accept this offering, this gift, and see you later, we're

out of here, was the message.

And so somewhat warily, the Trojans opened the gate and pulled in that

Trojan horse and set it in the middle of the city streets.

And closed the gates and shuttered them tightly and everybody went to bed.

And then in the middle of the night, there were some Greek soldiers inside that hollow horse

who came out of the horse and made their way to the gate, unlocked the gate and opened the doors of the

gate.

And all the Greek soldiers who did not go home, none of them went home, they all came flooding

into the city and ended up destroying the city.

And hence the Greeks beat the Trojans all because of this Trojan horse.

Well, the basic lesson of this story in mythology of course is that you need to

know your enemy and you need to be aware of his deceptive tactics.

Paul recognizes that, the Lord recognizes that for us who are Christians that we

have an enemy and he has deceptive tactics and we as God's people

need to be aware of our enemy and we need to be aware of his deceptive tactics.

So Paul closes out this letter to the Ephesians largely dealing with this whole subject of

our enemy and his tactics and how we deal with him.

Now just to put into perspective how we'll handle this passage, it'll probably take

three weeks today and then a couple more Sundays to look at this whole passage of

chapter six verses 10 through 20, these 11 verses.

But just to give you a perspective on how inadequately I will deal with that, this little

volume here is entitled The Christian in Complete Armor.

It was written by William Gurnall, old Puritan back in, let's see if I can tell you when he

was, it doesn't say right on the fly.

Anyway, so this little volume is 1 ,240 pages that he

wrote all referencing Ephesians six verses 10 through 20.

And Martin Lloyd -Jones, famous pastor from London, he wrote a

commentary set on the book of Ephesians.

It's eight volumes long, the whole set, eight volumes.

The last two of those eight volumes is just on this particular

passage.

So considering the depth with which this could be dealt with I'm going to skim the

surface of it.

Today I want us to focus on verses 10 through 13 and notice and to see in

this passage the nature of the battle that we face as well as the

character of our enemy.

And we'll just say a brief word about that and focus more on that next week.

But we want to do that because we need to be equipped that we might stand firm in

this battle.

So let's first of all notice that we have to be awake to the seriousness of the battle that

we're in.

Paul says finally here in verse 10, finally be strong

in the Lord and the power of his might.

He goes on into dealing with this battle, finally.

Now that finally is not like, oh yeah, I almost forgot.

Like this is such a minuscule minor point that almost doesn't need

emphasizing, it's just so insignificant.

But now that I've thought about it I guess I better discuss it.

Not that kind of finally.

It's more like a and last but certainly not least in all that I've had

to say in application of the first three chapters of theology.

Last but certainly not least, you need to know you're in a battle and you need to

equip yourself for that battle.

Now if we're going to wake up to the seriousness of it we really have to be

aware of the reality of this battle.

And I think this may be one of the most difficult aspects of the whole thing.

Oh sure, when there is some tremendously evil thing going on in our

world then we're very conscious of a

battle, of a warfare.

I mean even what's going on in our world right now, how many of you have had the thought

and maybe even expressed it that look, with all of this pandemic

and then all of the ramifications of it and this and that and the other thing, this is, there's

something deeper going on here.

There's something bigger going on here.

There's a spiritual battle going on here.

And there is.

But I'll tell you what, this spiritual battle was going on in January as well as in

March and April and May.

You see we need to accept the reality of it.

He says in verse 12 that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but we do wrestle against

principalities and powers and so forth.

There is this wrestling match.

Now let me say a word about that because when you think of a wrestling match what do you think of?

You think of these high school guys that get out on a mat and these two guys are going at it and everything is

very controlled.

You've got a referee there, he makes sure that nobody does anything illegal and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

This is not even like, this isn't like that.

This isn't even like a boxing match.

You know, a professional boxing match where two boxers are going at it trying to gain the

belt.

This isn't like a boxing match either.

This is more like, this word that is translated here in our

English King James Bible as wrestle is more like a gladiatorial

duel in ancient Rome and you know how those things went, don't you?

There was no referee in the middle of the ring and making sure that gladiator A

didn't land a dirty blow against gladiator B.

