Two Journeys

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 58:1-12. The main subject of the sermon is how we can spend our lives to serve the needy in a Christ-honoring manner.

As I was thinking about Isaiah 58, thinking about this sermon, I'm going to be preaching two sermons on this chapter. There's just too much for me to be able to deal with here. But, I meditated and it became clear and clear as there's a phrase "the chains of injustice" and I thought about chains or bonds, or yokes of oppression, and it occurred to me we live in a world of invisible chains. For many, many months we had the privilege of studying in the Book of Ephesians, and how in Ephesians 2, we're told of a dark Satanic kingdom in which we all once lived. And we were held in the bondage, in the invisible chains of sin, and we couldn't see them. Satan has cleverly crafted a vast network of invisible chains that are effective in accomplishing his evil desires. Chains of injustice yokes of oppression, prisons of sin that we cannot see with the natural eye. They have to be spiritually discerned, we have to be able to see through what we can see with our eyes to see the injustice to see the chains, and to see them rightly the way God does. Now The gospel of Jesus Christ shines heavenly light into that, enables us to see with ever-increasing clarity, the more we grow in Christ, these chains. It enables us ourselves through faith in Christ, to rise up out of a prison of sin, rise up out of chains and walk in newness of life, and then we can be filled with joy and we can have purpose, in our lives.

But you know, for all of that, I still feel strong chains satanic chains on my heart. Do you not feel it on yours? When we are called on in Verse 10 of this chapter, to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor or needy. I feel a reluctance, in my flesh to do that. I feel it all the time. I feel the same thing when I try to share the Gospel, I feel something holding me back. I want to share my faith. I want to be bold, I want to care about the lost around me, but I hold back, something's holding me back. I must feel there's some kind of invisible bondage or chain around my heart that's keeping me from living the kind of righteous life that God wants me to live. And so this text challenges me, friends, it gets in my grill, it bothers me. The phrase, "Spend yourself on behalf of the needy" bothers me, it challenges me because I know I'm not really doing it, not like I should.

In the summer of 1986, I was on my first mission trip and I've told this story before, it has never left me of how for the first time, I saw poverty in another country. And poverty in America, is different than poverty in other countries. It's just not anywhere near as severe. And so now I've seen many, many such scenes but this was my first time. I was riding in an air-conditioned van through the streets of Mombasa, 15 passenger van with other members of my mission team and we were just driving around there and I couldn't believe the scenes that I was seeing. I couldn't believe the degradation of the homes. I couldn't believe the poverty. And Kenya is not really an incredibly poor African nation, but compared to us, it was just, there was just poverty, there. And we were just moving through in a bubble of air conditioned comfort and luxury. And just moving through and just like Julie was sharing her testimony a few minutes ago, I felt like, yeah, I mean there's this comfortable bubble around me, like she was talking about her sheets and all that. Well, that was the air condition van and how the principle of the Gospel, the incarnation principle, is to get out of the van and go be with the suffering people.

I feel that there's something inside me that holds me back from doing that. It's a love of self, it's a love of fleshly comfort and ease that keeps me from living an openly righteous life. I think the only remedy must be the ministry of the Word of God, the Power of the Spirit in my life, for me to see the standard and say, "I'm not living up to this, I'm not living the kind of life that I want to live I'm not spending myself, on behalf of the poor and needy. I don't feel like our church is doing everything we could do in this community to do the same." And so what I really want is for you to have an encounter with God through the text here, this timeless text. So that we would understand mercy ministry. We'd understand the kind of life God's calling us to live and that we might be more righteous in His sight.

But we have to understand it in the context of the Gospel that God's given us here, in the context of true religion, in the context of justification by faith alone, apart from religiosity. We're not going to be saved by our good works, we're not going to be saved by our ministry to the poor, or needy, that is false doctrine. We are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ.

And so, right away, the prophet Isiah is calling to the people of Israel, because God is commanding him to do so, to expose their religious hypocrisy, and their wickedness, to expose how religious they are, and how displeasing the whole machine is to him. Look at verse 1 and following, it says there, "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them."

So Isaiah here is exposing their hypocrisy, their religiosity here, the wickedness of the Jewish religionists of his day. He's commanding Isaiah to shout aloud and not hold back, to declare to Israel, their sins. He wants them declared and exposed the ministry of the Word of God. That's all. This is what you're doing. I want to speak these words to you. He's saying this to them. Now they were outwardly, obeying the laws of Moses, they were outwardly keeping the laws of religion. But they were actually rebelling against Him at the same time. Now I'm going to talk more about this next week, I'm going to just move ahead in the message. But in Isaiah 29 Verse 13, He says this, "These people come near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they worship me in vain. Their teachings are just rules taught by men." So their worship, their religion was not pleasing to God. Now, the NIV, I think does a better job than the other translations of giving a sense of how wrong this whole thing is by adding words like, "They seem eager to know my way, they seem like they want me to come." I think actually it's appropriate. That's the feeling here. And yes, it's more like they actually are righteous, they are coming, they are etcetera. But I don't think that's actually what's going on because later in the chapter, He's very negative toward them.

So there seems to be a discrepancy between their religion and how they're living and then what's really going on in their hearts. Verse 2 and 3, "For day after day, they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation, as if they were a nation, that does what is right, and is not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted?' they say, 'and you have not seen it?' Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?'" So they're going through this religious sham, really. This outward machine, they're just in a ritual, a pattern of animal sacrifice, coming to the temple, doing all these things, the Jewish religion of the old covenant, that's what they were doing.

But it was just a sham, it was hypocrisy. They'd actually forsaken the commands of their God. Look at Verse 3-5, they're actually fasting, while sinning or sinning while fasting. I don't know which. But both were going on. "'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?"

Well first notice their attitude, "Why have we fasted Oh God and you have not seen it? Why have we done this religion and you've not noticed?" They seem to think that depriving themselves of a little nourishment for 12 hours or something like that, puts God in some kind of debtor's position in reference to them, as if He owed them something. Clearly they have forgotten the exalted Holiness of God that their forefather, Abraham, clearly had in mind as he was interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, remember that? In Genesis 18, and he approached and he said, "Oh, would you please just hear me though I am dust and ashes." There's that broken humility or even just the previous chapter, Isaiah 57:15 that we looked at last week in depth.

God is Not a Vending Machine

Isaiah 57:15, "This is what the high and lofty one says, He who lives forever and whose name is Holy, 'I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is humble and contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite.'" So, they've forgotten all that. That's not how they're coming, they're actually coming somewhat angry at God, they're uppity toward God, they feel like there's some injustice Heaven to Earth here. Also how did they know that God hadn't heard. They said, "Why have we fasted and you've not heard, why have we prayed, you've not answered." So there must be some specific measurable thing they were looking for. I don't know what this could be, but they just know that God's not heard, He has not answered them. So, I imagine in the old covenant era, there probably was some agricultural issue there. There probably was a drought leading to a famine of some sort. God said He would do this kind of thing. Maybe there was some kind of locust infestation or some other thing was going on, but there was something that was causing them trouble and making them come and fast and pray. But the problem had not been solved  There was no rain, I think they figured 12 hours of fasting, check. Now, the rain should come, right? As though God is some kind of vending machine.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever put coins in a vending machine and not got what you are looking for? I know you, it has happened right here, in this building, and I feel right down there. I feel a sense of injustice. I have put 50 cents in the machine and I should get my Coke out or Diet Coke, that's what I should get, but it has not happened now. There's injustice. I'm owed something here. I get that same feeling here. Do you not get that? This sense, I have put in the time now, on my religion stuff. There should be something coming back, that I could measure. I should know that you heard me. But can I tell you the God of Isaiah 57:15, the God who is high and lofty, whose name is holy, the God who inhabits eternity, will never be any man or woman's debtor ever. He will never owe you anything, never. Romans 11:35, "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him. For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To Him be the glory forever!" God's never going to owe you anything, ever. And actually God [chuckle] somewhat minimizes their piety her, do you see it? It's like kind of low level, it's like below average.

Look at Verse 5, "Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?" Now, if we have sinned, we have done something that violates God's holy law, and God is disciplining us by sending us the equivalent of a drought, and a famine. He does not owe it to us to remove the drought and famine. He's never going to as anything, no matter what we do with fasting and prayer, He'll never be in our debt ever. It's just mercy, and grace. But actually even worse these people are actually adding sin upon sin in their religion. Look what He said about what their days of fasting and prayer were like. "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please, and exploit all your workers, your fasting ends and quarreling and strife and striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high." So these are issues of social injustice. That's what's going on.

God is clearly judging people of power and influence, people who have workers who are serving them. But there are also issues of just pe­rsonal godliness person-to-person. They would get a little hungry I think, and get irritable. I really think that's literally what's happening here. They would fast for a while, they would get irritable and they would start having fights, with each other and it might actually end up in a brawl. Like, "If I can just tell you", says the Lord, "this is not acceptable to me, this is not a fast, this is not piety, it's not godliness, you're actually beating each other up. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high." Now, let me just bring it right here to us 21st century American Evangelical church. This is a clear and present danger for us as well. Every generation is tempted to trust in their own religiosity, their own acts of righteousness to put God in some kind of debtor's position that He should do what you think He should do. Everyone's tempted in that way. We Baptists, we think that because we've been baptized, we've joined a church, we attend pretty faithfully or even just occasionally, but we do attend, that God should be happy to have us. He's lucky to have me. I don't think we'd ever a voice it like that, but it feels that way.

Oh, we think that because we bow in prayer for grace before a meal, or we even have a daily quiet time, or because we read through the Bible in a year, or memorize Scripture, or do some other acts of piety, that we have the same kind of attitude. We also might make a few sacrifices in our lives, we might give some money, might write a cheque to something, and we expect God instantly, to answer our prayers. And then we actually like me and the vending machine, I didn't get too angry, but I was irritated. Alright? But there's an irritation toward God. I have prayed and you've not answered my prayer. Beware, beware of this kind of trust in religion, beware of trusting in your habits and patterns and religious machinery, in your church attendance, and putting up with sermons once a week and sacrificing sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Remember the lesson of the Gospel. We have been trained in the Gospel. In the Book of Galatians, we are told that we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone, because by the works of the law shall no one be justified.

We are not made right with God by our good works, we are made right, we sinners, we broken, unjust, wicked sinners, we are made right with God, simply by faith, in Jesus. Possibly you've come into this church building this morning looking for answers maybe after the election, may be a friend invited you, but you know you're outside of Christ, you're not claiming to be a Christian, you just here today. Can I just tell you the good news, of the gospel is that all of your sins can be forgiven by simple act of faith on your part, turning away from wickedness and sin, saying "I'm a sinner, I know I deserve condemnation, but Jesus died for me, He died on the cross for me, and He rose from the dead, that I might live a new life, I want Jesus." If you can say that to Him in your heart, trusting in Him, alone, then you will be forgiven, all of your sins will be wiped away. You need to know that before we get into the social justice issue that I'm about to talk about, because there's such a temptation for Americans, for people all over the world to feel good because they care for the poor and needy. You can't use your service to the poor and needy to pay for your sins, only by the Gospel.

Now I'm going to talk more about going through the motions in religion next week, but let's just dive in out at 6-12, Verses 6-12. What is the true fast? What is the true religion? God's calling on us to do? Look at Verses 6 and 7, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer, with shelter, when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" God is redefining religion here. He's causing them to turn away from their own selfishness to minister to their neighbors to the hurting among their communities in the name of their relationship with God, that's what He's calling that's true fasting, according to me.

And He calls it a fast I think because they are learning to deny themselves. The reason I didn't want to get out of the air conditioned van is, because I didn't want to. The reason I don't want to care more for the poor and needy, is because it's costly to me. It affects my lifestyle. So the fast God's calling on us affluent people to make is to deny levels of comfort so we can care for others. That's the fast He's calling on us. It's an energetic thing, it's not bowing your head like a reed and lying on a mat, it's actually very energetic, it's bold and energetic and filled with activity, but it's a fast. And God says He's actually chosen this kind of fast to honor Him.

He begins in verse 6 by talking about breaking the chains of oppression, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke. Societal injustice is, as I said at the beginning of the message, difficult to discern. Like the old statement, "Does a fish know it's wet?" Do we unjust people know when we're being unjust? It's hard to know. So, we need to be able to get out of ourselves and say, "I accept the basic premise that I am a sinner, depraved, only saved by grace. Alright, show me my injustice, show me the ways." And not just me, but the ways other citizens here, people in this community are being unjust to their neighbors. Show it to me. Now, these hidden chains slip around people and they guarantee poverty. They guarantee a difficult life. Laborers are working and they're not receiving wages like they should, they're downtrodden, but they can't get a fair hearing from the judge, because the judge won't even entertain their case. Isaiah 1:23, "Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves. They all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless, the widow's case doesn't even come before them."

So, how is there social injustice in our day? Now, I have thought about this more and more over the last year or two. I preach sermons on racism, I've talked about issues that are really heavy on my heart. I thought about what kinds of institutional injustices are there right here in Durham? Show them to me. What's going on in my heart? How can we get involved in cycles of poverty and ignorance and sin, and see the truth of the gospel break all that apart? To see chains broken apart, to actually see that happen. That's what I want to see happen here in Durham, because we're here. I want the community to be different because first, Durham is a church here, in the name of Jesus. It's what I want to see happen. So I think about the police issues, been thinking about it and it's still on my mind. But I was at Logan Airport about a month ago, and there's an African-American young man there, had a hat on. He's a cool-looking guy and he was humming Jazz music as we're standing there in line, I was like, "I want to talk to this guy." I love sharing the gospel in airplanes and airports. I just love doing it because they're a captive audience, they need to stay near their gate and then when they're sitting next to me, that's even more true. That is so cool.

This young guy, he was from New Orleans, turned out he was a believer. He comes from a Baptist background, his parents are involved in church leadership. But he's a jazz pianist. So I was talking about the police issues, the Colin Kaepernick, NFL thing, different things. He said, "Yeah, it bothers me." He said, "But you know what bothers me too, I grew up in the streets in New Orleans. It bothers me to see a black dude kill another black dude 'cause he stepped on his shoes." So I'm just telling you friends, there is injustice everywhere. It's in our hearts. There's no one group that's free from it, so that if that group were in charge, there would be no more injustice. We are all sons and daughters of Adam, and we need to be delivered. I think the greatest injustice in our country right now, I've said it before, I'll say it again, is abortion. I think it's wrong for the strong to not protect the weak. But before that, I think it's wrong for a young man to impregnate a woman and then walk away from his responsibilities, leaving her a very young single mother to fend for herself and her child in a low-paying job, just about guaranteeing a lifetime of poverty. I think that's wrong too.

I feel like we could shed some light in that, the light of the gospel. I think we could get some young men early and teach them what it means to honor a woman, and what sexual purity looks like, and what the gospel calls on us to do, and what it looks like to be a husband and a father. And just the church can be the light of the gospel right here in this community. I've got friends that are planting a church in a very underprivileged hard area of Washington DC, and they've partnered with the government school right near their church to try to help it, and it's just a tragic scene. In the last 22 years, that government school has had 24 principals. Just think about that. Nobody wants that job. And the committee, the government committee there, they allot extra money to attract teachers to the school with promises that they'll pay your school loans as a teacher so that you'll even come and work there. They can't hold on to any good teachers. What would it be like to grow up as a child in that community and be educated at that school? What's that like? So that church wants to make a difference in that school and find a way to bring the light of the gospel there.

For me, perhaps a leading evangelical thinker on issues of social justice is Tim Keller. He's written a book called Generous Justice. It's available out here in the North Tower Resource Center, you can order it. It's very helpful, very practical. I was thinking about the issue of justice, and I realized it wasn't helpful for me thinking about justice to think first and foremost vertically toward God. That would be a sinner saying to God, "I only want justice from you, give me what I truly deserve." Friends, none of us wants that, you know what I mean? We deserve hell. We deserve condemnation. That's not what the prophets mean by justice, I think. Horizontally we're not in a position of mediating or ministering hell to other people. I really think the best way to look at justice the way that the prophets meant is the second great command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Whatever God means for you to do in any certain situation you are to do, that is the justice you owe to your neighbor there. But it's even more significant if you are in a position of authority and power and you're dealing with people who are vulnerable, people who need protection.

So horizontally, justice for me, doing justice means to care for others, to love them as I love myself, but especially to protect and provide for those most vulnerable in society. There's four people that are mentioned again and again in the Old Testament prophets as vulnerable in society, they are widows, orphans, the aliens, and the poor; those four are the most vulnerable and they need therefore to be protected. So what that means is, for us we have to use whatever power we have, whatever influence we have, whatever positions we have in this community to protect those that are vulnerable, that's what we're called on to do. Those that don't have a voice.

Now none of us finds this easy. These issues are complex. I don't know always what it means to loose the chains of injustice. I want to start with this. In 2013 I preached at the Cross Conference and we had a conference slogan that we, we Christians, care about all suffering, but especially eternal suffering. What would it profit someone if they should gain the whole world and lose their soul? So we want to be sure that we're going to break the chains of sin and eternal condemnation through a proclamation of the gospel. But what I believe is that the two are not in contradiction with each other, they actually are in great harmony. As we step out and spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy, we're going to find more and more opportunities to share the gospel. More and more opportunities to talk to people about what we really love, what we're living for, why we're doing this. To show generous justice in a lavish sort of way.

Tim Keller gives a lot of examples in his book and I'll just pick a couple, one is a woman named Heather who's a highly-educated lawyer who gave up a lucrative position in a corporate law firm to become an assistant DA in New York where so many of the criminals she prosecutes have been exploiting the poor, particularly poor women, so she's able to use her legal acumen to come in there and break that chain of injustice legally. But she did it at sacrifice, she spent herself on behalf of the poor to do that, she could make a lot more money in a corporate law firm. Or another example Keller gives is of a young man he knew in seminary named Mark Gornik who moved with his wife years ago to Sandtown, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. For decades white people had been fleeing Sandtown, living at other places, he was the first to move back long before there was any gentrification or any appeal, it was just a dangerous place to live.

Keller said this about Mark Gornik, Mark Gornik said, he said, "The police all thought I was a drug dealer and the drug dealers all thought I was a police officer. So for a long time I didn't know who was going to shoot me." But now, partnering with other church leaders and other people in the community they planted a church and they have a flourishing ministry with all kinds of creative ways of addressing the needs of the community in the name of Jesus. So Heather and Mark and others like them are willing to spend themselves on behalf of the needy. They lay it out for generous justice, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless. Look at verse 7, "Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked to clothe them and," listen to this, "not to turn away from your own flesh and blood." That turning away, that's the enemy, that's what's going on.

Remember the story of the good Samaritan and the road to Jericho and you got the priest and the Levite, we know they're the bad guys in the story. But they cross on the other side, they don't want to get involved, they don't want to look at it, they don't want to get close to this bleeding guy by the side of the road, the priest and the Levite, they're very religious, but they're just on the other side of the road. That's the turning away.

Now the true sacrifice, as I've been saying, is verse 10, look at it again. It says, "If you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like noonday." This is the real challenge, isn't it? It's easy to write a check, it's easy to do little things. This text is calling on you to be all-in, to invest yourself in some pattern of ministry. I don't know what it is, because everybody's called in different directions, you're going to be called in different directions than somebody's sitting right next to you in the pew. But you have to do something. There has to be some pattern of sacrifice going on in your life or you're disobeying the spirit of the text.

So, I think spend yourself on behalf of the poor looks exactly like Matthew 16:24 and 25, Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must," What? "deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will find it for eternity." I think that's what it means to spend yourself. Like, lose yourself to find yourself.

Now I think this becomes much more practical, much easier, if you start to get to know people on the fringe personally. If you actually draw close, get out of the air-conditioned van, draw close, there's this gap between us and the poor that affluence has set up. For us to cross that gap and actually make friends and make connections with people who are struggling. John Wesley did this, he went to a debtors' prison. And we don't have them now but there was a debtors' prison, and back in England in those days if you owed X amount, you're thrown in prison until you should repay the debt. Well, do you not see a practical problem there? I mean, they didn't have work release programs for which you got paid a salary back then, you were just in there. So there was no answer there. You might owe a couple of copper coins that were jangling in John Wesley's pocket as he walked in there. That idea hit him, "Wait a minute, I could set you free right now with this money I have in my pocket." Once that thought hit him he said, "I never looked on money the same way again the rest of my life." Because he got close to somebody who was hurting. He looked them in the eyes.

William Ruffner, Pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, 1853, wrote these words: "To cast a contribution into the box brought to the hand or to attend committee meetings are very trifling exercises of Christian self-denial and devotion. Compared with what is demanded in long, weary walks through the street, the contact with filth and often with rude and repulsive people, the facing of disease and distress, and all manner of heart-rending and heart-frightening scenes. And all the trials of faith, patience and hope, which are incident to the duty we are urging." In other words, he didn't mean this, but get out of the air-conditioned van and go walk the streets. Get to know people and you will be more generous. I think that's what Keller is saying, I think that's what the text is saying, spend yourself means invest, connect, relate. If you say, "Look, I don't want to just give money because they're going to use it for drugs." Well, fine. Then don't just give money, give yourself, give something more, get to know people that you could find yourself partnering with and connecting with and helping.

Now, Keller gives a theology that's called the theology of Shalom, a deep, rich, full relationship, and this is what he wrote. It's very powerful for me. I want you to follow this image. "The wedding together of God, humans and all creations in equity, fulfillment, and delight. This is what the Hebrew prophets called Shalom." We just translate it peace, but in the Bible, Shalom means a universal flourishing, a wholeness and delight. It describes a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts are faithfully and fruitfully employed all under the arch of God's love. Now here's an illustration of Shalom. If I threw a thousand different colored threads onto a table they wouldn't become a fabric, they would just be threads laying on top of each other. Threads become a fabric when each one has been woven in and under, around and through every other one. The more interdependent they are, the more beautiful they become; the more interwoven they are, the stronger and warmer they become. God made the world with billions of entities, but He didn't make them to be an aggregation, rather He made them to be in a beautiful, harmonious, knitted, webbed interdependent relationship with each other.

So physically when your body's working properly, every part works with all the others, but if you have a cancerous tumor, it means that a part of your body's at odds with all the rest. You experience the unraveling of physical Shalom. Psychologically your inner psyche has various parts: Thoughts, feelings, and reason. When they're all working together, you experience inner Shalom, peace. But when your feelings crave something that troubles your conscience, then there's a dissonance; you experience guilt, which means you experience the unraveling of psychological Shalom. Financially when people, some people have money and resources and advantages, when they then plunge them into the human community, so the parks are great, the schools are great, the houses are great, you have a strong social fabric, you experience social Shalom. But when the wealthy ignore the less fortunate, when they hold on to everything, the social fabric unravels.

Now, note in the text that justice is depicted as sharing food with the hungry. This literally means to wait on the hungry, that's literally what it says. Not just giving money so somebody else can serve the food, it's literally to serve the food for yourself. That's what it means to do justice. So it means "taking the threads of your life and weaving them up with the threads of other people's lives."

So Keller talks about the educational system in New York and in cities like Washington DC and all that. Children are growing up in communities where given their family circumstances and their school situation, they are functionally illiterate. By the time they're 15, 16, 17 years old, they effectively can't read or write. When you get to that age and you can't read or write you're ruined for the market, you're ruined when it comes to economic and social flourishing, you're locked into poverty probably for the rest of your life, and that's happening to hundreds of thousands of people in New York City right now, says Keller. Why is it happening?

Now, here's the thing. The liberal, politically liberal analysis says it's because of unjust social structures. The conservative, the political conservative analysis says it's because of the breakdown of the family, but neither side ever says it's the kids' fault. No one's blaming the 7 and 8-year-olds. Thank God. No one's saying the 7-year-old needs to say, "Hey, I need to move to a better school district." No 7 or 8-year-old's supposed to think, "My parents are guilty of injustice toward me and malpractice." They're not thinking that, they just go where they go and yet, "A child born into my family," says Tim Keller, "has a 300 to 400 times greater chance for economic and social flourishing than the kids in those neighborhoods." That's just one way in which the fabric of this world is tattered and torn and ripped.

So the Lord, through this text, is calling on us to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy. And if we do, we are going to have an amazing platform for the gospel. People are going to want to know, "What is it that motivates us? Why are you doing this?" And they're going to ask and we're going to say, "Hey, I want to alleviate this suffering that we're talking right now, but I want to alleviate far greater suffering than that. Can we talk about what Jesus came to do and how He came to save souls, like yours and mine?" It's going to happen, it's going to happen.

The Lavish Rewards of Serving the Needy (vs. 8-12)

Look at the rewards, and we'll finish with that before we go to Lord's supper. Verses 8 through 10, "Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help. And he will say, 'Here am I.' If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noon day."

I just can't help but read that in light of the gospel. If we do this, we are going to be a light shining radiantly in a very dark place. People are going to say, "Tell me more about that light." Jesus is the light of the world. We're going to have opportunities to do that, and I'm looking forward to that. Look at the rich spiritual prosperity, verse 11 and 12, "The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land, and He will strengthen your frame, your bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden like a spring whose waters never fail. And your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age old foundations and you will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings."

Application first, come to Christ. I said at the beginning, I say it here at the end. This kind of mercy ministry will never save a single soul, never. You could do a thousand hours of community service and be even more sinful before because you didn't do it in the name of Christ for the glory of God. We can never use our good deeds to pay for sins. Come to Christ, come to Christ, trust in Him. Now, if you already were Christian before you came here, I guess I would start with just understand generous justice. What does it mean for you to live a life of justice? What does that mean to spend yourself on behalf of the needy? Ask yourself this question. This is just a one application question I want to press on you. Ask yourself this question, "How am I spending myself on behalf of the poor?" Just ask that, it's a simple question. "What principle of sacrifice is going on in my life for the poor?" There needs to be some answer. I would say definitely you don't all need to have the same answer, but there needs to be some answer in your life.

Now, there are some people in our church that are moving to the community, like Mark Gornik did, and they're going to seek opportunities to do that. I think it would have been good for us to do that before gentrification and property values became $400,000 for this house or that house. But there may be still some bargains to be found or maybe some people are wealthy enough to do it, but there are other parts of our community we can be moving in and influence, but you don't have to move in to do it. There are folks that go out on Wednesdays and interact, as I said, with young African-American kids. Boys from our community, they play sports with them, they do Bible studies with them, and they talk to them about sexual purity, they talk to them about manhood. Praise God! Get involved in that.

Our international connections ministry does ESL classes, English as second language classes. It's a tremendous ministry. Nathan Ma is doing ministry with refugees. We're talking right before worship today, he said, "Probably in light of this election it's going to be even harder for refugees in our country. You know what that means? Even greater opportunity for the gospel." Find out from Nathan Ma. If you want to get involved in refugee ministry, that is loosing the change of injustice. Find out ways that you can be involved in that. Find some way to be sacrificially involved.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to close this time in prayer, and then we're going to go to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance that we do regularly. We're excited to do it. We expect, as believers in Christ, we should expect, to have an encounter with the living God through this ordinance. We do not believe that the bread and the juice become the actual literal body and blood of Christ, but we believe that by partaking, by eating and drinking, we are spiritually drawing close to Christ and we're mindful of his death for us, his resurrection. We're mindful of the future when he comes again. We're mindful of our accountability to him. Now, this is for those that have put their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and testified to that by water baptism. If you have not yet done that, then first do that, and then next time we'd love you to partake. But we'd ask you to refrain if you've not yet done that, so close with me now in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 57:1-21. The main subject of the sermon is how we find rest in Christ in a spiritually rebellious world.

So as we come this morning to Isaiah 57, I'm going to bring us immediately right to the middle of the chapter. Verse 15 this is one of the great verses in the Bible. And without any delay, I want to go right to the marrow of the bone or the colonel of the nut. I want you to look with me at the words of the text that you just heard read, Isaiah 57:15, "For this is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever and who's name is holy. I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." So in this amazing verse, the God of the universe, infinitely high, infinitely holy, describes himself for us. He tells us what he's like.

And not only that, he describes his dwelling place, he describes where he lives. And beyond that, and this is incredibly gracious, he describes people he's willing to live with in that high and holy place. People who are contrite, broken hearted because of their sins. Now this verse is going to occupy a good deal of our attention right at the beginning of the sermon, but really just going to look on it for just a few minutes. We're only going to have a few minutes to swim in the sea of this truth, to drink in the beauty of it and the glory of it. But it's vast and soaring truths are going to occupy our minds for all eternity. We're going to spend actually eternity thinking about these things. We will see in eternity how pure and holy and exalted and lifted up God is. We'll see it with our own eyes. And not only that, but we will have a sense even in heaven, I believe without any regret, without any pain, a sense of how sinful we were and how much we needed a redeemer, Jesus.

And that understanding of the holiness of God and our own sinfulness will work together to make us eternally peaceful and filled with praise and glory to God. That'll go on for all eternity, I believe. We are going to fall down in humble adoration at the amazing grace that saved us and brought us to such a holy place. We're going to be amazed, and we're going to fall down as an Isaac Watts' hymn that we're going to sing at the end of this worship time. How sweet and awful is the place? How sweet and awful is the place with Christ within the doors. While everlasting love displays the choices of her stores, while all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cry with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest?" As we unfold, Isaiah 57 we're going to see how sweet and awful heaven is.

Awful, I think Isaac Watts meant they're breathtakingly are inspiring, something like that. A kind of holy awe should come over us. I think it came over Isaiah as he wrote these words, when he saw the holy exalted lord on his throne. We sinners can say with Isaiah, "Woe is me for I am ruined. Why am I not destroyed by such exalted holiness? We sinners, how would we ever be permitted to enter such a holy place? Lord, why was I, why was I a guest? How could it be that I would be a guest?" Now this chapter continues the rhythm that we began seeing last time I preached to you, Isaiah 56. The two chapters really go together is there's this rhythm from the wheat to the weeds and back to the wheat again into the weeds. The righteous and the wicked, the righteous and the wicked because this goes back and forth between the two.

Remember how I talked about that a few weeks ago from the parable of the weed and the weeds? Matthew 13, Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a field that a man sowed with good seed, but at night the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. And then when the wheat sprouted and formed heads in the weeds were also made evident, and this gives us that sense of the mixed up nature of the world we live in. Much of the distress we feel as Christians, even in the political process is because of the mixed up nature of the world. The wheat and the weeds in close proximity.

And we know that in the end, as the text says in Matthew 13, the son of man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all of those who do evil. And they will throw them into the fiery furnace where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. That's where we're heading. That's where it's going. Now when we are there in that high and holy place and when we are shining radially with the glory that's not ours. It's the glory of Christ in us.

And we will be mindful of the fact that our sins were as great as those that were condemned, no difference ultimately. And we will be filled with awe at God and this high and holy person in this dwelling place. Now the more we can do that now the better. So that's just the whole thesis of my sermon here. The more we can just have a sense right now of the exalted nature of God and of his holy place and of our sinfulness and the grace he's shown us in Christ, the better.

So let's start and look in detail at verse 15. We have a stunning invitation here from the infinitely high and holy king. I actually think verse 15, if you look at it rightly, is a Gospel invitation. Look again at the words of verse 15, "For this is what the high and lofty one says, he who lives forever and whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite." So as I've said, God describes himself, his dwelling place, and the people he delights to dwell with.

Now you may ask a pastor, "Those are three points. Why don't you just preach that as your sermon?" It would have been a great sermon, but there's more in that chapter than that. And I want to see all that there is in the chapter. So we're not going to be able to spend as much time on each of those three sub-points as I'd like to. But first, look at how God describes himself. He says he is the high and lofty one. God is infinitely greater than we are. He's so much vastly above all of his creation that the gap between God the creator and every creature is infinite.

The gap exists between God and even his holy angels that have never sinned, and there's no defilement in them at all. That's why the seraphim I think in Isaiah six, cover their faces and their feet in His presence. They'd never sinned, they'd never violated any of God's laws. And yet they recognize the holiness of God means that He is infinitely above them. A. W. Tozer, put it in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, he said, "Forever God stands apart in light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel is above a caterpillar. For the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar, is but finite. While the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite." That's the holiness of God. It's the very thing, the exalted nature, of God that Isaiah saw in his calling to be a prophet. "In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him there were Seraphs each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two, they were flying and they were calling to one another: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory.' And at the sound of their voices the door posts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." Holiness of God.

And it's portrayed often in scripture, as exaltation, lofty-ness, height. I remember years ago, I was in Pakistan 1987, I was in the North-West Frontier province. I saw the second highest mountain range in the world, the Karakoram mountains. And I took the Karakoram highway and went through those mountains from Pakistan and China. In order to make that journey cross that border I went through the Khunjerav pass. The Khunjerav pass is the highest border passing between two nations on earth. It's 15,397 feet above sea level, almost 16,000 feet above sea level. It's the highest I've ever stood on the ground. And yet for all of that, as that highway snaked its way up to that pass, and then down into China, for much of that journey, the Karakoram mountains were right up against the highway, and towered vastly above the highway hundreds even several thousand feet right up off the highway. That has the power to make you feel real small, insignificant. Now listen, if finite mountains can do that, how much more of this infinite God who made them. The greatness of God.

So the loftiness of God, the exaltation of God is meant to make us feel small, it's meant to humble us. This is what the high and lofty one says. That's how He identifies Himself. He is high and lofty. He also says that He inhabits eternity. I like that translation a little bit better than lives forever. He inhabits eternity. It's kind of like eternity is His personal playground. He's very at home in eternity, it's His living room, that's what eternity is like for God. He dwells in eternity. The eternality of God, He lives unchanged forever and ever. There are no limits to God. He is an infinite being. This is beyond anything we can comprehend. One thing we simply can say, is He cannot die, He is immortal, He inhabits eternity, meaning He will live forever and ever. Hebrews 6:18 says it's impossible for God to lie. I think this text says it's impossible for God to die. He is immortal. He inhabits eternity. He lives forever. His kingdom will have no end. As the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar wrote, "I praised the Most High, I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion as kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, 'What have you done?'"

That's the kingship of God. That was the most powerful man on earth. Daniel chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar writing those words, he was in awe of the eternal king, and that is God. His kingdom, will never end because He lives forever. Also he says His name is holy. That means His reputation is holy. His name is set apart, it's a unique name, a special name. So His reputation, because of His person and His accomplishments because of who He is and what He's done, His name is Holy. It's set apart. So in the 10 commandments we are not permitted to take His name in vain. We should honor and revere the name of Almighty God. And so in the Lord's Prayer, we say "Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name," may your name be held in honor, on earth as it is in heaven. That's the sense of the greatness of the holiness of the name of God. And His name is holy, it means that He is a holy being, separate from all creation, but especially separate from evil, from all wickedness. His eyes are too pure to look on evil, He cannot tolerate wrong. Habakkuk 1:13.

"God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5. And it says in Hebrews 12, "Let us worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." The picture of God is a consuming fire, has a sense of His Holiness. This is the God of the Bible, this is how He describes Himself.

God Describes His Dwelling Place

But He also describes in this verse his dwelling place. He says, "I live in a high and holy place." Let me tell you about my home, let me tell you about my throne room. I want you to picture it in your mind, I want you to understand where I live. God's dwelling place is as lofty is exalted as He is, it is unreachable, absolutely unreachable by any creature-ly efforts. Satan tried didn't he, tried to scale the heights. He tried to scale the heights of divine grandeur and topple God from His throne, he didn't make it. He was cast down to the earth, and condemned. Arrogant humans tried to build a tower to reach God and they didn't come close. God had to go way down and see this little tower that they were making, this tower of Babel. I mean, God dwells in a high and holy place, we can't reach Him through human efforts we can't even scale there in our minds through philosophy. It's just impossible for God to be reached by human wisdom.

God dwells in a high and holy place. He's completely set apart from all creation. He's pure, he's set apart from sin, free from any kind of evil, and his capital city in the coming world, the new Jerusalem, will be as holy as He is. Absolutely free, radiantly glorious, free from all evil. Revelation 21:27 says, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Those are the only ones that will enter that Holy City. So this is the dwelling place, the throne-room of God. Now, I want you to picture this in your minds eye. I often talk about this in evangelism. I picture the throne-room of God in a kind of a physical way, because that's about all my mind can do.

So I picture it this way: A majestic throne-room, like maybe one of those great oriental polatench, something like that. And he's up on this beautiful exalted throne, a glorious throne. There's this Heavenly courtroom with holy angels all around. I always in this image picture a perfectly white, beautiful, silk carpet just filling the throne-room. I picture it that way. And there's a guardian at the door with a fiery sword flashing back and forth to guard the entrance. The place is perfectly clean, it's free from all the filthiness. But here I come, I am a pig farmer. I've been feeding pigs. I'm covered with pig filth, I'm covered with dung, I'm covered with mud, and I approach the throne-room and I'm immediately stopped by the guardian with his flaming sword. You can't get in here, not like that.

I'm aware vaguely at that moment of my filth. So I reach into my pocket and I pull out a mostly clean handkerchief, and start to wipe my brow and my face and my hands. "Stop", the guardian says, "There's nothing you can do to clean yourself up. Nothing." This is the plight of the human race. God's described what kind of place he lives in, and we are the prodigal sons and daughters who have traded our Father's inheritance for riotous living with whores and banquets and alcohol, and all manner of wickedness. We squandered the wealth until it was gone, and we found ourselves starving and feeding pigs and covered with filth. And can we clean ourselves up? Now we cannot. The wonder therefore of the Gospel is not that everyone doesn't get saved, it's how does anyone get saved? How does anyone of us, we race of pig farmer, how does any of us get in through the door? How do we end up in that high and holy place?

Well, this is the grace of God in Christ. If you will humble yourself, if you will, with broken-hearted repentance look to the atonement of Jesus Christ, His blood shed on the cross is sufficient to clean us of all of our filth. If you will just simply by faith confess that you are a defiled sinner, and you have no hope of making it into that throne-room, but that God can cleanse you and fit you for heaven, and if you'll just accept it as a gift, he will give it to you freely. That's the Gospel, that Jesus shed his blood to clean up filthy rebellious sinners like us, and He will escort you into that high and holy place, and He will dwell with you forever. I live in a high and holy place, but also with Him who is humble and contrite in spirit. To revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite, that's the God that we worship.

