Address—Bill Prost
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Begin by singing hymn #288 Two 88.
O thou whose mercies far exceed all we can do or say.
And then the prayer in the last verse that spirit, soul, and body may preserve free from stain.
Be blameless until that great day, Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
288.
All those mercies, Lord, save all we can do, the Lord said.
I did my big old.
Graving water is my name.
I saw grateful.
I say come on.
To hell rose shall flow, shall fall.
I don't think that anyone here would dispute the fact that we are living in the last days.
And as I believe Brother Bob mentioned in his prayer, there is a tremendous spiritual warfare going on, perhaps, if we might say even accelerated in these last days.
We know in the Book of Revelation there is a time when Satan will be cast out of heaven.
And when it is recorded in Scripture that he cometh down to earth, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
But Satan is no fool. I believe he knows, too, that we are living in the last days, although of course he has no idea of the day and the hour of the Lord's coming. No more do we. But we are entitled to look around and to see the day of judgment approaching, and we know that the Lord is coming before that day of judgment.
00:05:06
Not too long ago I was reading through the book of Ephesians in my own reading.
And afresh, it was brought home to my soul the importance of the whole armour of God. And with the Lord's help, this afternoon I'd like to talk about the armor as is given to us in Ephesians 6. So let's turn to that chapter, please.
And we'll try and dwell on it from a practical side. Yes, there is much that can be said about the armor of God, but we'll deal with it perhaps more from the practical side here. And so we'll begin reading in verse, or rather in Ephesians 6 from verse 10.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power.
Of his might put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle, not against flesh and blood.
But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
And watching thereundo with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
And for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
A few remarks before we launch into the details of the armor.
It's no accident in Scripture, nothing is an accident in Scripture, but it's no accident that the armor of God is given to us in the book of Ephesians, which has most here know well is the one book in the Bible that gives the highest truth as far as the privileges of the believer are in this dispensation.
It is in Ephesians, for example, that we learn that we are not only saved, that we not only possess a new life in Christ, that not only are we at times passing through a wilderness, but that we are dead and risen with Christ and positionally.
Already seated with him in heavenly places.
We were reminded in the last meeting of the Lord's coming for us.
And the details of the Lord's coming form one of the special revelations which God gave to the apostle Paul. But it's interesting that Ephesians is the one epistle of Paul in which the Lord's coming is not mentioned. Why is that?
Oh, it's incongruous to talk about the Lord's coming for us when the believers already seen as risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ.
What a privilege and we are seated there. It doesn't say we should be or we can be, but we are their positionally.
00:10:00
Where we began reading today, it talks about the Wiles of the devil.
And the need for the whole armor of God.
Satan is already a defeated foe. The Lord Jesus defeated him at the cross so that we are told to resist the devil and he will flee from you. But where the problem comes in your life and mine is not so much with Satan's direct power against us, but rather the Wiles of the devil.
He seeks to deceive, he seeks to attract by appealing to our old sinful nature.
And as a result, instead of the enjoyment of those heavenly things.
Instead of the enjoyment of our Christian position as being heavenly people.
Satan seeks to bring us down to the level of this world, and I would suggest that that is going on today perhaps more than ever.
I have said this before, but it bears repeating that Satan knows that if he can bring the church down to the level of an earthly religion, yes, he will even make allowances for the gospel. He will make allowances for people being saved. But if he can destroy the sense in your soul of our heavenly calling.
Humanly speaking, we have lost everything.
And the believer who has lost his sense of the heavenly calling is no threat to Satan. Oh, I don't mean that the gospel can't be preached. I don't mean that there can't be blessing.
But in bringing Christianity down to the level of a worldly religion.
Satan knows that he has destroyed the threat.
That you and I are in this world.
When the Apostle Paul and his company went to a certain place, you will recall that the cry went out. They that have turned the world upside down or come hit her. Also, Satan knows that losing the sense of our heavenly calling will make us so that we will not turn the world upside down and so the whole armor of God is needed.
If I forget one part of it, Satan will discover that weak point.
And he will be able to attack. And so let's look at the armor from a practical side.
Verse 14.
Stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
Why is that mentioned first?
Oh, because I cannot effectively be a soldier for Christ if I could term it that way, if I am not.
Braced up, if I could use the term my loins where my strength is Gert about with that truth.
What does that mean?
Does it mean that I have to know all the truth at once? No, I am continually learning. I trust, and you are to throughout our Christian lives. What does it mean?
You will recall, and there's no need to turn to the Scripture, that when the Lord Jesus stood before Pilate, the Lord could say to Him in that confidence that He had.