There was no referee.

The dirtier the blows the better because this was a fight to the death and both of

the gladiators in that duel were fighting to the death.

This is the kind of wrestling match that Paul is talking about here.

This is a battle that is going on and it's going on, listen, this battle is going on every

time you turn on the television set.

What's your favorite TV program?

What is it?

I mean, I'm not asking for a bunch of verbal answers right now.

Obviously, I'm asking you to bring it to your mind.

Whatever that favorite television show is, do you realize that in the course of that television show,

the wicked one has a tactic involved that can deal

with your heart?

Well, let me give you an example of this.

Just as a wind down last night, we turned on HGTV,

the show Love It or List It.

I mean, can you think of anything more innocuous than Love It or List It?

If you know that show, you know what I'm talking about.

It's the typical program is this family or couple or whatever, they have a house that

is just woefully inadequate for their needs.

The layout is terrible or it's too small or whatever and so you've got this other

couple, a guy and a woman and the guy is a real estate agent and he's going to try

to convince that couple to buy a different house and he's gonna take them and show them different

houses that will meet their needs.

Whereas the lady in this, the co -host of this program, the lady is a

designer and she'll remodel that house and try

to shape it in a way that will meet the needs that are woefully lacking as

it stands.

And so it's like these two, the man and the woman, the real estate agent, the designer, they're in competition with one

another to see who can get the couple to either love their house

as it's been remodeled or list it because they're gonna buy the one the agent wants them.

To buy.

All right, so that's the premise of this show.

Pretty innocuous stuff, right?

But here's the thing, here's what can happen even in such an innocuous show.

You're sitting there watching this and the guy, the agent, takes the

couple to this house and you start, you see all of these things

that this new house that they could buy offers to them

and then you start looking around and you start looking around at your own house.

You say, man, you know, it'd really be nice if I, would you look at that kitchen?

Would you look at my kitchen?

Or they get into the remodeling stage and they're tearing out this and they're putting in that and they're

getting all these new appliances and these new fixtures and this new this and this new that and when all is said and done and they

bring the couple in back in to see their newly designed house, everything is meticulous, it's all

beautiful and all the rest of this stuff and you look at all that and you say, hmm,

look at my house.

And it can vary, see, the wicked one can use something as simple and

innocuous as love it or list it to do a work in your heart to

cause you to be covetousness or discontented or

lustful after something that you don't have and that you don't need.

You see, even in something like that, the battle is going on when you turn on the TV, the battle is

going on when you read the newspaper, the battle is going on when you watch some kind of a movie, any kind of a movie,

it doesn't have to be a pernicious movie, it can be a G -rated movie, it can be anything,

the battle is going on when you browse social media, the battle is

raging, the battle is going on in the halls of Congress, it's going on in the courts of

our nation, the battle is being waged in the classrooms of our schools,

the battle is going on in our own thoughts, in the desires that crop up

in our minds and in our hearts, the battle's going on when you go to Walmart or to

Kohl's or you drive by the car dealership, there are these enticements,

and the wicked one is always on the prowl, and he'll use

all kinds of tactics, and we as God's people have to have our eyes

open, we need to accept the reality of this wrestling match, of this gladiatorial

duel, we need to accept the reality of it, and then we need to not only accept the

reality of it, but we need to recognize the nature of it.

Yes, this thing is going on, this battle is going on, but what is the nature of it?

Paul speaks of it in verse 13 as withstanding in the evil day,

the evil day, the nature of this battle is a battle

between good and evil, and the question is which one is going to prevail?

This battle will determine whether you will obey God's word or you

will please yourself, the battle will determine whether you accept

God's revelation and truth or you accept man's thinking, man's

theories, man's ideas, man's philosophy, the battle will determine

whether or not you accept God's standards of right and wrong, of virtue,

of righteousness, or you consider it all kind of

quaintly outdated, that there are newer thoughts, there are newer

ideas that are more progressive and they take the place of.

Will you value God's standards of right and wrong or will you value those of Hollywood

or even of your friend down the street, your coworker, I mean

you go to talk to that one about this particular issue or this matter,

God has something to say about this, God's word has something to say about it, you know what it says,

but you talk to your friend and your friend says, you know what, look, you deserve to be happy, you

deserve to be happy and if that's not going to make you happy, you need to do what's going to make you happy, you

deserve to be happy.