He will dwell with the humble broken-hearted sinner. You remember the parable Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector that went to pray, remember that? Luke 18, "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself." I always felt that must have been a favorite topic. "Prayed about himself: 'God I think you that I'm not like other men: Robbers, evildoers, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all that I get. But the tax collector stood off at a distance, beat his breast and would not even look up to Heaven, but said, 'Be merciful to me oh God, the sinner.' I tell you, this man went home justified and not the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Do you not see it's the same teaching. It's the exact same teaching. God dwells with people who will humble themselves, and by repentance and faith accept His grace. God actually will live with sinners. The question is, what about you my friend? What about you? Has that happened to you? Have you seen in the law of God, in the mirror of God's law that you're a defiled broken sinner, no different, no better than anyone else. Have you seen that? And do you realize you have no way, no hope of getting yourself cleaned up enough for Heaven? You can't, it's just too pure and perfect, and you're defiled. Have you seen that God sent his Son to be a savior, the savior, the only savior for sinners like you and me. And have you put your trust in Jesus for the cleansing of your soul and the forgiveness of your sins, and the gift of righteousness? I'm going to talk more about that one more time at the end.

Now that's verse 15. We've already gone to the kernel of the nut and eaten it, we've already drawn the marrow from the bone and received sustenance from it. Now let's look at the whole chapter briefly. He begins at verse one and two by speaking to righteous people. Now friends, pay attention to these verses. These are some of the most helpful verses for those that grieve at the loss of Christian loved ones. Let me say that again, these are some of the most helpful verses you will find in the Bible for those that grieve at the loss of Christian loved ones. Look what he says, "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart. Devout men are take away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace, they find rest as they lie in death." Oh, those are comforting verses aren't they? Is talking about the death of the righteous, it begins right away that chapter begins the righteous perish by this we don't mean like John 3:16, perishing eternally, just means they die, they die, maybe of cancer, maybe of a tragic car accident, maybe of some other way, maybe just simply of old age, they die, the righteous perish and some people do not fully understand why, they are troubled by it, they don't think about it, they don't ponder it properly. No one ponders it properly, they don't take it and ponder it in their heart, they misunderstand what God is doing. They know that death should have been and was in some sense defeated by Christ, they don't ponder that death is the final enemy to be destroyed and we're going to have to co-exist in some mysterious way with death until the very end of the world and so death is going to hurt us again and again and again death is the final enemy, it's an enemy but it's the final enemy.

Now Jesus destroyed that enemy at the cross, praise God, Hallelujah! He destroyed it. Hebrews 2:14, 15 says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." So this thing of death has been removed by Christ 1 Corinthians 15, says, "Where O death is your victory, Where O death is your sting?" death has been swallowed up in victory. Thanks be to God He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The ultimate triumph over death is given as a gift to those who have faith in Jesus. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Now, the text says that the righteous perish, they actually die. Godly people die, upright people who walked in righteousness die, we know that. And this verse God shows His gracious kindness to them, they die to be delivered from evil, do you see that? God is being good to them. Effectively the text says, you've suffered enough dear son, dear daughter, it's time for you to come home. No more suffering, no more death or mourning or crying or pain you're done with that forever, you'll never have a divided heart again, you'll never struggle with sin again. The world, the flesh and the devil can touch you no longer, you're free, you're spared from evil, that's why God does it and it's good for us to celebrate that. For me said Paul, to live is Christ and to die is what, gain hallelujah. So what does that mean for us? Don't grieve like those who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4, "We don't want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, that is die or grieve like the rest of humanity that has no hope. We believe Jesus died and rose again and so we believe God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him." So yes, we must grieve, we will grieve we must weep, It's appropriate to cry but don't cry like those who have no hope, it's kind of a mystery its sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Hope filled tears, maybe you're just weeping for yourself, I think you probably are, you're weeping for yourself because you weren't delivered yet. And now you have to deal with the world of flesh and the devil minus one of the greatest helps God's ever given you that Godly person and it is going to be harder for you and so you grieve and it's appropriate but just know this, God is with you, He'll never leave you, He'll never forsake you, He will continue to protect you and someday He's going to do for you what He did for that person, He's going to deliver you from evil. Verse 1 and 2 hold on to it, go back to it later study it, it's going to be useful to you sometime in the future.

Now, in Verses 3-13, he goes back to the weeds, he talks about the wicked. We go from the wheat to the weeds to the wheat to the weeds back and forth in these two chapters. Look what he says here in Verse 3 and 4, "But you come here you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes, whom are you mocking and whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?" Now I don't deny that Isaiah is a challenging book to read but I think here he's turned away from the topic of the righteous perishing and how they're delivered to talk about the wicked who were probably at least in part, instrumental in making life miserable for the righteous. And he calls them false worshipers, he calls them sons of sorceress, Now the Jews of Isaiah's day and beyond were constantly tempted to mingle Canaanite pagan religions with the true religion, that's called syncretism, to mix together the religion of the surrounding culture with the biblical religion. And they mixed it together and they generally leaned more and more toward pagan Canaanite-ish type practices in their religions and it was very tragic.

God is a jealous God, He's jealous over the affections of his bride and He becomes very passionate and angry when His bride Israel gets drawn away into wickedness and paganism. And so these Jews who are following these Canaanite pagan worship practice, are called out here. They mock the true worshippers, they stick out their tongues in mockery, they sneer, they attack, they slander, they lie and they live lives of rebellion against God's commands and they are summoned in verse 3 and 4 to judgment by Almighty God. "Come here, you sons of a sorceress" He calls them for judgment and He exposes their idolatrous worship in Verses 5-13, these Verses describe the wickedness of the pagan worship practices of those days, they included sexual immorality, they included child sacrifice, they included occult practices and pagan rituals, dark things.

Look in verse 5-10, He says, "You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree. You sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags. The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion. Yes, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In the light of these things, should I relent? You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill. There you went up to offer your sacrifices. Behind your doors and your door posts you have put your pagan symbols." You see this hidden paganism in this wickedness and sexual immorality and child sacrifice. That's what He's calling them out for. "I see everything you do. I see it all." And God speaks as a spiritual husband who is deeply offended by the adultery, spiritual adultery, of His people. Look what He says. "Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened wide. You made a pact with those whose beds you love and you looked on their nakedness. You went to Molech with olive oil and increase your perfumes. You sent your ambassadors far away, you descended to the grave itself. You are wearied by all your ways, but you would not say it is hopeless. You found renewal of your strength and so you did not faint." Isn't it amazing? All this wickedness, these bad religious practices, this immorality. And they grew weary of it, but they didn't repent. They said, "All right, we got to try harder. And these things are not satisfying us, so we'll do them even more. Maybe they will satisfy."

The wickedness and the foolishness. They refused to give them up. They renewed their strength in sin and they kept on doing it. Now verse 11 in the NIV I think is very, very helpful. I know it's different than the ESV, but just follow the NIV translation for a minute. It is very powerful. This is God speaking to unbelievers. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?" It's powerful, isn't it? Let me say it again. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?" It's because God seems to do nothing. It's like He seems to not even exist because he doesn't respond, especially to evil. He just seems to just do nothing. And they misunderstand the apparent silence of God. Atheists think that because God doesn't speak and strike down the wicked right away that He doesn't exist. Some time ago I came across the story of an atheist public speaker named Robert Ingersoll, and he used to do these challenging debates and discussions in which he would challenge God and he would utter horrible blasphemies and he culminated in this display. He said, "Now I read in the Bible how God struck blasphemers dead for their blasphemy. I'm going to give God five minutes to strike me dead for all of the blasphemies I've spoken today."

And it's very dramatic, you know, he counts off the minutes. One minute, two minutes. Five minutes is a long time for public speaking. If I did it right now, you'd be like, "Please don't do that, pastor." That's a long time to wait in silence. But it was very dramatic at that point. I mean, people fainting, people screaming, all of that.  Well, at any rate, the five minutes passed and Robert Ingersoll was not struck dead. The story was later told to Joseph Parker, a British pastor, who said this. "And did the American gentleman think that he could exhaust the patience of the infinite God in just five minutes?" Now you can't, even by great wickedness, exhaust God's patience in five minutes, but at some point it will end. Ingersoll's dead, he's been dead for a century and a half. "Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?"

Elie Wiesel, a Jewish writer after the Holocaust, wrote his book called Night. I saw this in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. This is what he wrote. "Blessed be God's name," question mark. "Blessed be God's name? Why, why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves? Because he kept six crematoria working day and night, including the Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz and Birkenau and Buna and so many other factories of death? How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty, Master of the Universe, who chose us among all nations, yes, chose us to be tortured, day and night, to watch as our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, ended up in the furnaces? But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I now felt very strong. I was the accuser and God was the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God and without man." Well, I think Isaiah 57:11 addresses that. It's because God was silent and seemed to do nothing that he did not fear Him. The hiddenness of God, especially when so much suffering happens in the world, is distressing to many. It's distressing to Psalmist. How many Psalmists basically complain about why God seems to do nothing? It's in there a lot, like Psalm 44, "Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep? Rouse yourself, do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?"

But here God says, "That's why you don't fear me, because I seem to have done nothing. But someday, though now I only speak through the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms and I speak through Scripture, someday I will speak plainly and you'll see what I think of wickedness. There'll be no doubt at that point what I think, and it will be clear. In the meantime, what you have is you have the Scripture." And God will speak to you through that Scripture and you'll hear Him speak in Scripture, or you will not hear Him at all and you'll think that He's silent.

Idolatrous Worshipers Blown Away with their Idols

Now, these idolaters worshippers are going to be blown away with their idols. Look at verse 12 and 13, "I will expose your righteousness and your works and they will not benefit you, and when you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you. The wind will carry all of them off a mere breath will blow them away." So, idolaters who follow idols are light weight and the wind of God's judgment will blow them away, and there'll be nothing left. Nothing left of all of their efforts and their works, all of them gone. Now, right in the middle of verse 13 do you notice he switches back to the weed again or back to the righteous, "But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain."

And so, there we have in the middle of that section, this beautiful verse 15, that we begin with. The humble and contrite are welcome to dwell with God. God addresses the man who humbles himself, and makes God his refuge his true refuge. He will not be blown away in the judgment. The wind of judgment will not blow him away. He will survive that. He will inherit the land and possess God's holy mountain. More than that, he will effectively build up roads or highways along which the righteous will travel. Look at verse 14 and it will be said "Build up, build up, prepare the road, remove the obstacles out of the way of my people."

Now you may think he's talking about the restoration of the Jews back to the promised land, and it may be, but let me tell you these words soar far above that. Why? because the very next verse. Look at the combination of verse 14 and 15. And it will be said "Buildup, buildup prepare the road remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and holy one says, He who lives forever and whose name is Holy: 'I live in a high and holy place. But also with the contrite and lowly.'" The connection between the two verses is the highway that's built up in verse 14 is the journey by which we get to that high and holy place.

And friends. I'll tell you his name, His name is Jesus. He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And I get to be, and so to all of you who are believers in Christ, the righteous road constructors who lay the road of Jesus in front of lost people and say, this is the road travel in it. This is Jesus. This is the way you're going to get to the high and holy place. There's no other road that leads to heaven. We get to be spiritual civil engineers and build these roads for lost people." That's what's going to happen.

Now, these contrite sinners, they have a lot to be contrite about. I remember Winston Churchill was talking about a fellow member of Parliament. He said he's a humble man with much to be humble about. I thought, "Man, he's a mean guy. I would not want him as a friend, a humble man, with much to be humble about." Well, we are contrite people with much to be contrite about. That's the point of verse 16 through 19. Do you see it? I will, this is God speaking about the righteous. "I will not accuse forever nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me, the breath of man that I created." Look at Verse 17, "I was enraged by his sinful greed. I punished him and hit my face and anger yet he kept on in his willful ways." Verse 18, "I have seen his ways but I will heal him. I will guide him and restore comfort to him." Verse 19: "Creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel, 'Peace, peace to those far and near' says the Lord 'And I will heal them.'" So this is talking about the righteous who are the humble and contrite that God will spend eternity with. He was really angry with them. He had a record of their sins. They were wicked in his sight. They pushed his patience. So they were idolaters. They had a record of sins that was standing against them and it says in Colossians 2, that God took that record of sins that stood against us and was opposed to us and nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ and were free. And God's anger is gone forever. He is propitiated. His wrath is gone. He is not angry at us. He will not always accuse and instead He will heal us of our wayward ways. I have seen God is saying "Your wayward crooked ways and I will heal you."

You already said how in Isaiah 53. Jesus "was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." What's the next part? "By His wounds we are healed." I've seen his ways. Isaiah 57, "And I will heal him through Jesus, through his wounds I will heal you." That's the promise he's making here. It's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. Jesus came to heal us of sin and He will.

And so in our text. Look at Verse 18, and 19 "I have seen his ways but I will heal him, I will guide him. I will restore comfort to him creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. 'Peace, peace, to those far near,' says the Lord. ‘And I will heal them." So, the result of all this? We get to spend eternity at peace with God and praising him for our salvation. He's going to create praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. We're going to spend eternity mindful of our sins, but not hurt by them, instead worshipping God for our salvation. He's going to create praise on our lips and we're going to be at peace with him forever. For it says in Romans 51, "Having been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

And not only that. But he's going to do it for those near and far. Do you see those words there? Oh, don't miss significance of that. "Creating praise in the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace to those far and near. For me as a gentile adopted son of Abraham, I'm really excited about that." You know from Ephesians 2, it speaks to Gentile believers in Christ, Ephesians 2-12-13, it says, "Remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." That's who you were, you were far away. "But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ," creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Those both near and far, that's us Gentiles and Jewish believers in Christ praise for God for the salvation He has worked. And He will heal us. You know what? He's going to give peace to the healed. The healing goes together with the peace.

Go on in your willful wicked idolatrous sinful ways, He will not give you peace. There's no peace in that way. But as He is healing you through sanctification, He's strengthening your righteous living, he pours out a sense of peace in your conscience and a sense of the peace of God, the peacefulness that comes from your status of peace with God. He heals you and you know you have peace and some day you're going to be totally healed. Like I've already said, when you die and you depart from evil, you'll be free forever.

Now, the chapter ends going back to the weeds one more time. Look at verse 20 and 21: "But the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 'There is no peace' says my God for the wicked." Friends, these words describe the world. Do you not see it? This is a churning tumultuous wicked difficult world in which we live, and these two verses at the end of Isaiah 57 describe why. These people, these lost people that we live with have no rest, no peace inside their hearts. They're churning and restless and never satisfied. They don't find what life is all about. And so they are restless like Satan roaming over the surface of the earth or like the demons that go through the... Go out of the man in Matthew 12 and they go through arid places seeking rest and they don't find it.

And they're restless and they're looking for something. Think about all the political unrest in the world. Think about the riots and the demonstrations and the violence. Think about the restlessness of the Muslim world leading many young Muslim men in particular, to seek an outlet for their restlessness and their rage in Jihad and terrorism. Think about the constant turmoil of nation rising against nation, a series of wars after wars after wars and it never seems to end. And why? Because people are restless in their hearts. Think about the simple restlessness of the world as seen in the nightly news reports, local news and CNN, whatever. Local and worldwide, restlessness, no peace. They are like the churning sea casting up mire and muck. They're looking, constantly looking for something. Think about the restless hearts of people who are addicted to prescription, pain medications. And they can never get enough. They seek their peace in the narcotic. Stunning levels of people who are addicted now to these opioids. Also, more and more people addicted to heroin and morphine, they're seeking peace in the drug. It's not any different than those that seek it in alcohol.

They're looking for an escape, peace and they're not finding it. Think about restless people who look for peace through psychiatry and psychology and counseling. It's estimated over 600 million people suffer from anxiety or depression, clinical depression, 600 million. Many of them are literally restless, they can't sleep at night. They have chronic insomnia. They're filled with anxiety, they go to psychiatrists and counselors and psychologists and get drugs, and there's no peace. Think about the relentless drive and ambition of even successful, wealthy people who attain all their goals and they don't satisfy them.

Some time ago, I saw an interview and many of you perhaps have seen it, with Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback after he won his third Super Bowl. There's a 60 minutes interview with journalist Steve Croft and he said these stunning words. When I was going over the sermon this morning, it's hard for me to read this even without crying. Brady said this. This is Tom Brady: "So a lot of times, I think I get very frustrated and introverted and there's times where I'm not the person that I want to be. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people say, 'Hey man, this is what it is, this is it.' I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think. God, there's got to be more than this. I mean, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be, can it? I mean, I've done it. I'm 27. And what else is there for me?" I mean, he's saying this on tape. Croft said, "What's the answer?" And he said, "I wish I knew." I wish I knew.

Friends, I'm telling you there are people like that around you every day. They're like, "I don't... Even when things go well, for me, I know there's nothing in it. It's emptiness." I mean, this man's as successful as you could ever want to be in a worldly sort of way but he says, "I wish I knew." Well, I'll tell you what it is. It's living in a high and holy place with God by faith in Christ. That's what is satisfying, nothing else. What else matters? Few verses capture the reason for the world's misery better than this one: "The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace says my God for the wicked." Now that last verse of the chapter seems to read to me like a decree. There can be no peace says my God for the wicked. Not as such.

So God gives us an invitation. Go back one more time, as we close to verse 15. This is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is humble and contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

God has promised in this text, He's seen all your ways, he's promised to heal you. He knows how you live, he knows what you do, he knows everything. He said I'm going to heal you, verse 18, I will guide you, and I will restore comfort to you. And I will not always accuse, I will not always be angry. Effectively, the New Testament invitation that lines up with this, is this one, Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened said Jesus and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am humble in heart and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So that's my appeal to you as non Christians. For you Christians, I would urge you to meditate deeply on verse 1 and 2. Get it ready for when you lose a loved one in Christ. Just get ready for it, or when you face your own death. Just realize God is good to take righteous people out of this sinful world. He's just... He's just good. Secondly, see if there's any restlessness in you like that of the wicked, and repent from it. God's not going to bless that kind of wickedness, even in his own children. He will discipline you out of it, so the sooner you repent from it, you will find peace in your repentance. Thirdly, meditate much on the staggering words of verse 15. I just give them to you as a gift, they're not mine to give, but I just like, here they are, read them. Just read verse 15 and swim in the ocean of greatness.

And then finally, at the very end, the last two verses, understand the turmoil of the world is essentially spiritual. It's because people are out of fellowship with God that they don't know what life is about and they are so churning. We need to give them peace in Christ. Whatever happens on Tuesday, whatever happens with the election, just understand this, true peace is found only in the kingdom of God. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 56:1-12. The main subject of the sermon is to investigate the mixed nature of this world in which suffering and delight in God both come.

So as we resume this morning, our study in the book of Isaiah, we come immediately to Isaiah 56, and next time also Isaiah 57, and I'm only doing Isaiah 56 today, but in these two chapters we're going to see a rhythm going back and forth between the righteous and the unrighteous, between the wise and the foolish, between what Jesus would call in one of His parables, the wheat and the tares of the weeds, between the wheat and the weeds. Friends, we really do live in a mixed-up World and it seems more evident as time unfolds here in our country. And Jesus told a parable about the mixed-up nature of our world, spiritually in Matthew 13, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, he described the kingdom of heaven in this way like a Man Who sowed good seed in his field. But at night while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away and then when the wheat sprouted and formed heads and the weeds became evident.

And his servants came to him and said, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?" And the owner of the field said, "An enemy did this." servant said, "Do you want us to go and pull them up?" He said "No… because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."

Now, Jesus in interpreting the parable said, "The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. [We will call Christians] The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The wheat and the weeds grow together in close proximity, side by side. We live life together, but in the end, we will be separated one from another. And the righteous will go into the kingdom of heaven, but the wicked will be burned up with unquenchable fire in hell. "The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Our Decaying Orbit with the Surrounding Culture

Now, this mixed existence that we experience as Christians is part of what makes this life so difficult. It's difficult for us but friends, it's hardly a new phenomenon. It's been going on a long time. Isaiah saw the same thing in his day. And we're going to see in the rhythm of these two chapters Isaiah 56, and then next time Isaiah 57. As Isaiah goes back and forth between the wheat and the weeds. We're going to look at two of those aspects this time and then next time more. One of the great challenges for us as we come to Isaiah is to try to understand the prophet in his own day, in his own language, his own words, his own setting, but then also see the timeless eternal vision of God, the words of God to every generation of God's people who don't live exactly when Isaiah lived but that timeless message that goes on through all generations.

So we're going to see Old Covenantal type language here in Isaiah 56, but we're going to see principles that must be only fulfilled through the New Covenant and through the timeless message of Christ across every generation. He's going to speak clearly about those that are outsiders that would have been excluded in the Old Covenant being welcomed in and worshipping with God, as you heard in the text. He's also going to speak clearly about the great wickedness of Israel's Watchmen, of their shepherds, their leaders, and how they were living self-indulgent lives of feasting and following Canaanite religions.

Now, these things happened, I think, right before the exile to Babylon. And so he's going to use language speaking about the sins that led to the exile to Babylon, and then speak about the re-gathering of Jews coming back in, and all of that is relevant to Isaiah's immediate circumstance. But if you look bigger, I think, they all pre-figure the in-gathering of people all over the world into the church of Jesus Christ through faith in Christ. So you've got to hold your mind in both, in both worlds, Isaiah's world and then the world that we live in today.

Now, let's speak for a moment about the world that we live in today. I said that it's pretty obvious it's getting more obvious all the time, that we live in a mixed-up world, that we live side by side with people who do not love and cherish Jesus Christ as we do. And their lifestyles make it very plain that they do not cherish God's word, the way we do, and the fact that they are living out their rebellion against God, and unbelief right in front of us, right around us makes our lives far more difficult. Jesus knew that in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. This is a mixed-up world. And for us as American Christians, it's especially challenging, because we live in a time in which we can look back where Christianity had a direct influence on our culture, on our government, our politics, on our lives very directly, especially here in the South, in an area that we used to call the Bible Belt, where the history of the saturation of the gospel and the influence of Christianity and culture was more evident. And government, not just here in the south but throughout the country, a little more supportive of Christianity used language that was taken from the Bible, public officials frequently sought days of fasting and prayer to the God of Heaven.

Christianity was directly held in honor in government schools, and in the marketplace. Judeo-Christian values, you've heard that phrase so-called were honored in the schools and in public culture. There was a Christian ethic behind most of the laws of our country, even what became eventually known as misguided laws like prohibition had a very strong Christian basis in a Christian root. There was a strong church backing to the damage that alcohol did and that's what led to prohibition.

However, as American citizens, we have to realize that the documents which established our nation such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, are in no way overtly Christian, keyword being, "overtly." None of these documents mention Jesus or Christ or Christianity or the Trinity or salvation.

The anti-establishment clause which says that the federal government will set up or establish no religion for the people, clearly means we're not overtly Christian, we're not establishing and clearly revering Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the American government never have. Yet we're well aware of how influential Christianity was in the lives of people who wrote those words, in the lives of those who governed according to their principles. In many cases, they were clearly Christian people in other cases not so. And yet for all of that, the general esteem with which Christianity has been held here in America is clearly a decaying orbit and I believe it's going to get worse, not better. I think it's going to become harder and harder to be clearly Christian in America. It's going to take courage, and it's going to take perspective, we need to understand what's going on. We live in a mixed-up world. We're going to be surrounded by unbelievers, they're going to be living out their unbelief in front of us. And friends for us this is a tremendous opportunity for the gospel. It's a chance for us to show the light in a very dark place.

Alan Cooperman who is a director of religious research for the Pew Foundation said this, "Overall, there are more than four... "Listen to this, "More than four former Christians to every convert to Christianity in this country." So what that means is there are more... A four-to-one ratio, of those that are renouncing a previous allegiance to Christianity, then there are those that are saying that they are taking on a new allegiance to Christianity. Four to one. A Newsweek poll says that there's a great rise in the unaffiliated group, sometimes called the religious nones. Now, you shouldn't think like a Roman Catholic nun. N-U-N. It's more that you answer in the poll, religious affiliation none, none. The rise of the nones, it's happening more and more in our country, it's accelerating, especially among what's called the millennials. So that's the younger generation they're coming into their 20s, or just post-college, etcetera. More than 35% of that group of people are unaffiliated with any religion at all.

So that's what we're looking at. And issues that we've been very well aware of that have been pressing on the consciences of evangelicals, like abortion and gay marriage and now especially in our state, transgender bathrooms and the whole issue of transgender-ism, have revealed I think the decaying nature of the relationship between biblical Christianity and American culture. So we're in for a rocky ride, I think. And frankly, I think we're in for the same rocky ride that most of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world have been experiencing every day of their lives. Brothers and sisters in China and Muslim countries or in other places, even in atheistic West, like in the Czech Republic other places where it's just much harder to live out a Christian life. They've known about this all their Christian lives. And so we're going to be experiencing that more and more. What we need then is we need to turn to the word of God, as never before, and find out what God is doing in the world. And derive hope and strength and purpose from that.

And I think it's a great time for us to be turning back to Isaiah, and looking at and picking up where we were. We got up to Isaiah 55. And let me just give a little bit of review on the first 55 chapters of the book of Isaiah. No I'm not going to do that.  Starting in chapter one, no that would take a while. But what I actually want to do is zero in on the central theme, I think of the entire book of Isaiah, and really of the whole Bible, and that is the way that the book of Isaiah, reveals Christ the savior. And we've been following that magnificently in the book of Isaiah with an individual called the suffering servant. So look with me at Isaiah 42. I'm just going to trace this out very quickly. Isaiah 42, we're introduced to the servant of the Lord, verse one, "Behold my servant whom I uphold my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my Spirit on Him and He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets. A bruised reed, He will not break, and a smoldering wick, He will not snuff out. In faithfulness He will bring forth justice. He will not falter or be discouraged, until he establishes justice on earth. And in His law, the islands will put their hope."

Friend just reading those words, I get happier and happier the more I read. This is Jesus, Matthew 12 says very clearly Jesus. He is the suffering servant, who comes to bring justice and righteousness to all the Earth, but who advances His kingdom in a very gentle tender loving way. He doesn't quarrel or cry out in the streets. That's not... He's not a rabble rouser, or a rebel or something like that. He just proclaims justice and tenderness and mercy. He doesn't destroy broken-hearted weak sinners, but He binds them up and saves them. Isaiah 42. Then if you look at Isaiah 49, we have the servant of the Lord, Isaiah 50 portrays Him. Let's start with Isaiah 49, especially verse six. This is the Lord, speaking to the servant of the Lord says, “And now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be Him servant to bring Jacob back to Him and gather Israel to Himself for I'm honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel, I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

So here's the servant of the Lord, and it's too small to work for Him to be just Israel's savior, Israel's Messiah. God has bigger plans than that for the servant of the Lord. And that is to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. To restore and bring back even Gentiles. He is the light for the Gentiles. Isaiah 50. The servant of the Lord is revealed as clearly a suffering servant. He doesn't hide His face from mocking and spitting or His back from being beaten. He's going to pay a price to redeem sinners in the world. Then you get to Isaiah 50, 52 and 53, if you look at Isaiah 53, just go right in 53:6. Isaiah 53:6, 53 five and six, let's do that. "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him, the iniquity of us all."

So that's a substitutionary atoning work of Jesus. We are no better than those that are living sinful lives around us, no better than them at all. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and God has laid on Jesus, the suffering servant, the iniquity of us all. He is our substitutionary atonement. He was pierced for our transgressions. This is the Gospel, and Isaiah 54 makes it plain. I'm not going to go through that chapter. But that Zion, the people of God, the tent that takes in the people of God needs to get a lot bigger, and larger tent make it bigger. There's going to be a lot more people coming in. And then in Isaiah 55, there's this beautiful invitation, "Come. All you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why spend yourselves on what doesn't satisfy?"

And then in 55:6, he says so beautifully, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon." So this is the focus, and this is right where we're at in Isaiah 56. Now, here's the thing. With the wheat and the weeds, some people are going to be drawn in by that beautiful message of Christ crucified, resurrected, salvation offered freely to any who repent and believe. They're going to come, and they're going to feast from all over the earth. And others are not going to accept it. They're going to have a hard hearts. They're going to live out their rebellion to the end of their days, and they're going to make life miserable for Christ's people. That's just what's going to happen. And so we have this mixed-up experience. So that brings us now to Isaiah 56.

Now, as we look at verses 1-8, we see the effect of the Gospel going to people who in the old covenant would have been excluded. We're going to talk about that, but God has this beautiful, magnificent salvation plan that he fashioned as we learned clearly from the book of Ephesians. He fashioned before the foundation of the world. From before the foundation of the world, He set his love on us in Christ, and He poured out spiritual blessings on us when we were still unborn in his own mind and heart. In Christ, he did us every good that we would ever need. Even long before he said, we were created. Before he even said, "Let there be light," God had this salvation plan. And that plan was to redeem us by the blood of Christ. Now, the redemptive plan of God began when Adam and Eve fell into sin. There's no need for redemption before that. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. They were kicked out. They were excluded. They're on the outside. And God put an angel there with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. So they would not be permitted to re-enter Eden and eat from the Tree of Life.

So I just want you to picture that in your mind because we're going to talk about people excluded, but I want you to include yourself in that category. We were all of us kicked out. As a human race, we were excluded from heaven. We are excluded from fellowship with God because of our sins. We're on the outside. Now, in redemptive plan, the redemptive plan of God, God chose out a specific people, the Jews. And he did it with the call of Abraham. At that point, his name was Abram. In Genesis 12, God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans and said, "Leave your country and your people, and go to the land I will show you." And he says this, "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. Whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So the Jewish nation then became a launching pad for the salvation of the world.

God intended to save his chosen people, that he chose in Christ before the creation of world to save them through a Jewish plan of salvation, ultimately through a Jewish Savior as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Salvation is from the Jews." And so God brought Israel up out of Egypt, up out of the promised land... Up out of Egypt into the promised land, through the Red Sea, brought them into the promised land. And, at the mountain of the 10 Commandments, he said this to them. He said, "If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole Earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." So what that means is, "I'm going to bless you, oh Jewish people, so that you can be a blessing to the whole earth." That was God's purpose.

Psalm 67 captures it very, very well. It says, "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on Earth, your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise you, Oh God, may all the peoples praise you." The peoples are the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nation. Oh God, be gracious to us, the Jews, so that we might be a blessing to the Gentiles. That was the idea of the concept. And we've seen that in Christ, that desire is fulfilled. Jesus is the son of Abraham. He's the Son of David, He is Jewish, and he is the savior of the earth.

Now look at Verse 1. "This is what the Lord says, 'Maintain justice and do what is right for my salvation is close at hand, and my righteousness will soon be revealed." That's powerful. "My salvation is drawing near now. My righteousness is coming close." Isaiah lived six centuries before Jesus was born. But in God's mind, a day is like a 1000 years, and a 1000 years is like a day. The time for salvation is drawing near. Now, we could say that the prophet might have been talking about the deliverance from the exile of Babylon, and I think that might be part of what he had in mind. The deliverance from Babylon is a picture though of the greater deliverance that Jesus works for all of us from sin, from the captivity of sin.

And so, we could say that both of them are in His mind. The Jews are going to come back from Babylon, they're going to rebuild the destroyed city of Jerusalem, they're going to live there, and that's an important thing, but that's not the fulfillment of the glorious words of Isaiah 56, not at all. Something bigger is going to happen. The Jewish nation that would be established under Ezra and Nehemiah would continue living under the old covenant, under the laws of Moses. They would continue to offer animal sacrifice, to keep the Sabbath regulations, they would continue to follow the old covenant. But all of this has in view the day in which those old covenant strictures would be abolished, would be removed. And so, godly Jews are described here, in verse one and two. This is what the Lord says, "Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand, and my righteousness will soon be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." This is the call for the people of God, the Jews of Isaiah's day, or those that would come back under Ezra and Nehemiah, the godly Jewish nation, to live godly, upright lives under His law, as they waited for His redemption.

The nation had been wicked, they've been sent into exile, disobeying God's laws, they had plundered the weak and helpless, they'd taken advantage of the widow and the orphan, they had shed innocent blood, they'd been sexually immoral, they'd been idolaters, that had led to the exile. "Okay, when I bring you back in, lead righteous, godly lives now, and in that way, my salvation will draw near, the nation will be able to continue." Now, for us as Christians, we have to hear this in a Christian new covenant sort of sense. We're not waiting for the restoration from Babylon, that's done, that's in the rearview mirror. What are we waiting for? We're waiting for Jesus to come back. We're waiting for the second coming of Christ. Well, what kind of lives should we live while we wait for that? 2 Peter 3 makes it very plain. It's going to be very similar type of language here. "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" Second Peter 3:11-12. "You ought to live godly and upright lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." So, we ought to be holy and we have to do evangelism and missions, that's what that verse says. And then, Second Peter 3:14, "So then, dear friends, since you're looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him." That's Peter writing to new covenant saints.

We get the same kind of language here, in Isaiah 56, one and two. "Live godly, upright lives as you wait for righteousness of God to come near. As you wait for the next event in redemptive history to come, live godly and upright lives," that's what the call is here.

Godly Outcasts Welcomed

Now, in verse three, we see godly outcasts welcome. Now, this is where it gets really fascinating. Look at verse three. "Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely exclude me from His people.' And let not any eunuch complain, 'I am only a dry tree.'" So now, we're looking at foreigners, by that I mean, the text means Gentiles, outsiders, and eunuchs, eunuchs. It speaks of people, then, that are categorically excluded in the old covenant from the assembly of the Lord. They're out, they're outsiders, they can't come in. They're not allowed to come in. Eunuchs are specifically mentioned as excluded in every case in Deuteronomy 23:1. And then, specific Gentiles are excluded in Deuteronomy 23:2 and Deuteronomy 23:3. For example, 23:2 says, "No one born of a forbidden marriage or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the 10th generation." And then, verse three of Deuteronomy 23, "No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the 10th generation."

These are what we would call aliens and strangers, they're outsiders, they're excluded from fellowship with the people of God because of the law. Now, we believe in Christ, all of those exclusions are abolished, they're removed. We believe that this chapter foresees the day when those exclusions are taken away. "Let no foreigner say, 'I'm excluded.'" "I'm no longer excluded." Why not? Because Jesus came and fulfilled the old covenant and brought in with His blood a new covenant. And in that new covenant, there are no such restrictions. We saw this plainly in Ephesians chapter 2, let me read that again. By the way, I'm not going back to Ephesians, I just can't seem to let it go. I love the Book of Ephesians. But Ephesians 2:11 and following is the clearest passage on the fact that these exclusions are being removed. Says in Ephesians, 2:11-12, "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision.' Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." That's how it used to be, oh Gentiles, how you used to be excluded by the law of Moses. Deuteronomy 23.

The law of Moses kept such people out of the assembly of the Lord. It was what Paul called a barrier, a dividing wall of hostility. You couldn't come in. Yet through Isaiah the Prophet, even centuries before Jesus was born, there was foretold the day when those restrictions would be removed. The barrier would be taken away, and you would be allowed, as a Gentile, an uncircumcised Gentile, to enter the assembly of the Lord. You'd be welcome to come in. Now, God doesn't allow these outsiders in without transforming them. They have become radically different people; God has cleansed them of all their pagan defilements, He's washed them clean by the blood of Christ, they're made new in their hearts. John the Baptist said that God is able out of this stones to raise up children for Abraham, and so He has done. He has removed our hearts of stone and given us a heart of flesh. That's the condition for coming in now: Transformation by the Spirit of God.

Ezekiel put it this way, about outsiders coming in. He said, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean…" Ezekiel 36:25 and following, "I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols, I will give you a new heart and I'll put a new Spirit in you and I will remove from you the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh and I'll put my Spirit in you and I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." That's the transformation of the new covenant, the transformation, the change wrought by the spirit of God, or again in Ephesians 2, 13-15, "but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ, for He himself is our peace, who has made the two one," [Jew and Gentile] and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the commandments and regulations that kept us out his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace." This is the redemptive work of Christ.

The Rewards of Inclusion

Now, look at the rewards of being included say, "Well what do I get if I'm included?" Look at it, it's beautiful, these are rich blessings for those humble transformed outsiders. Each of these are carefully described before, the blessings are listed. The fact is you have to be changed in order to qualify, not every eunuch is blessed, not every outsider is brought near, that's not true. What does it say? Verses 4-5 "This is what the Lord says: 'to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, and choose what pleases me, and hold fast to my covenant, to them I will give within my temple and its walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off." So the conditions are covenantal language. Now in Isaiah's day that was old covenantal language; keep the Sabbath, do the sacrificial system, all that. We know that that's just a type and a shadow of the salvation, Jesus came to bring for us in the New Covenant. The requirement is simple. Believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, trust in Him. Repent of your sins, believe in Christ and you will be brought near, you'll be given a new heart, the Holy Spirit will change you from the inside out, you'll be transformed, and you will meet the requirements and look at the rewards a place in God's temple, a spot within its walls a secure permanent place of honor, and everlasting name that will never be cut off, never be forgotten. It's amazing.

Now this is very similar to the promises made to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:12. Listen to this. "To him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God. And the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, I will also write on him a new name." That's very similar to Isaiah 56, isn't it? So what's happening, we're talking about heaven that's coming, the new Heaven, the new Earth, the new Jerusalem, if you become in Christ brought near, transformed from the inside out, God is going to adopt you as one of his sons or daughters, he's going to give you an everlasting name better than a biological son or daughter. You'll be his forever and ever. Biological names are forgotten, if you don't think so read First Chronicles and all those genealogies you know exactly, who are these people? If the Lord doesn't return any time soon, within three or four generations probably, no one on Earth will know your name, no one. Everyone will forget you, everyone you knew will be dead, long gone. That's just the way of the earth, that's the way of death. This is talking about an eternal remembrance. An eternal relationship. This is adoption by an eternal father, and the giving of a name that you will have forever and ever. And it will never be forgotten. That's eternity, that's heaven, that's a new Jerusalem.

And it must refer to that spiritual temple as we've talked about again and again, in Ephesians 2, that new and living structure in Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2, we are all living stones built into that habitation, that eternal habitation. We will receive a name and a place in that forever and ever if we draw near. And in heaven we will be able to offer sacrifices. 1 Peter 2:9-10, says "You are a chosen people, a royal Priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God." Think about that; once you were outsiders now you're inside, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We are drawn in and we can offer up sacrifices, of praise to God.

Ultimately in heaven, there's going to be a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe, language, people, and nation. And they're going to be drawn near Revelation seven. They're going to be given white robes and palm branches and they're going to cry out salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb, and they're going to stand listen to this revelation 7:13-15 this multitude greater than any cookout Where are they from? They're from the Great Tribulation, they've washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb, therefore listen to this Revelation, 7:15, they are before the throne of God and they serve Him day and night in His temple so that this is the language of Isaiah 56. The eunuchs, who are brought near, the outsiders who are brought near, we are given a place in the eternal temple of God and a name better than anyone could ever have in this world and forever we will bring our sacrifices and offerings in praise and they'll be accepted. That's what Isaiah is predicting.

