Systematic Theology (part 15)

Prayer, Dependence, and the Battle of Spiritual Warfare

O Lord Jesus Christ, we continue to marvel at your sovereign grace, the grace which you extended to us at the cross and which you extend to us every day as believers. We thank you for the many privileges we have in Christ, the foremost being we are reconciled to our God and our Creator.

We thank you for the privilege to be here today with others who profess to be slaves of Christ, to celebrate your resurrection with them, to encourage one another, to love one another, to carry each other's burdens, to encourage each other even in the battle that we have.

We thank you for this opportunity. We pray for other ministries. We pray that you'd bless their work, bless the teachers, bless the audience, and I pray that you would bring unto yourself any and all who do not know your name.

We thank you for this opportunity once again to be together and to talk about your word, to talk about the many benefits we enjoy as being in Christ Jesus. Amen. Has anybody met a marathon runner? Specifically the 26-mile marathon runners.

More or less. Are any of you marathon runners? No? Okay. I know it takes quite a bit to be one. I'm not saying you can't be. I'm not saying any of you here are not able to be. I'm just saying it's quite a bit of preparation.

This year, we had the Boston Marathon early March, and I was commuting on my way back from South Station to my home, and in the Back Bay Station, a marathon runner got in. Actually, a few of them got in, and one of these gentlemen sat right next to me.

He was very thin, in excellent shape, okay, looked very strong, probably in his 50s. You can see that he was tired, so I asked him a few questions, and then he politely said, I really can't talk more.

I'm really tired, so I'm going to sleep, and he told me to wake him up when the train stops at Ashland. So I said, my pleasure. But he did tell me a few things. He told me that he trains for about eight months, out of eight or nine months out of the year, and his training is very vigorous.

Five days of 35-mile runs. To be honest, that sounds insane to me. I can probably run 10. I can't run 35 every day. And then he normally takes two days of break. This is what many of the marathon runners do.

They then take a two days break. They take rest. It's very particular that they eat well, they sleep well, and they train very hard. One thing that's very clear from talking to these guys is they're very focused.

Very focused. Their goal is not just to finish the marathon. For many of them, it is to win the marathon. The training is phenomenal, and I really admire them. The more and more I get to talk to these guys, the more I admire their resolve, their focus, their attention into these marathons.

I often find it hard to understand how many references we have in the scripture as to the Christian life being like a competitive event. Like a sporting event. It's not something where we just sit back and everything is okay.

Christian sanctification takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of focused attention, and I just couldn't... I had to start with that as I thought about the armor of God, and as we look at how we ought to be engaged in this battle.

Satan’s Fall, Demon Possession, and the Limits of the Enemy

Last week, we looked at the fall of Satan. We looked at why he fell. We saw his pride, and how he had a singular desire to be God. God, sovereign, mighty, punishes him, throws him out of heaven. We see this in Isaiah 14, and we see this in Ezekiel 28.

We looked at those last week. We also saw how Satan does have an influence. In particular, in Ezekiel 28, we saw an example of how he had influence. on the king of Tyre. We looked at demon possession, mainly to understand why demon possession is important to understand Ephesians 6, because a lot of people, including reformed Christians, tend to think the only battle we have is casting out demons.

It's battling demons face to face, and casting out demons, and they tend to look at Ephesians 6 only for that reason. But that's not what Paul had in mind, and so we're going to look at that more today.

Finally, we also took some time to look at verses which showed us that believers cannot be demon-possessed. That believers who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, that is all believers are, you're indwelt with the Holy Spirit, who is God himself, cannot by any means, by any measure, be demon-possessed.

So we spent some time to look at that. I also said that understanding the enemy, the specifics of the battle, and the privileges we have in Christ Jesus are crucial. They're very important for our everyday lives as followers of Christ.

They're very important for our joy, and they're very, very important for our effectiveness in ministry. Did people, did anybody have questions, or doubts, or concerns from anything we spoke about last week?

Just so that I can set it, or I can calm you down before we go to the, before we start today's, today's lesson. No, I guess everybody's good. All right. Let's look at Ephesians this morning, and I'll give some examples as we go through this.

Where did Paul write the book of Ephesians? Where was he at this, at the time that he wrote the book of Ephesians? He's in prison. He's, he's specifically in his home. He's a prisoner in his own home.