Will you listen to your friend or will you value God's standards of right and wrong?

This battle will determine whether you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness

or you seek your kingdom and build up your own little kingdom

and establish your definition of good regardless of what God says.

You see, this battle is a battle between good and evil and Satan

wants to win, the enemy wants to win that battle and have the result

being an evil day.

Recognize the nature of it and don't miss what's at stake.

What is at stake in this battle?

I think you see it in verse 11 when he says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to

stand against the wiles of the devil.

What's at stake is, will you stand firm

or will you yield?

Will you cave?

Will you fall away?

Will you be another statistic, another casualty in the war?

See, that's what's at stake.

Take the full armor of God that you may be able to stand.

If you don't, if you close your eyes to the reality of the battle and you say all of this

stuff, all this talk is just rhetoric, it's just exaggeration, it's

finding the devil under every rock kind of talk, you know, it's not that important, it's not that critical,

then this is what's at stake.

You will cave.

You will fall away.

I'm not talking about losing your salvation.

I'm talking about becoming a casualty in the war.

So you need to wake up to the seriousness of this battle.

It's real.

It's real.

But if you're awake to it, then you can also acquire strength to war in it.

This is what verse 10 is telling us.

He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Notice how this is a, this exhortation, verse 10,

there's a duality in it.

On the one hand, there is your responsibility, there's a call to action.

You are to be strong in the Lord.

You are to be strong in the power of His might.

You are to put on the whole armor of God.

There's a call to action here, but at the same time, there is a

total utter dependence that we have to have upon the Lord.

It's be strong in the Lord, not in the power of my own might.

So how do I take action here?

What is the action I need to take?

How can I be strong in the Lord?

Well, my part in this, my responsibility in this, is to take measures that will

promote spiritual strength and vitality.

For example, live with Christ constantly.

Live with Christ constantly.

Be living in the constant awareness of the presence of Christ and my need

to walk with Him.

For example, in our Psalm reading for today, it's Psalm 27,

verse four, says, one thing have I desired of the Lord.

Is this your testimony?

See, this is live constantly with Christ.

One thing I have a desire to the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days

of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

Let me tell you something, that does not mean going to church every day of the week.

That's not what that's talking about.

It's not not talking about going to church on Sunday, but it is talking about living with the

constant, living in the constant presence of Christ.

What is the temple for the New Testament believer?

You are the temple, right?

You're the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The temple of the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

So what He's calling upon us here to do in living constantly with Christ is to

seek to live in His presence, Psalm 27, four.

Or what about John 15, verses four and five?

Jesus said, abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me

you can do nothing.

What am I talking about?

Taking measures that promote spiritual strength and vitality.

One of those measures is to live with Christ constantly, to abide in Christ, to

abide in Christ, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ.

Peter speaks of this in 2 Peter, chapter four.

2 Peter, chapter four and verses, the last couple of verses of the book,

or 2 Peter three, I mean, verses 17 and 18.

He says, therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things,

beware, lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from

your own steadfastness.

What do I do about that?

How do I prevent being led away with the error of the wicked and falling from steadfastness?

This is Peter's version of what Paul's writing about, right?

Well, he tells you in the next verse.

He says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus

Christ.

What steps do I need, what action do I need to take?

I need to promote spiritual strength and vitality by living with Christ

constantly.

I also need to, or what I can do, to promote spiritual strength and

vitality.

I can obey what I already know.

I can obey what I already know.

In the next letter that Paul writes in your Bible, Philippians, chapter two,

in verses 12 and 13, he says, wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my

presence only, but now much more in my absence.

He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to

will and to do of his good pleasure.

Obey what you already know.

Paul says, you have always obeyed in my presence and out of my presence.

Continue in that, continue in that.

Obey what you already know.

And in Philippians, chapter four, here's another way I can promote spiritual strength and

vitality, by learning to be content with where God has me.

In Philippians four, verses 12 and 13.