Verses 6 and 7, "Foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord and to worship him all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and who hold fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." Now, the conditions have to be met, you have to repent and believe and be drawn near in the new covenant, you have to bind yourself to the Lord by faith, you have to yearn to love him and to serve him and to follow him and to love the name of the Lord and to worship him. The Sabbath, I believe, is fulfilled in Christ. But it's also commemorated in the Lord's Day assembly around the world of Christians who come on the first day of the week to celebrate, not looking back at the old creation, but looking ahead to the new creation, first day of the week when God is going to make everything new.

So, we assemble together and so we get all of these blessings and he says, "My house will be called the house of prayer for all nations." You know that Jesus quoted this, he was talking about Herod's Temple, a temple built by a wicked man, but he honored it as what it was, a beautiful type and shadow and picture of a future reality, a heavenly reality, a heavenly temple, when people from all nations would be welcomed, and would pray and worship God in that heavenly temple, and that now the temple of Herod's day, it should be a place where they're praying toward that end and where Gentiles are welcomed to worship the true and living God in light of the new covenant, Jesus had come to bring. Instead what did he find? Corruption, money changers, people trying to make money out of religion and it enraged him. And so he sat down and he braided a whip, and he overturned the benches of the money changers, and he drove out the all of the animals and he cried out in the words of Isaiah 56. "My house will be a house of prayer for all nations." He's quoting Isaiah 56 as he cleanses the temple. Now eventually he would will that that temple be physically, completely destroyed. Its days were over, it was obsolete, the Old Covenant was done, and so the Romans finished it off.

New Exiles Gathered In

But the vision was still there, that in the heavenly realm there would be, all nations assembled to worship God and there would be in verse 8, new exiles drawn and look at verse 8, "The sovereign lord declares, he who gathers the exiles of Israel. I'm going to gather still others to them besides those already gathered." I'm going to do a kind of a second re-gathering. So we're going to bring in the Jews from Babylon, and they'll be re-gathered but then I'm going to do a second re-gathering I'm going to gather other exiles and bring them in. Well, who are they?

Well, In Isaiah 11:12, it says that God "will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel, he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth." So there's this banner raised for the Gentiles and a gathering of people from all over the world and then even more plain in John 11:51-52, it said that "Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and not for that nation only, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one." Non-Jews, who are called the scattered children of God, they are the elect, chosen before the creation of the world, they would be gathered in Jesus's name, to one place. That's what verse 8 is talking about. I'm going to gather still others beyond those already gathered.

So Verses 1 through 8 show the delights of the plan of salvation, for humble people once excluded, for exiles scattered all over the Earth, rich blessings of fellowship an eternally secure place in God's eternal temple where you will worship forever and ever. My question to you is, are you included or are you still an outsider? Are you on the outside looking in or have you been drawn in through faith in Christ? That's what you have to ask. This is visionary Old Testament prophetic language, let me speak quite plainly. Do you know yourself to be a Christian? Do you know yourself to be forgiven through faith in Christ? Have you been drawn in through faith in Christ, having repented of your sins have you found forgiveness through Christ? Are you spiritually now offering sacrifices to God, are you spiritually feasting on Christ? Are you looking forward to the day when you are literally sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Is that you?

If not, If you know yourself to be an outsider believe that God brought you here for this moment and I'm calling on you while there's time, call on the Lord while he is near. Forsake your evil ways and find forgiveness in Christ.

The rest of the chapter deals with weeds, deals with people who hear that kind of invitation, hear that kind of gospel presentation and don't believe. Now they're a special category. They are leaders, they are the watchmen of Israel, but they're wicked, look at them described. They're self-indulgent leaders verses 10-12. "Israel's Watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge they're all mute dogs, they cannot bark, they lie around and dream, they love to sleep, they are dogs with mighty appetites, they never have enough, they are shepherds who lack understanding, they all turn to their own way, each seeks his own gain. Come, each one cries, let me get wine, let us drink our fill of beer and tomorrow will be like today or even far better."

Well, final paragraph to this chapter is a judgment on the watchmen of Israel. I believe it's speaking to the leaders of the Jewish nation, their kings, their prophets, their warriors, their leaders who were given positions of power and authority in the nation to serve the people not to take advantage of them or to fleece them. Israel's watchmen are the guardians of the nation, those who stand on the walls, to protect her from danger and from slaughter in the night. They are called on therefore, to deprive themselves of sleep during the night. What good is a sleeping watchman? They're supposed to be up on the walls, but they're asleep. They're supposed to be sacrificing themselves, they're supposed to be alert and courageous and wise and self-sacrificial. But instead these watchmen are deplorable.

Ezekiel the Prophet was called a watchman for Israel. He said, "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me." So that picture is a sleeping city, a walled fortress, and there's a possibility of an attack in the night. The watchman's job is to stand on the walls and warn the sleeping people, "Get up, there's danger." And so what God says to Ezekiel the watchman, he says, "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself." So that's what a watchman does. Now, these watchmen are deplorable, they are blind. I mean, think about that, what good is a blind watchman? Just ponder that for a while. They are ignorant, they lack knowledge, they are mute dogs. Now, what good is a watch dog that can't bark?

Isaiah calls them lazy dogs. They lie around and love to sleep, like the sluggard, they can't even pull their hand out of the dish and bring it to their mouth. They can barely rouse themselves out of bed, they're lazy. He calls them dogs with mighty appetites. Like Paul says in Philippians 3, "Their God is their stomach." They love a good meal. They love to feast. They're living for themselves, they're greedy. They never get enough. And not only that, they think the feast will never end. I like the NIV on verse 12, I really do. "Come, each one cries, let me get wine, let us drink our fill of beer. And tomorrow will be like today or even far better." That's an interesting translation, I think it's a good one. In other words, I think things are just going to get better and better. Things are really good for us right now, but they're going to get better and better.

No fear of the Lord, no fear of impending judgment, just complacent, lazy comfortable expectation that life, prosperous comfortable life, is just going to keep on going the way it always has. Well, verse nine speaks of a different kind of feast, it's a different kind of feast, and these watchmen are actually invited to it. But look at it, "Come all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest." So Israel's watchmen are invited to the feast, but not as honored guests, but actually as the food. They're going to be invited to be devoured by the beast, they're going to be judged by the wrath of God. This very much reminds me of Revelation 19, when there's the armies of the Earth assembled to fight against Jesus in His second coming glory. And it says there in Revelation 19:17, it says, "I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in mid-air, 'Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and generals and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great." And so the birds came and feasted on their flesh. It's a picture of terrible judgment from God.

So, simply put, at the end of the world, God is going to separate out the wheat from the weeds. And verses 9-12 give a picture, in very graphic kind of picture form, of the judgment that's going to come on those who live their lives for their stomach, for their flesh, who do not use their positions of influence and authority to glorify God.

Alright, so applications, I've already given you the most important one. Come to the banquet of Christ while there's time. Feast on him, trust in him. Don't remain an outsider. Be welcomed by faith in Christ into God's holy temple. Accept the gifts that He wants to give you. He wants to adopt you as one of his sons or daughters. He wants to give you a name in his temple that will never end. Accept his conditions, the conditions of the new covenant, they're simple. Confess Christ as your Lord and Savior, repent of your sins, and you will be saved.

Secondly, understand, Christian brothers and sisters, the mixed nature of this world. It is lamentable, we are going to grieve, it's going to cause us trouble, but it's just the reality. It's going to be like this until the end of the world. Look on it as an opportunity. Don't consider yourself superior to any of those that appear to be weeds. That's the whole thing. The reason the servants can't root them up, they can't tell the difference. Saul of Tarsus, what did he look like the morning he was converted? He looked like weeds to me. We just can't tell the difference, we never know what God's sovereign grace could do. We never know. And so, let's look on the wickedness of the people around us as an opportunity to speak the truth in love into their lives and see God save some of them. The weeds make up ISIS as they behead Christians. The weeds make-up anti-Christian college officials who issue edicts and rules that keep Christians from freely sharing the gospel on their college campuses, or professors who use their positions to speak anti-Christian doctrines to those that have to listen to them, or non-Christian government officials, not just in the US but all over the world, who use their positions of power and influence to hinder the work of God in the world. Making bad decisions, and issuing bad judgments, and bad decrees, or even to crush the Gospel overtly.

The mixed up nature of this world is a constant grief to us. It's going to continue, but it's temporary. Some day the Lord is going to purge this world. In the mean time, we're going to have to bear with this suffering that comes from it and to see God use us to win people to Christ. Also, along with that, let's have a deep compassion for those that are lost, let's weep for them. Let's not feel superior to them. Let's, like Paul says, "I have a great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." And Jesus wept over Jerusalem. So ask God to make you a little less annoyed with the weeds, a little less irritated by them, and instead pray for them. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, "I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvations in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." You know what it is? The elect are surrounded by un-elect. The wheat that hasn't been converted yet, they're surrounded by weeds that are going to pound you as you try to reach the elect. Even the elect themselves are going to treat you badly until they're finally converted. I did the same myself. They're going to beat you up while you're rescuing them from the lagoon. You're going to swim out there, and they're going to beat you up the whole way as you drag them to safety. And then they're going to cry and thank you. But that's what happens. This is the price we pay for being evangelistically fruitful in this world.

Thirdly, a warning to leaders, to watchmen, be faithful. Elders, especially I want to say a word to you who are elders in this church, let us not be anything like the watchmen that are described in this chapter. Do not live for your stomach, do not live for pleasure, do not live for temporary things. I call on me and others to live up to the holiness that this passage talks about. We ought to keep watch over ourselves and the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made us overseers. Richard Baxter in his reform pastor said this, "Take heed to yourselves, lest you live in those sins that you preach against in others. Lest you be guilty of that which daily you condemn. Will you preach God's laws and yet willfully break them? If sin be evil, then why do you live in it? And if it be not, then why do you dissuade men from it? If sin be dangerous, then how dare you venture on it? And if it be not, then why do you tell men so? If God's threatenings be true, then why do you not fear them? And if they be false, then why do you needlessly trouble men with them and put them into such frights without a cause?"

So that's just a warning to all of us who are elders and leaders in spiritual positions in the church, not just in this church, but in any church. I also want to give a similar warning to political leaders. God is going to hold political leaders, senators, congressmen, presidents, elected officials to account for what they did with their position of authority. And if they used their position to hinder the work of God, God is going to judge them.

Finally, a word for missions. Verse seven says, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." I yearn for this church to be on fire for evangelism and missions. That we would be a house of prayer for all nations, for the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I especially call on home fellowships. When you meet tonight in your home fellowships, be certain you pray for missionaries, be certain you pray for unreached people groups, that you keep your heart extended to the ends of the Earth, where Jesus has believers who have not yet been converted. Move your heart out there in prayer. My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Close with me in prayer.

In 1 Kings, we have this incredible account of one of the great heroes of the Old Testament, Elijah. He had an incredible encounter with God in a cave. He ran for his life from Jezebel. You remember that story. And when he got to that cave, he was thoroughly discouraged. He was thoroughly worn out by all that he had been through. The Lord began that encounter with a simple question, “Elijah, why are you here?” Now, he couldn’t have answered as he would answer later: “I think in the end, I was here to have an encounter with the living God.” I would love if everyone that’s sitting here today in the hearing of my voice would be able to answer that question the same way.

What if I were to ask you, “Why are you here right now?” I think it’s good for you to reflect on that. You probably would want to know what I mean. You want to ask, “Do you mean why did I get up out of bed this morning and come here? Is that what you’re asking? Or, why do I attend this specific church and not another church? Or maybe even bigger: why do I go to church at all on a Sunday morning? Or maybe you mean something even bigger than that: what is my purpose for living? Why am I on planet Earth at all? What’s my reason for existence? Well, these questions, no matter how I might mean them, all of them are very searching, very probing.

There are a wide variety of answers that people give to each one. Let’s take the most rudimentary, basic way to understand that question. Why am I here in this building right now? Why did I get out of bed and come here today? That took effort. That took forethought. For some people a little more forethought than others, but it did, it took effort. You chose your clothes. You got your body ready. You could have slept in. You could have relaxed. You could have surfed the web, gone to some sites, or just looked at the sunrise after the storm. You could have done a lot of things: gone for a walk, gone for breakfast, gone to your favorite breakfast spot, had an omelet with swiss cheese and broccoli, or some breakfast meats. You could have gone to one of those coffee shops where you sit with your earbuds in your ears right next to total strangers and don’t look at them. I find that amazing, some of these shops. People like to be together and don’t like to interact. Figure it out. Which is it? Do you want to be together or not? But it’s interesting. You could have gone to Starbucks or a park or some other spot.

Some of you may feel you had no choice but to come today. You’re being raised in a Christian home. Maybe you’re a kid or teenager, and you’re in no real position to refuse, however tempted you might be to refuse to come to church. But you’re having your heart-search right now. If you weren’t made to come, would you have come? In a few years, when you go away to college, you’ll have the freedom not to go to church. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of kids raised in evangelical churches decide not to go to church when they get to college. But for now, you have no choice. Except you do get to control your attitude about coming to church. You get to control how you feel about it. You get to choose whether you’re happy to be here this morning.

Now, you that are college students, you’re already at that place where you know very well you don’t have to be in church. You’re here because you want to be here. Perhaps, usually, you stay up, as most college students do, quite late in the evenings. Maybe especially on Saturday evenings. I don’t know what your patterns are. That’s how it was for me. So Sunday mornings are a real sacrifice. Some of you have made the biggest sacrifice of anyone here today. But you’re here and you’re here because you want to be. But… go a little deeper. Why are you here? What do you want to hear? What do you want to have happen in your soul? What are you hoping for? What’s your reason for being here?

Some of you are parents. You feel an obligation to set an example for your children. You’re on the other side of that equation that I talked about earlier. Maybe you feel, to some degree, you have no choice but to be here. Others of you are members of FBC. You want to set an example for your kids, but you come here out of habit, maybe, or out of friendships, connections with other people. Some of you have been members of this church for decades. You just feel this is your church. You’ve been coming here. What else would you do? This is exactly why you come. And some of you are here because you want to have an encounter with the living God. You want to come to a church that preaches God’s Word. You want to know Jesus, and you want to follow Him. You know your salvation is not done yet. You need help and you need accountability. You need people to pray for you. You need to give and receive spiritual gifts. You need all of those things, and this is the church where you perceive those things happening. Because you’ve been blessed in that way in the past, you expect that you’re going to be blessed that way again today. So you’ve come for those kinds of blessings.

Another way to look at this is: How do you evaluate any church at all? How do you evaluate involvement in church? I think about when I fly and I get to the end of a flight. We’re taxiing up to the gate, and they play some pre-recorded message in which they acknowledge that I have many different choices in air travel, and they’re very grateful (at least the recording is grateful) for me having chosen Delta or American or whatever it is. I’m glad that the recording is grateful. That’s how I hear that. That’s just kind of the way I’m wired. Maybe they’re actually glad that I’ve chosen Delta or American. They say, “We know you have options.” Churches are very aware of that too. And they say, “We know you have other options in church.” We’re not back in the Middle Ages, or back in the state-run church era where it was illegal not to go to church and you had to go to the Anglican Church or to the Catholic Church or whatever. No, we know that you have freedom to not go to church or to go. And if you choose to go, you’ve got an array of choices in terms of denominations. And even within Baptist churches, you’ve got an array of options. So how do you evaluate? How do you know what is a healthy church? How can you evaluate your own involvement?

Or perhaps, pastor, you mean the ultimate question: why do I exist? Why? Why do I exist? Why am I here on Earth at all? What is my purpose for living? Why do I do anything, not just on Sunday mornings, but any time at all? Or more Christianly, why did God make me? Why did God create me? What were His reasons for knitting me together in my mother’s womb? Did He have a purpose for my life? So, as we come to the final sermon that I’m going to preach in the Book of Ephesians, the end of our journey in Ephesians, I think it’s a good time for us to evaluate ourselves individually in terms of God’s ultimate purposes in the world, and to zero in a little bit more specifically on our relationship to this local church, or ultimately, to any local church.

I want to set First Durham, FBC, as a local church in the context of what God says is His purpose in the Book of Ephesians. And I want to give you, toward the end of the sermon, a list of six commitments, or duties, or responsibilities, of church members, by which I would like you to evaluate your involvement in this local church, and then, going forward, in any local church if the Lord should lead you away.

You may ask, why are we doing this today? Why now? Well, for a variety of reasons, I think. One is that the elders recently have been reading a book on Christian community. It’s available out in the North Tower Resource Center. One of the things that the book talked about, and I touched on it a moment ago, is the consumer mentality that can come in American churches, the idea of evaluating a church by what you get, like you do with any goods and services. Am I getting what I should get from a church? There’s a consumer mentality, rather than asking, “How can I serve Christ and His people? What are the ways that I can be a blessing to the people of God?”

For us, we look at both sides of that equation. We’re very eager to be certain that the church is giving to its members what a church should give. We’re very concerned when we hear stories about people going through adversity, going through trials in their lives, and they feel that no one cares. Specifically, that no one from the church cares. No one called. No one cared. No one came. Those kinds of things. It’s so easy to be busy in life, to be busy with ministry as elders and for people to slip through the cracks. We’re aware that people actually do feel that way. It’s not theoretical. There are some people that have felt that way. We take that very seriously. We want to evaluate our church and be certain that we’re ministering well. But we also want to be certain that people have a healthy view of the local church themselves. We find that the more people are other-centered and servant-hearted, the less they feel that way about any local church. They’re not thinking about it from that perspective. Instead, they’re always asking, “How can I be a blessing? How can I serve?” They tend to be the happiest, most well-adjusted church members there are, even though they may be going through great trials themselves.

Secondly, we have known for a long time that our church is kind of a regional church. People drive long distances to get here. We’ve also found that that wears on people after a time. It becomes more and more difficult to make that drive. I don’t think, other than plate tectonics, that the distance is any more than it was five years ago. It just seems longer. I think that speaks to the kind of growing discontent we all have with the same things that go on over and over. It’s like, “I know that church, and it just feels like it’s a long way to drive for church.” So we’ve evaluated that, and a number of faithful, fruitful members of the church have given that as a reason they’ve parted on good terms. They’re not here anymore, and that’s an issue. We’ve thought about hat.

Thirdly has to do with the financial situation of our church. I hardly ever preach on finances, but this morning I’m going to. I’m going to talk about finances. Our church is something like $125,000 behind in our regular church budget. I think it’s a good time for us to talk about what the regular church budget is, what it’s purpose is, and to have the church evaluate their own involvement and the value that you all put on this, on coming here and having this be here, and your willingness to make sacrifices and invest in that. It’s a chance for us to give some teaching on that. Compounded with that, I think you’ve probably noticed an aging building, if we could put it this way, an older building. Apparently, the second-floor windows aren’t very good with horizontal rain. I guess we found that out yesterday. I mean, we actually have a couple of windows in our home that apparently aren’t very good on horizontal rain. So we had a kind of water feature inside the North Tower last night. It was coming down, just cascading down the wall. Did you notice the fans and the water stains? So there’s that. I wasn’t going to do this, but I call your attention to the ceiling. Apparently, some people cleaned up some of the specks that fell last night. I thought it might have been better for my sermon if they left them there, or even better, if some fell down right at this moment of the sermon. That would be really cool.

Now, I wasn’t going to orchestrate that. That’s so cheap and chintzy, like, pastor, come on! Did you get somebody up there to thump at a key moment and then pieces would fall down? Maybe you’ve never looked at the ceiling of the sanctuary before. Maybe you’ve never noticed it before. But now you have. Our roof leaks. It actually does. I didn’t realize this, but some really godly and wonderful people put children’s swimming pools up there about two months ago to collect rain until we have fixed the roof. They go up and empty them regularly, every three days, or something like that. I’m not thinking that’s a good long-term solution. I’m thinking that’s not the best thing to do. I think fixing the roof is better. But everything breaks down. I’ve talked to pastors and they’re like, “Oh, you’re so lucky to be in a church that’s completely paid for.” They have a huge debt in their church, and that’s a huge burden. Friends, this church is never completely paid for. It just isn’t. I think we had trouble with one of our HVAC units, and so if you were in the educational wing, it felt quite warm over there. These are just things that we’re evaluating.

Fourth, the ending of the book of Ephesians gives me a chance to see God’s plan for building the church globally, worldwide, and how every local church fits into it. I’ve really had to think a lot about that. As key leaders like Daniel Renstrom and others have left, I have realized how transitory all of this is. It’s all very transient. It’s constantly changing. And I need to not fight that, but just understand it, to evaluate the church and think about it, and learn more and more the connections, or relationship, between healthy local churches and the universal church, the heavenly church.

I’ve done a lot of thinking on that. But this is a good chance for us to evaluate and to see our involvement. To see our involvement in evangelism and missions too. Are we doing what we were put here to do in terms of the external journey? Are we reaching Durham? Are we seeing lots of baptisms? Are we seeing people from the community converted and baptized? How are we doing and how is our commitment to missions, to end-of-the-earth missions, to missionaries, to the people who are going out and trusting in us, like Marty and Chandler? A couple of weeks ago we were sending them out. Are we faithful to that?

Finally, at the beginning of the school year/home fellowship year, it’s good for us to evaluate many aspects of vital ministries of our church. We’ve noticed that people have a high level of enthusiasm about new ministries like home fellowships in September, but don’t have the same level of zeal in February, March, and April. So it’s a good chance for us to evaluate various things. That’s what we’re doing today.

I’m aware of the dangers of a sermon like this. I’m aware of the danger of guilt and manipulation. I don’t want to do that. And legalism, I don’t want to do either of those. I don’t want to lay a legalistic standard on the church and have you feel burdened by that. Not at all. Part of the problem with preaching is there’s this old proverb in reference to preaching, which is, “to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.” One thing I’ve noticed is that church members, or hearers of sermons, don’t come in pre-labeled. I am comfortable, please disturb me. Or, I am disturbed, please comfort me. You might be a complex mix of both comfortable and disturbed at the same time, and you might need a complex mix. I’m preaching one sermon to all of you. It’s really an amazing thing how this could even be helpful. Yet, week after week, pastors get up and preach one sermon to a mixed assembly of people who are all over the map in terms of where they’re at.

When you go to many hospitals, if not most hospitals these days, when they administer medications that are prescribed by the attending physicians, they scan a barcode thing on your wrist to be certain you’re you and to keep a record and be certain you get the right medication. I can’t do that. I can’t scan you and say, “Okay, you need to be disturbed; I’m now going to disturb you.” And right next to you is someone that needs to be comforted, is feeling very ruffled in life and very troubled by things, and needs to just be comforted. That’s a danger in preaching a sermon like this as well.

We have come to the final paragraph in Ephesians. One of the dangers, also, is to try to weave in these last few words of Ephesians to the intention of the sermon. I don’t know that I’m going to do that well. What I want to do is explain these last few words. There’s not a lot of theological meat here, but there’s value in it. Then I’ll transition to the things that I want to do in terms of this kind of State of the Church address. I’m going to reach back as Greg beautifully did in his prayer. What a great prayer, brother! It kind of did a lot of my work for me. But I think it’s good to look across the whole book one more time. This is going to be our last Sunday in Ephesians. See how it points toward the themes that I’d like to address. Look with me again at Ephesians 6:21-24.

“Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Ephesians is, in some ways, Paul’s least personal letter. There’s more theological reasoning and general principles than personal messages of address. There’s not a lot of them. They appear far more in other epistles like in Philippians or Corinthians. But here, he gets very personal. We see the personal side of Paul. He begins in this section with a man named Tychicus. We don’t know very much about him. He’s mentioned five times in the New Testament, generally four out of the five times, and in one of Paul’s letters at the end, when he entrusts him with some job to do or some responsibility to go as a messenger. Paul says wonderful things about him. He calls him a dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord. In Colossians 4:70, he adds a phrase, “a fellow servant in the Lord.” We don’t know much about him, but he’s a representative of how God uses unsung, non-famous people to do amazing ministries.

Most of us are going to be like that. Most of us are not going to be upfront leader people whose names we know. Tychicus represents those kind of more anonymous servants of the Lord, brothers and sisters in Christ who do incredibly helpful and valuable ministries. Paul sends him to the church at Ephesus to give a fuller report about Paul so that they can pray for him. He said, “Pray for me.” “All right, Paul, what do you need? What’s going on in your life?” “Well, Tychicus will fill you in. He’ll tell you what’s going on with me. Also, I know this about him, he’s going to encourage your hearts.” Wouldn’t that be wonderful to be said of you, like Barnabas? He was just the son of encouragement. Wouldn’t you love to be the kind of person that sweetly blesses the people around you every time you interact? “I know that when I send Tychicus to you, your hearts are going to be encouraged by him.” That’s what Paul says.

Then he closes with this beautiful benediction: “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.” You get that sense of (I’m just about to talk about this) this universal church that we’re part of. There are brothers and sisters in different localities. We may never know them, but they’re part of the family of God. Paul in his epistles frequently greets the brothers and sisters and reaches out to them. He yearns to give them love with faith from God, so there’s this greeting that goes, “May your love increase more and more. May your faith continue to grow and develop.” That gives us a sense of our ongoing need. We need more, and that, I think, easily folds into where I want to go in this sermon. We need local churches to be avenues of grace to us because we’re not done needing grace. So Paul ends all of his epistles with, “Grace be with you,” or, “Grace to you.”

So there’s that sense of “You have received grace already. You need even more grace. May the grace of God now go with you as you exit this epistle.” It’s a beautiful sense of that, like a tunnel of grace, as you walk out into the world. Then he says this, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with [a love incorruptible,] an undying love.” How beautiful is that! I meditated on that. That’s talking about our love for Jesus, our love for God. Isn’t it wonderful to know that, if you’re a genuine Christian, your love for Jesus will never die? It cannot be corrupted. You’re going to make it through. You’re going to reach the end of your Christian life still loving Jesus. It’s going to survive your own death and it’s going to go on into eternity. It’s an undying love. You know, at the end of Romans 8, he talks about how nothing in heaven or earth or anything can separate us from the love of God that’s in Christ Jesus our Lord. That’s God’s love for us and Jesus. Well, this verse tells me that nothing will separate me from my love for Jesus, either. That’s a love relationship that started and it’s going to last forever. That’s how he ends the book.

That brings me to my purpose in this sermon: to look at the big picture of the Book of Ephesians and then weave it into our local church. So what is Christ’s purpose? What is God’s purpose for all of this? I can say it’s simply this: it is the glory of God in the perfection of the church of Jesus Christ. That’s what He’s about. That’s what’s going on. That’s what every individual person should be about. That’s what every local church should be about. The glory of God in the final perfection of the church of Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re here for. Look back at the beginning of the epistle. We’re going to go through this one more time. He begins with praise and worship, and that’s where we’re going to end up. We’re going to be in heaven praising and worshipping God. He starts there. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Eph 1:3-4)

We can’t think about that enough. In eternity past, He chose us for eternity future, to be holy and blameless in heaven. He elected us and He chose us. “In love, [we’re told] he predestined us [He set our horizons for us.] to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.” (Eph 1:5) He was pleased to do it. He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ. All of this was done, we’re told three times in this early section of Ephesians, for the praise of His glory, the praise of His glorious grace. So He’s doing all of this so that He may be praised and glorified and honored, as it says in 1 Corinthians. “Let him who boasts, let him who glories, glory in the Lord so that we might praise him.” That’s what He’s doing. To that end, He took filthy, rebellious sinners like us and cleansed us by the blood of Jesus. “In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Ephesians 1:7. God redeemed us by the blood of Jesus. He saved us by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross.

If you’ve come here today as an unbeliever, you’re on the outside. This is your only hope: that you might be delivered from the wrath of God that you, and all of us, so richly deserve. God sent His son, Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life and died an atoning death for sinners like you and me. That’s where Christians come from because we believe in that message. We were redeemed by the blood of Jesus. This is the very thing that we were predestined for. This is the thing that God orchestrated. Ephesians 1:11 says, “In him, we were also chosen, having been predestined according to his will.” Not just big things, but the details have been predestined and worked out carefully. It’s not an accident that you came to faith in Christ. It was orchestrated.

But it happened through a certain mechanism, a certain way. Verse 13 says, “When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal.” This is how you were saved. This is the gospel. This is what we’re here for. We’re here to believe that gospel and to proclaim it to others. We learned, as we’ve seen already, that we were to be redeemed out of a dungeon, a spiritual dungeon. We can’t see it with our own eyes, but the more you go on, you know there are these invisible chains that are holding people down. In Satan’s dark dungeon people are enslaved and they’re enchained to their lusts and to the ways of this world. They are vessels of wrath. But God, because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, He made us alive. He raised us from the dead, spiritually, through faith in Christ.

It’s not by our works. It’s simply by grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “By grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it’s a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” You were created first and foremost for that: to be a sinner, saved by grace, forgiven by grace. First and foremost you were created for that. But secondly, Ephesians 2:10 says so much more. You were created also to do good works, which God prepared in advance that you should walk in them. He got all these good works ready. And I tell you, if you’re a healthy Christian, many of those good works are going to be done in the context of a healthy local church, together with brothers and sisters in Christ who know you, and you know them, and you work together. Many of those good works, not all of them, but many of them, are going to be done in the context of a healthy local church.

Paul gives us a vision for that in Ephesians 2:11-22, I think, the end of that chapter. Just go to the end, verses 19-22. He gives us a vision of how Gentiles were rescued out of that darkness and made one with Jewish believers. The barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, was removed and now, in Christ, together we are a part of this invisible spiritual building that is rising, growing. I love the dynamism of that, rising to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. Again and again, I reach 1 Peter 2, the living stones image. We are living stones in this spiritual temple and it’s rising. It’s getting bigger, every day a little bigger, every day a little more glorious. Look at the words, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” That, dear friends, is the church.

It’s an architectural image of the church. Then in Ephesians 4, he gives us the biological image of the church: a body with a head, different members of the body, different supporting ligaments, and different body systems. Together, as each part does its work, our spiritual gift ministries, the whole body grows up into Christ-like maturity. So we have these two images of the church.

This growth of the church is of two types: a growth of the church in terms of internal holiness and conformity to Christ, and an external growth of new people, lost people brought to faith in Christ, more and more people coming to faith in Christ. That’s what the church is doing around the world.

So why are you here? Well, I hope you’re here to be part of all that, part of the two journeys, the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of evangelism and missions. That is the story of the world. That’s the story of what God is doing. He is building the church of Jesus Christ. He’s getting all the glory, saving sinners like you and me. We have a role to play. We get to use our gifts to build up that body.

Local church membership is a means to that end. It’s a means to that end. Now, when I say local church, we need to understand. The universal church is the invisible, if I could use the word, mystical, spiritual union of all genuine followers of Jesus Christ around the world and up in heaven. That’s the church universal. That’s a beautiful thing. Once you’ve come to Christ, you are immediately a member of that body. No one can sever you from Christ. That’s permanent. The local church has an address. It’s a place you can go on a Sunday morning to be with other Christians. The church at Ephesus was a local church that Paul was writing to.

In Revelation 2 and 3, we’ve got seven churches that were in Asia Minor. Those seven churches, of which Ephesus is one, they’re all local churches. Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, those are the seven churches. Others churches, such as Galatia, also Corinthians and Romans, those are all local churches. The local church is the best and clearest way you can regularly interact with the universal church. The local church is also a feeder system for the heavenly church, the heavenly Zion, the heavenly bride of Christ. That’s what it is.

First Baptist Church, Durham, North Carolina, is a local church. Covenant membership, committed membership, in a local church is God’s primary way for individual Christians to grow and help others grow. That’s what God set up.

Now, as I’ve said, all local churches are temporary. All of them. They’re constantly evolving, constantly changing. People come and people go. People live and then they die. People move to different geographic areas. Different things happen. So there’s constant changes.

The question we have to ask is: are we being faithful as local church members to do what God intends for our covenant membership in this local church? That’s what we’re trying to evaluate. Pastors get so uptight about the size of their churches, let me tell you. I have been to pastoral conferences, and there’s a way you can talk about what’s going on in your church. It’s called the humblebrag. It’s distasteful. I’m not saying I don’t have the seeds of that in my heart. I’m just telling you, it’s not helpful to think that way. The question is, are we being faithful? Are we being faithful to the doors of opportunity that God has opened up for us here in Durham and to the ends of the earth? That’s the question we have to ask. Those seven churches in Asia Minor, all seven of them, they were all real local churches that at some point became obsolete. They were later planted centuries later by others. Take Smyrna, for example. It’s in modern-day Izmir. There was a long time when there was no local church in Smyrna, Izmir. But there is now. So that means that the local churches, they come and go. The question is, are we being faithful? In Revelation 3:8, to the church of Philadelphia, the Lord said, “Behold, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” That’s opportunity, right? Are we being faithful to walk through open doors? To the church at Smyrna, in Revelation 2:10, He says, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Healthy Membership Responsibilities Listed for Self-Evaluation

All right. So as I read these six things (we’ll go through them quickly), I want to tell you I’m looking for health here, not for perfection. Please, please don’t look for a perfect church. Don’t ever put “perfect church” together in the same sentence, other than to say there is no perfect church. That would be fine. We’re not looking for perfection. We’re looking for health. That’s a better word. There are many healthy local churches. There are no perfect churches. So the question we’re asking is, is our church healthy?

Also, we don’t want to be legalistic. We want to have a sense of grace flowing in the life of the church. We want you to evaluate how God is using you and how you are serving as a local church member.

So this list of six things is not exhaustive, but I think it’s helpful. Six things: healthy church members grow toward Christ-likeness. Secondly, healthy church members pray consistently. Thirdly, healthy church members attend regularly. Fourth, healthy church members give sacrificially. Fifth, healthy church members serve the body with their spiritual gifts. And sixth, healthy church members evangelize the lost. Those are the six things. Let me talk about them quickly.

First, healthy church members grow toward Christ-likeness. We, the elders, expect each member of the church to be “growing in grace and knowledge of Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. We expect that you would be making progress in your sanctification, and that you would be having daily quiet times, meeting with the Lord every day.

We expect you to be feeding on God’s word, putting sin to death by the power of the Spirit, using your gifts to build, and living a healthy Christian life. Healthy church members feel themselves to be running a race with endurance. And they want to run right to the end. Like Paul, there’s a passion. In Philippians 3:12-14, (I love this) Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” That’s the race we’re running. If you’re a healthy church member, you’re going to be running your race. You’re not going to be plateauing or declining in your spirituality. You’re going to be growing.

Secondly, healthy church members pray consistently. This fits into where we’ve been recently in Ephesians 6. Look again at 6:18. “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Pray for other church members. Organize your prayer life. Pray for your home fellowship members. Pray for brothers and sisters in Christ that you know well. Get to know people you don’t know well yet by praying through the church phone list. A page a day would be a good rate. You will get through the whole thing in less than a month. If there’s one person you don’t know, go ask somebody. Say, “I prayed for this person yesterday. I don’t know them. Tell me something about them.”

Get to know the body, but do it especially by prayer. Take up each other’s burdens in prayer. Be involved in the prayer ministries of the church, especially home fellowship. Don’t skimp home fellowship. Don’t skimp on prayer. Spend a good amount of time praying with and for each other. Also, there are other opportunities to pray. Every Sunday morning, many of you don’t know this, but we have a small prayer meeting at 8:30am on Sunday mornings. If you’re able to come, we’re just right here in the parlor, and we pray for the day. We pray for the preaching. We pray for the Sunday School ministry. We just pray. It’s a short time, but come at 8:30 in the morning if you can make it. That’s an opportunity to pray. And there are other corporate prayer times throughout the year.

Thirdly, healthy church members attend regularly. A key verse on this is Hebrews 10:25. “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Now, you may ask, attend what regularly? Church does a lot of things. Well, first and foremost, this meeting of the church at 10:30 Sunday mornings. We’re here every week. Every week. I just heard that Christmas is on Sunday. We’re actually going to have church on December 25th. In the spirit of the puritans, we’re going to have church on Christmas Day. All right? So please come. Every single Sunday. Every single Sunday. First and foremost, there’s that. At the second level, I would say be involved in home fellowships. We know that not everyone can be involved in home fellowships. We understand that. But there is no better structural ministry of the church by which you can know and be known. You can linger after worship with others who also linger after worship. Many don’t, but some do. You can get to know people that way. But home fellowship is the best way to get to know the same people week after week. I also would urge you to consider regularly attending Member Meetings. Member Meetings happen four times a year. They used to be called church conferences, or others called them business meetings. We have them in February, May, August, and November. One’s coming up pretty soon, in a couple of weeks, or a month. Come to that, it’s important. At a lower level, Bile for Life is a good ministry. The word of God is taught here week after week. We’ve seen attendance decline over the last four or five years. The elders are seeking to give different and better classes. I think just being committed to say, “Hey, this is a better way for me to spend the time than if I weren’t there.” It’s a good way to feed on God’s word and to meet with God’s people and to pray for each other.

What do we mean by regularly attend? I said, “attend what?” The elders shrank back from a percentage per year, okay? That would just be simple legalism, for us to say, “You need to attend at least 80% of Sunday morning worships.” That’s not where it’s at. Really, what I’d rather you do is look at Hebrews 10:25, and look at two key words. It says, “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as some are in the habit of doing” There’s two word: forsake and habit. Those are key words. A willful choice to not go to Sunday morning worship, making a habit of that is a step towards apostasy. It’s a dangerous thing to do. As a matter of fact, the first thing the elders do in shepherding souls is look at attendance in Sunday morning worship. We know that some people are caring for sick family members and can’t come. We know that there are other mitigating circumstances. We’re just interested in what the circumstances are.

Fourth, healthy church members give financially and they give sacrificially. Jesus taught more on money than any other topic of the Christian life. Why? Well, because how you spend your money is a clear indicator of the state of your soul. To repeat, our church is right now about 10% behind in our annual budget, something like that. Maybe $120,000. I haven’t gotten the recent figures but that’s been the recent thing. Now, about this time every year, we’re always behind. We usually have great Decembers. I don’t know if it’s the tax season or what it is. But I don’t think historically our December will be enough to make up this deficit. The church is doing well. We’re very wise in how we spend. We don’t overspend, and we’re not in a bind. But for us, it really is more of a spiritual issue. It’s something we want to use to enable each of you individually to look in the mirror and to ask, “What am I doing with my money?”