So he writes this letter to the Ephesians to primarily teach them about cosmic reconciliation. That's his theme, and we see that in Ephesians 1, 8 to 10. Cosmic reconciliation, the, the theme of the book is to talk about the unity of the believer in Christ, to talk about how Jew and Gentile have been reconciled to Christ, and how they together are one body in Christ Jesus.

This letter was delivered by Tychicus. This is who delivered it to the Ephesians, to the people at Ephesus. Paul was, like I said, in prison, so he could not deliver it. But he writes it, gives it to Tychicus.

He goes and delivers it to the people of Ephesus. Now, Paul has a very logical sequential pattern in all of his epistles. What is that pattern? He's, he does this in all of his epistles. He does, almost I can say A and B.

It's the way he follows his entire.

Writing. Corrie. Yep.

Excellent. Corrie was saying that he starts by focusing on doctrine, and then he goes into how the believer can apply what he has learned, and based on what he has learned. There's no difference in Ephesians chapters 1 to 3, talk about the believer's blessings in Christ.

And that's all doctrine. It's, it's what are primitive truths that you need to know before you can even look at 4, 5, and 6. So 1, 2, and 3 are doctrinal. It's what we call here, indicatives. 4, 5, and 6 is duty.

Okay. Now, you've just seen what the believer's blessings are in Christ. Good. We have that as a foundation. Now, let's go to 4, 5, and 6, which is the, now what, how does the believer think and behave based on these truths?

These are what, what is often called as imperatives. And he wraps it up in chapter 6, verses 10 to 24, specifically as part of those imperatives to talk about how you can walk in victory. Let's get straight to the armor.

Okay, let's, let's look at some of the, let's look at this text. Let's dive into it. That way, there's plenty of time for some questions and some concerns as they come up. Can someone turn, can everybody turn to Ephesians 6, 10 to 20?

Can someone read from 10 to 15 and another person read from 16 to 20? Ephesians chapter 6, 10 to 15, and 16 to 20. 6 to 10, 10 to 15. Even though verse 18 is where Paul talks about prayer, I want to talk about this first.

If you look at the way Paul structures his sentence in 18 and 19, he's, he's, he's reminding the believers to pray continuously and fervently. He uses a term all four times. So whenever something is used repeatedly, I guess we should take a minute and say, okay, why is it repeated so many times?

And then we also see that he, he's, he's asking the believers to pray for one another and to pray continuously, but he also is seeking prayer for himself. The Apostle is not proud to ask for prayer. He's not proud to seek, to depend on people and to, and to request them to pray on his behalf.

If you look at verse 14 of Ephesians 6, we learn this term, which is standing firm. We'll talk a lot about, we'll talk a little bit more about that at the end, but the way Paul has structured these verses, praying in verse 18 and standing firm in verse 14 go hand in hand.

They go together. Prayer is very important in the battle, in our spiritual warfare. It shows complete and continual dependence on God. I will, I'll admit, why am I talking about this first, is when I started studying doctrine more, and when I started reading more and being more and more applying hermeneutics into what I was studying, I tend, tended to get more proud, and the immediate effect of that pride was I tended to pray less.

I don't know if anybody here has been, has struggled with that, but it's, it's, definitely part of my fondness, but I found it, it was almost ridiculous to think doctrine should not feed your pride. It should cause you to come to your knees more and depend on God.

But what it did to me was the opposite effect. It, I tended to take it to my head and say, yeah, I know all this stuff, and I found it hard to pray. Paul here is, is telling us that this is the most important part of the armor, because it shows dependence on God, and it's definitely a command of God, but it shows total and utter dependence on God.

Thoughts, comments on this? Has anybody had difficulty praying when, when you've spent a lot of time in just maybe, you know, looking through commentaries, or Pastor Bob is saying that he prefers to listen to people who have, who have no difficulty praying.

So anybody here does not have any difficulty in praying? I like that. You guys are humble, humble lot. So, so, so you see why it is very important, why it is continuous. I find that it's sometimes easier for me to pray, and sometimes it's easier for me to read the word, and to think on, meditate on the word, which is extremely important, than it is to pray.

Than it is to sit down and, okay, I've just read the text. This is where my life is. Okay, how do I apply for the glory of God? How do I apply that? I think sometimes I tend to be a little lazy with that.