You know, verse 13 is used for everything from

successfully making a sales pitch to kicking a

65 -yard field goal.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right?

This verse has no real application to those things.

Here's what this is talking about.

In verse 12, Paul says, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound

everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to

suffer need.

I can do all these things.

I can do all these things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can be content where Christ has placed me through the strength that

he has given to me.

So I can sit and watch Love It or List It and be content with my

woefully inadequate house compared to that $450 ,000

home that this 20 -something couple is about to purchase.

How can I do that?

I can do that through Christ who strengthens me.

And I can put on God's armor.

What can I do to promote spiritual strength and vitality?

I can put on God's armor.

So in verse 11 of our text, he says, put on the whole armor of God.

I can put on God's armor, not my armor, not my armor.

Sometimes we try to do that, don't we?

You know what our armor is?

Our armor is stuff like our own worth and merit.

You know, things like, I have my devotions every day.

I read my Bible every day.

That's a wonderful thing, and I encourage you to do that every day.

But be careful with that.

Be careful thinking that because I read my Bible every day, I therefore

don't have to be on guard.

I don't have to put on the other armor that God has provided.

I can rest in my spiritual exercises and disciplines and not

rest in the armor that God has given to put on.

I can try to fight this war believing in my own

irreplaceable importance.

I'm so important to the work of Christ that certainly Satan is going to take me out.

Or I can rest in my own good sense.

I can count on the armor of my wit and my intelligence and my prowess and

my wisdom that surely I can see my way out of any of these tactics

that the wicked one would throw my way because I'm so smart.

You know what else doesn't work?

What else doesn't work is my own self -isolation, my

attempts of separating and secluding myself from the world.

Should I do so?

Yes, I should do so.

But if that becomes a source

of an attempt of being armor, I'm going to fail

miserably.

Christ doesn't want us to so isolate ourselves and separate ourselves from the world that we

are totally aloof and develop a sense of pride and arrogance

that says I'm so far removed from the world and so above the world

that Satan can't get me.

What did Luther write in the hymn we're going to close with this morning in the

second stanza of A Mighty Fortress is Our God?

Did we in our own strength confide?

What?

Our striving would be losing.

Our striving would be losing.

Oh no, I can't rely upon my own strength.

My striving will be losing.

So I can take measures that promote spiritual strength and vitality and when I

do so, then I can know divine strength in that battle.

Put on the whole armor of God, he says.

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Be strong in the power of his might.

Now look at how Paul describes that power earlier in the book of Ephesians.

So back in chapter one, look back in chapter one and verses 19 and 20.

What kind of power is this that is at your disposal in this war, in this battle, in this fight,

this gladiatorial duel?

What kind of power are we talking about?

Chapter one, verses 19 and 20, Paul says, I want you to

know what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward usward who believe

according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ

when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.

By the way, hang on to that phrase, his own right hand in the heavenly

places.

You're gonna see that same phrase in the heavenly places here in just a moment.

But this is the power.

What kind of power is available?

It's the power that brought Christ again from the dead.

It's the power in chapter two, verses four and five.

It's the power that brought you from the dead.

Look at verses four and five.

But God who is rich in his mercy for his great love over with he loved us.

Even when we were dead in sins, he has quickened or made us

alive together with Christ.

By grace you are saved.

That same power that brought Christ from the dead is the power that brought you from the dead

when he made you alive in Christ Jesus and gave you new life in him.

So we must wake up to the seriousness of this battle.

Once we're awake to it, we can then acquire strength for this battle that we're

in.

And the result then can be stability in the battle.

We can acquire stability.

We can experience that stability in the battle.

So verse 11, Paul says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to

stand against the wiles of the devil.

In verse 13, he says, take upon you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day

and having done all to stand.

So what is this about, this stability?

This is a stability that doesn't waver.

A stability that doesn't waver, standing.

Again, Psalm 27, verses one and three, says the Lord is my light and my

salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life.

Of whom shall I be afraid?

Though a host should a camp around about me, my heart shall not fear.

You hear the stability in these verses?

The war should rise against me.

In this, I will be confident.

There is stability there.

A stability that doesn't waver out of fear or out of a lack

of confidence in the Lord.