Software shows the demographics, the age spread demographics of our contributions. Let me tell you, I have never known any single church member’s giving patterns in any single instance, ever, unless they told me, and I couldn’t stop them in time. So I don’t know what any of you that I look in the face now are doing. I don’t. I just know the big picture. According to our software, we have 215 regular givers. I think that’s right. We can also extract out the average gift. You can work on that. I’m not going to give you the number, but you can do that also. We have some significant givers that skew the whole number upward for others. That’s just math. When you have a couple of big-time givers, if you remove them, then the numbers all sink a little bit down. If you take the average gift by those of professional age, those in the prime of their earning careers, age 25 and up, and then you reverse it by the tithing principle (I’m talking about tithing in just a minute, but that’s 1/10th of an income), if you reverse it, then those people earn an average of $26,000 a year, if they tithe. I don’t think that’s even a living wage. So I don’t think that people are tithing. It’s just simple logic. Then you could ask, well, should people tithe? Tithing is an old English word that simply means 1/10th. It’s an Old Covenant principle.

Randy Alcorn’s book “Money, Possessions, and Eternity” said tithing is the training wheels of Christian giving. Remember training wheels? I never used training wheels. I went right on a bike. I’ll never forget my first bike ride. I was a seven-year-old kid. I rode down a hill right into a teenager’s car, a hot rod that he was waxing. I ran for my life through the woods. I managed, somehow, to survive. I don’t know how I survived that day, but I got through it. Boy, was he mad.  I didn’t know how to brake. I didn’t know how to turn. I just went. That was my first bike ride. You’re saying that explains your recent bike crash pastor. No, I’ve learned something about bike riding since then. Training wheels are a temporary thing to teach you how to give. He has an implication that you should be giving more, not less. He argues this way: New Covenant blessings are always expansions of Old Covenant practices, not reductions. We’re not, as Christians say, “Oh good, now we’re in the New Covenant. We can give less than the Old Covenant people did.” That’s just not the way that the Bible tends to work.

But we’re not given an amount. We’re told this: under New Testament principles, we should give sacrificially, cheerfully, and by faith. We should give regularly and according to what we have. That could be a whole sermon. I’m not going to do that, but that’s how we should do it. We want to give generously, sacrificially, and cheerfully according to what we have. Our desire is that you would be faithful to those principles. If you are being faithful, that really is our budget. We should reduce our budget by that amount and say, “That’s what we can do.” But is it? That’s the question we have to ask. Tithes, many have thought, and I’m sympathetic to this, should go to the local church and offerings to ministry beyond the walls of the church. Tithes and offerings. That’s a phrase we hear a lot. Benevolence money, money to missions, money to other things, to parachurch ministries, those are your offerings. Tithes, then, go to enable local churches like this one to keep doing this, to keep meeting on Sundays. That’s generally what tithes go to. Also, there are offerings that go toward the building. Like I said, our building needs attention.

Back in 1995, three years before I came, the church had a giving campaign to upgrade the sanctuary, the children’s area directly below, and build the North Tower. So basically this wall and over, down and up. If you go into the educational wing, you’ll notice a difference. It feels a little different. Does it to you? I mean, it does to me. So that’s from the 1960s and earlier. I think it’s cool. The elevator over there was put in the year I was born. It’s an old elevator. You’ve been in it. I think it’s kind of cool and adventuresome to be in that elevator alone in the building. It’s like, how much courage do you have? You’re halfway between floor two and three, and it’s like no one is there. You will pray, is what you will do. All right. They had an offering of $1.8 million. It got paid off a year after I got here. So, in about four years, they paid off $1.8 million. We’re still benefitting from that today. You don’t have to see the before and after photos. Our church needs a bunch of things done that will amount to probably two thirds of that, okay? Stuff in the parking lot and stuff in that wing, stuff with the ceiling, the roof. Some of it you’ll never notice. But if it doesn’t happen, you’ll notice that it needed to be done.

We’re going to have to look at what kind of giving and what kind of commitment we have. So I’m just asking you to look at how you’re actually spending your money. Are you enslaved to credit card debt? You may have problems with credit card debt. You may not, but you may be spending your money on other things. You may be spending your money on other good things, church things, Christian things, but just not giving to the church. I just would commend to you, for the purpose of evaluation, tithing being the start. Start there and grow from there. Give first and foremost to the church budget.

Fifth, healthy church members serve the body. Fundamentally, healthy church members use their spiritual gifts to build the body. I just want to ask you a simple question. What is your spiritual gift ministry? What do you do regularly that’s a gift, that’s a gift of faith, a gift of administration, a gift of teaching, a gift of evangelism, a gift of prayer or a gift of worship? What are you doing regularly, in a patterned way, to build the local church? Evaluate yourself. Are you using your gifts? There are so many different ministries that you can get involved in here. I’m not going to delineate them.

Finally, sixth, healthy church members evangelize the lost. We must embrace the external journey of missions and evangelism. Evangelism is something we do with people who speak our same language and are of the same culture. Missions is what we do with people who do not speak our language and are not of our same culture. We should be involved in both. Evaluate your own habit patterns. When was the last time that you invited someone to church? Evaluate your involvement in missions. When was the last time you prayed for an unreached people group? Do you have an awareness of our missionaries, our church’s missionaries? Do you have a commitment to pray for them? The elders can help you grow in all of these areas. We regularly do evangelism classes and do evangelistic outreaches. Just evaluate your involvement.

Well, those are the six areas I would like to commend to each of you to evaluate yourselves. Be praying with us and with the elders for our church to get stronger and healthier, and that we would grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, as the Lord has ordained. Close with me, if you would, in prayer.

Father, we thank You for the time we’ve had to look at these things. To evaluate our life. To look at the Book of Ephesians one last time. I pray, Lord, that You would strengthen First Baptist Durham. Strengthen this church. Help us. O Lord, to be faithful and to grow and to give in the areas You want us to. Help us to use our spiritual gifts to build others up. Help us to give financially, sacrificially. God, strengthen our church. Thank You for being here and helping us by the Spirit. In Your name we pray. Amen.

I love studying church history. I love looking back at what our brothers and sisters in Christ have done in the past, learning its lessons, and just seeing the movements of the Spirit of God at different times. One of my favorite groups is the Moravians. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf was a German nobleman who was living a selfish life. At some point he was convicted by a painting of Christ crucified and a caption below it, which said, “All this I did for you. What are you doing for me?” He was convicted by that and began to use his estate and his money to bless refugees in Europe who were fleeing various scourges and afflictions and wars. He drew a community together, at what came to be known as Herrnhut, for refuge, and to do them good in Christ’s name. The community grew there. But after a number of years, there started to be deep divisions, bitter divisions, among the people.

They came from a lot of different backgrounds, and they were humans. They were sinners, and there was strife and there was discord. So, Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf called on his community, in 1727, to extended sacrificial prayer. Within a short amount of time, a revival broke out there in that Moravian community, what they later called the Golden Summer, the summer of 1727. They began to give themselves in extraordinary ways to fervent prayer. They had the idea, based on the way the sacrificial system worked in the Old Testament, that the fire would never go out from the altar, that they should start up a prayer chain twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and just continue. They had twenty-four people sign up for one-hour sifts to carry it through that first week. It continued on. That prayer vigil continued on well beyond the first week, even well beyond the first year, to last well over one hundred years, unbroken.

Now, some of you who love sports, you talk about the unbreakable records. Friends, that’s an unbreakable record of unbroken prayer. It will never be topped again. I think, actually, in the end, it lasted one hundred and twenty years, non-stop; twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Six months after it started, Count Zinzendorf called on the people to begin praying for missions, to pray that their community would be a force for world evangelization for missions. Now, you have to understand, at that point there really wasn’t any formal pattern of Protestant missions. This is a little less than seventy years before William Carey. There had been Jesuit missionaries that went out in the name of the Roman Catholic Church, but there was no organized, sustained pattern of Protestant missions. So this was pretty much unheard of, this bold evangelism thrust. They began praying for the West Indies, for the sugar plantations where there were many slaves working, for Greenland, for Turkey, and Lapland, and other places, Turkey being dominated by the Muslims. Praying that God would use their community for missions.

The next day, twenty-six Moravians stepped forward, willing to serve wherever the Lord called on them to serve. They were the first of an unprecedented missionary thrust linked to this fervent twenty-four hour prayer chain. The two went together. Over the next sixty plus years, the Moravian community sent out over three hundred missionaries. Moravians would hold funerals for those that they were commissioning, because they assumed that they would go and die in the service of Christ. Think about the boldness, and the courage, and the tears that would be shed as they would hold funerals for people and commission them and then put them on ships and send them off. Some, as is well known, went to the plantations in the West Indies and enslaved, indentured themselves to win the slaves for Christ. The level of boldness, courage, and self-sacrifice was incredible.

They are just one of many examples in church history of the indissoluble link between fervent prayer and bold evangelistic outreach. That’s going to be the focus of the sermon today as we look at Ephesians 6:19-20, especially. Over the last number of weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to look at this final section of Paul’s great letter to the Ephesians. He finishes with a focus on spiritual warfare. It culminates in his command to pray in the Spirit for all the saints, and then these verses in which he encourages, or urges, them to pray for him as he shares the gospel. So, we have learned about spiritual warfare. Look again at Ephesians 6:10-13. There, it says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

We have learned about this invisible spiritual warfare that we Christians have to wage. We have invisible powerful enemies: Satan and his demonic rulers and authorities and powers in the heavenly realms. This is the nature of our warfare that Paul talks about here, “We wrestle not with flesh and blood.” So there’s wrestling, a warfare, that we have to go through. As I’ve said, week after week, I believe every Christian greatly underestimates this spiritual warfare. I think it’s true even still. You can hear dozens of sermons on spiritual warfare and still vastly underestimate the power of Satan and demons in your life every day and the need that you have to obey these verses. Remember how I organized and gave you the focus of those three commands that Paul’s calling for us. First, be strong in the Lord, draw close to Jesus. Have a sense that you cannot fight on your own. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Secondly, put on the full armor of God. We talked about each part being put on with prayer. We looked at them. We looked at the belt of truth, and the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. And we talked about the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit. We talked about these six elements, and how it’s not good for us to just, in a very vague general sense, prepare. We’ve got to get ready for spiritual warfare. These words focus our minds on doctrinal truths about our salvation to get us ready in a very effective way to fight Satan, to stand firm against Satan. We put these things on with prayer.

Then we focused on prayer, the need to pray and to get ready, and having done all of these things praying in the Spirit, to stand, to stand firm. We’re not going to give in to the temptation. We’re not going to crumble. We’re not going to melt. We’re gong to stand firm and resist the devil. We focused on prayer, what it means to pray in the Spirit. We talked first about praying in the Spirit. I looked at the Book of Revelation and looked at the various themes there: focus in Christ, the mediator; God and throne, the sovereign King over all the world; the vision of Babylon and seeing the wickedness of this world system; and then the future glory of the church. These four themes are valuable for praying in the Spirit. We’re going to think about that. Praying in the Spirit just means to pray for things the Spirit wants us to pray for in power, or in the manner, or demeanor, that the Spirit gives. Praying in the Spirit.

In all of this, I want you to see the link between spiritual warfare and the two infinite journeys that God has given us to make progress in. We are called on, first, to make progress in Christ’s likeness in holiness. We are to make progress and become more and more conformed to Christ. Secondly, we are called on to take the gospel to those who are not yet believers in Christ, even to the distant lands who have never heard of Jesus. We’re to take the gospel to the lost, to the perishing, and boldly see the advance of the kingdom of God. These two journeys, the internal journey of sanctification of holiness, and the external journey of worldwide gospel spread, both of them will be bitterly opposed by Satan. So it’s right for us to think of warfare prayer in light of both of those. There’s going to be warfare prayer for personal holiness. And friends, there’s going to be warfare prayer for gospel advance. That’s what I want to focus my attention on here. I want to keep verses 19-20 in the context, the overall context, of spiritual warfare.

Look against at verses 19-20. Paul prays. He says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Now, the basic idea of this sermon is this: without warfare prayer, the gospel would not advance. Therefore, we should seek prayer partners for ourselves to be bold and faithful in sharing the gospel. That’s the sermon in a nutshell. Part of the logic of the message is, if Paul needed prayer for boldness, how much more do you and I? And we’re going to talk about that. But if he needed that, we need it, I would say, even more. It’s what we’re going to talk about.

So prayer and evangelism are absolutely inseparable. Paul was continually seeking prayer for evangelistic outreach from the churches that he planted, from individuals that he knew. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2 is an example. He says, “Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.” That’s prayer for the external journey, prayer for the gospel to spread rapidly and be held in honor. We see the same thing in Romans 15. In Romans 15, there’s an extended request for prayer that Paul has for the Roman church, a church he’d never met. Hoping to be there, to go there someday, he wrote the Book of Romans in lieu of his ministry. He says, “I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” (Rom 15:15-16)

In other words, I’m like a priest with a duty. My job is to go to Gentile cities and towns and preach the gospel so that they, the Gentiles, might become an offering to God through faith in Christ. He said, “That’s my ministry, that’s what I’m called to do.” Now, he says, in Romans 15:20, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’” He said, “I want to go to distant lands, that’s my calling.”

In Romans 15:24, he says, “I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey to Spain…” And then he says in Romans 15:30-31, culminating it, “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there.” Paul did this all the time. He was continually asking people horizontally, “Pray for me in my witnessing, pray for me in my evangelistic ministry.”

Paul was very well aware that the gospel advance to the Gentiles would be bitterly opposed by Satan and his demons. He says at one point, “We wanted to visit you again and again, but Satan stopped us.” So he has a sense of satanic opposition. He was acutely aware of his need for prayer, so he regularly solicited prayer from churches and individuals for the success of his gospel ministry.

As I’ve said before, and I’ll probably say at least one more time, if Paul needed prayer for boldness and evangelism, how much more do you and I? Paul was, I think, the boldest, most consistent, most faithful witness for Jesus Christ in the history of the Christian church. I don’t think there’s anybody that can top him. Paul had a track record and a habit of boldness. He had seen fruit from his boldness. He had seen the effectiveness of his boldness. So he had all of those things going for him. He had a habit of boldness and a track record and pattern. He had clear results from his boldness. Everything was wired. He said, “I really need prayer for boldness.” We have, for the most part, none of those things. We don’t have the habits of boldness, it seems. We don’t have that track record. We don’t have a pattern of fruitfulness and this boldness. We don’t see what it will do, and we’ve been through this many times before. We need it even more. That’s the basic logic of this sermon.

Throughout church history, prayer and gospel advance have been woven together, from the very beginning of the history of the church. In Acts 1 and 2, we see a clear indication of that. In Acts 1, the church is there after Jesus has ascended to heaven. The church is there in the upper room. They’re praying and waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Father had promised. They’re up in the upper room and they’re praying. They’re together and they’re praying together. Then suddenly, on the day of Pentecost, there came a sound like the rushing of a violent wind that came from heaven and filled the whole room where they were sitting, a sound like a hurricane. First it was sound, then it was the sight of flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And all of them spoke in other languages as the Spirit moved them. A crowd gathered because of the sound of the rushing wind. They didn’t know what it was.

There was a crowd there anyway, because it was a Jewish festival, the festival of Pentecost. So there’s huge crowds, and they gathered near that house. They poured out. The church poured out, empowered by the Holy Spirit. They spoke the Word of God boldly. The apostles preached, and Peter preached, and everyone from all over the world heard them speaking in their own languages. Three thousand were added to the number that day. Three thousand were baptized into the church of Jesus Christ.

So, prayer led to bold pouring out of evangelistic activity. You see the same thing in Acts 4. Peter and John went up at the time of prayer, and they healed a very well-known beggar. A crowd gathers; they preach; they’re arrested; and they’re brought in at the beginning of aggressive persecution, but it’s a mild level at that early stage. The Jewish Council, the same ones that had condemned Jesus, were now ready to condemn Peter and John and the whole church. But they weren’t ready yet to arrest him, or punish him, or whatever. So they just warn them not to preach in the name of Jesus. That was not going to happen. But the question is, what did Peter and John do? They immediately went back and gathered the church together at the end of Acts 4. They had a fervent time of prayer. They prayed scripturally. They prayed based on the sovereignty of God. The things that had happened in that city! But they asked God not for removal of persecution. No, not at all. They said, “O God, give us boldness and power to preach in the name of Jesus and to perform great signs and wonders.”

God answered their prayer and they spoke the Word of God boldly. Many more people were brought to faith in Christ. So again, we see fervent corporate prayer leading to evangelistic boldness. We see the same thing again and again throughout church history. In Acts 10, Peter is at the house of Simon the Tanner by the sea. He’s praying and he’s hungry. He has a vision of a sheet let down with all kinds of nasty, unclean animals. He’s told, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat.” Three times he’s told, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” God’s getting him ready to go and preach the gospel to Cornelius, the first Gentile convert won to Christ by the preaching of the church.

He goes there. He crosses the threshold as a Bible-believing Jew. He felt he wasn’t supposed to go in there, but God showed him that he should go. He preached to Cornelius, this Roman centurion, and all of his assembled Gentile friends and family. And the Holy Spirit is poured out on them. That was the beginning of Gentile evangelism that’s been basically going on for twenty centuries, ever since. It wasn’t long after that that the church in Antioch gathered, predominantly at that point Gentile. They were gathered by the ministry of those that went out and began to speak to Gentiles. There started to be a church growing there in Antioch. In Acts 13, while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, while they were together praying, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” And so, the Holy Spirit, in answer to prayer, set apart Paul and Barnabas for Paul’s first missionary journey. So, the church is moving out, the gospel is spreading. They go to Cyprus. They go to Asia Minor. Paul goes on three missionary journeys that dominate the Book of Acts. It’s specifically an answer to prayer.

As a matter of fact, on one of those missionary journeys, Paul didn’t know what to do. He’s blocked in. He didn’t know where to go. And in prayer, he has a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, “Come over and help us.” So the Holy Spirit guided him through prayer. Again and again, and even once the New testament era ended, we have the same pattern. Just study church history. You’ll see. God’s people gather together for prayer; they’re empowered by the Holy Spirit; and then they move out in new ways to share the gospel with the lost.

We just see this again and again, this pattern. For example, in the sixth century, we have a Celtic missionary named Columba, who gathered a community around him on the tiny windswept island of Iona, near Scotland; a small, bleak, barren, foggy island battered by the storms of the sea year-round. Iona became a glowing center of biblical Christianity, of Celtic Christianity, and a launching pad for missions across Europe. It went on for centuries after that. Columba himself led by example. This is one of my favorite stories from missionary history. Columba went to the fierce Northern Picts of Scotland. Some of the fiercest people that have ever been brought to Christ, these Scottish Highlanders. Terrifying. The Romans couldn’t conquer them. Scary people. Columba went and sat outside their Citadel. He could not gain entrance, and did not realize how close they were to killing him. That’s just what they did. He sat outside the gates and fasted and prayed that he’d have a hearing with King Brude. What a name, Brude.

Finally, probably just to get rid of him, the king, instead of killing him, calls him in. Eventually, Columba led him and his inner circle to Christ. It spread out from there. Many of those Picts came to faith in Christ and became themselves evangelistic missionaries to that region of the world. It’s incredible. It’s happened again and again. Go ahead. Even beyond Harwood, even beyond the Moravians. The Moravians sent missionaries to the New World. They went back and forth on ships. One of those times, the Moravian missionaries were going back to Europe, and John Wesley was on board with them. There was a terrible storm. It looked like the ship was going to sink in that storm. The Moravians were singing and praising God, ready for heaven. John Wesley wasn’t, and he realized, essentially, that he was unconverted. He had had lots of Christian orthodox training, but he didn’t know Christ, not the way these Moravians did.

Eventually, he came to a genuine faith in Christ. He was part of a Holy club there at Oxford. George Whitefield was also part of that with his brother Charles and some others. They gathered to pray. They’re praying together, in 1738. By this point, George Whitefield had begun preaching. He had gone across to the colonies and then come back. They’re having this prayer time. He had a gift of evangelism, but God had something far bigger than that. On December 8, 1738, they went to a Christian meeting in Fetter Lane. They spent time in prayer for the spread of the gospel in England. These are in Wesley’s journals. Then they prayed again seventeen days later, on Christmas Day, praying until four in the morning for the spread of the gospel in England. Over three hundred believers were there praying until four in the morning.

But the greatest of these prayer meetings happened on New Year’s Day, 1739. As they prayed until three in the morning, suddenly the Holy Spirit was poured out on the group so astonishingly that everyone there immediately fell on the ground and began crying out in worship to God. “We praise thee, Oh God! We acknowledge thee to be the Lord!” Whitefield wrote in his journal these words, “Sometimes whole nights were spent in prayer after that. Often we have been filled as with new wine. And often we have seen people overwhelmed with the divine presence and crying out, ‘Will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God. This is the very gate of heaven!’”

Well, after that series of extraordinary prayer meetings, there came an awakening so great, the first great awakening, that there’s never been anything like it before or since. It spread all over England, all over Northern Europe, and throughout the colonies, leading to the salvation of tens of thousands. A couple of generations later, in August 1806, in western Massachusetts, there was a sudden thunderstorm that drove five students from nearby Williams College to rest under a haystack and under a lintel to find shelter from the storm and to pray. What had happened was, they began discussing a geography lesson that they had had at the college that day. They began praying for the distant lands that they had just learned about in reference to the geography. Samuel Mills was among them, and others. God led them powerfully to have the idea of the first American Mission Board being formed.

One of their students was Adoniram Judson. He was the first American missionary. He and his wife Ann “Nancy” were sent to Burma. This Haystack Prayer Meeting became a fountain of missions in the US for decades after that. The Judsons had converted to Baptist theology and so the Congregational mission sending agency that had sent them cut them off. Luther Rice came back and started a Baptist mission sending agency, which eventually led to the Southern Baptist Convention and the International Mission Board, which is something that we contribute to.

Samuel Mills, who was part of the Haystack Prayer Meeting, gave his entire life to recruiting foreign missionaries. Five men under a haystack, praying in a rain storm, and the world gets changed. This happens from time to time. So let me speak plainly. First Baptist Church, we need to pray for evangelistic fruit. We need to pray in a fervent, powerful, spiritual warfare kind of sense, that the Gospel would spread from us to reach Durham, and rally in Chapel Hill, and influence to the ends of the earth, even to distant lands, in ways we can’t even imagine. We need to pray like that.

For years, we have recognized that FBC has amazing opportunities to spread the gospel in this booming region. People are flowing into this area from all over the country. Indeed, from all over the world, they are coming here to live. What are our responsibilities? What are our opportunities in reference to that? There are thousands of college students coming to study at the great universities that are around here. Duke, NC State, UNC Chapel Hill, NC Central, and Durham Tech. We’ve got thousands of college students, and most of them are unchurched. Most of them are lost. We see refugees coming in, or just people from other countries. For example, the Gujarati that we have adopted, working with James Cooper. We have adopted them to plant a church among the Gujarati. They are extremely hard to reach in India, but they’re here. And we can reach them. They’re here in Morrisville.

We have undocumented aliens that are here working in our community. We have refugees that have come in, even from Iraq. I’ve been able to meet a family recently, so glad to meet them, delighted, and a chance to reach out with the gospel to people who come from this area. We have great medical care here. We have great hospitals, research hospitals, so people with dread diseases come from all over the country, indeed from all over the world, to receive medical care here. Medical professionals come to work here. We have an opportunity to share the Gospel with them. We’re an urban center. We live in an urban area. We can reach the urban poor. We can be a voice for racial reconciliation in this state, and indeed in this nation. We have opportunities.

But for all of that, I think we do not see a corresponding or a proportional evangelistic fruit. We don’t see the fruit that we would love to see. That we should see, really. My friend Mark Dever has been pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church for several decades now. On Sunday evenings, they gather together and they have a Sunday evening service. They have their small groups scattered throughout the week, but they have a Sunday evening service. It’s basically just an evangelistic testimony and prayer sharing time.

People from all over that group come to say, “Hey, I’m trying to reach my boss. I’m trying to reach a co-worker. There’s a neighbor who just moved in, named so and so, we’d love to have them over and we need prayer. We would love you guys to pray for us for that.” This kind of stuff is going on, what we would call a culture of evangelism, of getting prayer for evangelistic projects that God has laid on our hearts for people that we’re trusting God for.

Now, I don’t think that we at FBC believe the facts of the gospel any less than they do at CHBC. I don’t think so. I think we really believe the facts of the gospel. I think we believe that people have to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ to be saved. I think we would assent that we know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is beautiful and true and powerful. We know that. So why don’t we share it more? Well, I can only conclude that Satan has done a beguiling work of deception on our hearts that will look very different to us on judgment day. We need to fight spiritual warfare battles to become more effective evangelistically. If we just maintain the status quo, we will not be effective evangelistically. But if we fight, and fight together as a body of Christ, as we hold each other up and pray with and for each other, we will be more fruitful evangelistically. I think that as Satan especially works on our hearts in reference to fear of man, we fear other people, what they will do to us, what they’ll think of us. The Lord has shown us again and again how we can overcome fear of man, and, in a powerful love for Him, share the Gospel.

What I want to do is look at the details of Ephesians 6:19-20, and see how we can learn for Paul’s Gospel. So look toward the end of the section. There, he says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” This is going to give me an opportunity to summarize what we’ve learned from the Book of Ephesians. We’re almost done. Next week will be, God willing, the last sermon that I’ll preach in Ephesians.

I don’t think any book more clearly unfolds the depths and the glories and the beauty of the gospel, other than the Book of Romans, than does Ephesians. I think those two stand towering above all the other books of the Bible, in terms of clarity on the depths of doctrine that is linked to the gospel. So, the mystery of the gospel. Why does Paul call it a mystery? A mystery is something that was hidden for long ages past, in God, but has now been revealed and made known by the Spirit. That’s what he means by mystery. Look at Ephesians 1:3-7. This is the very beginning of the epistle. We’ve had opportunity to look at it a number of times. This is they mystery of the gospel. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.” So, putting it simply, before the foundation of the world, God chose people by name, to be, finally, in the end, perfectly holy and blameless forever in His sight in heaven. So before the foundation of the world, He chose them to be eternally saved in Christ. In love, He predestined those people to be adopted as His sons and daughters. That’s what it says.

Now, this is a mystery. We’ll never fully understand this. The depths are infinitely beyond anything that we can comprehend. But this is true. He did all of this for the praise of His glorious grace, that He would get glory and praise from a multitude, from every tribe and language and people and nation, worshipping Him. That’s why He did it. And He gave Christ to be our savior, that by Jesus, by the shedding of His blood on the cross, we have redemption, forgiveness of sins.

Oh, how sweet is that blessing! Think about it. All of your sins, past, present, and future, cleansed by the blood of Christ. His final purpose in all of this was to bring all of the fractured, destroyed elements of His creation together under one head and make them one in Jesus, to bring together the fragmentation grenade of sin, bring it together and make it one in Christ. The book also reveals how individual sinners are saved. How are they saved? Look at Ephesians 1:11-14. It says, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.” Look at verse 13: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” Do you see that? What that means is that individual sinners are made right with God by hearing a message that’s proclaimed and believing in it. At that moment, they are forgiven. They are drawn into Christ. They receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and they’re part of the work of God.

Now, in Ephesians 2, we learn the condition of those we’re trying to reach, out of which we’re trying to reach them. Here’s where you get to the spiritual warfare. Ephesians 2:1-3 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” See all that past tense language? You were, you were. That’s what you were. That’s what they are now. They’re enslaved by Satan, now. They’re disobedient to God’s laws, now. They are, by nature, objects of wrath, now. We were like that. We were rescued out of that. But they are now in Satan’s dark dungeon. Do you not see, then, the spiritual warfare aspect about this?

Jesus said He is like a powerful warrior with armor and weapons, and He’s defending His house. I would say dungeon, He’s defending His dungeon. And we have to put on the armor of God and be instruments of God’s sovereign grace and come and rescue the perishing. That’s our calling. That’s what we’re called to do. Satan is powerful, but God is more powerful. Look at Ephesians 2:4, “But God, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” This is the mystery of the Gospel.  “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” That’s the mystery of the Gospel.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” In the rest of the chapter, he talks about this beautiful spiritual temple that’s rising and becoming more and more glorious all the time, rising and becoming more and more glorious. Those are the good works we’re supposed to do, the good works of spiritual gift ministry within the church, and then evangelism reaching out, that builds the church. It’s beautiful. We are called on to reach out with the Gospel. We are called on as Paul was. He calls himself an ambassador in chains. So maybe we can be ambassadors unchained, at least for now. Unchained. We are ambassadors for Christ.

What did Paul pray for specifically? Look at it with me. He prayed for frequent opportunities. Verses 19-20 say, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me.” Do you see that? “Whenever I speak, I want to speak for Christ.” So, frequent opportunities. I think that’s where we fail a lot of times. I think we dabble in evangelism, but we don’t do that broadcast sowing of seed. We’ll take out a single precious seed and put it in one place. It’s as if, well, God can do amazing things, and you can lead a person to Christ that way. It does happen. But we, I think, are called on to be “whenever we open our mouth” kind of people. Frequent opportunities. Lots of opportunities.

Paul calls himself an ambassador in chains. We are called on to be Christ’s ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20 says, “He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors.” Listen to this, “As though God himself were making his appeal through us… be reconciled to God.” So we get to be ambassadors. We are kind of like an enclave of heaven, a colony of heaven. We get to speak for the king. We get to be those that speak the Gospel boldly in a surrounding hostile territory. We get to be ambassadors.

He also prays for spirit-given words. Look at what he says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me.” Words. I need words. Is that what we need? We need words.

I heard one of the most foolish slogans I ever heard in church history. I don’t know who said it. No one knows. Listen to this, “Preach the Gospel. Use words if necessary.” Ever heard this one? It’s about people that are really into social works, all that “Preach the Gospel. Use words if necessary.” What in the world? I remember somebody, I think it was Tim Keller, said, “It’s like saying, ‘Feed the hungry. Use food if necessary.’” What in the world does that even mean? Friends, let me just say it simply. Words are necessary. You need to speak. You need to say things to lost coworkers and neighbors and friends and family. You need to speak. But Paul says, “I need to know what words to say.” Now, Paul is not saying, “I need to reinvent the gospel every time.” The gospel is set. It’s done. Nothing’s going to change it. But the articulation of the gospel is going to be different every time.

There are going to be different situations into which you’re going to speak, and you don’t know what their situation is. So feel helpless. You should feel helpless. Feel weak. Feel like you don’t know what to say. What’s the best way to get this timeless gospel message across specifically to this hurting, broken, enslaved sinner? How do I do it? So Paul said, “Pray for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me [by the Spirit of God].” And Jesus said, “When they arrest you, don’t worry about what to say. At that time, it will be given you what to say. For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Ask for that. Oh God, give me spirit-filled words! Spirit-given words. Why? Because faith comes by hearing the message. That’s how they will be saved.

Paul says in Romans 10:13-15, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” That’s words. “And how can they preach unless they are seen?” We have got to preach the gospel. We need spirit-given words. He prayed for boldness. He prayed for courage, just simple fearlessness. Look again at 19-20. He says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

Fearlessly. Paul prayed for fearlessness. We are paralyzed by fear of what people will think. Paralyzed. I remember one time, and I have told this story before, but it’s very poignant for me. I’ve frequently been paralyzed by fear. I remember there was this one guy I used to work with that was so gruff. His name was Ron, and he was the foreman of the assembly, part of the floor. He was a tough-looking guy. He was tough, and I felt the Lord leading me to share the Gospel with him. And I’ll never forget that paralyzing fear I had of crossing the floor at lunch to share with Ron. I remember peeking around the corner and there he was at his workbench, eating alone. Perfect opportunity.

I remember going to a friend. I said, “I really want to share with Ron.” And he got these big eyes like, “Share what?” He knew what I meant, but he was trying to clarify. “So would you pray for me?” He said, “Yeah, I’ll pray for you.” Wow. Because I mean the guy was, he was gruff. And I remember saying, “All right, I’m going to put a fleece down.” I was so afraid. I said, “All right, I’m praying that if he is still sitting at his bench eating his sandwich, that means You want me to share with him.” God wants me to share with him whether he’s eating a sandwich or not. But there he was right in the middle of a bite. I’ll never forget that. My heart sank. But I remembered that Marty, my friend, was praying for me. I went around and I could barely speak to this guy. You know how Paul says, “I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.” I gave him a tract and I said, “I’m a Christian.” He said, “I know.” And I said, “Well, I just think you need Jesus too.” And I hand him a tract. That was all I could manage. I don’t know what happened with that. I don’t know.

But I’m telling you, fear is powerful in many, many ways. I remember an outreach that I was trying to organize in Salem. I don’t want to go into the details. It was a Halloween outreach and I was paralyzed that entire workday by the fear of leading a group of people to go do street evangelism in Salem that evening. But I was memorizing Isaiah 51 and it changed my life. It changed my heart. That was the night of the perfect storm, the Halloween storm.

I’ve told you guys this story before. Isaiah 51:12-16 is a powerful antidote to fear. He says, “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand – I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” Isaiah 51. If that’s not a remedy to fear, I don’t know what is. How could I fear what people will do? We went out and had one of the greatest evangelistic outreaches I’ve ever had in my life.

Paul felt the need for prayer very much. He felt it to the end of his life. At the end of his life, even then, he was afraid that, having been delivered to be in front of Nero, he would fail to share the Gospel with Nero. I’ll never forget this. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen about the apostle Paul. He said this, “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the gospel might be fully proclaimed to all the Gentiles. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.” (2 Tim 4:16-18)

The attack is Satan’s attack to get Paul to wimp out at the finish line of his life and his ministry. He didn’t. God gave him strength and he was bold. So again, I’m going to say, if Paul felt the need to ask for prayer in boldness, how much more do we? I have a missionary friend who served for many years in Izmir. He’s now stateside working on mobilizing missionaries. He said that Satan’s fear is (I love this image) like the banner that’s held by cheerleaders at the homecoming football game that the football players run through to take the field. Have you ever seen that before? They just run right through. Satan puts up this wall of terror and you just run through it. It’s like, okay, that wasn’t so hard.

What are they going to do to you? What’s the worst thing they could do to you? Torture you and kill you, right? Paul calls that light and momentary. And if they do do that to you, you will receive a hero’s welcome to heaven. It happens to a very few. Instead, what usually happens is we’re afraid somebody might sneer or snarl a little bit, or intimidate us, or that we might be disadvantaged at work or something. God has called on us to do this.

Finally, Paul prays for clarity. This is from Colossians. I’ll say it quickly. Then, I’ll apply it to you guys, and it will be done. It says, “Pray also for us, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I’m in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” (Col 4:3-4) We just need to make it clear. Let’s make the Gospel clear and plain to the people that we’re sharing with.

Application. I’ve been making it all the way through. It’s just simple. First, I just want to say something to the unsaved. I know that there are people here today that are outside of Christ. I know it. You need to know that God, the God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them, wants a relationship with you. He created everything, but He especially created people, in His image. He made laws by which they are to walk in His sight, and be holy in His sight, and love each other.

We have sinned against Him. We have violated those laws. We have not loved Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. We have not loved our neighbors. We are sinners, and we deserve to die, not just physically, but eternally in hell. God knew we couldn’t save ourselves, so He sent Jesus, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who was truly a human being, but truly God the Son. He did signs and wonders, but especially, He died in our place on the cross. The wrath of God, the justice of God, poured out on Him, so that we sinners might be, in Christ, the righteousness of God and exchange our sin on Jesus. He died. His righteousness was given to us, and we live. You need to repent and believe in Him. Just by hearing that message and believing, your sins will be forgiven. That’s the gospel.

Now, if you came in here as a believer in Christ, a member, the application for you is simple, too. Get friends to pray for you. Get projects, people, that you’re doing. It could be a specific pattern of ministry. It could be something you’re doing with an elementary school or something that could be an urban ministry. It could be international connections. It could be just people that you’re getting to know and they’re getting to know you, and you would love to share with people at a coffee shop that you go to, or the supermarket, or at the workplace, or in your neighborhood. You could say, “I want to reach our neighbors. We just don’t know them. Could you pray that we’d have an opportunity to get to know our neighbors?”

I would urge specifically that you use Home Fellowship for that. Each of you in Home Fellowship should have five people that you are praying for, lost people that you’d like to have opportunities for. That will be a form of accountability for you. Pray these kinds of things, say, “Give me opportunities to share. Give me boldness. I’m a wimp. Give me courage that I don’t wimp out.” You may be a college student, and say, “I want to reach my dorm. I want to reach the people on my floor with the gospel. Will you pray for me that I would make friends for the gospel? I want to share with them, but I’m afraid. Will you pray that I would proclaim it fearlessly, as I should?” Ask for those kinds of prayers and let’s see what God will do.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the chance we’ve had to hear Your word and to be moved by it. Lord help us. Forgive us for our weakness. Forgive us that we fear other people more than we fear You. Forgive us that we love what other people think more than we love You. Help us to love the lost, as You do. I pray that the love of Christ would constrain us and compel us to share. Help us to see more and more people water-baptized and then discipled and trained in the Christian faith. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Before I begin my message, I just want to invite any of you that would like to join the elders tomorrow night in prayer for racial reconciliation and for wisdom in our community here in Durham and for the situation in Charlotte and across the nation to join us at 6:30. It's a regularly scheduled elder's meeting, but we would like to invite you to come and pray with us if you'd like to. If this is something that has been pressing on your heart, something that you don't know the answer to, we don't either. But we're going to look to God and say, "Lord, just give us wisdom and help us to minister here in this community ." So, that's 6:30 to 7:30. Then we're going to ask you to leave because we've got work to do. I’m just kidding, but maybe you could just join us. Maybe the Holy Spirit will be poured out on us in an awesome way and that would be incredible. We're going to meet in the Welcome Center where we usually meet and if a large number of you come, we'll transition in here for an hour of prayer. Be praying even if you can't come at 6:30, for us to have wisdom to know how to minister here in Durham, in light of recent events.

I would like to turn our attention now to Ephesian 6, specifically to verse 18. There, Paul urges us to pray in the Spirit as the capstone to his teaching on spiritual warfare. "Pray in the Spirit in all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  We're going to look at each of those phrases today. And really, it is remarkable how Paul brings this incredible letter to a close with a really intensive focus on prayer. We're going to look one week at it. Next week, and specifically praying for evangelism and missions as Paul asked for prayer for himself to boldly, clearly share the Gospel. We're going to talk more about that next week.