So studying this, and thinking over this in the last several months, has helped me pray more, has brought me more to my knees, because it's very important to do that, as we, as it shows dependence on God.

Now pray, Paul says you need to pray in the spirit. Often, at least growing up, I heard that that means to pray in tongues. Is that what this is? Is that what this is? Praying in the spirit, almost always, if you look outside of, if you look, if you read, if your eyes are cheating into the text, that's exactly what people say it is.

It, it means that you can only pray in the spirit if you are, if you're praying in gibberish, if you're praying in a language that nobody else but God can understand, and that's what it means to pray.

Comments on that. What does praying in the spirit mean? It's in the Bible. It is in the Word. We know we need to pray in the spirit, but if it does not mean praying according, you know, using tongues, what does it mean?

Okay, no problem. Maybe you guys do pray in the tongues. Is that why you're, I'm just saying. I'm not sure. We're supposed to, the, we're supposed to pray confidently in the spirit, controlled by the Word.

So when we say we're supposed to pray in the spirit, it means as we fill our minds with the Word of God, the Word of God motivates our prayer. It controls what we pray, the way we pray, and the, the motivation of why we are praying.

It's not praying in tongues. It's not necessarily speaking in tongues. We don't see that anywhere, as, as, as even Christ gave us a pattern for prayer. It's praying with the confidence of what we see in the spirit based on the attributes of God that we see in the Word of God.

It was anybody here when Pastor Don Green preached a few weeks ago? He taught on Psalm 6. He, he spoke about this. You know, he spoke about how you ought to pray. You pray continually, you bring all your emotions, you bring everything as it is to God, and then you end your prayer by thanksgiving, by knowing that God can do as he chooses, when he chooses, based on who he is.

And even if your circumstances don't change, God is immutable. God does not change. So you go away with the confidence that God is sovereign and God is mighty. I was very encouraged to study Psalm 6. So I hope, I hope you are too.

But we see a lot of, and now, we see a lot of parallels between how we need to pray and what Paul is saying. Paul also says we need to pray continuously. Why is that? Why do we need to pray continuously?

What's he, because he uses the term all four times here. One of those, one of the ways he uses it is to pray continuously. Why? What's the need to pray continuously, especially in context of spiritual warfare?

Charlie? Excellent. That's, that's, that's perfect, because again, as it shows dependence on God, you're continually going back to him. Okay? And the battle is continual. Would you say that? Do you see the battle is continual?

Does, does Satan just sit back and sip a cup of coffee? He said, yep, I've been at this for three hours. Let me just sit on the counter and give Linton a little break. No, the battle is continual. He, he's, he's, he never stops.

So therefore, you need to be in prayer. And like Charlie said, the prayer brings you back into a continual attitude where you're not only depending on God, but you're also going back to him. In the word, you go, you, you keep going back to him.

You keep finding strength in him, and you keep resting in him. So that, that is extremely important to understand. We also see the necessity to pray for each other. Paul says you need to pray for one another.

You need to intercede for one another. Intercession is praying on behalf of one another. It's very easy for us to pray for ourselves, but we also need to be able to pray for one another. We're all in the battle.

As the church, we're all in battle together, as those who belong to the church. So we ought to pray for one another. We ought to pray for our pastors, our elders, our deacons. We ought to pray for the men, the women, the children.

Okay, that there's, there's a continuous intercession here. Okay, and my final thing on prayer is, he also says you need to pray at all times. Does that literally mean we need to stop everything, pray loudly, pray continuously, maybe sitting down somewhere?

What, what does he mean pray at every single time? What does that mean? Excellent. There's no distinction between six hours a day you pray, six hours a day you don't. But, yes. I like what, I like, I like that because Charlie was mentioning how what was in the Old Testament was specified.

There were some specific times, as opposed to now, post-resurrection, we don't have those specific times. But we are to have a constant prayerful attitude towards God. It's constant. Doesn't mean we're always necessarily praying in that same manner to God, in the sense that we're not loudly proclaiming, you know, refusing to work, refusing to take care of our families.

No, that's not what that is. It's, you're taking everything to God in a continual manner. It's a prayerful attitude that you have towards God all the time. Again, what that shows is a dependence on God, and you, you're looking to communicate everything with God.

We also see that in Psalm 6, and, and it's good to see the kind of emotions that is, that is mirrored there, that we can take and must take everything to God. A Christ-centered, word-powered prayer life is extremely important in our spiritual warfare.