This was Peter's problem, wasn't it?

In that courtyard, the night of the betrayal.

Jesus has been arrested, standing over there.

Here's Peter warming himself at the fire.

You're one of his, aren't you?

There's the battle.

There's the war.

Here comes a dart.

You're one of his, aren't you?

What will he do?

Will he stand?

Will he put on the whole armor of God?

Will he be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might that he may be able to stand in the

evil day?

Well, here he is.

Here's the evil day.

It's right in front of him.

You're one of his, aren't you?

No, wavered.

Why did he waver?

Fear, a lack of confidence in the Lord.

Well, this is me as a teenager, surrounded by public

school students and the high school of 3 ,000 other students and just a handful of Christians in

that whole student body.

And here's me, not wanting to be ridiculed or made fun of.

So what do I do?

I just go right along with the crowd, fit right in.

Don't want anybody to know.

I'm one of those weirdo Jesus freaks.

No.

Or this is the temptation that was presented to me one time

when I was given the opportunity to open a, they call it

Town Hall Day in Vermont.

I was given the opportunity to open the Town Hall meeting in prayer.

I was invited to do that and I came to the meeting and was ready to

lead in prayer and the town president or whatever, village president, whatever he was called,

his position, he called me up and he says, so you're so -and -so?

He didn't know who I was.

I said, yeah, yes, yes I am.

He said, and you're going to lead us in a non -sectarian prayer, right?

You know what that means, don't you?

That means something like, oh, almighty one, please grant us

your peace, your blessing, amen.

You don't want to acknowledge any particular God.

You might have a Buddhist there, you might have a Hindu there, you might have a Jew there.

So you definitely do not want to pray in Jesus' name.

What do you do?

What do you do?

Here's the battle.

Here's the day of temptation.

Here's the day of testing.

You get to the end of the prayer and you say, in Jesus' name and for his sake and for his

glory, I pray.

Amen.

Was I tempted not to pray that way?

Yes, indeed.

But in this battle, you can experience stability that doesn't waver

when you've put on the armor, when you're acquiring strength in that battle.

You can know a stability that not only doesn't waver, but it's a stability that doesn't abandon your

place.

It doesn't abandon your place.

That's what the word stand means in verse 11.

It means to stay in your place.

So look at the bigger context here of this passage.

What has Paul just been writing about?

He's been talking about submitting yourselves one to another within the local church.

And then he talked about it within the marriage relationship as husbands and

wives.

And then he talks about it as children and parents.

And then he talks about it in the place of employment.

In all of those applications of the word, what

is the place that the husband needs to be in?

What is the place that the wife needs to be in?

What is the place that the church member needs to be in?

The follower of Christ.

What is the place that the employee needs to be in or the employer?

What is the place that you need to be in?

In this battle, there will be an effort to cause you to

abandon in some way your place.

So stability means you don't abandon your place.

And the stability that you can have from the strength that God provides, the power of His

might, is a stability that also doesn't give ground.

So in verse 13, you have a different word.

Well, actually, it's a compound word.

It's a word that has a preposition attached to the earlier word.

You have in verse 13, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to

withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

So the second word there, the word stand, means you don't abandon your place.

The word withstand means you don't give ground.

You don't give ground.

So how does this work in practical living, everyday living?

How do you give ground in the battle?

Here you are, an employee that's been working for this company for some time, and you're looking around and you're

noticing how things aren't fair.

And you start feeling like, thinking that, you deserve more money,

but it isn't gonna come.

So, you know, you start taking advantage of some things.

You start pilfering a thing or two from the employer.

You start lying when you have sick days available and you call days, your

PTO days, where you can just take that time and use it any way you want.

No, you have given sick days.

You're supposed to be sick to take the sick days.

And you're not sick, but you call in sick.

Why do you do that?

Why do you give that ground?

Because you've yielded to the temptation of the wicked one.

That's why you've given ground.

Or the husband who's supposed to love his wife as Christ loves the church and give himself,

sacrifice himself for the sake, the welfare, the benefit of his wife.

But along comes Satan and says, you know, you haven't done anything for yourself in such a long time.

You have a hobby, you have things you enjoy doing.