But it is amazing, the astonishingly deep theology of the Book of Ephesians, the reasoning, the teaching, the unfolding of deep, Christian doctrine. All of that means nothing if it doesn't result in a deep, consistent, full prayer life with Almighty God. Martin Lloyd Jones put it this way, "The ultimate test of the Christian life is the amount of time that we give to prayer." The amount of time that we give to prayer. The end to which all knowledge and teaching in scripture is meant to bring us, is to know God, to have fellowship with God, to realize our utter dependence on Him, and the power of His might. To realize it intensively, to feel it and to turn it back up to God in prayer, that's the measure of maturity in Christ. All Christians should have a full, deep, personal prayer life for themselves. Every day, begun with a rich time of worship, of confession of sin and thanksgiving, scriptural meditation, watchful preparation, and the context here for spiritual warfare, mindful of the fact that you yourself are going to be assaulted by the world, the flesh and the devil, and you need to get ready for that. You need to put on the spiritual armor to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. You need to get yourself ready by putting on the full armor of God, each piece put on with prayer. “Then having done everything in preparation that you should stand firm in the day of testing.” 

But, what verse 18 does for me is, it gets me to branch and to look horizontally and to look at other brothers and sisters in Christ who are going to go through the exact same thing I am today. I should care about that. It shouldn matter to me that my brothers and sisters throughout the world are going to go through the same kinds of assaults that I am, and I should be praying for them. We should be drawing our hearts together in intercessory prayer.

Some time ago, a number of weeks ago, I was meditating on Elijah. I was thinking about James 5:16, which talks about the prayer of elders for a sick person, saying the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up, therefore, pray for each other. Confess your sins to each other. Then it says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” We should pray for each other because of powerful and effectual, the King James Version says, prayer, produces an effect. Now, later in this message, I am going to talk about how that has scrambled my brain, my entire Christian life and probably will never get unscrambled. I'm going to talk about how I've gotten past that to still pray and to pray fervently. But there is an amazing power in prayer taught throughout the scriptures. Then he gives us this example of Elijah. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens produced the rain and the earth produced it's crops. So, that's an example.

Now, in my mind, I was going to the story of Elijah. Now Elijah was an amazing individual. When you say that he was just like us, it's like, huh? But, what he was saying is that Elijah was human, he was just a human being, just a regular human being. You remember the story how he pops up in the account in 1 Kings 17, he pops and confronts wicked King Ahab with these words, "As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, there will be no rain or dew on the land except by my word [going forward.]" Then he disappears. And the Lord commanded him to go to the brook, Caroth, where said, “I have commanded the ravens to feed you.”  It's a fascinating account, and I remember meditating on that. And so in the morning, the ravens would bring him food. Then in the evening, the ravens would bring him food.

Then it hit me, this question came to me, "What did he do for the rest of the day?" There certainly wasn't any cell coverage out there at the brook, Hedron. I don't think he brought any books with him. He didn't have anyone to talk to. He did have that raven meal to look forward to, that was going to be good. My guess is that it probably wasn't sumptuous but just enough to keep him going. He had the brook to drink from. "Now what? I've eaten the raven breakfast, drunk a bit from the brook, I'm good there. What now?"  I don't think that he wondered what to do at all. He spent his day in prayer with God. He walked with God, like Enoch, like Noah. He walked with God. He had such a deep, rich, full relationship with God that it was delightful to him to spend it in prayer. Now, what James tells us, what we didn't know, is that before he even showed up in the account, he has already fervently prayed that it wouldn't rain. That's already happened. The account actually doesn't tell us that. James tells us that. We don't have any information about it. James told us that he prayed earnestly, fervently that it would not rain. It's an odd prayer if you think about it. But he did it because that was in the curses, the Mosaic curses, that if the land turns to idolatry which Israel definitely had, one of the covenant curses would be drought. He prayed fervently that it wouldn't rain.

Then in the course of time, God commanded Elijah to show himself and to have a contest with the prophets of Baal. You remember how all of that turns out. One of the most dramatic moments of redemptive history, Elijah versus the hundreds of wicked prophets of Baal, and how they cried out to a god that didn't exist. "Oh, Baal, hear us."  Remember how there was a contest and they had each set up an altar with sacrifice but they were not to light the fire. The fire would come down from heaven and the god who answers by fire, he is God. But Baal didn't hear, there was no answer, no one was there. The fervent of the prophets of Baal didn't affect anything. It was not powerful at all because there is no Baal. Then it was time for Elijah to show the power of God in answer to prayer. Remember how he has them soak the sacrifice with water, and again, then a third time. It was totally soaked with water down to the trench. The whole thing was drenched. Then he prays a simple prayer. Elijah was a man just like us and he prayed, "Oh, Lord, answer by fire so that, number one, all people may know that You are God, and number two that I have done all of these things at Your command."  Now that's the mystery, God's sovereign initiative and Elijah's prayer. And God answered by fire. He sent fire from heaven and it consumed everything there, and the people fell down and said, "The Lord, He is God."  But Elijah's praying wasn't done for that day. He got down and prayed that it would rain that day because the Lord had already revealed to him that today was the day that the rain was coming. Elijah was just responding at every moment to God's initiative and then the Lord heard and answered Elijah's prayer. Rained poured down from heaven. This powerful thing was prayer.

No, I don't understand how it all works, but I know this, the people of God are under constant assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, including you. Prayer is a mighty, powerful, effective force in defending ourselves against satan's attacks. I also know this, we're called on to mission. We're called on to advance. The two infinite journeys, we're called on to advance internally in personal holiness. We're called on to advance with the Gospel to those who are presently lost or even more to those who have no possibility of hearing the Gospel today, frontier missions. We're called to move out and I say to you, both the internal journey and the external journey will be bitterly opposed every step of the way, by satanic forces. Only by prayer are we going to make even a single step of progress. We must pray.

We're coming to the topic of prayer and spiritual warfare. Look at the context again, you've heard it read, verse 10-13, "Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power." If I could just stop say that you do that by prayer. That's how you are strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Draw near to Him in prayer. "Oh, God, give me power and strength to fight the devil today." Verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. When the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything, to stand.” So I've told you those three steps, be strong in the Lord and His mighty power, draw near to Him in prayer to do that. Put on the elements of the full armor of God, each one of them reminding you so some aspect of God's saving work in your soul. Each piece, put on with prayer, as the hymn writer put it. And then when the day of evil comes, at the time of testing, stand. Those are the three steps.

Now, what we're going to do is to reach out, horizontally, to seek to help brothers and sisters do the same thing. We're not alone, we're in an army, a family. We're in a family that is at war. So, verse 18, "Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  There is a sense of supersaturation in that language, "all, all, all, every."  We're going to look at it phrase by phrase.

Samuel Chadwick said, "The one concern of the devil is to keep saints from prayer. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom. But, he trembles when we pray!” In spiritual warfare, prayer works in concert with the previous commands. They work together, the ministry of the word in prayer. I think we should see a strong connection between verses 17 and 18. NIV starts like a new command in verse 18, but it really is just a continuation, “taking up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and praying in the Spirit.”  There's taking up the word, taking up prayer. They harmonize beautifully and powerfully. 

Last week, we looked at that first step. The issue of praying in the Spirit. This is vital. This is the most vital aspect of our prayer lives. Cold, lifeless prayer is dead, it's worthless, but the Spirit, as we saw last week from Romans 8:26 and 27, is given to help us in our weakness, specifically in prayer. We don't know what to pray for, we don't know how to pray. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. He does that in a variety of ways. Most importantly, by the fact that He Himself is interceding for us as Jesus is at the right hand of God. The Spirit is interceding for you. So you are entering into the prayer ministry of Jesus and the Spirit as you pray in the Spirit. It's already going on. But, the Spirit also teaches us what to pray for.

We said last week that praying in the Spirit is praying for the right things in the right manner. Then I brought you to the book of Revelation. Remember how we followed the phrase, 'in the Spirit' four times. John was 'in the Spirit' on Patmos and saw Jesus the mediator, the resurrected, glorified mediator by whom we intercede, through whom we have access into the throne room of God. Keep Jesus in mind as you intercede. 'Praying in the Spirit'  means intensely mindful of Jesus' blood, shed for you. To open up access for you into the second vision, Revelation 4, John was in the Spirit and went through a doorway into heaven and saw a throne with someone seated on it, the throne of Almighty God. The God of the universe, the King over all kings, the Lord over all lords. That's Almighty God, He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. All the people are like grasshoppers, like drops in a bucket, dust on the scales. This is the infinite God. Praying in the Spirit is mindful of the sovereign power of God and the wisdom of God.

Thirdly, in Revelation 17, remember, 'in the Spirit' John traveled and moved. He saw this woman on a beast and it represented the satanic evil, wicked, world system. This woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, and intoxicated with the lusts of this age, and we can see through spiritual eyes, the danger of the world system that we're in. That's the opposition we're facing and so to pray'in the Spirit' is to be very mindful of Babylon, so to speak, and all of the attacks on our soul that are going to come. Finally in Revelation 21, we see the Bride of Christ, glorified, radiant and beautiful. We see how we're going to win in the end, we're going to be glorious. We're going to make it! We're going to make it and all of the elect are going to be saved. They're going to be glorified. They're going to be in Heaven. No one will be lost. It's going to be radiant and beautiful in Heaven. We see that, and we pray toward that end. That was last week.

Now, we're going to extend out to pray for all the saints. We're going to think about intercessory prayer. The Spirit's going to lead us to pray for the saints. Now, again, the word 'saints' does not mean what the Roman Catholic Church meant on September 4th when it canonized Mother Theresa. In preparation for this sermon, I read the rules of canonization, of becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. I got more confused, not less. It's an elaborate process. I don't really know what they mean by 'saint.'  I know that in my town, there was St. Anselm's and St. Jeremiah's and all that. I was a Catholic and I went to St. Jeremiah's and then we went to St. Anselm's. So, the saints are especially special people who have done especially special things. They are voted on by the church. They are then seen to be saints, worthy of special veneration. I don't think any of this is true. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches. Saints are believers in Jesus, simply put. Ephesians 1:1, right in the beginning, "Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus."  Faithful in Christ Jesus are the saints. We see the same thing in Philippians 1. He writes to the saints in Philippi. These are just the set apart ones under God, we're the holy ones, made holy by our faith in Christ. That's what saints are. So, we're to pray for other Christians.

Paul has already given us examples in this book, of prayer for the saints. He prays that. In Ephesians 1:18, he says, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for those who believe."  For us who believe, so that’s Ephesians 1. Then in Ephesians 3 he says, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know that love that surpasses knowledge, that  you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  So Paul is praying that all the saints will be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Paul gives us examples of that.

Paul has also given us, in the book of Ephesians, a vision for the church. A vision for the people of God, for the church. We are to see this, Ephesians 2, a holy temple, this spiritual structure, rising. I love that, that dynamos image, rising to become a temple in which God lives by His Spirit. It's in construction. As we brought in 1 Peter 3, the new, “living stones” that are quarried from Satan's dark kingdom. They're put into the walls. It's just rising in every conversion, every elect person who comes to faith in Christ. It just got a little bit bigger, a little more glorious. Awesome!  That's what's going on now. That's what the Gilowe's are going to do. We get to be a part of that too here in Durham and to the ends of the earth. We get to add new people through evangelism and missions to that Church. It's becoming more glorious, not just by evangelism, but also by discipleship, by sanctification. It's becoming more glorious by putting sin to death and growing in holiness. We're more radiant. We need to have a vision for that. Ephesians 4 has a vision more of a body, joined and held together by supporting ligaments. It's growing and building itself up in love. So we have two different images, but it's the same thing. It's the people of God, the Church, getting more and more glorious and more and more perfect in Christ. We need to pray about that. It's what we're getting at here in verse 18. We need to be involved in that in prayer, by prayer.

So, you have to see first and foremost that our brothers and sisters are under attack. They’re under attack. They're under spiritual attack. You know exactly what I'm talking about because it's happening to you too. The same things that are happening to you are happening to everyone else around the world. You should care about that. It should matter to you. It's a universal satanic attack. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, "Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that you're brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings."  The same kinds as you are. You should take the attacks that you're experiencing in your soul and then just normalize them horizontal and say, "Everybody is going through this."  1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man." 

What Satan tries to do is that he likes to isolate us, to separate us, so that we're on our own. He can pick us off, one at a time. He likes to isolate us from the Body of Christ. Together, we're terrifyingly powerful to him but isolated, he can pick us off. So, if you are isolated as you face satanic assault you're going to think that you alone are going through these kinds of things. You're going to feel especially dirty, especially weird. Alone, very alone on this struggle. You feel there's no one you can talk to. There's no one who would understand what you're going through. Satan is a master at isolating us. This will tend to increase our guilt at our sin in a very bad way, make us feel that we are unique and really to some degree, unforgivable because there's such a special set of wickedness in our lives. Or, if we're going through afflicting circumstances or trials, it will have the effect of greatly increasing our complaining, our discontent. "No one knows the troubles I see. No one's going through what I'm going through. No one."  If I could just share with you brother or sister, others are going through similar things. It might not be exactly like what you're going through, but actually, people are going through these kinds of afflictions.  

Praying for others, then, lifts our eyes off of our immediate circumstances, up to Heaven, up to Almighty God. From Heaven, horizontally, pray for this brother, pray for this sister, things are going on. Then little by little, you're less discontent in your own circumstance. You're more powerfully able to fight sin in your life. Help starts coming from looking up and then looking around you to the Body of Christ. Intercessory pray also tends to humble you. It tends to make you realize that it's not just Jesus and me, just us two. You know that Jesus is doing a work that's going to blow your mind!  Just think about the words, 'a multitude greater than anyone could count,' looks like. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people redeemed by Jesus. I just think that the more you meditate on that, the more humble you'll get. Just think about that. "I'm one of 500 million."  There's a lot of people that God has loved. It just tends to humble us. We have to band together.

Therefore, if our brothers and sisters are persecuted, we should care, we should intercede for them. If they're going through natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, or different things and they have lost their homes, we should care about them. We can care far more in prayer than we can by any other physical means of ministry. There's a limit to how much time, energy and money we have. We have to be wise about how we can help, but in prayer our hearts can become very expansive. We can be grieved about certain situations. We can weep about certain situations. We may never personally touch them, but we can care about them and we can pray. And, if individuals are struggling with sin, it should matter to us, especially in the local church that we are committed to. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:29, talking about all of his sufferings. "Five times I was beaten, 30 lashes minus 1, 3 times beaten with rods."  On top of all that, the ship wrecks and all, you almost get the sense that this is the worst of all. "It's the constant pressure I feel of my concern for all the churches. I'm constantly worried about how they are doing spiritually."  Then he says this, "Who is weak and I do not feel weak?  Who was led into sin and I do not inwardly burn?"  That's the horizontal connection, I care about the sins that my brothers and sisters are struggling with. It matters to me if there is sin in our church, horizontally. It should matter to me. So, we're praying in the Spirit for all the saints. We're going to reach out and pray.

Now, here we come to the mystery of prayer. I touched on it in the beginning. I don't fully understand, it's a mystery. The psychology of prayer, the spirituality of prayer, what it does to me, makes perfect sense. For that reason alone, it's worth doing. It recalibrates my mind. It makes me more heavenly minded. It makes me more loving toward other people. It makes me, makes me, makes me do all of what's true and good and right. How about this slogan, "Prayer changes things."  That's where my brain gets scrambled. "Changes from what?"  They haven't happened yet. Now, that's my engineering mind. That's why I just think too much."Pastor, you overthink things!  Just pray!"  Amen. I'm going to just pray!  How does pray change things?  Well, I think what that means is, before we prayed, there was this situation. Then we prayed and this situation got much better by biblical patterns. I think that's what it means and I think that's simply true. I have reasoned it out this way, that prayer works this way. It's part of God's sovereign plan. He knew that we were going to pray, He motivates us to pray ahead of time. But, He won't do the 'X' until we pray. He withholds certain blessings from a prayerless people. You won't get that thing. Then when you pray, then it happens.

I read the story about the Pilgrims. You know that they landed in Cape Cod. Then they had a really rough winter and then they survived, somehow. They planted some crops and then they had the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621, that's true. In 1622, they did not plant enough crops to celebrate. They couldn't afford a feast so they didn't have it. In 1623, they planted far more crops but there was a drought for many, many, many weeks. As a matter of fact it was so great that the Native Americans said that they'd never seen anything like it. They had no memory of such drought. Their lives were hanging in the balance. So, the leadership of that community called the people together and said, "We need to fast and pray."  They got together, they fasted, they prayed. They prayed all day. By the evening, storm clouds were gathering, literal clouds. The next morning, there came a gentle rain that continued on and off, intermittently, with some sunshine. Then there was more rain for 14 days. Praise God!  Do you think those people thought it was an answer to prayer?  I'm thinking they did. Now, can I figure all this out?  No, I can't figure it out.

Let me give you an illustration that's been helpful for me, geek that I am. On our refrigerator we have a bunch of things that we like looking at, artwork, prayer cards, photographs. They're held to the refrigerator by magnets. How many of you understand magnetism?  One of you raised your hand. I'm going to talk to her afterwards, okay?  I'm serious. You get a powerful magnet, you put it about 6 inches above a paperclip and what happens?  The paperclip clicks to the magnet, just like that!  Can you explain that?  Neither can I, but it works. I don't need to figure out the physics of it. They don't know either. I can tell you right now, I've known some of the smartest physicists and they don't know either. They just have fancier names and more descriptions of the phenomenon. But, they don't know either, anymore than they know gravity. It's a mystery, but it works. All I know is I've got this thing and it goes,"Thunk" and there it is! 

So, when we go to the Word of God, and we find out what God is doing in the world, then we get on our knees, we pray and keep praying. This blessing comes that wasn't there before, we can say, "prayer changes things," and "God answers prayer."  That's the best way I can explain it. If you have another answer, that's fine. It doesn't matter to me, just pray!  Pray in the Spirit and pray for the things that God has called you to pray for. It's very difficult to work out God's sovereignty and human responsibility. But, we know that God answers prayer, powerfully.

Now, what I want to do for the rest of the time is just step through the phrases to learn something about intercessory prayer. I'm going to try to be a practical as I can in the remaining minutes that we have. We've already talked about being in the Spirit. Let me say again that the first thing you need to do, to intercede for all the saints, is to be sure that you're in the Spirit. What you do is you take a recent spiritual temperature check. "Have I been in the Spirit, leading up into this prayer time?  Have I been characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control?"  Ask those near you, "Would you say that's characterized me, this afternoon?"  If you don't need to ask and you know it's not, then you need to begin by confessing your sins to God and asking for forgiveness. Ask Him to forgive you for the sins that He brings to you mind. Then pray to be filled with the Spirit. Begin by praying to be filled with the Spirit. Don't waste your time praying if you're not in the Spirit. It would be a waste of time, start there.

Secondly, it says, "Pray at all times," effectively. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions. So what this means is, all different opportunities, different times, different occasions in your life for prayer. What I think first and foremost is, just make time for prayer. I believe you need to have a concentrated prayer time doing nothing but praying, everyday. I believe it's best, first thing in the day, early in the morning, like Jesus did. It's not the same as praying while driving. I think that praying while driving is a very good thing as long as you keep your eyes open. That would be a bad form or distracted driving. Calvin is taking driver education. I don't know that they've covered prayer while driving. Thinking not, but you can pray, but keep your eyes open. Now, I'm not talking about praying without ceasing, we'll get to that in a moment. I'm talking about a concentrated pray time in which you're doing nothing but praying. Like we said last week, remember Praying Hyde, how it took like 10 minutes for him to get his heart quiet and right before God and to know who he's talking to? We can't always do that, but there are really special, important times we should do every day. I'm talking about your quiet time. Then having had your quiet time, you can have other occasions like that through the day. Daniel did them three times a day, three times a day!  You can extend those. It doesn't just have to be in the morning. You could do it morning, noon and night. Having had that quiet time, then you're going to want to secondly, "pray without ceasing," so on all occasions. So, we have a concentrated prayer time, then you're going to have "praying without ceasing" throughout the day. Then, we can have other times, like special prayer meetings. I just invited you to come and pray with the elders tomorrow at 6:30pm. That's a special prayer meeting. You have prayer times with your Home Fellowship. Pray in the Spirit on those times. You have all occasions for that, seize the time.

Next, pray with all kinds of prayer. There are different types of prayers that we pray,  "On all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" he uses two words, prayers and requests. I'm not going to go into the details of different types of words for prayer, but there are many different types of words for prayer. The point is, there are different patterns for prayer. Use them all!  There are quick prayers, there are longer prayers, there are pre-written prayers, planned prayers, impromptu prayers, corporate prayers, small group prayers, retreat prayers, Nehemiah-like prayers, you know where Nehemiah is there, the cupbearer and the king. He makes a 'big ask' of the king. Right before he does, he prays and then answers the king. Those are the quick, arrow-to-heaven type prayers. There are lots of things to pray for. Give time for praying for all the saints. I think you need to organize it, I need to organize it. I have prayed best in intercessory prayer by being organized. I would suggest that you organize your prayer life.

John Piper talked about having no organization in your prayer life is like, "going off on a family vacation with no plan." I love that picture. The whole family gets into the car, they're all there dressed as they were that morning. 'Here we are. Where are we going? Family vacation. Oh, huh. Where are we going? Don't know, we're just driving.'  Pulls out of the driveway. Does he go left, does he go right?  We don't know. That's just ridiculous. We have to plan and think ahead of time, how it's going to be. The more organized that we are in our prayers, the better, to a point. I'm not saying we can't be immediately moved when we hear something, and pray. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that in general, for intercessory prayer be organized. I would suggest concentric circles. Pray much more frequently for the people much closer to you. If you're married, pray for your spouse everyday and even multiple times a day. Same thing for you kids or your parents. If you're single, there's going to be a tight circle of people you know best.

That brings us to most people's circle. That is, pray for your church family. Pray for the brothers and sisters in Christ who you know best, who are around you, people in your Home Fellowship, people that you interact with, accountability partners, people that you meet together with, pray for them consistently and regularly. What should you pray?  I think you can write down requests, you can keep a prayer notebook. If you can remember it, do it, but just pray concentric circles. Pray also for the leadership of the church. Pray for the elders, the deacons. Pray for key leaders in the church, women ministry leaders, others that you know are playing a key role in the life of the church. Pray for them!  Then just pray, concentric circles, for the whole church. Pray for them by name. Go through the church directory. Pray through it once a month. You're praying even for people that you don't know so well, once a month.

Then further out in concentric circles, pray for our community, for the Raleigh-Durham area, for what's going in the city. Pray for what's going in this area and then further out to the state, Charlotte, NC and further on. Pray for brothers and sisters in Christ, for the saints in these locations. Pray for other churches here in the Raleigh-Durham area. Pray for folks that are ministering in Charlotte. Pray mindfully. Further out, pray for our nation, what's going on in the US. Again, pray for Christians in Washington, DC. Pray for Christians in Massachusetts. I mention Massachusetts because I found out that there's a new law that the churches in Massachusetts need to have gender neutral bathrooms and have to use gender appropriate pronouns as the individual is defined. This is going to be a terrible thing for freedom of religion if it takes root, not just in Massachusetts, but throughout the nation. Pray about that. Pray for the proper response to these kinds of things. Then to the world. Pray for the world. Next week we're going to talk more about how to pray for missionaries, how to pray for the spread of the Gospel. Pray for special categories. We'll talk more next week about missionaries reaching unreached people groups. Pray for the persecuted church. Pray for brothers and sisters that are being persecuted.

I went to Voice of the Martyrs website this morning just to look at it again. There was a brother there, an elder in the Philippines who was killed by Muslims, according to the story. I don't know that much about the story, but they have been trying to get the land that the church owns. The church has been resisting, and now this man was killed. I'm not 100% sure if it was persecution, but it sure looks that way. There are things like this all over the world. There are nations that are making laws that make it difficult to be Christians in that area. Pray for the persecuted church. Pray for Christians that are facing natural disasters. You may ask, "What should we pray for?"  Pray with a purpose. What is God doing in the world?  He's saving the elect, moving them from justification through sanctification, in to glorification. Pray for those things. Pray for Ephesians 1:15-18, Ephesians 3:14-21, pray as Paul teaches us how to pray. Pray for those things. Pray with a purpose. Look at what it says, "With this in mind," or ESV has, "To that end, pray."  Think about what God is doing. “He is saving people that He chose from before the foundation of the world, making them holy and blameless, in Christ.”

Walk through the things that you've learned, theologically, praying purposefully. Then pray alertly. It says, "Pray in the Spirit, on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind, be alert."  Here, there are two levels. One is just, being aware of what's actually going on for the brothers and sisters that you're praying for. What's happening in their lives?  What's happening in the big picture, being aware of what Satan is doing, for we are not unaware of his schemes. You're asking people, "How can I pray for you?  What's happening?"  Be alert, be aware of how Satan is attacking. Or, imagine, what would a pastor, who regularly preaches, how would it benefit Satan to pull me down into sin. If it would be strategic, you could pray for me that, that would not happen. Not just for me but for the other elders. Godly elders are special focuses of Satanic attack. Pray for their protection, as many of you do. You tell me that you do. Keep praying for them. Be aware and then just, be alert while you're praying.

Have you ever had a really, really, really quiet, quiet time?  The kind that's really quiet. It's unbelievable. It's like time just flew by, an hour goes by and you don't even know what happened. I'll tell you what happened. The same thing that James, Peter and John were doing when Jesus was praying. What were they doing?  I've had some really sleepy prayer times and it's hard!  For me, I get up early and I don't generally have trouble getting up but sometimes I have trouble getting up and being alert. Sometimes you have to get up and pace back and forth, stir yourself up. Awake my soul and well, don't sing because there might still be some sleeping, and it wouldn't be appreciated. You know how in Proverbs it says, "Greet your neighbor with a loud greeting in the morning, it would be considered a curse.” So don't do that. "But I'm praying for you!"  But be alert. I'm amazed at how often I get sleepy in prayer, almost at any time of day. I actually think it's a satanic attack for me. I want to be alert while I'm praying. Be vigilant. Be aware of what's happening. Let's be alert of what's happening in each other's lives. The church covenant says, "We will watch over one another in brotherly love."  The elders have to do that. We have to be alert. But, you be alert in each other's lives. "What's happening with you, I've not seen you recently. Are you doing OK?  How can I pray for you?" 

Then, pray with perseverance. It says, "With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  It is so easy to want to just give up in prayer. Jesus told of the prayer of the persistent widow, that we should always pray and never give up, Luke 18:1. We tend to give up.

George Mueller is one of the greatest examples of persistent prayer that you'll ever find. Listen to what he says about persistence in prayer. "We must continually, continue to wait patiently on God until the blessing we seek is granted for we observe that nothing is said in the text, ‘Ask and it will be given to you,’ about the time and circumstances of when it will be given. There is a positive promise, ‘Ask and it will be given to you,’ but nothing as to time. Someone may ask, "Is it necessary that I should bring a matter before God, 2, 3, 5, or even 20 times?  Isn't it enough for me to tell Him just once? We might as well say that there's no need to tell Him just once, for He already knew before you asked."  Very sharp answer. There wasn't even a need to tell Him just once if there's no need for you to tell Him 20 times. Tell Him 20 times!  As a matter of fact, keep on praying until you have the answer. That's what He is saying. He wants us to prove that we have confidence in Him, and that we take our place as creatures under the Creator. Sometimes He makes us wait just because He's the King, and it would be bad for our pride if He instantly granted everything we requested. We would become so arrogant. We have to wait because it humbles us. Mueller says this, "I am now, in 1864, waiting upon God for certain blessings for which I have daily besought Him for 19 years and 6 months, without 1 day's intermission. Nineteen years and six months, still the full answer is not given concerning the conversion of certain individuals. In the meantime, I have received many thousands of answers to prayer. I have also prayed daily without intermission for the conversion of other individuals, for about 10 years, for others about 6 or 7 years, for others 3 or 4, for others about 2 years, for others 18 months and the answers are still not granted. Yet, I am daily continuing in prayer and expecting the answer. Be encouraged, dear Christian, with fresh earnestness to give yourself to prayer, if you can only be sure that the things that you ask for are according to the will of God."

That's just advice from Ephesians 6:18 on intercessory prayer. Next week I'm going to talk more about praying for the spread of the Gospel. It's been my passionate desire to see this church, far more evangelistically fruitful than we are and I think that prayer is the key. So, next week we're going to talk about that.

It would be wrong for me though to end without making a direct appeal to lost people to come to faith in Christ. Honestly, you cannot pray in Jesus' name as a non-Christian. The first and most important prayer that you should pray is the prayer of that broken-hearted tax collector who stood a distance and wouldn't lift up his eyes but just beat his breast and said, "Be merciful to me, Oh, God, this sinner."  So, if you are lost, you're on the outside and you're looking in, I urge you to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon that it's because of His shed blood that sinners like us can come into the presence of God and pray. All you have to do is say, "Lord Jesus, save me," and your sins will be forgiven. You don't have to do any good works. Good works will follow, certainly. But just by simple faith in Christ, all your sins will be forgiven. Close with me in prayer.

 Father, thank you for the time we've had to look at Ephesians and its instructions on prayer. Teach us to pray. Lord, we're not good at it and we need to grow. Help us to be a praying people. Lord, I pray specifically for tomorrow at 6:30. Would you call out some people from this church to join with the elders in praying about racial ministry in this city, racial reconciliation, and the joy of seeing the Gospel, victorious in this very sad and dark time. Lord, I pray that You call up prayer warriors to do that. Lord, I pray that you would make our church more fruitful and passionate in prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Ephesians 6:18. The main subject of the sermon is that we must pray in the Spirit as part of our walk with God.

Well, this morning we come to one of the final phrases in the passage on spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:18, “praying in the Spirit,” or “pray in the Spirit.” And as I've been saying, week by week on spiritual warfare, the greatest challenge for us is to believe that it's actually even happening that we actually are at war. There's a war going on spiritually we can't see it with our eyes, but it's real. I believe most Christians greatly underestimate the severity of this war and we also greatly underestimate our responsibilities, these commands that are given here in Ephesians, to be ready to fight, to prepare for the fight. We tend to look at the world through our own eyes. We tend to assess dangers based on what we see from our own physical, fleshly perspective and our prayerlessness in particular is key evidence of our self-reliance and our complacency, the fact that we don't pray in the Spirit about spiritual warfare shows that we are essentially on our own, we think we're fine, we don't need any help. Prayerlessness is a clue to our self-reliance.

Now, this is not a new problem, Jesus' apostles struggled with the same thing, they had to be trained to no longer rely on themselves, but on God who raises the dead. They had to be trained that way. It doesn't come naturally. Now, a key example occurs for us in Mark 9, Jesus went up on the mountain, With three of his disciples, Peter, John and James and they went up and there he had that experience with them, he was transfigured, and made glorious before them, but he left nine apostles, not on the mountain to carry on ministry. Now by that time, he had given them the authority to drive out demons and perform signs and wonders to perform healings. They had that power. They'd already done it, but then a specific man came to them with a specific problem, a son, and the disciples failed to drive the demon out from that boy. When Jesus comes down off the mountain, he comes into a scene of tumult of arguing and conflict. Lots of arguing, lots of conflict. The teachers of law arguing with his disciples, Jesus found out what had happened, a man had brought his son to the disciples, the son was demon-possessed, he had been demon possessed from childhood, and the demon often threw the boy into the fire or into the water. The boy's life was constantly threatened by the demon. And he was very distraught, because at that moment, the boy was down on the ground frothing at the mouth. Then the father said, a devastating thing, “I brought him to your disciples but they were unable to drive him out. Now if you can do anything Jesus please help.” “If you can,” said Jesus, “All things are possible to him who believes.” So they had a low opinion of Jesus based on what the disciples had done or hadn't done. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, came out of the boy throwing him down, so violently everybody thought the boy was dead, but he wasn't, he was healed, and Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he was healed, he was made well. 

Now, later on the disciples came privately to Jesus. Don't you imagine, it was private? And they said, “Why couldn't we drive it out? What went wrong?" And Jesus said, “This kind only comes out by prayer". Wow. So what does that tell you about the disciples? It means they hadn't prayed. They were prayerless. They tried to drive out a demon in their own strength, by their own techniques, by their advanced skills and driving out demons. Can I ask you a question? What kind of demon doesn't come out except by prayer? Is there any demon that's going to fear our piety, and our godliness, and our spiritual technique and run from us? Never! So the disciples struggle with prayerles-ness in spiritual warfare, just like we do. Same thing, prayerlessness is a sure sign we are underestimating the power of Satan and demons, and we are over estimating our own strength, prayerlessness, we are told in Ephesians 6:10, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” So we come to the topic of prayer, as the kind of the unification and the final step of spiritual warfare, praying in the Spirit is essential to victory in spiritual warfare.

Praying in the Spirit Essential to Victory in Spiritual Warfare

Now, Paul has been training the Ephesian Christians, getting them ready to fight an invisible foe. Look again at verses 11-13, “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckled around your waist” and he goes on from there. So how does prayer relate to the whole armor of God? How do we understand prayer and all this? What prayer is clearly treated differently than all the other elements.

How Prayer Relates to the “Whole Armor of God”

Paul goes through six elements in a kind of an analogy, to teach them the full armor of God. The prior is treated differently now, all the other elements of the spiritual armor, actually were named as some physical thing that you would see on the body of, maybe, a Roman soldier like the belt, and the breastplate, and the shoes, and the helmet, and the sword, and the shield they're things you could imagine actually being put on the body. And they corresponded to a part of the body, but they were named spiritually, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. It's been an analogy etcetera. But prayer's just handled differently here. We're not told to put it on. It's not linked to any piece of armor. It's just handled differently. So I think what's happening is in conjunction with all of the armor that we've been talking about, you're going to deal with each one of them by prayer in the Spirit. You really could look to the very previous one, verse 17, The sword of the Spirit, you should take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying in the Spirit. So there's a harmonization of taking up the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit with praying in the Spirit. But I think it extends to the entire thing as we saw earlier that beautiful hymn. “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone, the arm of flesh will fail you, you dare not trust your own, put on the Gospel armor. Each piece, put on with prayer.” I think that's it. Where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there. So each piece you're going to be praying in the Spirit. I think that's how it works. 

Essential to Genuine Prayer: The Ministry of the Spirit

Now, let's talk about praying in the Spirit. I want to zero in on this particular phrase, and the rest of the time I'm going to be talking to you today, I'm just zeroing it on that one thing. Now, you may think we're never going to finish Ephesians, “We're down to three words at a time, pastor, are we ever going to finish?” Rest assured we're going to finish. Today, we're going to just talk about praying in the Spirit, next week, we're going to extend to talk about intercessory prayer, and all of the things Paul says about it, in verse 18, and then we're going to extend to praying for the spread of the Gospel and with that our look at Ephesians will end.

But let's look now at praying in the Spirit, essential to genuine prayer is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, The Spirit is given to assist us in prayer. In Romans 8:26-27, it says, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” That's just so beautiful, isn't it? But what does the text say? It says the Spirit helps us in our weakness in prayer, we are weak in prayer, all of you, I think, can say amen to that. Does anyone want to say, “I actually am very strong in prayer.” I don't think anyone would say that. We all feel weak in prayer, we're not good at praying and we need help. How are we weak? Well, we don't know what to pray for. And we don't know how to pray, and we don't stay with prayer, we don't persevere in it and we don't pray fervently or passionately or in faith, there's just so much weakness to our prayer life. Very weak. So the essence of the call to spiritual warfare however, is a call to be strong, to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, so the Spirit has come to make us strong in prayer, and we need that help don't we? And isn't is it beautiful how it says there in Romans 8 that the Spirit is interceding for us? The Spirit is praying for us, according to the will of God, and it's beautiful because just in a few verses later, there in Romans 8, it says that Jesus is doing the same thing. In Romans, 8:34, "Christ Jesus, who died more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us." So, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, and the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit are both interceding to God for us, praying for us. So when we enter into prayer, especially spiritual warfare prayer, we are entering into a fervent prayer time that's already going on. The Son and the Spirit are already praying for us, according to the will of God and that's a beautiful thing. And what a mighty resource for victory, we have in the Spirit. 

What is it to Pray “In the Spirit”?

Well, what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? Well, first of all to be in the Spirit, in this case, it's not the same as being indwelt with the Spirit. You can be indwelt with the spirit and not pray in the Spirit. I actually think many of our prayers are not prayers in the spirit, though we are constantly indwelt by the Spirit. What do I mean by that? Well, I believe when you come to faith in Christ, when you believe in Jesus as your savior, at that moment, the Holy Spirit enters into you, it says in John 14:17, “The Spirit of truth lives with you and will be in you.” How beautiful is that? So if you're a Christian, if you're a child of God, you have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God It says in Romans 8:9, "if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." So conversely, if you do belong to Christ, you do have the indwelling spirit. But that doesn't mean that every time you pray you're praying in the Spirit. I actually don't think that's true. I think we can pray many rote prayers, we can pray cold prayers, we can pray kind of machine-like prayers. My daughter was talking to me, I was raised Roman Catholic, and she asked me about the rosary and I was raised praying the rosary, and it's just these beads, and you pray 10 Hail Marys. I'm forgetting my Catholic training now. Alright, so it's 10 hail Mary's and then in our Father, 10 Hail Mary’s. You work your way around this chain, but it just gets to be like a machine. And you see the same thing in Buddhist prayer sometimes there's this prayer wheel spinning and there's just this machine-like praying. Christians can do that too. 

I talked to her this morning. I said, wouldn't it be cool if you could just record your prayers on your smartphone, and just hit play and then go back and get some sleep while your smartphone did your praying for you?  But that's obviously ridiculous, but some people pray like that, it's like it's a recording. They're not really thinking about who they're talking to or what they're saying. So that's a problem. Praying in the Spirit, I think means to be controlled by the Spirit. Empowered, indwelt. I would say filled with the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit. It says in Ephesians 5:18, “Do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery instead be being filled with the Spirit.” So I think that's what it means. It means to be controlled and I would go beyond that. I think ultimately to pray in the Spirit, means to be lifted up above your immediate circumstances, so that you are actually in some sense, elevated by the Spirit in perspective and in feeling. You're actually almost lifted up and you could have a sense of almost being lifted up out of yourself and praying in the spiritual realm. I think it can get to that level.

You remember that earlier in Ephesians 3, you can look back, if you want, in Ephesians 3:16-19 there Paul talks about his own prayer life for the Ephesians, and there he said, "I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ.” Remember that? The infinite dimensions of the love of Christ. You could almost sense the length and width and height and depth like you're almost traveling in your mind to the expanses of God's love for you in Christ and to know that love that surpasses knowledge, that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God that's praying in the Spirit, when you are filled to the measure the infinite measure the fullness of God.