So I just want to encourage you that even as we think about this battle, and we think about the armor of God, prayer is very important to keep in mind. Prayer is very important. It's important that we do it continually, that we don't take it lightly.

The Belt of Truth and the Breastplate of Righteousness

The first element of the armor, in one sense, is the belt of truth, the belt of truth. I'm going to go through these quickly. Most of us know this, but I want to go through this quickly so we can sum it up nicely.

First is, what is the Roman panoply reference? Panoply is nothing but the armor, and, and, you know, we don't use that term anymore, but it often means a uniform, a uniform that a sect, a section, a group of people would wear.

The reference in, to the Roman soldier, was it was a leather apron which protected his thighs, but it was also primarily used to fasten the rest of his clothes tightly. If he didn't have that, things would be loose.

He would not be able to freely and confidently move because things would get caught. So he had to, he had to have this belt or this leather apron for protection and for keeping his clothes tightly. Do you know where Paul got this reference from?

I did not know this till I sat down and did a lot of studying on this. Do you know where Paul gets this reference of a belt of truth from? The hoplite soldier? Yes, the Romans, I mean, Paul does have the Roman soldiers in mind, but my question was more which Old Testament reference did he have?

Which Old Testament? Definitely, Lisa, you're absolutely correct. He has a Roman soldier in his mind. He's in Rome. He's surrounded by the soldiers. They're everywhere. He definitely has them in mind as he looks to the people at Ephesus.

But which Old Testament reference does he have in mind as he goes through this? I don't know if your notes have or if your references have this. Turn with me to Isaiah 11, 4 to 5. All the elements of the armor that Paul talks about in Ephesians can be found in the book of Isaiah.

Most or all of it is in reference to Yahweh's armor, and we'll talk about what that means. Why does Yahweh need an armor? But in Ephesians, Paul is using that same language, yet he's using it for the believer.

He's using it to explain what the armor is to the believer. Can anybody read Isaiah 11, 4 to 5? Corey? Thank you. Thank you. This is a common reference to what the Messiah wore in battle. And we'll talk a lot about that when we look at Isaiah 59.

But this is essentially the Yahweh's armor when he is looking to defeat his enemies and looking to judge the nations. What Peter O 'Brien comments about this section is, what he says is this, the armor which the Messiah wears in battle is now provided for his people as they engage in spiritual warfare.

And as we look at the belt of truth, we need to know truth. Where is truth revealed? In the Word. Okay, God is a source of truth. Truth is revealed only in the Word. Why is truth very important? Because our enemy is what?

A liar. And a deceiver. If we don't know what is true, we cannot discern what is evil. How do we fight against the deceptions of the devil? How do we know what's true? What's false? If we don't know the Word of God, if we don't know sound doctrine, how do we move forward?

It's not possible. So therefore, while in my life, for instance, sound doctrine was extremely important to get me away from all the things I had learned growing up when it came to Christ, it was also a very important area to see how some of the things I knew and believed were wrong.

The belt of truth is extremely important because it's what helps us to discern what is evil and what is right. And that's because we look to the Word of God. We study the Word of God. We need to know the Word of God.

Comments, questions, concerns. Is this important? Maybe not. What do you guys think? No? Okay. The breastplate of righteousness. This is the next armor. As the name suggests, it was wore right across the chest.

It was to protect from blows and arrows. Turn with me to Isaiah 59, 17. That's where we see the reference to the breastplate of righteousness. And that's what Paul has in mind, too. Although, remember, he uses it differently in Ephesians.

But it's still good for us to see how the Bible comes together, how he uses Old Testament scriptures, how he has that in mind as he's looking to educate, looking to encourage, looking to exhort the people at Ephesus.

And us. Isaiah 59, 17. Can anybody read that? I'll read it. He puts on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

Again, as I said before, this passage talks about Yahweh, how He puts on the breastplate of righteousness to deliver His people and to punish their enemies. To punish, in particular in Isaiah, the nation's enemies.

So, we see that how even the idea that Paul has in mind is now what the Yahweh use, or will use, even from what we see in Revelation 19 as the armor, is what the believer has in his fight, in his battle against evil, and in his battle against Satan.