You know, just, you don't have to ask your wife to spend money on your hobby.

Just go do it.

It's your money after all.

It's a thing you enjoy doing.

It's about time you got to spend some time doing something you like to do.

So you run off over to Dunham's and you plop down a few hundred bucks on a

new toy that goes along with your hobby.

And you bring it home and there's your wife slaving away and she hasn't had a

new pair of shoes or a new purse or new whatever.

And what gives?

You see?

And you're giving ground to the wicked one.

Or it's like the wife who sees this, sees her husband walk in with this new $250 toy for

his hobby and she realizes that hobby?

What's a hobby?

I don't have a hobby.

I'm just, you know, going at it day after day after day after day after day.

And so she starts resenting her husband and she gives ground and

ignores his leadership and sneaks around behind his

back doing things that she knows are not helpful to the home or to the family or to the

marriage.

Or it's like a child, it's like the child who thinks dad's too hard on him.

The rules are just too much, making me pull weeds, making me help mow the lawn, making me

take out the trash, making me be home by 10 o 'clock on a weekend night.

This is just too much.

And then the child gives ground and starts rebelling,

starts ignoring the rules.

No, in the power of his might, we can so

stand that we don't waver.

We can so stand that we don't abandon our place like Judas Iscariot that

abandoned his place.

And we can so stand that we don't give ground when the wicked one

fires his fiery darts our way.

What is this enemy like?

This we'll save for another time, but verse 12 tells us that he's pretty crafty, he's strong, and he comes at us

from a variety of ways.

But he is not an invincible enemy.

He is fighting from the position of defeat.

He is an already defeated foe.

But even in his defeat, he is determined not to go kicking and screaming.

He's determined to damn as many souls as he can to take him to hell with him and

to wreak as much havoc as he possibly can upon the church and upon Christian homes and

families and workplaces and churches and individuals.

This is what he wants to do, even among God's people.

So let me ask you, are you one of the brethren, Paul says in verse 10, finally my

brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, are you one of the brethren?

Are you in Christ?

Are you one who has Christ dwelling within you?

One who can take this full armor of God?

And you can be strong in the power of the Lord and power of his might.

You can be strong in the Lord because you are in the Lord.

If you're not, my friend, listen, turn to Christ today.

Trust him today.

Be his, become his child today.

If you are a believer, a follower of Christ, and you are one of the brethren who can stand against the foe,

then by the grace of God and in the power of his might,.

Do so.

Our Father and our God, I pray that you would help us to be alert to the battle, to the

war that's going on all around us.

It's going on even within us.

And Lord, help us, oh Lord, to be strong in you and in your power to

take on the full armor of God that we may be able to stand and to withstand.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

So let's take our hymnals and turn to number 81.

Martin Luther wrote this marvelous hymn, Mighty Fortress is Our God, and

had other passages in mind too, but certainly this one.

We'll stand together and sing.

This is one of those hymns that you can't sing first and third stanza.

You have to, it all flows together.

So let's stand and sing all four stanzas.

A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

A mighty fortress is our God Never failing

Our helper he amidst the flood

of mortal ills prevailing For still

our ancient foe seek to work a

swall His craft and power are

great and armed with cruel hate On

earth is not his

he can't confide Our striving

would be loose We're not the

right man on our side The man of God's own

choosing Thus to ask who that may

be Christ Jesus it is he

Lord Sabbath his name From age

to age the same Must win

the battle And all this

world with devils filled Would threaten to

undo us We will not fear for

God has willed His truth to triumph through

us The prince of darkness grim We tremble

not for him His rage we can

endure for low his doom is

sure One little word shall fell

him That word above all earthly

powers No thanks to them

abideeth

For ours through him who with us

sideth Let goods and kindred

go This mortal life also The body they

may kill God's truth abideth

still His kingdom is

forever Just

remind you that we do meet tonight at six o 'clock.

If you can make it back, be looking at the first Psalm this evening and what it means to be and how

to be a happy person.

So now may the God of peace sanctify you completely and may your

whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus

Christ.

You, O Lord, who calls us is faithful.

You will surely do it.

We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name, amen.

You are dismissed.