So we would learn to that time, remember that some brothers and sisters have had experiences of spiritual ecstasy almost of being so elevated by the Spirit that they actually didn't even know if they were alive or dead, or awake or asleep. Remember Jonathan Edwards, laying on the ground for one hour and had a vision of Christ in the heavens and his greatness on the throne of God. Remember that? And his wife Sarah another time she felt herself to be like a dust speck floating in a beam of light. She didn't know if she was awake or sleep, alive or dead. She just knew that she was filled with joy and pleasure. Filled with the Spirit. So I think you can pray like that but there are ordinary levels of praying in the Spirit, too. You don't have to reach ecstatic levels, but there are ordinary levels to pray in the Spirit. I think then it, means to pray for the right things in the right way. We could just keep it simple. You're praying for the right things and you're praying in the right way, your demeanor. 

The right things have to do with the work of salvation, God is doing in the world that we've seen unfolded so beautifully in the Book of Ephesians, how God before the foundation of the world chose people to be saved in Christ, and how in Christ, by his blood, we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven and how he is doing this, taking this Gospel and extending it to the ends of the earth and people all over the world are hearing about Jesus and they're finding forgiveness of sins, and they're finding themselves in a right relationship with God because of Christ. And this is going on all over the world, and so, to pray in the Spirit means to pray in light of that, but in the immediate context to pray in light of demons and Satan and his opposition and that there's warfare going on, and you can see that going on, and you pray the right things and it means also to pray in the right way, to pray passionately to pray empowered, inflamed. You remember how on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, like tongues of fire that came down on the heads of each one, and that flickering flame, there's a sense of the life, and the heat, and the light of the fire and the Spirit comes and you're alive, and your energetic and filled with life and heat in your prayers or the rushing wind. There's a sense of a great movement of God, the power of God in the wind praying in the Spirit.

Well, I was thinking about this phrase, the other day. Now we're going to get really, really weird. Okay, this is going to be really interesting. This was going to be a subset of the sermon and it became the entire sermon. So I was thinking about the phrase “in the Spirit”, and I remember that it was at of John the Apostle John on the Island of Patmos. So I'd like you to turn to Revelation 1, effectively we're done with Ephesians today. Okay, so just go to Revelation 1. And I want to give you four visions from the island of Patmos, of what it means to be in the Spirit. The phrase, “in the Spirit”, is used four times in the Book of Revelation, and they give an amazing insight into themes that should be part of our prayer life in Spiritual warfare type prayer. Four beautiful themes. 

In the Spirit: Vision of Christ Glorified

Now, before we get into each of the four times the phrase in the spirit is used, the first in Revelation chapter 1, so you can turn there Revelation. 1:10-11. So just turn there. But just listen, what I'm going to say is that to be in the Spirit means to be, in some sense, lifted up out of your immediate circumstance and transported to see things in the spiritual realm you had not seen before. That's what I think it means. So, a vividness and reality to spiritual things that happen. So I think of it as an elevation and you're lifted up out of immediate circumstances. So, we're going to see that because three times in connection with, “in the Spirit,” an Angel says to John come and I will show you. And then the angel takes him to a place and shows him something. It's just amazing. First time he does, there's not a common, “I will show you,” but it begins on the rocky island of Patmos, the rocky island of Patmos. There, John the Apostle was in exile. Toward the end of the first century around 90 AD. He's on a small rocky island off the coast of modern day Turkey. He's being there. All the other apostles have been killed, but he was exiled, he's an old band and he's there. There's not much to do there except write the Book of Revelation, which is enough to do. And what happens is he's praying on the Lord's Day in the Spirit. 

So that's how it starts. Look at Revelation 1:10-11, “On the lord's day, I was in the spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet which said, write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches,” and what did he see?  Well, turning around in Revelation 1:12-16. “When I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest, and his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire, and his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters and in his right hand, he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. And his face was like the sun shining in all of i's brilliance.” Well, this is a picture of the crucified, resurrected, glorified Jesus and he's moving through seven golden lampstands and the Golden lampstands represent local churches that were in modern day Turkey in Asia Minor, real churches, and he's moving through them and ministering to them. It's a picture of Jesus ministering to local churches as a priest, as a mediator, glorified and exalted. Now, look at John's reaction in verse 17, when I saw him, “I fell at his feet as though dead,” he was so overcome with this vision of Christ, the exalted, glorified Christ. So stop, to pray in the Spirit, means to pray mindful of Jesus. Let's just start there, mindful of Jesus as your mediator, your great high priest, as your atoning sacrifice, mindful of that. Start there. So you're in the middle of spiritual warfare, you're fighting sin, you're struggling, you're going to pray in the Spirit. The first thing the Spirit is going to do is exalt Jesus, he's going to exalt Christ in your own mind. You will know as you're praying in the Spirit, without Jesus, you have no access to God. It is by Jesus's bloody death on the cross, by his resurrection, by his saving work in your life, by him as mediator escorting you into the presence of God, that's how you can pray. Without Jesus, you can't pray. God hears everything, God sees everything he's omniscient. That's not the problem, it's not that God doesn't see your prayers or hear your prayers, it's that your sins have separated you from God so that he will not hear, Isaiah 59:2, but because of Jesus, now your sin has been put away, it's been removed from you as far as the east is from the west, your sin has been forgiven, and now through the mediating work of Jesus you can pray. Without Jesus, God wouldn't even look at you or listen to you. I take that phrase from Elisha, who said that evil king Joram when Jehoshaphat was sitting next to him in the Old Testament and they wanted Elisha to prophecy and he hated this evil king of Israel. He said, "I want you to know that if it weren't for the presence of this man, Jehoshaphat here, I wouldn't even look at you or listen to you.” I think that seems a little rude, But that's what prophets can do. They can just say the truth. You're so evil. I wouldn't even look at you, I wouldn't listen to you, but then I started to think, that's what God could say to us, if it weren't for Jesus, if it weren't for the presence of Jesus, he wouldn't even look at us or listen to us.

Or like Esther. You remember how Esther was terrified to go into her husband when he sat on the throne? Because if you have not been invited into the throne room of the king of Persia, he will kill you. That's the law. One exception is if he extends the golden scepter, then your life will be spared, but you don't just walk into the throne room of the king of Persia. She courageously put on her queenly robes and walked into the throne room and he extended the golden scepter. Well, that's a picture of Christ to me. In Christ, God Almighty has extended the golden scepter and he's welcomed me into the throne, So, to pray in the Spirit, means mindful of the greatness of Jesus and what he's done for you, to enable you even to have a prayer life. Ephesians 2:18 says, "For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” We have access, or again, Romans 5:1-2, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” So, you have access, you have an opening, you have a new and living way open for you into the throne room of God by the body of Jesus, Hebrews 10. So, to pray in the Spirit, means with a spiritual inner vision of the glory and greatness of Christ as your mediator.

In the Spirit: Vision of God Enthroned

Alright, number two, the second time that this phrase in the spirit is used in the Book of Revelation, is in Revelation 4:1-2. Revelation 4:1-2. “After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me, like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this,’” verse two, “At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in Heaven with someone sitting on it.” Alright, so to pray in the Spirit, I believe, again, there's that image of transportation, come up here. How do you do that? He's on the island of Patmos, the door standing open in Heaven, but by the power of the Spirit, he's lifted up off of the island of Patmos, and he sees this door standing open in Heaven and the voice invites him to come through the door and see things. And he goes through the door, and what does he see? The first thing he sees is a throne with someone seated on it. Friends that is the most important reality there is in the universe: That is the throne of Almighty God, It's the throne of the sovereign creator of the ends of the earth. That is the one to whom you'll be addressing your prayers. The first vision is the one by whom you'll be addressing your prayers, But it is to Almighty God, God enthroned, that you will be praying and how great is that throne, how great is the power of Almighty God, how great is he seated on a throne, Isaiah 40, perhaps one of the greatest chapters on answering that question. Isaiah 40 verse 22.

"He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” Think of the immense City of God enthroned Isaiah 40:12 says, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, Or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance.” That's the greatness of Almighty God. "Surely the nations are like a drop from the bucket and like dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Before him, all the nations are as nothing.” they're regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing, that's God enthroned. That's who you're going to be praying to and think of the wisdom of God, enthroned, Isaiah 40:13-14. Who has understood the mind of the Lord or who has instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way.

 Can I just tell you about your prayer life? You're not able to give God any advice. When you get on your knees to pray, you're not telling him anything he didn't know already, you're not giving him any wisdom, he's not asking your advice. And frankly, if he needed a counselor, he wouldn't ask you. I mean, let's be humble here. But yet, we want to give them all this advice about our lives or people we know, etcetera. There's nothing wrong with making your request known to God, but just remember who you're talking to. He has already worked out everything, the end from the beginning, he has thought all of these things through, he is perfectly wise, that's God enthroned. And this powerful God, his power, is limitless, the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He does not grow tired or weary. His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak, that's our God, so to pray in the Spirit means to pray mindful of Almighty God on that kind of throne of power. 

Now, in the New Covenant in Jesus, it also means to see that throne as a source of grace and mercy for you. Grace and mercy. God's power is at work in your life, to give you grace and forgiveness and mercy and love, not wrath and punishment like he could. Isn't it amazing that the throne is pictured in Daniel 7 as having a river of fire flowing through it and that's judgment, wrath, But in Revelation 22, a river of the water of life, flowing clear as crystal. For us as the children of God, we drink from that river and we are refreshed and renewed. And so it says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So let's go back in your mind to spiritual warfare. That's a time of need, dear brothers and sisters, you need his help, go to the throne of grace through Jesus, go through that door into the throne room of grace and get mercy and grace to help when in need. And that's friends before you sin. It's not just put it this way. A mop to clean up after you sinned, it's power to keep you from sinning, It's grace and mercy in the time of temptation. So that you can say no to the temptation. It's a time of need. So to pray in the Spirit, means to be drawn into the heavenly realms, to see the throne room of God, the sovereign God, your Heavenly Father, who rules over heaven and earth, it is to see his holy hatred for sin, he's pure eyes that cannot look on anything evil. It is to have that vision, renewed by the Spirit to kill all the sin in your life, to put to death every temptation that Satan throws your way. Kill them all and it immediately gives energy and power to your armor, the full armor of God, makes them potent and powerful in your mind. Praying in the Spirit also means to see God enthroned as if on Judgment Day, and what will all this look like on judgment day, and to see God enthroned means to see Satan and his power in light of that omnipotence. Satan's nothing compared to God. Satan is weak, he's a created being compared to God, powerful compared to us, but God could speak him out of existence at any moment. 

In the Spirit: Vision of Satan’s Kingdom Exposed

Third use of “in the Spirit” is in Revelation 17. So look at Revelation 17:1-5. Revelation 17:1-5, third use of "In the Spirit," again in this passage, we're going to get that same sense of come and I will show you transportation. So again, to pray in the Spirit, means you're going to be transported out of the room, you're praying in. It could be your bedroom, it could be your office, it could be anywhere. And then you're seeing things in the spiritual realm. Alright, Revelation 17:1-5, “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said, to me, ‘Come and I will show you, the punishment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the Earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.’ Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit to a desert and there I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns, and this woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering, with gold and precious stones and pearls, and she held a golden cup in her hand filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries, This title was written on her forehead, ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.’” And then at the end of that chapter, Revelation 17:18, it says, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” So I think it's what Augustine called the City of Man. Well, we could also call it The City of Satan, It's the world in all of its wicked corruptions. It's the world and all of it's alluring temptations, it's the world and all of its hatred to God's people. She's drunk with the blood of the saints, and she's covered in luxury and she's pictured as a horror of luring hearts away from a true, right, love. A pure love. 

Now again, Ephesians 6, is spiritual warfare, praying right, we're going to pray in the Spirit. So what I'm saying is to pray in the Spirit, thirdly is to be mindful of the wickedness of the world we live in the wicked, evil world system that opposes us, and Satan has crafted it to see it clearly, to see it for what it is to see it how evil it is this spiritual Babylon. This wicked world system to see it in the eyes of God. What does he think of this world in all of its wicked sin to see it in the eyes of Judgment Day, what will all of that sin and that wickedness look like on Judgment Day. To pray in the Spirit, means for the Spirit to take us by the hand on a tour of the evilness of the world, and we can see it for what it is and we're like, "I hate that, I don't want that. It's to see how it'll appear on Judgment Day, to pray in the Spirit, means to see the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life, clearly as the deadly dangers they are to pray in the Spirit, means to see the World Properly, spiritually to look at the political forces, political forces, the military situations that are going on on earth, to look at those things with spiritual eyes, to look at the economic things that are going on to look at the stuff they sell in the mall. The stuff that's in the cyber world, the stuff that you surf the web, and then zero in on to see those things spiritually to see them properly. To see Babylon the great as a vast, dark satanic conspiracy a wicked brilliantly conceived alluring temptress away from faith in God. It's to peer into the invisible realm and see how Satan's organized world, system keeps people all over the world enslaved to lusts and false religions and false philosophies, to enslave them to pray in the Spirit, more than that is to see how those things have made inroads into your own heart.

How are Satan's temptations, already putting a rope around your heart and pulling you, so that you can see it with the disgust we should have and cut those ropes and say, "I'm not going to sin, I hate sin.” Praying in the Spirit, is to see how those things are assaulting your soul to see the ways the world is making inroads to look at your spending habits. How are you spending your money? How are you spending your time? What websites are you going to? How are you actually living your life, To see the world system and how it's weakened your zeal for holiness and how it's weakened your zeal for evangelism and missions to see it clearly. 

In the Spirit: Vision of the Future Glory of Christ’s Bride

Fourthly, the fourth vision to be in the Spirit, the last use of the phrase in the spirit is Revelation 21:9-11. And again, we're going to see the same thing, “Come and I will show you” So to pray in the Spirit, means to be transported lifted up from the room where you're praying, your dorm room, your office room, you're praying at lunch, you go into your room and close the door, it's at home, but you're lifted up, that room isn't an ordinary place, anymore. Now, you can see spiritually some things.

So what's the fourth vision? We'll look at it. Revelation 21:9-11, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come and I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb, and he carried me away,” here's the phrase, “in the Spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God and it shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a Jasper, clear as crystal. This is the New Jerusalem, it is the heavenly bride of Christ, this is the people of God finished, at the end of salvation, radiant and glorious and shining with the light of the glory of God, so Revelation 17 and Revelation 21, both show us a woman that's a city, or a city that's a woman. 

There's a complex imagery there of woman/city and so, in Revelation 17, she is vile and corrupt and drunk, and in Revelation 21, she's pure and holy, and radiant and beautiful. What a contrast. So to pray in the Spirit, means to have an eternal view of the Church, the bride of Christ, the people of God as they will look at the end of the world. All of the people, elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. Some of them converted some of them not yet, But they're going to make it all of them are going to be there, They're going to be in Heaven, all of them, they're going to be saved and we can pray. We're going to talk more next week about how to pray and intercede for others horizontally. How to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind, “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” We'll talk about that next week but it's to pray in light of the Church in glory, it's radiant beauty. 

So the Book of Revelation gives us four uses of the phrase, “in the Spirit,” first, a vision of the glorified Christ as mediator and how much you need him to be your mediator. Secondly, a vision of Almighty God seated on a throne, high above the surface of the earth infinitely greater in power than Satan. Thirdly, a vision of the world, in all of its wicked corruptions, and sins in the power of the devil in the power of Satan, and then fourth a vision of how the church is going to be pure, and beautiful, and radiant, when all is said and done.

Praying for the Right Things

Now those four themes are vital to spiritual warfare prayers. Vital. We need to pray for the right things in detail. The Spirit's going to teach you how to pray. He's going to take those themes and apply them and help you to see things, aspects of each one of those things as you pray. So what I would suggest to you is that when you go to pray, calm your mind and your heart, Allow enough time. Try to not be distracted. Jesus went away to lonely places to pray because it is so easy to be distracted. Calm your spirit and wait to be in the presence of God until you know that you're about to talk to Almighty God through Jesus. 

There was a missionary in India, named John Hyde, he was nicknamed “Praying Hyde,” And Wilber Chapman tells a story, he was an evangelist traveling evangelist and he was having a evangelistic service, and it wasn't going that well. It turned out that John Hyde was in that town, heard about it, and came and wanted to pray for him. Never refuse when a man like that comes and says, "Can I pray for you?" please. And so, they went into the room together and this is the description of what happened. “He came to my room, turn the key in the door and dropped on his knees and waited. Listen to this for five minutes before uttering a single sound,” five minutes. The man said, “I could hear my own heart thumping I felt hot tears start to come down my face. I knew that I was with God and then with an upturned face, with tears streaming down his face, he said simply, oh God, and then five more minutes, nothing else.” And then when he knew without a doubt he was talking to the God of Revelation 4, the God enthroned, the God of Isaiah 40, he began praying and intercession and request came streaming out from him almost like molten lava just pure and powerful and strong. So do that, look at the ways that prayer is rote and mechanical in your life and get rid of them. Don't pray rote prayers, don't pray machine-like prayers, don't pray cold prayers. 

Thomas Brooks, a puritan and writer said this, “As painted fire is no fire and the dead man is no man, so a cold prayer is no prayer.” “In a painted fire, there's no heat in a dead man there is no life, so in a cold prayer, there is no power, there's no devotion, there's no blessing. Cold prayers are arrows without heads, as swords without edges they are as birds, without wings.” So, they pierce not, they cut not, and they fly not up to Heaven. Cold prayers do always freeze before they get up to Heaven, oh, that Christians would hide themselves out of their cold prayers and chide themselves into a better warmer hotter frame of spirit before they pray. So, you're going to wait until you know you're in the presence of God, lean on Christ, your mediator be mindful that were it not for him, God would not look at you or listen to you. By the blood of Christ, you enter into the throne room, you see the greatness of God, you wait in his presence, and listen to what the Spirit tells you to pray for and then as he tells you to pray, pray. 

A Message to All Non-Christians: Repent and Believe

One final word I want to say, I know that it's possible not everybody that's here today is a believer in Christ. And so I've been talking to Christians about how to pray. But if you came in here and you were not a Christian, you knew you're on the outside looking in, the most important thing you can do is trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. We believe that God sent Jesus, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for sinners like you and me. Raised from the dead on the third day. If you trust in him, not by good works, but by simple faith, your sins will be forgiven, Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and you'll be able to pray in the Spirit, as we've been talking about today. Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the things we learned from your word. We would not know these things, if you didn't teach them to us. We thank you that the word and the Spirit are so closely connected. I thank you for the vision that John had in the Book of Revelation, I thank you for the fourfold use of the phrase “in the Spirit,” I thank you for what he saw each time. I thank you for Jesus, our great mediator, who shed his blood that we might have access into the throne room of God. And I thank you for the throne room of God. A door standing open, not closed, but open for us, and we can in the Spirit go through that door and come to the throne of grace and see Almighty God enthroned. I thank you that by the ministry of the Spirit, we can see the wickedness of sin and hate it like you do, And I thank you that we can also see our future in the bride of Christ in the Church, pure and holy, I pray that you would enable us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Few things in military history, so aroused the passions of warriors, the imagination of warriors as does the sword. The long shiny, sharp, curved instrument of death. The sword devours life, it leaves death in its path. Technological advances of metallurgy, across the eras in which the sword was dominant. It was the seeking of a perfect blade that could endure anything that could happen on the battlefield. The dream of a perfect sword. Now, the merest mention of a sword if you know anything about military history, evokes images of legendary warriors, English knights like the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, or perhaps earlier Roman gladiators or maybe the Japanese samurai, viking warriors. When I was a missionary in Japan I became fascinated with Japanese samurai swords, the katana, the legendary sword, and there are numbers of them, there's all this mythology that grew up in Japan around the samurai sword around the katana. I was looking at it from the perspective of a mechanical engineer. I was interested in the engineering of it. But also the history. I find it fascinating when you look at the edge of the blade of an exquisitely fashioned forged samurai blade, you can see ripples in the steel dark and light areas. Almost like there were somehow sandwiches or layers upon layers of different kinds of steel and that's actually what they are, layers upon layers of two different types of steel. There's high carbon steel, that's exceptionally hard and can be honed to a razor sharp edge, but it's also brittle and therefore not really well suited for the battlefield, for the sword to sword conflict that's going to happen. So then they use lower carbon steel, in layer upon layer, that's more malleable, a little more durable and so they get the best of both worlds with that, that they developed this over centuries. A combination of exquisite hardness honed to a razor-sharp edge, and then durability in the blade of the sword. 

Now, there are all kinds of mythological stories. I went to a military museum in Japan and learned this story years ago, about two actual historically true sword makers. Sadly for the legend, they lived at different times, but according to the legend they each made a sword to have a contest against each other, not that they would fight but that the virtues of their blades would be pitted against each other. The name of these experts were Masamune and Muramasa. These were two men, they lived at different times in each other, but there was some kind of a mythological contest, so Masamune’s swords were some of the most beautifully crafted katana ever made. And all of his surviving swords are priceless national heirlooms in Japan. By contrast in the mythology of it, Muramasa's sword, his student, were considered more brutish, and violent and ugly, but powerful. 

So in the legend Muramasa was Masamune's student and they were pitted against each other and to test the swords they were each held in a stream of perfectly pure mountain water. And so they put the student's sword in there, Muramasa's sword in there, and it was so sharp that the first leaf that came down just divided, just with the force of the trickling water, just split right in half. It's that sharp, but the Master, Masamune's sword did something very different. According to the legend when it was put in the water, the leaves came in and they avoided it like a magnetic force was on it because the blade somehow knew that there was no evil in the leaves, it would only cut that, which was evil. Now that's interesting, cool. I don't know how the blade knows that kind of thing. Looking at it from the materialistic, scientific point of view that I have, but I just read this story, this is what I do at museums. 

So, at any rate, in Ephesians 6:17, however we come to a sword that's described in the text as vastly more supernaturally powerful than anything in that legend. And actually, this sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, is in some sense, spiritually told to be alive. It's actually a living and active blade. Even better than the samurai sword, this sword can cut in order to heal. But it also can measure out death to the enemies of God. So within this sword there is the power of both life and death within the same sword. It reminds me very much of the Apostle Paul, talking about the gospel ministry. "We are to those who are perishing, the aroma of or the stench of death, but to those who are being saved, we are the fragrance of life." The same message can be death, to some in life to others. But to the demonic enemies of God, it's nothing but death. It's a dreadful, terrifying, powerful sword, that measures out death to the spiritual enemies of God, Satan and his demons. This word of God, this sword of the Spirit. The author to Hebrews describes it in this way, Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So every time you pick up a Bible you're holding in your hands literally a miracle, by any definition you give a miracle, the Bible meets that qualification. It is a miraculous thing. Now, as we began this morning from my mind, I go right to the sword of the Spirit, but I'm not going to skip over a discussion of the helmet of salvation as well.

We're in the middle of this section talking about spiritual warfare. We have a struggle, we have a bitter conflict, we have a warfare put right at our feet spiritually if we're Christians. Look at verse 12 of Ephesians 6, 6:12, "For our struggle “ or “we wrestle not with flesh and blood." “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms.” Now, as I've been saying for weeks, most Christians seem to be completely moment by moment, day-to-day, even week-to-week, unaware of this spiritual warfare. Unaware of it. They do not take adequate precautions, they do not follow the commands that are given here in Ephesians 6. And therefore they are constantly damaged in their souls in the spiritual realm by Satan's activities. They're hurt, they're wounded by what Satan is doing because they do not follow the prescriptions of Ephesians 6:10 and following. Now, by way of review, Paul gives us three basic commands for spiritual warfare here. 

Three Commands

First, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." What this means is, you cannot fight alone, you must draw near to Christ, have a sense of his omnipotent, a sense of his great power, immerse yourself in Jesus for apart from him, you will lose. So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty powers. Secondly, “put on the full armor of God.” And we've been going step by step through the six elements today, the last two elements of the full armor that God has provided. That's how I understand “of God.” This is the armor that God has crafted. This is the armor made for you in the heavenly realms, made by the power of God, and entrusted to you. But you have the responsibility, by faith and by the ministry of the word, to put it on to appropriate the truths in the armor of God. And then thirdly, he tells you to stand firm in the day of testing. Stand firm. Four times it tells you to take your stand, to stand your ground, to stand firm. 

Now, we've looked at the full armor of God. We've gone element by element, we began with the belt of truth and how the truth of the word of God is drawn into your inner being. God desires truth in the inner parts. You have a sense of the immutability and the perfection, the absoluteness of the truth of the Bible. And just knowing that there is truth in the Bible, that the Bible is truth, the word of God is truth, helps you fight Satan's kingdom of lies, especially for us in the 21st century in the West, this postmodern world that we live in, which we're told, there is no metaphysical truth we can ever know. Well, we reject that. We believe that we can know invisible spiritual realities, especially the truth of the Bible as it testifies to Jesus, Savior of the world. And we talked about the breastplate of righteousness, how beautiful that is, how radiant and shining it is. How it absolutely cannot be your own righteousness, which Satan wants shredded in an instant and you know it. But it actually is the imputed righteousness of Christ that you put on you appropriate by faith. And we talk, thirdly, about “feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.” And how there's that sense of preparedness. You're getting ready, you're getting ready to fight, ready to stand, ready to move. Stability and mobility and how the Gospel ministers peace to you, to your own heart, you're at peace, while you fight. And you know God's at peace with you, and you as a soldier, is a warrior of the Gospel, you're proclaiming a message that will bring peace to people who themselves were at war with God. So that's the feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. And then last week, we talked also about the “shield of faith with which you are able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” And how faith is the eyesight of the soul. You can see into the invisible spiritual realm, you can see these flaming arrows that they're coming at you, they come at you in major categories, temptations, alluring you towards sin, and wickedness, accusations, pointing out the sins you've committed, doubts, and false doctrines that come at us, and we're able to see these things for what they are and the shield of faith can block them. And having put all of these things on, we put on each part with prayer. We're not generalistic saying, "I know we have a struggle. I know we have a fight, so just pray about it." It's not like that we're going to get specifically ready in these six elements these six ways. Ready to fight Satan. We're going to fight, we're going to stand firm. And so, having put on the full armor of God, we stand our ground we stand firm. 

Alright, now we've been through four of the elements now, we're looking at the last two this morning and first of those is the helmet of salvation. Look at verse 17, "Take the helmet of salvation." Now the helmet protects the head, the most important part of the body. Whenever I ride my bike, I wear a helmet. It doesn't protect however, the whole body I found last Sunday afternoon. Some of you may be wondering why I look like this. Your imaginations are running amuck right now, you're thinking of all the things. No, it was not a bar fight. And it was not a member of the family, none of that. It was the road, it was the asphalt. I went around a corner and I leaned too fast, I was riding really fast, and I forgot to stop pedaling and on the inside, when the pedal finishes it cycle the pedal on the low if you're leaning enough, will hit the ground. At that point, the bike stops moving forward. You, however, do not until you meet the ground, which a long time ago, wasn't moving forward and so in about 5 feet, I slid to a stop, and I was done moving. So that's what happened to me. I was wearing a helmet at the time. It was completely irrelevant for my crash. Didn't get scraped at all, did not protect me in the least. I landed right here on my cheek bone and on my ribs. So that's what happened to me. Someone said I should make some analogy with spiritual warfare. That's the closest I can come. There was nothing spiritual about it, it was purely physical, and it hurt a lot.

Protecting the Head Means Protecting the Mind

But the helmet represents a protection for the most important part of the body. The head, the mind. While I was sitting in the pew this morning, I was thinking a beautiful thought. I never had it before, right before I came up here. Isn't it marvelous that we have a helmet of salvation? What it means is we will live through all of this. Satan can't kill us. Isn't it just as beautiful that Satan had no such helmet and his head was crushed by Jesus at the cross. Isn't that beautiful? We have the helmet! Satan doesn't. He will die, he will be thrown in the Lake of Fire, he will be killed forever and ever by Christ and that's a beautiful thing. Remember how it says in Genesis 3, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers. He, the woman's seed, Jesus, will crush your head and you will strike his heel." So we in Christ cannot have our head crushed. So that's a simple way of understanding the human salvation. We cannot die, none of these fights are going to kill us. We can be damaged, we can be wounded, we can be hurt, we can have less fruit to show on Judgment Day. There's genuine hurt that can be done to us. We can suffer in ways we wouldn't have to if we didn't sin as we do in spiritual warfare, but Satan can't kill us. But Christ will kill him. And I think to me that's a marvelous thing. 

A Battle for the Mind

So this, I think, each of these kind of spiritual elements links to some part of the body in some way that's appropriate. The helmet of salvation, protects not just the head but what the head does, the mind, the thinking process. And so we have to be very aware of how important our thoughts are. Fundamentally, if you just keep it simple as you think, so you will live. If you're living wrongly you were thinking wrongly. And so, the helmet of salvation has to do with your thought process. The essence of Satan's attacks is his ability, mysteriously, to insinuate thoughts into your head. He has that power to do. We talked about Joseph's dreams, how the angel put information in Joseph's mind by his dreams about Mary and her virginity, and the baby and he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and then that he should flee to Egypt. And now, he should come back, an angel spoke those things to Joseph in a dream. Well, demons are just evil angels. They have the same ability, they can speak into our hearts and minds. They cannot flip the switch, pull the trigger on the decision that's something we have to make. But they can insinuate thoughts, dark thoughts. Temptations, accusations, depressions, those kinds of things. 

Remember, if you look back at Ephesians 4:17-18, there, Paul talks about the thinking process of the Christian. He says there in 4:17, "So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do,” listen “in the futility of their thinking. They're darkened in their understanding, and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them due to the hardening of their hearts." Thus, four different words about their thoughts. They think darkly that's why they live, darkly. But you Christians you're different. Now we're going to think like Christ, we're going to think thoughts of light and purity and truth whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Those things, that's what we're going to think about. 

The Hope of Salvation

Now there's an additional nuance in the helmet, given us from 1 Thessalonians 5:8, there the Apostle Paul says, "But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith in love as a breastplate,” listen “and the hope of salvation, as a helmet." The hope of salvation as a helmet. Paul then goes on, in that same passage to say "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath [in the future] but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." So this idea that I think is very helpful. The helmet of salvation could be seen, especially as hope of salvation, hope of salvation. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, hope fundamentally is a conviction, a sense that the future is bright, based on the promises of God. And especially, hope of salvation is my future salvation is guaranteed, because of the blood of Jesus, and that hope is a powerful thing in this spiritual warfare. We're filled with hope, it's a beautiful thing. 

Now Satan, I believe, is actively engaged all the time on the Christians, to get us to be hopeless or another word for hopeless would be depressed, discouraged, down, sad, different levels of it, but Satan really wants to minister hopelessness to you. Depression. You know what I'm talking about, all of you struggle with it to certain degrees, spiritual depression. Now, if you wonder like, "How do I know when I'm in a battle, how do I know when I'm in spiritual warfare?" Well just assume every day, but especially when you see depression, or despair, coming on you, guaranteed it's Satanic. I'm not saying there's no physiological sides or even your own thoughts. They're involved. But you're under satanic attack. Same thing with anxiety or lust or covetousness, different things you just know Satan's working these things. That's how you can know. 

Now, why does Satan seek to minister hopelessness to us despair? Well, I've been over this before, but it's so helpful to know this. The reason is it's the only possible way he can win. If the people of God take Paul's command to heart, and if we stand up on our spiritual feet, and we put on this full armor of God, and we take up the weapon of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit in our hand, and we, with the Gospel footwear, march forward and if we swing this sword of the Gospel, he's going to lose. He cannot penetrate our breastplate of righteousness. He cannot penetrate the shield of faith, he cannot pierce the helmet, and he can't stop the sword. Well, what's he going to do? He's going to lie to you. He's going to whisper depression in your ears. Tell you, "Just give up. What's the point in fighting for holiness? You're just going to sin anyway, eventually. What's the point in sharing the Gospel? They're not going to believe it. What's the point in going as a missionary? We're not going to be able to plant churches." Depression, discouragement, lies, and so, you lay down listless, lifeless, weak and weary, and do nothing to threaten him. That's his strategy and it's very effective.

Hope is Powerful in Spiritual Warfare

So the alternative here is hope, and hope is a powerful thing. We have a feeling, a sense in our hearts, that we are going to win. We're going to be victorious in the end. I've often thought of it like a buoyant cork. I got that image from John Piper's biography of William Wilberforce, who fought slavery for 27 years. And how depressing that must have been. Setback after setback after setback, entrenched economic forces fighting him. He never gave up. And one of his enemies said, "You have to watch him because it seems like the harder you strike him, the more buoyant he gets, he's a dangerous guy." I want to be that kind of a dangerous warrior. The more we get struck the more buoyant we get. We're like a big chunk of cork, and you just can't keep us down, because we just know we're going to win, we're going to be saved in the end. There's nothing that can stop it. So just tell yourself what is true. You say, "How do I put on the helmet of salvation?" Tell yourself again and again, what's true of you and of the future, specifically what's true of the future. "Who hopes for what he already has" Romans 8 says. We're talking about things we don't have yet.

How to Put on the Helmet of Salvation

So look ahead. So when it comes to the future in this life, for the rest of my life, I will, number one, be most certainly protected and shielded by the power of God, the rest of my life. Secondly, God will therefore not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can bear, but he will filter every temptation the rest of my life. So I can bear up under all of them and he will provide with every one of them a way of escape, so I never need to sin again, ever. Thirdly, in the future, I know going forward Christ will never leave me, and he will never forsake me. Fourthly, all of the physical and emotional afflictions, and trials that will most certainly come into my life are meant for good for me by my Heavenly Father. He is meaning to prepare me for Heaven and he will use those trials and afflictions to do it. Fifthly, I know that if I do sin, God will lovingly discipline me and chastise me so I learn to hate sin the way he does. But he will also forgive my sins, because sixthly Christ is at the right hand of God and is interceding for me so I know my faith is never going to fail. Not because I'm such a great believer or so tenacious in my faith, but because Jesus is praying to the Gather, that my faith won't fail. So seventh I know that nothing in the present world or in the world to come will separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, my Lord. Nothing. And eighth, I know that when I die, I will still be in the faith, I'll still be in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, loving Jesus. I just know it, there's no doubt in my mind about it. And I know that ninth when I become absent from the body, I will immediately be in the presence of the Lord. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” That will happen if the Lord doesn't return in my lifetime. And I know that 10th on Judgment Day, I will not receive wrath, but I'll receive salvation. I will be welcomed into my Heavenly home and not sent to Hell like I deserve. And so 11th, all of my sins will be totally covered by the grace of God, and the blood of Christ, all of them. And 12th, I will receive, at the right time, a resurrection body that will be radiantly shining like the sun, and I'll be in that resurrection body forever I cannot die and I feel any death, or mourning, or crying, or pain there will be no bike accidents in Heaven, none. Thirteenth, all of the elect, the things I've been saying about me are true of all of the elect. And that means that a multitude greater than any one could count will be there from every tribe, language, people, and nation. So that means missions is going to work in their case. Absolutely guaranteed. And I will spend eternity, fourteenth, looking at the face of Christ forever and ever as he sits on his Father's throne. Now, those ideas fill me with hope. It fills me with hope. That's how you put the helmet of salvation on. Think about your future, put on the helmet of salvation. 

A Powerful History of Famous Swords in Literature

Finally, the sword of the Spirit. Look at verse 17 again, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Now, there's such a powerful history of famous swords and literature, like I think about Excalibur, the sword that King Arthur drew out of the store, the sword in the stone. There are different legends and different stories, but sometimes it's Excalibur, sometimes that sword came out of a lake. It's just different things, but there's that. Lord of the Rings in literature has lots of named swords like the hobbit sword was “Sting” and they killed spiders with it or orcs. And “Glamdring” was Gandalf's sword, and the most famous named sword in The Lord of the Rings was “Anduril” and that belonged to Aragorn. That was the sword that was broken, and it was re-forged and that gave him the right to rule. Probably one of my favorite martial arts movies is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Some of you may have seen it. And the special sword and that one was the “Green Destiny.” It looked like a piece of Jade. I thought it wouldn't stand up well on the battlefield, but no it was a special magical powerful sword, the Green Destiny. And the thing with the Green Destiny, that I thought was really cool, it could slice right through bars of iron, they were butter. I was like, "Wow." You better not come up against the Green Destiny if you're holding a sword like that, it's going to slice right through it. Powerful. By the way, hold on to that image for later, we'll come back to it. 

Then, of course in Pilgrim's Progress, we've got this courageous warrior, this man named Valiant for Truth. And Valiant for Truth was a man who had long wielded the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, to win battles for the Lord. And in the allegory, part two probably it's part two, the time had come for Valiant for Truth to die. He receives a summons from the King, the time has come. He is going to die, so he calls all of his friends to stand around him and basically, it reads at that point, like a bit like a last will and testament. That's what he says, "I am going to my Father's. And though with great difficulty, I have got hither, I do not repent me of all the troubles I have been at to arrive where I am.” I don't regret this hard journey I've had. Now, listen to this, "My sword I give to"him that shall follow me in my pilgrimage." That's all of us. Here's the sword. "And my courage and skill to him that can get it." Wow. Can you get his courage? Can you have his boldness with the sword of the Spirit? And his skill? Can you learn how to wield the sword of the Spirit, skillfully? We're going to talk about that in the moment. "My marks and my scars", he said, "I carry with me as a witness for me that I have fought his battles, who will be my rewarder." It's very powerful. And then, he crosses over the river and goes. So that's an image for me. I follow him in his pilgrimage. There's the sword waiting for me to pick it up and to wield it now. And it's your turn too, this is your time now. It's your time in the arena, it's your time to pick up the sword and fight. There'll be no fighting in Heaven, praise God, no fighting, no chance for valor in Heaven, no chance for boldness in Heaven, no wounds in Heaven, no pain, no suffering, no valor in Heaven. Just memories of valor, stories of valor. Now is the time for us to weave those stories of valor. This is our time to be warriors for Jesus. 

The Word of God as a Sword

Now, the sword of the Spirit in the text is called the word of God. Alright? The scripture, the word of God, this is the powerful weapon. Why is it called a sword? Well, it's called a sword because it's able to, I think, block and cut through all of Satan's lies. What sword does Satan have in his hand? It's a sword of lies. It's very effective against unarmed opposition. But it will never win against the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. So sword battles I think you picture the clang of sword on sword. Right? Metal on metal. As your enemy swings as sore, he seeks to bring that sword down upon you to wound you or kill you. Well, you learn defense, you learn swordsmanship, how to move your feet, how to block how to move and get in and attack. There's a whole skill to it, of fencing. So, the sword is both an excellent defensive weapon and an excellent offensive weapon. Both. And we need to think of it that way. Not just the one or the other. So, to wield it, you have to know your sword, and you have to learn to wield it properly. You have to grow in your understanding of Biblical doctrine, line upon line, chapter upon chapter book upon book, get to know your sword. You have to be able to refute Satan's false arguments with specific clear texts of scripture. This is the sword of the Spirit, wielded in defense. I'm going to talk more about that in a moment. 