A question for you is this. This is the breastplate of righteousness. What righteousness is it talking about here? Since this is the armor of God, since this is pertaining to what the believer needs to use, is this forensic righteousness?

What Paul talks about this a lot. Paul talks about forensic righteousness and justification throughout the book of Ephesians. But is that what is being used here in Ephesians 6? Is that what's being used here?

No, okay. It's imputed righteousness of Christ. Oh, isn't the imputed righteousness of Christ necessary for a justification? It is, right? Yeah, okay. So, I don't think this is talking about the forensic declaration, though.

It's important that we understand that it's necessary for salvation. But isn't the armor something that we put on? It's not necessarily, isn't it something that we, aren't all elements something that we do?

And we know that we're not righteous by our own works in front of our Holy God. We know that. So, studying this, I looked at 424, Ephesians 424 and Ephesians 5 9, where Paul talks about the necessity to put on the new self, and how it's very important to walk in righteousness, that is to obey.

And from what I see in Ephesians 4, Ephesians 5, this is doing righteous works, as opposed to only the forensic declaration of righteousness that we see in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. Agree? Disagree? Comments?

I know you many of you have studied the armor more than I have. So, you agree? You disagree? Want to throw me out? Mind you, I am not saying that the believer is righteous on his own. I am not saying that we can be made right without the imputed righteousness of Christ.

That is not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is when you look at his context and the language he uses in 424 and 5 9 in Ephesians 6 14, this is talking about obedience, doing righteous works. In other words, obeying and actually applying what we learn is an important piece of the armor as well.

And we also see in Ephesians 5 1, where Paul says we need to be committed imitators of him, and act righteously in all of our dealings. So that's not necessarily saying we can earn our righteousness, but we need to imitate.

Imitating Paul as he imitates Christ is an act that we do. It's obedience. It's walking in righteousness. So I would say that this is not just forensic righteousness, but it's primarily focused on obeying God's Word and doing righteous works.

Anybody confused? Everybody? Michael. Larry, sorry. Somebody else is Michael. Right. When you look at the elements of the armor, you do see that it's supposed to exhort us to confidence as we come to Christ, and prayer as we battle.

I think I completely agree with what you're saying. Yes. If I was depending on my own righteousness, you don't get to Ephesians 6 without going through 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. You don't get there. You have to understand justification by faith alone, in Christ alone.

He talks about how you were dead in your trespasses, now made alive in Christ, Ephesians 2. But here's what, let me ask you a question. How would it affect your walk in life, walk as a Christian, if you were constantly disobeying God's Word?

I'm not talking about Christ's righteousness here. We all sin. We all still disobey. If I was constantly disobeying the Word of God, how would that affect my life, my joy, my effectiveness in ministry?

What effect would it have? Yeah. Yep. Yes. Yes. Charlie, I think you have a response. Absolutely. Perfect. That's a perfect response and a very sad example, too, because we see that all too often. Very, very sad example, but excellent response.

Eric. Excellent. What Eric was saying was that you have to obey. You see that in Galatians, as to put on the new self or walk in the Spirit. But what Eric was saying is that obedience comes from the power that God gives us in Christ.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Very, very important to understand that. We, my wife and I, celebrated our third year anniversary, wedding anniversary, this Wednesday. And we often look at our wows and we like to look at it again.

But this year we watched the wedding video and it was great to see the wows and to hear them, as I was telling it to her and she was telling it to me. My commitment to her, it's a good reminder of my commitment to her, how I love her and I ought to love her alone.

And the wows are a good reminder of what marriage is about, especially at my wedding, it was all the Gospel, all Christ, all representation of Christ in the church. And that's the way it ought to be. It was a great reminder for me of where me and my wife need to focus on our marriage.

The armor of God is a good reminder of how we ought to be committed, but how does that commitment play out? You need to put on the armor. You need to understand what it's about. Somebody open it. Hi, Pastor Bob.

Okay. No, no. Yes. Not me. Not me. I agree and I think... Yes, I think that assumption, that presumption is very much what we get from this text. There's also hyper-Calvinism, right? Where you just sit back and since God is sovereign, He does everything for you.

So essentially you don't really do anything on your own. So my main argument here would be as we are in Christ, as we have been given many privileges, we still ought to go and obey. We still got to ought to go and do good works.

Not that it saves us because it's already done, done, done, right? As we always hear preached here. But we we have to obey what the Lord says because He is still Lord. He's not just Savior. He's Lord.