Secondly, this is a powerful offensive weapon for destroying Satan's empire, this sword of the Spirit. Many commentators have made it plain the sword is the only offensive weapon in this whole arsenal. Friends, it's enough, it's good enough. What a powerful weapon it is. Satan's kingdom, if you can picture it this way is made up of souls who are in some sense in chains by Satan's lies. Their minds, their hearts, their souls are chained. They're in dungeons, they need to be delivered, they cannot rescue themselves. So, chains of wickedness, chains of lies, chains of sins, chains of fear of death, chains of false religion, or false philosophies, they're enchained. We, under the power of God, we are their deliverer. We are their rescuers and what we have in our hand to deliver them from these invisible chains is the sword of the Spirit, so it's an offensive weapon. And like that Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, like the Green destiny, even better than that. This has the power to just slice through chains that are holding God's elect in Satan's dark kingdom and set them free. That's evangelism. Your wielding scripture. But it's vital that your sword be hard and sharp. We'll talk about that in a moment. 

Why is it Called the Sword of the Spirit?

Why is it called the sword of the Spirit? Well, it's called the sword of the Spirit, because the Spirit gave it to us. The Spirit inspired every word in here. 2 Peter Chapter 1 says, "No temptation of Scripture ever came about by the prophets’ own interpretation for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's the doctrine of inspiration. Every word in every book of the Bible is inspired. All scriptures God breathed, breathed out by the Spirit. So that means no human author of Scripture ever took it upon himself to write scripture that day. "Oh, it's a good day, on Tuesday afternoon to write scripture." No one did that. Moses didn't do that. Samuel didn't do it. David didn't do it. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, none of them did it. Not Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John, or Peter or Paul, or James, none of the authors of scripture ever took it on themselves in their own initiative to write scripture. Rather the Spirit came upon them and navigated them using their minds, and their hearts, and their circumstances to write true words of God and give them to the human race. That's where we get this sword of the Spirit. So it's also called the sword of the Spirit because he's able to illuminate what's already written. There are no more books of the Bible, coming. It's complete, it's done, it's finished. Now we have the working of the Spirit to take what's already been written and illuminate it to our minds. It in John 16, "The Spirit of truth will come and he will guide you into all truth." And he also enables you to weld it, he can bring forth to your mind at key moments, the right scriptures that you've learned before. And Jesus said that also in John 14, "He will bring to you remembrance the things that I've said to you.” And so the Spirit is the active with the Word of God, it's the sword of the Spirit. 

Christ as Role Model in this Swordsmanship

Now, Jesus is by far the best role model of swordsmanship that you'll ever find. I mean, Jesus was the perfect wielder of the sword of the Spirit. There are so many examples I could give to you again and again, Jesus turned to scripture, turned to scripture, turned to scripture. But I think, for our purposes, the best way is to look at Jesus' use of scripture when he was being tempted. He was out in the desert, the Spirit led him into the desert to be tempted by the Devil, and He was there for 40 days. And he fasted, he ate no bread, drank no water, he's in the desert and the tempter came to him and the tempter said, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." And so, he blocked Satan's temptation with the specific word of scripture from the Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6. It's powerful. And he also said at that point, Satan leads Him to the highest point of the temple, and it has them stand up in the pinnacle of the temple, "If you're the Son of God he said, throw yourself down from here." Then he quoted scripture. Oh, Satan can do that. He knows the Bible far better than any of us ever will. For it is written, “He will command His angels concerning you and they'll lift you up in their hands so that you'll not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus said, "It is also written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test", also from Deuteronomy. Once more the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. "All this has been given to me." Satan said, “and I can give it to anyone I want to. So it would all or if you'll just bow down and worship me." And Jesus said, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written worship the Lord your God and serve him only." 

Now, Jesus teaches us swordsmanship there. He could have pulled rank. He said, "I'm the Son of God. You can't tempt me." That would have been effective, but instead he teaches us how to fight Satan's temptations, by means of the Word of God. And in every case, he chooses exactly the right doctrine, and scripture to block Satan's attacks. Those scriptures are all God-centered. Basically in effect in the first one, he said, "I will eat, when God tells me to eat and not before. What's more important to me than bread is doing the will of My God and Father. That's the most important thing to me." The same thing with the pinnacle of the temple, "I will throw myself down from the temple, when God tells me to do it, and at that point if He wants to send His angels He can do it, but God has given me no such command, and I will not put the Lord to the test." And then the third one, "No for all the universe, I will not worship anyone but God. Worship him only.” See, he taught us how to be God-centered and how to know the scripture and how to wield it and fight Satan at every moment. He is a model of swordsmanship. 

Characteristics of the Sword

So what is this sword like? Well, I gave you a bunch of adjectives. I had a lot of fun with that. So 10 adjectives that are sword like. Oh they're plenty of other adjectives I could have used for the word of God, but I just pulled out sword like adjectives. Now let's go through them quickly. What kind of word, is it? Our word, the sword is perfect, it's perfect. Psalm 12:6 says, "The words of the Lord are flawless," listen to this, "like silver refined seven times in a furnace of clay." There's the picture of metallurgy, perfectly pure silver. Or you could think about the katana, the samurai, the blacksmiths back then, just perfectly folded. One layer upon. Now our word is an absolute perfect thing with no mixture of error at all, it's a perfect word. Secondly, it is powerful, it is a powerful thing, it achieves and accomplishes that purpose for which it is sent. That's Isaiah 55. And listen to this, Psalm 29:4-9, "The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert. The Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord, twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory.’"  It's powerful. Thirdly, it's hard. This is a hard sword but the best verse for that, how about this, John 10:35, Jesus said, "Scripture cannot be broken." Wow. That's powerful. Scripture cannot be broken. So, hand to hand combat, sword to sword clash. If either sword's going to break, it's not going to be the word of God, it's going to be Satan's lies that'll go shattered to the ground. Fourthly, it's unchanging. Luke 16:17, "Jesus said, 'It is easier for heaven and earth disappear than the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.'" It's still here. It'll be with us in a thousand years that the Lord doesn't return. Which I think He will within a 1000 years or less. Fifth, it is sharp and double-edged. We already saw that in Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." This is a powerful sharp sword. 

Do you remember on the day of Pentecost when Peter went out and preached the Gospel, and thousands were listening to him preach, and he was very bold and very clear about how Christ died for sins. And he was raised on the third day, and that through him, repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached. When the people of Jerusalem heard this, it says they were cut to the heart, pierced, and said, "Brothers what shall we do?" It gave them a heart wound that they needed. It was able to cut out the tumor of sin. And say, "What do I have to do to be saved?" The word of God has that effect. It is eternal. Jesus said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away," in the New Heaven, and New Earth will still have the word of God. It is bright. So, you know in the Lord of the Rings, whenever the Orcs are nearby, the sword shines and glows. Well, can I just tell you the demons are always around. This sword's always shining. "It is shining as a light in a dark place," it says in 2 Peter. This is a dark place. The word of God is a bright, radiant, shining blade. It is fiery. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't know, but this is what Jeremiah says. Jeremiah 23:29, "Is not my word like fire? And like a hammer that breaks rocks and pieces?” It's a fiery, powerful thing. And it is deadly to the enemies of God.

When I was writing my commentary in Isaiah, Isaiah 27:1, listen to this verse, this is a powerful verse, "In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent. Leviathan the coiling serpent, he will punish the monster of the deep." I couldn't read that except thinking about how Jesus, with the sword that's coming out of his mouth, will slay Satan and all of his enemies. It deals death to the enemies of God. He will overcome the antichrist with the breath of his mouth, and slay him with the sword coming out of his mouth. And finally, it is living and active. It is living and active, what does that mean? Well, I can say some scripture to you, and it will stick with you a long time. It has an activity to it. Like the flaming arrow has a destructive activity sticks in you and burns long after the initial wound. This has a healing, living activity, it's very powerful.

I heard a story back in the Puritan era, where a man heard a very powerful, as a young man, heard a very powerful, convicting Gospel message, but he hardened his heart and wouldn't listen. Decades later, when he was in his 80s, that Puritan pastor long since gone on to be with the Lord, that man was still in an unconverted state, he was sitting under a tree, looking up, feeling awful about his life, feeling guilty, feeling that his death was near, didn't know what to do. Remembered the sermon he heard 60 years before that, was convicted and brought to faith in Christ, 60 years later. Couldn't shake it, it didn't stop working on him. So, when I'm witnessing to people on the plane, I say, "I'm going to pray that God will bring to your memory tonight the things we've talked about, especially the scriptures. And that you will be unable to sleep." I've said that to people I've been witnessing to. I never know if it's ever happened. They never called and say, "Hey, that very thing happened. I couldn't sleep," but I'm trusting that at least some of the times I've said that, it's occurred. And they can't shake it and that they are brought to faith in Christ.

Practical Aspects of Wielding the Sword of the Spirit

Now, a couple of more words and we'll be done. How do we learn to wield this skillfully? Well, you have to learn the word of God. You have to get specific about what's in scripture. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said this, "Christians tend to be vague, generalistic, unable to cite chapter and verse about the Bible. They say things like this, "I think there's something in the Bible about holiness, or something in the Bible about materialism, or something. I know it's in there somewhere." Friends, that's not going to do it in the day of battle. You need to learn what's in the word of God, you need to learn. When we do ordination councils, the elders do, we bring in these students that want to be ordained. And we ask them many questions. They expected that. What they didn't expect was that they would have to root right doctrines in the best scriptures to support them, chapter and verse. Wow. Well, I say it this way: Look, do you want a surgeon who knows generally where your pancreas is? “I think that's probably your liver, but I'm not 100% sure," it's like, "Do not touch me." But very soon after they're in ministry, some people struggling with sin, are going to say, "What are the best scriptures for me for fighting lust?” “My marriage is struggling. What should I do?" Well, I think the Bible says some things about marriage." That's just not going to cut it. "How can I best refute the temptations I'm feeling toward anxiety over money? Do you have any verses on that? Do you know where they are? Do you know what they are?" So, fighting specific temptations. 

Scripture Memory

I remember when I was a young man, just out of MIT, I've been a Christian, three or four years. I remember I was in an office and I wanted to be pure. I wanted pure eyes. I wanted to be pure in my heart. And there were opportunities for visual temptations in the office, based on what people were wearing, and I remember memorizing Psalm 141, verses 8:10, "But my eyes are fixed on you, oh, Sovereign Lord. And you, I take refuge. Do not give me over to death. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evil doers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets while I pass by in safety." So just guard my eyes, oh, Lord, to look at only those things that are pure. How about temptations? Struggling with temptations, how do you resist them? A temptation toward depression and discouragement. How about Psalm 42:5-6, "Why are you downcast, oh, my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise my savior and my God." What about anxiety? How about Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How about accusations? Romans 8, "Who will lay any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died more than that is at the right hand of God, is interceding," or, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful, and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," 1 John 1:9. So, I would commend memorization of scripture to you. Hugely beneficial. Out in the North Tower Resource Center, we got from Bethlehem Baptist packets of scripture verses that they call “fighter verses,” it's coming right from this Ephesians 6 image. Those are topical verses that you can use to learn specific ways to fight certain temptations. I think it's a good combination between that and memorizing whole books of the Bible for a general knowledge of all that Scripture says. So, this is the way you can wield the sword. 

One final word and then we'll go to the Lord's supper. You need to learn how to wield the sword both in the internal journey and the external. Internally, you have to block all of these things that I've been talking about. Satan's temptations, accusations, false doctrines. So, that you can grow in holiness. But externally, don't you want to set some prisoners free? They're in their chains, they can't get out. Think of what Charles Wesley did in, “And Can It Be”. How he wrote, "Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray," who's the thine? It's Jesus. But he does it through messengers. He does it through evangelists that go into the dungeon and say, "Let me sit with you and talk to you about truth." And you wield that sword better than the Green Destiny and the chains just get sliced and fall from their wrists and their ankles. "My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee." Alright. Close with me in prayer then we'll go to a Lord's supper. 

Father, we thank you for the power of the Gospel. We thank you for all that it teaches us in the way it instructs us. And thank you, oh Lord, for the way we're told to fight, to put on the helmet of salvation and to wield the sword of the Spirit. And now, as we go to a time for the Lord's supper and for the ordinance, I pray that you would take the words that I've just preached, and press them into our hearts so that we are ready to fight for purity and for souls. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Amen. Well, one of the greatest advantages in a battle is the ability to strike your enemy without him ever knowing that you were there, to be able to slip in at night through his defenses, to silently carry on covert operations to achieve your mission with silent, invisible, deadly precision, by stealth. That has always been a dream of warriors everywhere. The element of surprise, the element of stealth.

When my wife and I were missionaries in Japan, we had the opportunity to visit these spectacular ancient castles. You've perhaps seen pictures of them in various places. There are hundreds of them all over Japan, but we saw ones in Kitakyushu, we saw ones in Osaka, in Kobe. These impressive castles, built over 500 centuries ago, with steep sloping rock walls with their huge boulders, fitted together with amazing precision. Towering hundreds and hundreds of feet above the city, and we learned about a special class of warriors called the Shinobi Warriors, who are specially trained to scale those walls at night by stealth. And silently, secretly enter those castles while everyone slept, or to evade the sentries, slip in through windows. They study the arts of self. Techniques of silence in everything they did, these Shinobi Warriors, more commonly called, “ninja.” And these ninja warriors have a special skill at stealth. 

I've been thinking about ninja. I don't want to be a ninja. Some of you would say, "I wish I could be a ninja. I'd love to be a ninja." But I want to have an image in your mind, if you would, just to think in your mind's eye. I want to take another image from antiquity and image given us by the author, John Bunyan, his famous work, The Holy War, in which he pictured the human soul like a walled city, or a fortress. And I want you to picture yourself, your soul, like that, but I also want you to picture the walls of your castle as though they are being scaled continually by these black, covered ninja warriors, wearing these special black suits, and black hoods, and with their faces sooted up with black soot. Slipping in, if they can, into your life. Slipping in through the cracks of your defenses into your minds to do you devastating damage.

Most Christians, as I've said for weeks now, are unaware of spiritual warfare moment by moment. We don't tend to think about it. We don't tend to think about the devil and his angels. And it seems like this text, this scripture is given to wake us up in the night. Imagine if those ninja were going up the walls and suddenly the whole area was flooded with light. A thousand, 10,000 torches suddenly lit. They'd be completely exposed and they would be helpless, unable to finish their dark mission. I want to shed the light of the word of God on what Satan is trying to do in your life, what he's trying to do in your soul, by means of these sermons. So, we are at war and we need to know that. Look again at verses 10 through 13. It says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you've done everything, to stand."

Review: Spiritual Warfare

So, fundamental to understanding this warfare is for us to understand our enemy. We've been talking for several weeks about Satan, the devil and his angels. Satan rules an organized dark empire with spiritual beings under him, fallen angels, spiritual beings called in this text, “rulers, authorities, powers of this present darkness.” Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Those are the names that Paul gives them. These words are plural, so they're multi-faceted, they're different created beings who do this damage to us. They're intelligent, they're organized, they're unspeakably wicked. They're hateful, murderous, treacherous, they hate all humanity, generally. Because all human beings are created in the image of God and they hate God. But they especially hate Christians. And the devil and his angels, the demons, constantly assault Christians all over the world with invisible weapons. Pulling us away from righteousness, away from holiness and towards sin all the time. These invisible powerful assaults are called temptations, or accusations, or doubts, that assault our souls, they're invisible. And Paul calls on us Christians to fight, to stand firm and fight. Ultimately, the power for success in this kind of warfare comes, not from us but from God, Almighty God, through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our strength comes from. Because the devil's intellect soars vastly above ours. 

The devil's intelligence, his experience far greater than ours. He's been tempting people in every generation for millennia. People far more difficult to cause to sin than any of us. He has tremendous experiences. Power for us as far as we're concerned, is immeasurable. Really have no idea how powerful he is. Vastly greater than our power. His memory and record keeping about our tendencies is impeccable. Knows our weaknesses, knows what will work against us. He is relentless. He left our Lord. When he tempted him, he left him until an opportune time. Don't know when that is but he's coming back, never leaves for long. And his goal is to destroy your soul. I don't know if he believes in the eternal security of the believer or not, but he'd like to pull you down to Hell, if he could. He would also like to destroy the fruitfulness of your life here on earth. He'd like to destroy your good works. We are his workmanship, God's workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance, that we should walk in them.” He wants to be sure you do none of them on any given day, none of the good works that God's prepared for you to do. He hates the fruit of the Spirit, he does not want you characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. That's the goal.

God alone has the power to defeat him. You do not have that power and God will defeat him, and he will defeat him through us. We're told in James 4:7, "Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Well, what could make the devil flee? I know what makes him flee, terror. And not terror of you or me. He's afraid of God. And he should be. But we, in this text, we have a vital responsibility. We're told that there are things we must do to be successful in this fight. God has left some things to us to do. God calls on us to prepare to fight, to stand firm in the fight, to be strong in the Lord, in his mighty power, the power of his might. If we do that, we will win. We will be victorious. But if we give way, we will live defeated lives. And honestly, many of you are living defeated lives spiritually, already. So, we have a responsibility here. Even though the power for victory is from God, not from us. 

The Spiritual Armor

Today, we're going to look more at what it means to stand firm in this battle. We're going to talk more specifically, as we look at the footwear of the Christian soldier. And we're going to talk about the shield of faith, as well. We're going to talk about what it means to lift up the shield of faith. This brings us, again, for the second week in detail to the topic of the whole armor of God. The spiritual armor that God has crafted for us. We have this responsibility, this whole armor of God, we could think of it as the whole armor from God. It's armor that God has crafted. It's nothing we could make but it's something that he has made. And we have a responsibility here to put it on. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to put on these elements? 

I think what it means is to be mindful of doctrinal aspects of our salvation. That the words like “breastplate of righteousness, or belt of truth, or feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.” We're going to talk about that. That these specific words call up doctrinal concepts that are related to our salvation. That we're to think about those aspects of our salvation, and do so with prayer, with a sense of dependence on God as we look upward. We're meditating on concepts, and we're lifting ourselves upward in prayer. How often do we have to do this? Once a day in the morning? No, that's not enough. There's a sense of continual need to come back to these, to know that we are constantly assaulted. And so, for us to go again to these elements is beneficial. So, whenever the evil day comes, whenever it might be that we're assaulted, we have to do this. That's what I think it means. Now, last week, we looked at two elements. The belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. This morning, God willing, we'll look at the footwear of the Gospel of peace, and the shield of faith. God willing, next week we'll finish looking at the elements of the full armor of God, namely the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 

Quick Review of Last Week

Now, last week, we talked about the belt of truth, we talked about how soldiers back then wore tunics that were long and flowing, in order to get ready for action. They had to gather these garments around themselves, and belt them close to themselves with a belt. Paul identifies this belt as the belt of truth, we're girded up around with truth. I said there's overlap in each of the elements of the full armor of God. Honestly, as we're going to get to it later, it's hard to make a distinction between the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit in its defensive posture. Swords block attacks by Satan. And so, there's going to be a tremendous overlap there, and I think there's overlap between, let's say, the sword of the Spirit and the belt of truth. But I think that we could helpfully look at it this way. It's the belt of the overarching truth of God as revealed in the Bible. The fact that the Bible is truth, God's word is truth. And especially, as it testifies to Jesus. So, the idea of unshakable, immutable truth, heaven and Earth will pass away, but God's word will never pass away. And how vital that is for us who live in a postmodern age, questioning metaphysical truths, think that there's no way we can know. To be strong and draw into our inner being the concept of truth because Satan's whole attack is an attack of lies.

That was last week, belt of truth. We also talked about the breastplate of righteousness, that radiant, shining beautiful piece of armor polished to a shine. A sense of the beauty of it, and how it goes on here and protects your vital organs. And it's strapped on and Paul uses the word righteousness, breastplate of righteousness, and how we dispense with any concept that that's your own righteousness. Satan would laugh at that. If you were to put that on and stand against him, you would shred it in an instant. But instead, it's a perfect righteousness, he can't shred. He tried. It's Christ's righteousness. One by momentary obedience of the Son to the Father. Moment by moment, for years and years, a perfect life lived under the Law of God. That's the righteousness of Christ. "I always do what pleases him," said Jesus. How beautiful is that? And then he has one for us, this imputed righteousness, and given it to us by faith and we just put it on.

You know what's beautiful about that? If you're a Christian in one sense, you don't have to put on the breastplate of righteousness, it's never moving. Satan can't kill you. How frustrating is that for Satan? I'm glad he's frustrated. He can't kill you. However, there's still an obligation, put on the breastplate of righteousness. So, it really matters that you know that you're perfectly righteous in Christ, it's very important. And not just so that you know it, but remember how I said that that's on your internal organs, your heart and your intestines, your gut. You need to feel that you're righteous. You need to have that assurance of salvation because it's so vulnerable, we're so vulnerable there. That was last week. If I'm not careful, I'm just going to preach last week's sermon, which I would love to do, but there are more elements that we need to look at. Let's look at two more elements now and let's start with the footwear of the Gospel. 

Verses 14-15, "Stand firm, then, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace." Now, I want to give you right away when it comes to footwear, two of lasting images here. One of standing firm and the other is making advance. And I'm going to say you need good traction for both of those. So, to some degree, we stand firm and we advance. Both of those things are going on, and I don't think it's actually that difficult for us to picture that. We need stability, so that we can move ahead, we need a good grip on the earth. A good grip under us, so that we can actually make the progress that we need to make. We are marching forward with strong stable feet to both stand in advance. Remember that we're always talking about these two infinite journeys and we will continue to keep them in front of us, because we're left on earth to make progress and these journeys. Having come to faith in Christ we are here for the purpose of glorifying God by making progress in the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of Gospel advance to lost people. That's why we're left here. Not one or the other. We're not preferring one over the other. Both of them are vital and interconnected.

Holiness: Standing Firm is the Vital Issue

Now, let's talk first about the aspect of holiness, standing firm in holiness. Standing firm is the vital issue. Falling, slipping, and falling, then, as a metaphor for defeat, spiritual defeat. It's for sin. We slip and fall. So, the Bible uses this image frequently. First Corinthians 10:12 says, "So, if you think you're standing firm, take heed," lest you what? Fall. So, there's a sense of standing versus falling. Falling then refers to sin. To stand firm then in the day of testing means to overcome all that Satan does to you. The onslaught that he does to get you to fall. And then when all of that's done, you're still standing in righteousness, in Christ. That's the image here. Footwear is essential for that. 

Footwear is Essential in Hand to Hand Combat

Now, footwear was especially essential in ancient warfare. In our day and age, not so much. What do I mean by that? Well, the most powerful weapons that are available to the worldwide military right now are launched by the pushing of a button. Like ICBMs, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles are launched by the pushing of a button, I guess the punching of codes and pushing. I don't think it much matters what your footwear is when you push those buttons, or you think about cruise missiles, or some of these drones. They're controlled with a joystick. I think if you're good at computer games, you could be an amazing warrior these days. You could be barefoot, you could be in sandals and you could do amazing damage. But back in Paul's day, it was not so.

Back in Paul's day, war was a brutal face-to-face affair. It was a brutal thing in which foot soldiers in an army were the most powerful force in that army, by far, actually. And battle is consistent, immense hand-to-hand struggles. Shield walls where soldiers are standing side, by side, by side, by side, by side with shields, and they're pushing against other shield walls. And there's a grunting and pushing like an NFL line of scrimmage. And then, once all that broke down, there was just simple hand-to-hand combat, you and your enemy. And for that kind of warfare, stability is everything. Honestly, if you're in hand-to-hand combat, each of you having a shield and a sword in hand, and you're pushing, and slashing, and stabbing at each other, if one of you slips and falls, and is down on the ground, they're almost certain to be instantly killed. You're completely vulnerable at that point, so you need that stability, and for that you had to have reliable footwear. 

Now, these days, we have an astonishing variety of footwear for an amazing amazingly wide array of situations. Dress shoes, work shoes, leisure shoes. When I went on a mission trip to Nepal, we were supposed to be trekking. We went trekking through the Himalayan Mountains, and I bought some really expensive hiking boots. Do you want to hear a funny story? We got to this one rock slide, and all of these rocks had slid down and it was covered with fine mud, and for some reason someone said that we should take off our boots in order to cross. It was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made on the mission field. I'll never forget, I still to this day don't know why I took off my expensive boots, I paid $125 for those boots for such a time as that. And there they were around my neck as I went across this jagged river of rocks that cut my feet something fierce. Got to the other side, put my boots back on. What was I thinking? Someone tell me afterwards what I was thinking, because I still don't know. I never needed them the rest of the mission trip like I needed them that moment. Was I afraid they were going to get dirty? I don't have any idea what I was thinking. But I needed good footwear. A soldier's footwear, it's more important even than an athlete's.

Think about all the money that Nike and Reebok and others put into developing their shoes for playing basketball or cleats for baseball or soccer. Think of all of that. Listen, a soldier's need for good footwear is far greater than any athlete's. Soldiers' feet have to carry them over rugged terrain like we were on that mission trip, burning sands, just different terrain or even just hot asphalt, and the soldiers' feet need protection. If they become blistered or cut or wounded in some way, they're not going to be able to fight as well, or even be able to stand up. Think about pictures of Valley Forge, where Washington's army marched with the inadequate footwear and there's just a trail of blood in the snow from the soldiers' feet. 

A Roman Soldier’s Footwear

Now a Roman soldier's footwear looked at the top like sandals, but they were really essentially like boots that were strapped up. They had a tough flexible leather base with studs of metal, nails, different things, and the footwear enabled the soldier to have two things. I want you to focus on these words, stability and mobility, both of those things, stability and mobility. Many of the barbarian armies that the Romans fought did not have good footwear, and frankly, if they had the Romans shoes were studded with metal and they're fighting barefoot enemies, they could have won by stomping to some degree, stomping right on their feet. And actually this gives an image of spiritual victory, frankly. I love this verse, listen to this, Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Isn't that powerful? How does he do that? Well, one way he does it is by Gospel advance. "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news." Isn't that a beautiful verse? So we're just crushing Satan by a steadfast marching of the Gospel advance. We'll get to more of that in a moment, but think of it this way. Joshua 10:24, after the defeat of I think seven Canaanite kings or there were three kings in particular, and he had the kings, the defeated Canaanite kings, lay down, and he had his commanders come and put their feet on the necks of those kings. Joshua 10:24 and he said, "In this way, God will crush all of your enemies under your feet." Well, Paul uses that image against Satan. 

Spiritual Analogy: Four Key Concepts

The Gospel of Peace

So I want to give you four key concepts from this verse. “Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace.” Four words we're going to look at. Gospel of peace, we're going to talk about that, preparation or readiness, I want to talk about that, and stability and mobility I've already given you, and I want to talk about that. So quickly, first, the Gospel of peace. Go to the end of that section, it says, "Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace." The shoes are in some way the preparation that comes from the Gospel of peace. We'll get to preparation in a minute, but let's concentrate on the phrase Gospel of peace. The Gospel is the message of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul says, in Romans 1:16. "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is powerful, it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." So the idea of the Gospel is, is that of tremendous power, but it's called here, the “Gospel of peace,” and I think what that does is it zeroes in specifically on the fact that the Gospel brings peace with God. How powerful is that, how sweet is that. The Gospel takes former enemies, as all of us were. We were at one point at war with God and that changes everything so that Romans 5:1, "Having been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." You know what that means? It means that God who was our enemy is now at peace with us and will be through all eternity. The Gospel of peace means that God is your ally, he is your friend, he is your father, he is your king. You are now on the side of peace. I think it's beautiful too, that the Christian warrior brings a trail of peace behind him or her. Isn't that beautiful? Unlike the Roman legions that brought nothing but destruction and tyranny and death, what we bring is we bring peace to people who believe the message.

So, first and foremost, you as a warrior, you need to know that God's at peace with you. That's beautiful, isn't it? And not only that there's a status of peace between us and God, but also we can actually experience peacefulness in the Christian life. We can feel peaceful. Because it says in Philippians 4:6-7, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." How powerful is that in the midst of spiritual warfare? How much does Satan want to make you anxious, make you afraid, make you filled with doubts, filled with fears. So often Satan's work produces fear. Fear. I will never forget. I was called on to go preach in India. This is the strongest encounter I ever had, I think, with a sense of demonic oppression. I've had multiple stories, I shared some with some of the guys earlier this week, but this one sticks out in my mind. I was called to preach to a large assembly in Pune, India, and when I got there, to the grounds that day, the thing, the revival meeting, whatever, or the preaching time was set for 7:30 that night. But when I got there to the grounds, I saw chairs set up like it was Woodstock or something, it was like 5000-7000 chairs with a huge stage, and with projection screens, and big speakers, big black boxes, and a big banner, and my name under the big banner. I was like, "Oh my goodness, you got the wrong guy," and fear started to well up inside me. And when I climbed up on the stage that afternoon and looked out at all the empty chairs, and I was like I wanted to run and hide, I was looking inward and I was like, "Do I have the resources to speak to such a huge crowd?" And all afternoon, the fear just built and built and built and built. 

Right around that time, it was the time of Diwali, which is a Hindu festival. They have a lot of festivals. But this is a big festival, lots of pagan worship going on in that city, and an ever escalating sense of fear inside my heart about preaching from Philippians 1-4, chapter 1 that night. And I'll never forget driving in that van to the grounds. It was about 6:45 and there were these big lights like it was a huge ball game, like it was the World Series or the Super Bowl or something like that. And just the fear was rising, and we came and I saw that they had filled all the seats and then some. I was thinking maybe just 100 people will show up, that'll be really good. We'll have a Bible study. The fear was in me. I really felt, I didn't say it, I think Jenny was with me and a couple from our church. I didn't say what was in my heart. I feel like I'm going to my own execution. And when I got in there, and they were spraying this fog to kill mosquitoes that carry Dengue fever. All of this. And this blue smoke just rose and hovered over the entire crowd, and I was like, demonic oppression, a cloud of demons. Almost wasn't far from the truth, but I guess I'd never realized how much they were focused on me right there and then to cause me to be afraid, just fear. And it reached a peak right before I went up to preach. And when I got up there and the translator was there, godly man, about 10 years older than me, he smiled at me and said, "Let's preach the word." Fear left. And I just preached Philippians chapter 1. It was gone. But that hovering feeling was a feeling of almost if I could see in the spiritual world, it was demonic oppression focused on fear.

How powerful would peace be at a moment like that, of knowing that God's at peace with me? I don't have to succeed, I just have to preach the word. Are you ever assaulted like that? Are you ever assaulted with fears and terrors and anxieties and no peace at all and restless and anxious? That's Satan's work. And isn't it beautiful to know that at times like that, God will fight for you, to know that not only is God at peace with you, but you actually, to some degree, don't have to do anything. All you have to do is stand firm and see the salvation that God works. How many times does that happen in the Old Testament? First, at the Red Sea crossing. You remember in Exodus 14, Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid." Satan's always going after fear, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. These Egyptians you see today, you'll never see them again. The Lord will fight for you, you need only to stand firm and to be still. That's all." Or again in the time of Jehoshaphat, when this overwhelming army came. 2 Chronicles 20, same message, "You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, oh Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." The same message, stand firm in peace and watch God fight. 

Preparation

Secondly, preparation. What does preparation mean? The preparation of the Gospel of peace. Well, been talking about it, but now we're going to zero on the word preparation. Get ready for war. That's what it means. Get ready. Are you ready to fight? That's what preparedness means. Are you ready to have a mortal enemy? Are you ready to have someone who's coming after you and will never stop until he kills you? Are you ready for that? Are you ready to fight today? Don't imagine you're ever going to have any days off in this battle, ever. Preparation. Preparedness. Get your heart ready to fight. I talked about soldiers sleeping with their boots on. What that meant is that they're ready instantly to get up and fight. Well, Paul would say don't sleep. Just be vigilant. I'm not saying he never says, you never go to... Alright, don't do that. You're going to quote me and say, "Pastor, you told us never to sleep," don't do that. Go to sleep, alright. “The Lord grants sleep to those he loves.” But the point is preparation. Even if you were to some degree resting, you're still resting with your boots on, you're ready to fight. Preparation.

Remember how Peter and the other apostles were with Jesus in Gethsemane, and he had already predicted, Jesus had already predicted that that very night before the rooster crowed, he would deny him three times. Remember? And Jesus went to pray and he went to get himself ready to fight the greatest battle he would ever fight against Satan. And he was on the ground praying with sweat coming out like drops of blood. What was Peter doing? Sleeping. And Jesus went and woke him saying, "Are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, the body is weak, so get ready." Your entire outlook on life should be, "I'm ready for warfare, that God left us here to glorify God by advancing in holiness and advancing in evangelism and missions. That's why we're here. I'm ready for a fight." It's not going to be easy. So I would suggest that you begin every day getting ready for a fight, getting ready. Put on the whole armor of God, stand firm in the Lord, get ready for a fight. 

Stability

Third word is stability. Stability. What do I mean by that? Well, four times Paul says stand. Look at it, verse 11, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." Verse 13, "Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand." By the way, notice he says after you have done everything, after you are fully prepared, then stand. So, it's preparation. And then verse 14, "Stand firm then." So that's four times he's told us to stand, you need stability. What does it mean then to fall? It means to give into temptation, to slip and fall into sin. Psalm 73, the psalmist gives us an example of that. He says in Psalm 73, "Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet almost slipped, I nearly lost my foothold, for I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." So the psalmist said, “I almost slipped into envy and covetousness when I saw how rich the wicked are.” That's the image of slipping and falling. So conversely, we get Jude 24, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you blameless before His presence, blameless with great joy." So that's the image of stability. 

Mobility

And then finally, mobility. We need to be able to move, traction for mobility. Satan is going to try to outflank you. You're thinking he's always going to come from the same direction. No, he's not always going to come from the same direction, sometimes he's going to come from the front, sometimes from the side. I often think about Peter. Peter was ready to die at the hands of a burly Roman soldier, but he was not ready to answer a little slave girl at the door. And so Satan came in from the side, the ability to turn with mobility and face what Satan's going to do. Satan's going to try to flank you in reference to holiness. But then in reference to missions, you know we have miles to travel. We have a road to travel, even a physical road. The Great Commission says, "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations." Acts 1:8 says, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." So we've got miles to travel, even literal miles. We have got to be ready to move out. Ready to move out. And so the image I have here is of Satan's dark kingdom with powerful towering walls, and we are called to move out and take those walls, to scale them. Basically you're saying, "Pastor, we're the ninja?" I guess kind of. We're up over the walls. Jesus said, "I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it." So we have to go into the dark kingdom and rescue the perishing, and for that you need good footwear, you need mobility, you need to move out.

What Was the Roman Shield?

Alright, verse 16, the shield of faith: "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." So clearly, Paul has in mind the Roman scutum, four feet long, two-and-a-half feet wide, this was a big thing. This wasn't one of those little round things that you hold, like you're playing medieval-like knights and all that, little round thing. No, this was huge, covered from just below the base of the throat down to the shins, it's a big thing. And it was protection against bows and arrows, projectile weapons. Bows and arrows, a devastatingly effective weapon if you didn't have a shield. And the shield would have a powerful lining that could not be pierced with the arrow. And the arrows, they were constantly developing them, but one of the developments was to wrap it up with pitch-covered cloth and light it so that if it got in your leg, ordinarily it'd just be a leg, when you keep fighting, but if your tunic's on fire, you're a dead man. So it's devastatingly effective, these flaming arrows.

The Shield of Faith Described?

So what is this shield of faith? Well, he says in verse 16,  I like the NIV best here on this one, “In addition to all this,” KJV says, "Above all," implying this is the most important thing. I don't think that's a good translation, it's just in addition to what I've already mentioned, now you're going to want to take the shield of faith. This is something that you, to some degree, pick up and hold. So what is the shield of faith? It's an impenetrable barrier, a wall of protection that you carry, that protects you from the projectiles that the enemy is shooting at you. Now, at the beginning of this worship time, Chase was talking about faith being the eyesight of the soul. That's huge here. The ability to see the invisible spiritual weapons that are coming at you, the arrows as they're flying at you, stealth technology. Nowadays, it's up in the air with F-22 jets. I was reading this article about F-22s versus F-15s. Who would win? F-22 every time, but it's an unfair fight, it's like who wins between the biggest, strongest, most powerful warrior on earth, who's never been defeated in a hand-to-hand combat and a sniper, who wins? Sniper. The guy has no chance. Why? Because the F-22 can fire its missiles without the other plane even knowing it was there. Even in the region, the missiles are already flying, it's gone, and then you're done. It's a stealth fighter. Satan is far worse. He fires his missiles, you don't even know, you didn't even know he was there. And you're depressed, you're discouraged, you're lustful, your covetous, you're angry, and you don't know why. Well, you've been hit with flaming arrows. We have invisible enemies, and the devil is able to fight us from his hiddenness and slaughter us in that way. So we have to understand what these flaming arrows are. What are they? 

Remember, I said spiritual warfare has to do with ideas that produce feelings that together produce actions. That's what's going on in spiritual warfare. Satan is insinuating concepts in your mind, lies, making you feel things about those lies and then making you act sinfully. That's what he's doing. So what are these flaming arrows? I want to say three types, temptations, accusations, and doubts, those things in particular. 

The Flaming Arrows of the Evil One

First temptations, flaming arrows. Oh yes, they're on fire. The temptations want to make your soul on fire, they want to set you on fire, they want to kindle a fire within you, a fire of evil desire. For example, sexual lust, like when David saw Bathsheba bathing he was struck with a flaming arrow. When Potiphar's wife seized Joseph by the arm, that was a flaming arrow coming his way that he was able to see, “how could I do this and sin against God,” he was seeing the invisible God at that moment. That's how you lift the shield of faith at that moment, you can see what's happening. It's like, "I will not do that. How could I sin." He also didn't forget Potiphar. “He's given me the charge over this whole place and everything except you because you're his wife. He didn't forget he was just, he saw clearly what was happening there.” The flaming arrow hit the shield of faith and was extinguished. He had no power over him. You think about the alluring temptress of Proverbs 7, who catches the young man by the arm and starts to pour honeyed words into his ear. "Come with me, my husband is gone, he won't get back for another month. I've got meat. I've perfumed my bed, everything is ready. Let's enjoy a night together." That's a flaming arrow. Inciting lust. 