We bow down before Him and we ought to obey Him and I think that's where Righteous Works comes into play. Corey? Your identity in Christ. Yeah. Right. I agree with you. It's hard to disagree with that.

Okay, there's no doubt about it. Yet in my mind, it's not as clear as that in terms of the distinction between what is put on always and what is what you put on specifically the time of battle. So my argument once again would be that the battle is continual.

It's always there. It's always against the mind. It's always there in different forms and we see so it's... Yes. That's right. That's right. It's consistent. It's always there. Uh... I have three minutes remaining and four armors and plenty of summary to do.

So let me see. I don't know. I probably should but it's... I could do it another week. Yes, that's probably a good idea. Because there's no way I can get through all this in five minutes, three minutes.

The Shield of Faith, Flaming Darts, and Standing Firm in the Evil Day

Okay, let's talk about the shield of faith and then we'll kind of wrap up with that. The Roman panoply reference is what? It's a large shield. It's not a small shield in which you fight close contact.

I mean combat with. It's a very large shield that would protect the entire body of the soldier. At least that was the intent when used correctly. In the Old Testament, the shield is often used as an image of God's protection of his people.

We see that for example in many places, but we see in Proverbs 35. Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. So the shield that reminds us that God is protecting his people even in this warfare.

It's God who protects his people. Again, I think I can start a controversy here today by going over this because I understand that some of this can vary a little bit, but here's what I've studied. Here's what I think.

You want to shout at me? Go right ahead. Okay, so Kistemacher talks about the definition of faith in his commentary in Hebrews. And one of his definitions is it's adhering to the promises of God, depending on the word of God and remaining faithful to the son of God.

His context is Hebrews 11. That's the faith chapter, right? I always miss that. Is that 10 or 11? 11. Yes. Okay, so that's where he gets this definition of faith. Faith in Ephesians 6 is a shield. That is, it is as you're battling, it's the confidence that you have in God and that he will deliver his, he will keep his promises.

That's a pretty big shield. So the confidence is not necessarily in you, but it's in that God is capable, willing, powerful enough to keep his promises. And that's the confidence that you have. That even in the midst of the battle, he will protect us and he will help us.

Now Paul uses the term in as he describes the shield of faith, he says it to protect from the flaming darts of the evil one. I'm not going to go to the Roman reference. We all know that. Can you give me some examples of this flaming dart?

It's a good way to stop today. What are the flaming darts of the evil one? Amen. That's great, isn't it? He knew how wretched and depraved we were, how putrid we were, and yet he saved us. And yet he equips us by his grace against the darts of the evil one.

I have a few written here. I have false teaching as one of the flaming darts of the evil one. Temptations, doubt, which is the opposite of faith, despair, persecution, ungodly behavior, our own, others, are all the different flaming darts that we can think about that come against the believer and how we ought to use the shield of faith.

While we cannot be demon-possessed, Satan does influence the world. Still under God's sovereignty, he looks to externally defeat and discourage the believer. We need God's grace and faith to extinguish those flaming darts.

We need to trust and have confidence in the Lord as we set out daily in the battle. Now, I don't know if I'll be able to teach another time, and that's okay. But at least it gets you thinking that the armor of God is not something that's silly.

It is a proactive thing to study upon, to meditate on. It is one of the privileges and benefits we have in Christ Jesus. At least I have explained to you what demon possession is and how that's not the battle that Ephesians 6 is talking about and how we are engaged in battle and we ought to proactively, in faith, in the confidence in our Lord and Savior, get out there and fight every single day.

Any more questions or comments about that? I apologize for not getting through everything. But the discussion was great. So I really appreciate that. I get some things to think about. Yeah, and I don't disagree with you at all.

I don't disagree with you at all. You're right. We can never be perfectly righteous. If that was the case, I would have loved to go to heaven right now. No need to wait around here. But yet we do see the importance of obedience.

We still have to obey. We still have to submit to the Lord. One way that even John MacArthur sums up, he writes a little paragraph on how do you sum up the spiritual armor. He says you can sum it up in one word, obedience.

That obedience is not what purchases our righteousness. But it's obedience that comes out of a loving and grateful heart to God. And to me, just Charlie's example of the pastor and infidelity, it is something that everybody's capable of.