Or perhaps it's a flaming arrow of sinful anger, Satan is flaming your heart making you hot with rage, because you're so angry, you're so angry at this individual and you're going to say things and do things that you would never do. It's almost like you're drunk and then our heart clears and you said, "Why did I do that? What happened?" It's a flaming arrow. Makes you angry at your spouse or your child, or another church member, a total stranger on the road, or perhaps temptations like Psalm 73, like the Psalmist toward covetousness, got to have it. You see the ad. I remember sitting with my brother we were watching, it was a football game, watching a series of ads, one after the other, six in a row, it was half-time. And at the end of that, he just stared blankly ahead and said, "I want.” “What do you want?” “I don't know, I just want, I want stuff." Well, that's what the ads do, they make you want things? They're flaming arrows, they stimulate discontent and covetousness in your heart. You lift up the shield of faith to see all of these things as what they are, they're temptations. Along with that is the flaming arrow of accusation. 

After having gotten you to sin, Satan then goes righteous on you and accuses you of the sin. He condemns you of guilt, he tells you you're disqualified from ministry, he lays you low with guilt and makes you weak, because the things he says are true, actually you did sin and the Law of God is against you. If it weren't for Christ, you would deserve Hell. But then you lift up the shield of faith and you say Romans 8, “who shall bring any charge against those whom God has justified. It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that, he was raised to life, is at the right hand of God is interceding for me.”

Or maybe the flaming arrow of doubt, like you did with Eve. In the garden of Eden. “Did God really say, this or that, did he really…” Is that really in the word, that doubt that comes in, that creeps in, false doctrines, flaming arrows of false teaching, the prosperity Gospel, the cults like Mormonism, and Jehovah's Witnesses. False religions like Buddhism, and Hinduism, and Islam. Atheistic philosophies, materialism, various things creep in and cause doubts. These are all flaming arrows. Isn't it wonderful to know that the shield of faith is impenetrable and effective. Look again at what it says, take up the shield of faith with which you are able, it is able to extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one. How important is the word “all”? Imagine if it got 99% of them. Well, you're dead. And so, the shield of faith is 100% effective when lifted up. We're able then to see the moment for what it is. The flaming arrows coming toward you, and you can see what's happening, you know what Satan wants to do in your soul and you're able to lift up your faith, and see the moment, see it in eternity, see what it's going to look like on Judgment Day.

You're using the internet, you see a tempting site that you could click on, and you just see that moment in eternity. What is this going to look like on Judgment Day, by faith, you can see judgment day. “When you're going to have to give an account for every careless word you've ever spoken. Everything ever done in the body, whether good or bad, you can see it, feel like my job as a pastor make that moment just alive in your hearts.” That moment is coming, judgment days coming. Are you ready? And so by faith, you see that moment, and you lift up the shield of faith. 

Repent and Believe the Gospel

So applications. Well, I've been making applications all the way through, but the first and greatest always is the same. If you're not a Christian, you can't fight, you're already in Satan's kingdom, you already in chains, you're in a dungeon. But God's Gospel is powerful, he can set you free. He can make the dungeon flame with light and you can see yourself as you really are, and you can see the chains of sin on your wrist and guilt and condemnation, and you can cry out to Jesus. The one who died on the cross for sinners like you and me, you can cry out to him, and you'll find like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, the chain just fall off you. The guilt is gone. You have become an adopted son or daughter of the living God, and the door just flies open, like it did for Peter and you just walk right through and you're out and you're free. And then you can begin your spiritual warfare against Satan. Then you can put on the full armor of God and fight because you'll need to, because finally, you're alive. 

Christians, Get Ready

Finally, you're in Christ's kingdom. So come to Christ. And secondly, if you're already come to Christ, it was a day ago, a week ago, a decade ago, 50 years ago. Get ready to fight, get prepared to fight. Wake up, get up out of bed, be aware of what Satan has been doing to you for years. Don't let him do it anymore. Fight the good fight of faith, get up on your feet, get up on the Gospel of peace, put on the Gospel of peace on your feet and take up the shield of faith, see what Satan is doing. Get ready. You're in a siege right now. Mans soul, that's Bunyan analogy in holy war. You are besieged. The Ninja are crawling the walls, probably right now. Shed the light, see what they're doing and watch them just fall dead under your feet. This is the calling of God. He wants us to make progress in these two journeys. We're only going to do it by fighting, put on the full armor of God and fight. Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time we've had today in your word. We thank you for the clarity that comes concerning spiritual warfare. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters, I pray that you give them strength, give them courage to fight. Give them the wisdom to be prepared, the preparation, the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. Help us O Lord to move out, I pray that we would be willing to cross the street to talk to lost neighbors. I pray that we would put on the Gospel on our feet and cross the office to a cubicle to meet a new employee, and get to know him or her and be able hopefully at some point to share Christ. I pray that we as a church would be willing to send out more and more missionaries who go to unreached people groups. There are three billion people who live in almost 7,000 unreached people groups. Oh God, help us to be passionately aware of that and concerned about people who don't even know the name of Jesus and no one in their village, knows the name of Jesus. Oh God, help us to reach out to those that are unevangelized, unengaged, unreached give us a passion and God give us protection in the spiritual realms, help us to see what Satan is trying to do to us through sin. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

A couple of years ago, it was the summer of 2014, I had the privilege to speak at a seminary graduation in Serbia. I was there with my daughter Caroline, and while we were there, we took a tour of a military museum in Belgrade in Serbia, and it was fascinating for me. I don't know how Carolyn felt about it, but I love military history. I think she said she had a good time. She's not here to defend herself this morning, but we walked into this museum and it was really extensive, it was amazing. I didn't realize how warfare has really shaped the history of Serbia and of the capital city of Belgrade. According to one display in that museum, since Roman times, 1st century AD until the present time, the little country of Serbia has experienced 143 wars. Now, to put that in perspective, I looked up on a website in the state of North Carolina, and there have been, since North Carolina was founded as a colony, only six wars in our history. Three of them were Indian wars. Actually four of them Indian wars, and The Revolution and the Civil War. Since the surrender of the Confederate army at Bennett Place, there's not been another war in our state. But in Belgrade in Serbia, there's on average, a war every 12 or 13 years. And what was cool about this museum, it was like an arsenal of different weapon systems, both offensive and defensive, over that 20 century history, and it was laid out in chronological order. So you went from the Roman times, which would have been in the times of the Apostle Paul, depictions of the suits of armor that Romans would have worn in different battles that were fought during the Roman era. And then it just, it continued to unfold and it was just fascinating to me, fascinating things.

The Celts were there for a time and the Ottoman Turks invaded in the 13th century, they came in, there was lots of battles against Islam, and then there were swords and shields and bows and arrows, and then eventually gunpowder, the development of guns, they actually had some very old weapons that were breech-loading muskets and different things, and then on through into the 18th century, 19th century, and on into the 20th century. World War I gas masks, machine guns, different things then on into World War II. Outside of the museum, they had all these German tanks, these panzers that were there, anti-aircraft weaponry, and then right up into the recent conflicts between the Serbs and the Croats. And so, as I was walking through this I was just amazed by the diverse historical arsenal of weapons, both offensive and defensive. 2000 years of Serbian military history.

Now, as we come to the text that we're looking at today, Ephesians 6:10-18, this section, and we're looking just at a portion of it today, Paul in effect is leading us through an arsenal of spiritual weapons, of defensive protection that the Lord has laid out for his children, laid out for us who are warriors in a different kind of warfare, a spiritual warfare. Now, I imagine that each of the citizens of Serbia or of Belgrade that lived through those 143 wars knew they were in a war. There's no doubt about it. The kind of terror and the upheaval that would come. But I would say, as I said last week, the overwhelming majority of Christians live their lives hour by hour, day by day, it seems, unaware of spiritual warfare, unaware of the fact that we have a vicious powerful resourceful enemy who is seeking our very lives at every moment. We're unaware of it and that's much to Satan's benefit. So, we are most certainly at war. When we come to faith in Christ, it is not true that all our problems in this world have ended. Actually quite the opposite. We may most certainly be confident that all our problems in the next world have come to an end. And praise God for that. The world of eternity to which we are heading is a world without death or mourning, or crying, or pain. And it is a world in which we will have no enemies at all. The gates of the new Jerusalem will stand open continually, and that's a clear evidence that there are no enemies left. But we have not arrived there yet. No, not at all. We have resourceful intelligent, powerful invisible enemies that are stalking us at every moment. 

Now, a new Christian, having come to faith in Christ, may be somewhat bewildered to discover the nature of this warfare, not even know necessarily what's happening to him or her. A whole array of new griefs and woes and struggles that he or she never knew before. A new Christian may be stunned to find that they're barraged with temptations and thoughts and feelings and ideas that are deeply troubling. After the initial joy and peace, the euphoria of coming to faith in Christ that comes with conversion, they may find themselves struggling with assurance of salvation, or with new dark thoughts that they had never noticed, or didn't know that they were sinful, but now they're struggling with them. They may find difficulties with other people that they didn't have before. And then internal wrestlings, temptations, doubts, guilt and torment in their conscience they've never known before. And they may say, "What is happening to me? Where's all that joy and peace that I knew before? Why all the strife and turmoil? For a while as a Christian, I was happy and fulfilled and at peace. But now, what is this? What is going on?" Well, what's happened is you crossed over from darkness to light. As I prayed in my prayer, you were rescued from the dominion of darkness out of Satan's kingdom and brought into the Kingdom, transferred into the kingdom of light, the Kingdom of Christ. 

Now before that transfer occurred, the Book of Ephesians tells us that “we were, all of us, dead in our transgressions and sins in which we used to live. When we followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Satan. All of us, all of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the desires of the flesh, following its nature and its thoughts.” Paul says, “there like the rest, we were, all of us by nature, objects of wrath.” That's where we were, we were in Satan's kingdom, we were enslaved, we were in chains we could not see. And we were unaware of our true status, we didn't know really what was going on. Jesus spoke about how he rescues people from Satan's dark kingdom. How he actually does that, he likens Satan to an evil warrior, a strong man, fully armed, He calls him. In Luke 12 or Luke 11:21 and 22, He says, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe." What that means literally is, his possessions are at peace at one level. I would put it similar to paralyzed, unable to move, causing Satan no trouble at all. But in Luke 11:22, it says, "But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which he trusted and divides up his spoils." So in that parable Satan is the strong man, fully armed, we were his possessions, we were at peace, or I would say tranquil and paralyzed dead in our transgressions and sins. Someone stronger is Jesus, he's the only one who's stronger. He comes and overpowers Satan, praise God, strips his armor, showing that Satan's armor is nothing compared to Jesus' omnipotence, and then he plunders his kingdom. We are the plunder, we're the spoils, we've been rescued. But having been rescued, having been transferred into the Kingdom of Light, we are then equipped and empowered and sent back into Satan's dark kingdom to rescue other souls who haven't been rescued yet. And at that point Satan becomes, as he always has been, but overtly now, our vicious enemy fighting us at every point. 

We become targets of Satan's attacks. And we are called on in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 and following, to fight. We're told that we have a fight. Listen again to these words you just heard read, ”Finally be strong in the Lord." This is Ephesians 6:10-12, "Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." So Satan tries to deceive us, that we don't have any fight at all. This warfare isn't really existing, but it is. He can trick us into thinking that the afflictions and the troubles that we're going through are merely natural. They happen to everyone else. They are troubles common to man. So this text calls on us as brothers and sisters in Christ, my call is to you, my spiritual family, to wake up, to realize what's actually going on, that you are at war, that Satan and his demons are at war with you. Satan is attacking you every single day. Perhaps you would say every hour constantly, and you have a responsibility to fight, you have a responsibility to be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, the might of his power. Now, why do you have to do that? What's at stake? 

Well, I don't believe that Satan can kill you, spiritually. If you're a Christian, you have been given eternal life and he cannot kill you. But what he can do is he can prevent you from doing the good works that God has ordained that you should walk in them, and he can prevent you from being characterized moment by moment, by the fruit of the Spirit, that's what he can do. And that is devastating because then, effectively, he's rendered you worthless to Christ. We have these two journeys set before us, we've talked about it again and again. This is why God left us here on Earth, we are left here for the glory of God, and the progress we are to make in two journeys. Internally in holiness that we would become more and more like Christ. We are journeying to conformity to Christ, to be more and more like Jesus. And then externally to win the lost, locally right around us, and to the ends of the earth, to rescue them from Satan's dark kingdom. Now these journeys are going to be opposed every step of the way by Satan. He's going to fight you every step of the way. You must put on your spiritual armor and fight or you will make no progress. And so, that's what's at stake.

So now what I want to do this morning, is walk into the armory and begin looking at the full armor of God, to try and understand what God has provided for you for this warfare. And this, praise God, is not a museum of military artifacts. One thing that was common with all of the weapon systems and all of the depictions I saw at that museum is that every single one of them were obsolete, they've all been superseded by modern military technology. No soldier would ever want to take those weapons on a battlefield, modern battlefield, they'd be slaughtered. But the beauty of the spiritual armor that God's provided is that it will never be obsolete, it's been effective in every generation, it's got the power and the wisdom of God behind every article. It's as new and fresh and effective now as it was in Paul's day, and that's a powerful, powerful thought. 

Now last week, we had three clear commands given to us in reference to spiritual warfare. In verse 10 through 12, you see it. First, “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” We talked about that last week. Secondly, “put on the full armor of God.” And then thirdly, “stand your ground in the day of testing,” “in the evil day.” Those are the three commands that we're being given here. So, be strong in the Lord, draw near to Jesus and in his mighty power. Secondly, “put on the full armor of God.” We're going to begin talking about that today, and then “stand your ground in the evil day.” 

So let's talk about this full armor of God, the full armor of God. First thing that we have to note is that this is something that is crafted by God, not by us. This is going to be a key interpreted principle, it's not something we make, it's not something we craft in our garage and our workshop spiritually. It's external to us, it's handed to us by Almighty God, and it's something that we have the responsibility to take up and in some way, put on ourselves. That's the full armor of God, we could almost say full armor from God. It's God's armor as He's given it to us. And it is sufficient to meet every need, it's sufficient, it's enough, God has provided for us, we're fully equipped. It is high quality, it's 100% effective, it is impenetrable, much of this is defensive, it's impenetrable. It's durable, beautiful. I don't know what else to say. Lightweight, travels easily with you. High quality and sufficient for the warfare that we're going to face.

Now, in terms of interpretation, we just need to stop and say, "Is it appropriate for us to go slowly through this, and look at all of this carefully? Is this an allegory? Are we allegorizing these things? Are we going to try to take each article and spend a lot of time on it?” Now I have in my library a work by a Puritan, and that tells you something right there. William Gurnall, who wrote The Christian in Complete Armour, an extensive treatise on these nine verses. When I say extensive, you don't even have the first idea how extensive. It was published in three different volumes, 1655, 1658, 1662. Banner of Truth has published it in one thick book, about that thick. You open it up and the print is so small, that you need like a magnifying glass to read. It's over 1200 pages, on nine verses of Scripture. I think he might have taken it a little too far. Friends, be at peace. We're not doing anything like that here, but I think you can go so far in that. That's too far, maybe too much detail. It ends up just a gateway into just a topical study of various aspects of the Christian life. That's really what he does, and however helpful that is, I don't know that it's the best way to approach this, but you can go so far the other direction. 

I think effectively, most Christians go the other extreme. They don't really look at the details of this, they don't really think that Paul put some intelligence behind the actual article of weaponry that he has, or shielding and how it lines up with this part of the body. And so they just skip the whole thing, say, "Well, whatever, just pray about it, just need to pray about it and then go," and you're going to get shredded, friends. Paul's saying he's not saying, "Just pray about it," he actually has some things to say. So I want to be somewhere in the middle, not too long or too short. I want to look at it and say, What is the article? How does he identify it? What does it correspond to in our salvation? And what are we practically to do about it? Why does he line it up with this part of the body, etcetera? And try to think about it at a reasonable length. I think that's the best way to handle it.

So first, this full armor of God is something we must put on. It's something that must be appropriated. I would say each of these elements to some degree, have to be put on your souls by thoughtful prayer, meditative or scripture-based meditation and prayer. And I would say that continually, not like every single instant, but again and again, not like one time in the morning and then you're good for the day. But as needed and again and again, we're going to come back to the idea of these elements. So I would say, thoughtful meditative prayer based on it. And there's a hymn that I think captures it very well for us. In 1858, a Presbyterian pastor named George Duffield Jr, penned the hymn, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." Maybe you've heard it before or sung it before. One of the verses says this, "Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own." Now listen, "Put on the Gospel armor. Each part put on with prayer." So that's it, "where duty calls or danger, be never wanting there."

So the idea is that we would take up these elements, and based on, I think, an explanation I'm going to give you that will help you understand what we mean by you to them, put them on yourself. Put them, put them into your soul through prayer. At the end, in verse 18 he says, And pray in the Spirit, on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind. Be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. He doesn't link that to any article of armor. It's really linked to all of them. And so, the idea is not just in a general amorphous sort of way, "Just pray about it." But in a meditative way, be mindful of the way that Satan can attack and how the Lord has provided for you in those areas. So, that's the approach we're going to take, in general. Now, before we go into talking about the two elements we're going to look at today, there are six elements of the full armor of God, we're going to look at two of them each week, God willing. 

But I want to just talk about the nature of the spiritual warfare, what is actually happening, how does it work? And I have lots of images or ideas about this, but this is the one that I have for you right now. Fundamentally, Satan is hurling ideas at us. Concepts. He has, as I mentioned last week, access to our minds, he has the ability to insinuate thoughts into your mind, and then affect your feelings through the thought he is planted, and then affect your behavior from those two together. So thoughts plus feelings shaping behavior, that's the game, that's what he's trying to do. So the idea I have, the image I have here is of us walking on the strait and narrow path. You know how Jesus said, "Narrow is the gate, and strait is the path that leads to life and only a few you find it." So we, as Christians, we are walking this straight and narrow path, but the image I have now in the 21st century, I put it in a mall, so we're walking through the mall. So, picture you're on the straight and narrow but you're walking through a mall, the mall of the world, and every X number of feet, there's a store front left and right, and there are aggressive sales people right to the edge of the straight and narrow path and they're calling out to you by name, enticing you, telling you to come into their shop. They have some things for you, maybe tugging on your sleeve. They can't grab you by the arm, so that would be the idea of Satan, taking you over in contrary to your will, making you sin, he can't do that, but he's enticing all the time, pulling you to divert, to go off the path and go into the shop. And these shops are different temptations, ideas, concepts that can pollute and destroy us spiritually. That's the image I have. 

Now, if you turn aside in the shop I pictured, I went in, in one of these malls. There was a candle shop, I was buying a candle for someone, and I was like, "Oh my goodness, the aroma was overpowering. I don't know how you could work there. And I talked to the gal at the desk. She said, "I don't even notice it anymore." And I think she must go home supersaturated by the various aromas of the candle shop. Or picture an incense shop or something like that, and if you get diverted and go in there, you're just breathing these noxious fumes, and they're affecting your breathing and they're getting in your hair. And in your eyes and in your clothes and when the Lord Jesus in his grace goes to leave the 99 that didn't wander and find you, who is wandering and brings you back by his grace, you're going to smell spiritually of the shop you were just in for a while. It's the image I have here. If you don't like that image, you can come up with your own, but that's the picture I have with spiritual warfare. It's an enticing, alluring battle of ideas. Affecting our emotions and eventually affecting our behavior. And the command here is that we are to put on the full armor of God, piece by piece, carefully, prayerfully, thoughtfully and many I would say as often as needed, many times a day, even. Alright, so let's look at the first element. 

The Belt’s Function

This morning, we're going to look at the belt of truth, and the breastplate of righteousness. Let's start with the belt of truth. It's the first item that Paul mentions here. It enabled the soldier to pull together all of his loose flowing clothing. You picture in the first scene you've seen movies and you've seen perhaps depictions and books, how people work too in this loose flowing clothing back then, but if you wanted to do any work, if you want to do any traveling, if you wanted to run especially, you had to kind of gather up your tunic together, and fix it with a belt around your waist, something like that. Peter uses the same image in 1 Peter 1:13, in the King James version. It says, "Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind." So that's the same phraseology here. "gird up the loins” or “gird up your loins with truth." Now, NIV in 1 Peter 1"13 says, "Prepare your minds for action." That's the concept, but it's not a literalistic translation. So the idea here is you've got this belt pulling together everything into an efficient package held close to your body. So verse 14, "stand therefore, having girded inverted your loins with truth." That would be a literalistic translation. There actually is no noun here, there's no noun belt of truth, But most translations just try to objectify it by saying there is a belt of truth, But it's more of an action. The idea of girding up your loins with truth, now the loins are the reproductive organs, those part of the body that you treat, Paul says in another place, with special modesty. So the idea I have here is of truth coming very close to us. Truth drawn into the secret places and hidden places of our souls and I think David puts it very well, in Psalm 51:6, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts, you teach me wisdom in the inmost place." So the idea is that truth is drawn into our very being. An absolute commitment to spiritual truth. That's what we're talking about here. 

What the Belt of Truth Is Not

Now, one translation gives us the “belt of truthfulness” in other words, that we would be characterized by speaking the truth. That is wrong. Now in one sense it's obviously true, Paul says earlier in Ephesians that we're to put off, falsehood and speak truth, but that's not a Paul's talking about here, it's not our truthfulness rather it's again the whole armor of God or from God, this is truth from God truth that comes down from Heaven to Earth, truth that is absolute, unshakable. Like you can write it in stone because God did write it in stone, it's unchanging. This is absolutely vital. The concept of spiritual truth and this comes to us, it's mediated to us not by our feelings or what we think is right, but it comes to us by the Scripture, by the word of God. The Word of God is truth. Jesus said in John 17:17, "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth." Now the word of God is perfect. It's wholly free from error. The perfection of the Word of God is the basis of all the spiritual fighting we're going to do, Understanding truth, meditating on it, drawing it into us like a belt around our waist. We must be humble when it comes to spiritual things. We must be humble and say we know nothing, we've got to be told everything, from the Bible. God has to teach a spiritual truth. 

Now, you may ask, "What's the difference between the belt of truth, and let's say later the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God?” I want you to know the six elements of spiritual armor, or spiritual weaponry that God gives us. There's a lot of overlap between them, and we're going to be covering some themes again, but I think we can make a distinction between the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit, in this way. The belt of truth is more overarching, general truth that is, the Bible, the big themes, let's say. The truth of the scripture versus the sword of the Spirit is more of a surgically applied truth, a specific verse that meets a specific attack by the devil. And so, there's going to be some swordsmanship and skill that we'll talk about later, but that's the difference I would make. It's not a strong difference. 

Our Need For The Belt of Truth

Now friends, do you not see how much we need this in our present day? Twenty first century Americans have been assaulted with the concept that there is no absolute metaphysical or spiritual truth. Or if there is, we can't know it. We are what's known as postmodernists, we're postmodernists, we accept truth claims from everyone. We're pluralists and we are hearing that it's arrogant to say that our metaphysical truth, our spiritual truth is absolute truth, and this is very much the battle ground that the church is facing in 21st century America, do you not see it? I hope you can see it. The idea that there is no absolute metaphysical or spiritual truth. 

Have you seen that bumper sticker, coexist? I think about it a lot, I've looked up, the group that puts it out, you know how they take symbols from each of the religions and they spell out the word “coexist.” Which I said before, I think isn't it wonderful that groups like ISIS are planning on not killing Christians, any more. Praise God. Fundamentally, though, it's saying all of these religions are essentially the same. No one is any more valid than any of the others. Watching that movie in the early 1980s, I watched it actually last week, Gandhi. And as he led India to independence, a lot of his world views and his philosophies and religions, came out, and he would say... Again and again, these things like, “I am Muslim,” “I am Hindu,” “I am Buddhist,”  “I am Christian.” He would say these things, As though really they're all teaching essentially the same thing. There's no one more valid than the other. And we are all of us children of God. In that sense, etcetera. That was his mentality, that is not the mentality of the Bible. 

What I want to say the belt of truth is, is the idea of transcendent absolute spiritual truth coming to us through Scripture, fundamentally in its testimony to Christ as the Savior of the world, fundamentally focused on Christ, our savior. Jesus, when he was on trial before Pilate. You remember he was on trial because they were saying in effect he was leading a rebellion and sedition kind of thing. So they came to the issue of his Kingship, his kingdom. “Oh, you are a king,” said Pilate. Jesus said, "You're right in saying that I'm a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this I came into the world: To testify to the truth everyone on the side of truth, listens to me." That was the closest, most powerful invitation Pontius Pilate would ever receive. Listen to me, if you want to know the truth, Listen to me. Do you remember what pilot said? "What is truth?" Now, I don't mind somebody asking me, “What is truth?” and waiting for an answer. They think there might be an answer, Pilate didn't think there was an answer, he walked away. That's the problem, it's not the statement, it's the statement, plus walking away from Jesus, that's the problem and that's what we're living with. Those are our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, they're saying, “What is truth?” and walking away.

The Centerpiece of the Word: The Testimony of Jesus

We, in our battle against Satan, we have to fight that and say “No, no, no, there is truth, the word of God, is truth, and Jesus is truth.” “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” John 1:1, John 1:14, "The word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us and we have Seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten who is from the Father, full of grace and truth." And he says in John 1:17, just a few verses later, "the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ," and He says very famously and clearly to our postmodern 21st century American scene. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There is absolute truth and his name is Jesus. Now, at the end of human history, Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven. John depicts this in Revelation 19:11-15, it says, "I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true, with justice he judges and makes war, his eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns, and out of his mouth comes a sharp double-edged sword with which to strike down the nations." So that's where we're heading. That's the future. Truth comes back and brings judgment. Nothing is mightier than it is for this spiritual battle, that we're fighting with invisible satanic forces than Christ the truth or the Word of God as it testifies to Christ, the true Saviour. And we need this because Satan's kingdom is essentially a kingdom of lies. That's what it's all about, it's all about lying, he's filled with lies, we need the belt of truth, because Satan is lying to us. Isaiah said, "Woe is me, I'm ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips." Like I tell lies, and I'm surrounded by people who tell lies. Now my eyes have seen the King, the Truth, the Almighty, the Holy One. 

Satan’s Kingdom of Lies

Now Satan has been doing this lying thing, from the very beginning of human history. He went to the garden, you remember how he approached Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he used those three strategies, he uses in every generation to question the word of God. First, just raising a question, "Did God really say that you must not eat? Just asking, just want to raise a question for debate and discussion. Just raising the question. Did God really say...” Secondly, a flat-out contradiction of the word of God, “You will not surely die.” That's a lie. They did die and so have all their progeny. And then thirdly, using a portion of the truth to contradict another part of the truth, "for God knows that when you eat of it, you will become like God, knowing good from evil," that's actually true, God said it himself, But it's harnessed to the temptation. So that's like the cults and the world religions, that use portions of the truth to ensnare people, that Satan masquerading as an angel of light false teachers can lure people in by the portion of the truth. Again, think about Islam and its monotheism, it's fierce assertion that all of the gods in the nations are empty idols and are nothing, and there is only one God, that's true, but that one God is not Allah, it's the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it's a triune God. So it's partial truth and service to an overarching lie. Satan's been doing those same three things. We need to stand against that. John 8:44, Jesus said, “Satan was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him, when he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies.” So put it all together, Satan kills, he murders souls by telling lies. So what we have to do is we have to demolish the lies that he tells. 

Practically: How Do We “Put On the Belt of Truth”?

Now, how does this work practically? Well, if we're going to put on the belt of truth, if we're going to make progress in our journeys we have to draw in the truth. Let's take the external journey, for example. If we're going to be missionaries, if we're going to go to the ends of the earth, if we're going to sacrifice financially, to send as David Platt, President of the IMB talks about limitless pathways of missionaries all over the world. If we're going to actually do that, we have to counteract some of the weakening lies that Satan has poured into the minds of American evangelicals, that weaken our commitment to unreached people group missions such as what? Well, such as “People who have never heard of Christ are okay, spiritually, they're fine.” That's called inclusivism. The idea that if you die without ever having heard the name of Jesus, you're fine spiritually. Do you realize how obviously false, that must be when it comes to mission work? Before you came to that village in India or in Central Asia, they were fine, spiritually, but now that you came, most of them are going to Hell because they rejected the Gospel. Thanks for coming. That doesn't make any sense. Instead, it says in Romans 10, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How can they call then on one they have not believed in. And how can they believe in someone they've never heard of, and how can they hear without someone preaching to them and how can they preach unless they are sent as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.’” What does that mean? They were in darkness,enslaved to Satan, before the missionaries got there. We have to be active in sending missionaries to the ends of the earth.

You have to care about that belt of truth. It counteracts the lies of the devil. So practically, what are you going to do? What I'm going to say is immerse your heart and your mind in the Word of God every day. We're going to say similar things when I come to the sword of the Spirit, but I'm just saying embrace the concept of absolute spiritual truth, that the Word of God is truth, straight truth With no mixture of errors. Be continually feeding on God's word stored up within you that you might be transformed by the renewing of your mind, especially feed on passages that speak of Christ as the absolute truth, Think about his holiness, his nature, his great power, his purposes in the world. Have a sense of preparation. Get yourself ready "gird up the loins of your mind," get ready with truth. And especially look to see how Satan's temptations have a lie at their center. Like if you're struggling with sinning with the internet, lust with the internet, right? There is an undergirding lie there. It has to do with increased pleasure, it has to do with the fact that you're not going to be judged or condemned for it, etcetera. There's all kinds of an array of lives. See through it, and bring truth into that situation. Or when it comes to your finances, how you're spending, like your money is really your own, you can spend it however you want. Instead of giving your tithes and offerings to the church, and supporting the church's budget and sending missionaries out with finances, counteracting the lies of the evil. 

What is a “Breastplate”? 

Alright, secondly, breastplate of righteousness. Look at verse 14, “stand firm then with the belt of truth, buckled around your waist and with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” Now, you can picture the breastplate. It was basically leather strapped around this section from just below the throat, down to the base of the abdomen in that area. And it was covered with a thick plate of probably bronze, back in those days. Frequently embossed with powerful decoration like horses, or other things, or lightning bolts or something. And it would be polished to a high shine, beautiful. And it protected the soldiers' vital organs, their heart and their intestines. All of these vital organs from attack by the enemy. Well, that's the breastplate. What is the breastplate of righteousness? Well, righteousness is that which corresponds to God's word and God's nature. Righteousness. Whatever is right. Whatever is pure, whatever's right, whatever's just. That's what righteousness is. So, it corresponds to God's justice. It corresponds to God's law, God's word. Lines up with God's standard, Psalm 19:9, "The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous." 

Righteousness

Now, let me say again, just like it wasn't the belt of truthfulness, our truthfulness, it is certainly not the breastplate of our own righteousness. I sure hope you know this. Do you know that we send out soldiers in dangerous areas of the world with body armor on? And do you know that body armor has been developed by military scientists, the best military scientists that they have to make this effective body armor. What would you think if a soldier said, "You know, I didn't put on the body armor the Army gave me. I made my own." It's like, "Really? Tell me about that." "Well, I went in my garage, and got some pots and pans in there. Flattened them out a little bit, sewed them together and I did some other things." And it's like, "Dude, you're going to die. I would suggest you go get that armor the army has provided and put it on." Alright. Well, that's even more the case here.

Do you understand how effective Satan will be in shredding your own righteousness if you take the field against him, in your own righteousness? Do you have any sense at all of how he will be able to find the weak spots and the chinks in your armor and penetrate it? He's been doing that to people far more righteous than you or me, for centuries. Satan, literally, the word in Hebrew means accuser. He is the accuser of the brethren, he stands before God day and night accusing them. He has an accurate record of all your sins. He knows all your weaknesses, he knows what you've said and done. All of it. It's there and it will not be any protection. He will be able to recall your sins in an instant. "There is no one righteous, not even one," Romans 3:10. Isaiah 64:6, "All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags," or like a cobweb. You don't want to go into battle against a dreadful enemy wearing a cobweb for protection. 

Christ’s Imputed Righteousness: A Perfect Shield

Now, no one in church history tried harder to put together his own breastplate of righteousness than did Martin Luther. You know the story, how he quit public life, went into a monastery, and spent hours and hours, fasting, and praying, and studying the Bible, and doing works of service to others, and doing whatever the authority is there in the monastery told him to do. And all of that ever happened, is he felt more, and more guilty, and more, and more in terror of the judgment of God, and more and more afraid of Hell. He knew that his real sin in nature was just being driven subterranean, it wasn't being dealt with. Now, if his righteousness can be shredded so easily, how in the world do you think you can stand up with your righteousness? You going to work harder? going to be more obedient? The greatest saints have been acutely aware of how wicked and vile they still were. King David, Psalm 40:12, "My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me. My sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head." Paul said, "Here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am," not was, "am the worst."

Romans 7, "The very thing I hate," Paul said this, "the very thing I hate, I do. What a wretched man I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" You can't stand against Satan in your own righteousness, not at all. No, this must be full armor from God. This must be a breastplate of righteousness God made, and is giving to you and it is. This is the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. That's what this is. This is the perfect righteousness of Jesus given to you as a gift and you're told to put on. The gift of imputed righteousness, essential to our salvation. That means that God credits Jesus' obedience to the law as though you had been obedient to the law. As obedient as Jesus. Says in Romans 3:20-24, "No one will be declared righteous by observing the law." Rather through the Law, we become conscious of sin, but now a righteousness from God, has been made known to which the Law and the prophets testify. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified. That is, declared righteous freely as a gift of God's grace by faith in his blood. God presented Jesus as a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. That's our righteousness. It's a gift. Put it on. Put it on. And how do you put it on? 

Well, you put it on by faith. We are justified by faith. You trust that God sees you perfectly righteous in Jesus. And this is taught in many places in the New Testament. It is our only hope in this day of battle. Philippians 3:9, Paul says, "Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ," the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. That's what we put on. So, how do we put it on? Well, understand that the warfare that we have with Satan will be over our own sinfulness and his temptations and accusations. It's kind of like the old one two. I'm not a boxer. I’ve got some friends that are boxers. A left and a right, the combination. Alright. Left, right. How does it work? Temptation, accusation. It's a deadly rhythm. He'll draw you into sin and then accuse you. Draw, accuse. It's deadly. How does the imputed righteousness of Christ help that? 

Basically, it enables us to resist temptations by helping us to see that we are no longer God's enemies, but we are safe and secure adopted children of God. And no temptation will kill us. It gives us a position of strength. No matter how I perform today, or behave, I am perfectly righteous in God's sight. Along with that, it gives you a sense of the beauty of that righteousness. The beauty of Christ's perfect obedience to the Father. It gives us a sense of being able to say with God that we love righteousness and hate wickedness. And that we are perfectly righteous in Christ. And then if we have sinned, it enables us to stand not in our own marred behavior but in the imputed righteousness of Christ. 

Our “Feelings”

Now, notice where it gets put. It gets put right here over the heart and the intestines, the gut. And I think there's a reason for that. In the Scripture, the heart and gut, the bowels, are the seat of affections and feelings, emotions. And we so often don't feel very righteous. You know what I'm saying? You don't feel like you are perfect in God's sight. We just are so mindful of our own sinfulness. And so, there's a protection for our feelings here. And you're like, "Well, the heart, that's where the affections are." The seat of what we love and what we hate, there's that, and then the feelings. In the KJV, they actually use the word, literally, “bowels.” Recent English translations moved away from the use of the word bowels. But in KJV and Philippians 1:8, it says, “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you and all the bowels of Jesus Christ." Alright, so NIV went with this, "God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus, with the feeling," but you know what I mean, that “gut.” Have you ever talked about that? The gut feeling. Alright. Would you ever get butterflies in your stomach? If I invited one of you to come up here right now, and let me see, hang on a second. See, some of you are like, "No. No, not me. Don't pick me." So, what are you feeling? “Butterflies. Don't do that. It will end our friendship.” Okay, butterflies. You get this feeling of butterflies, or you guys looking at a gal and you might want to ask her out. Okay? Husbands, remember when you asked your wife out the first time? You got butterflies. Remember when you got down on one knee and proposed? Butterflies. So, there's that feeling inside here. Feelings, emotions. Very vulnerable here, very vulnerable. Accusations come and we feel things. Same thing in temptations, we can feel drawn away from truth. We need the breastplate of righteousness. And we can stand up against Satan's accusations and we can glorify God by how we live. 

Fundamentally, the transformation that happens in us, is we love righteousness like Jesus did. You know Jesus said this, "The Father, the one who sent me is always with me, for I always do what pleases him," isn't that powerful?  I would just love to say, "Lord, for the last hour, I have done what pleased you." Let's start with one hour, and then wouldn't you love to get to the point where you could say at the end of a day, "Lord, today I always did what pleased you today." That's the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He loved righteousness and hated wickedness. And we get drawn into that, and we love holiness and we are transformed. 

Assurance of Salvation Under Fire

One final word and then we'll be done. We are vulnerable specifically on the issue of assurance of salvation. Do you ever wonder as you're in warfare, you're in battle? One of the things, Satan's going to go after is your assurance of salvation. By the breastplate of righteousness, that's where your assurance comes. Not because you're such a great person, man or woman, but because Christ lived a perfect life and gave you a gift of salvation by faith in Christ alone is your salvation. Your assurance comes from putting on the full armor of God. So, when the time comes, and you have sinned and Satan is accusing you, you're able to put on the breastplate of righteousness and say, "You know, if we confess our sins,” 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," and that is our righteousness.

An Appeal to Unbelievers

Alright. I want to just close by making a simple appeal. I've been speaking this entire time to Christians. The armor of God is for Christians only. I said at the beginning of my message that if you are outside of Christ, if you are not a Christian, you are already in Satan's kingdom. The Bible says that you are dead in transgressions and sins, even while you live, but there is hope for you. God, sovereignly, by his grace, brought you here today to hear the Gospel. And you've heard it. You've heard how God the king of the universe, sent his Son, who lived a sinless life under the Law of God, perfectly obeyed him every moment of his life, died on the cross as a substitute for our sins, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. He is the savior of sinners just like you and me. Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. And then your warfare will begin. And you can put on the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth, just as we've been talking about. Close with me in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in your word today. We thank you for the truths of the word of God. Father, I pray that you would enable us to do our duty and to take our responsibility. What's at stake oh, Lord, is our own peace, and joy, and love in the Spirit, and the good works that you've ordained for us to walk in. Father, I pray, help us to fight the good fight of faith. And Father, for those that were providentially brought here, that have heard the Gospel today, bring them over from darkness to light, that they might know the savior. In his name we pray. Amen.