Whosoever is of the truth.
Heareth my voice.
And Pilate's comment was what is truth? And then he turns away.
But prior to that, in his life here on earth, the Lord Jesus, in Speaking of Himself could say, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
I say to each one of us here as I say to my heart, never get it into your head that some aspect of the truth of God.
Is irrelevant to today's world and that it must be laid aside.
00:15:03
Pardon a bit of reminiscence I can still remember.
Our brother Harry Hajo saying in an address, he said, Brethren, can you suppose?
That when I stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
That there is any possibility that the Lord will say to me, Hey, oh, you were far too careful in walking in the whole truth of God. Of course He wasn't boasting as if he were doing that. He trusted He did. But to go back to what he said, can you suppose that the Lord will ever say?
You were far too careful to walk in the whole truth of God. You should have been a little more relaxed about it. You should have sidestepped it from time to time, and you could have been far more useful to me. Can you hear the Lord saying anything like that? Of course not.
Is the truth ever going to restrict your life and mind?
Whether in preaching the gospel or in living the Christian life to the point where I have to say, well, that may have worked in Pauls Day, that may have worked 150 years ago, but it's not relevant in today's world. Absolutely not. It is the truth of God that makes you and me free before God.
Having the loins girt about with truth.
May I be allowed to use a flagrant example?
It's flagrant, but it makes the point.
There are some today who would argue that same sex attraction somehow is okay, that same sex marriage is all right. And there are dear believers today who are going down that road and somehow twisting and turning this precious book to try and make out as if somehow you can make it.
Approve or at least condone that sort of thing.
Whenever I am faced with anything in my life, let me rely on the truth of this precious Book and have my loins girt about with it so that it guards me against my thoughts, my feelings and anything in my life going away from the truth of God's precious Word.
Loins girt about with truth.
Where do I get the truth?
In this precious book.
But let me go one step beyond that, if I may.
The Lord Jesus could say I am the way, the truth and the life and the truth is not merely a strict adherence in a cold legal way to what this precious book says. No, it goes beyond that because the truth of God's Word.
Will inevitably drive me back to the very source of it.
And the truth must be lived out in fellowship with the Lord himself. I cannot do it otherwise. And if I think I can pick this book up as a textbook that I would use in high school or in university, And if I think I can live the truth out in any other way but in fellowship with the Lord.
I will find that I will be sadly mistaken. It won't have the unction, it won't have the power.
It won't have what it needs to be a living operating force in my life.
Or have its proper effect on others. Loins girt about with truth.
Then it says having on the breastplate of righteousness.
Where is the breastplate? It's that which covers the vital organs in the chest.
Everyone here probably knows that when police officers and other people.
In.
Law, peacekeeping and law enforcement where a bulletproof vest, what does it cover? First of all, their chest. It protects the heart and the lungs from injury by a from a stab wound or a bullet or whatever it might be. And so the breastplate was worn right across the chest.
00:20:27
Because right from man's earlier days, even though they may not have understood the circulation of the blood.
And why the heart was important. They knew very well that a good thrust to the chest.
Was invariably fatal.
What then is the breastplate of righteousness?
Does it refer to what Romans talks about, that we are the righteousness of God in him and so on? That's of course in Corinthians, but the whole concept of our righteousness being Christ's righteousness is developed in Romans. Is that what it's talking about? I don't believe so.
You don't start talking to a man or a woman that is risen and seated in heavenly places about the need for the righteousness of Christ.
No, this is practical righteousness. Practical righteousness.
It comes right down to the simple things of life.
It comes right down to being righteous in all my activities in this world, in my interactions with other people, whether fellow Christians or whether out in the world, so that there's no opportunity for anyone to point the finger and say, what about that?
What about what you did there? What about this? What about that?
It was a worldly man that made the comment that the measure of a man's true character, and of course he included women in that. The measure of a man's true character is what he would do if he knew that no one would ever find out.
Permit a story that my late father-in-law told me, obviously quite a few years ago now.
Of how when he was in full-time practice, there was a donation or what shall we say?
I suppose if you wanted to call it that, it was a kickback. We all know what a kickback is as.
He was in, or let me rephrase that, in his profession as an optometrist, he did business with companies that made lenses and sold frames.
And at one point in time, he received.
A check from them and it was not in the sense of something that was meant to attract his business, but rather just a bonus that they were giving because.
They were giving out Christmas bonuses anyway. He received a check from them and in the course of something being said about it.
Somebody said that'll be a nice windfall for you.
His comment was.
Well.
A nice windfall after the government gets its share, referring to the income tax that would be paid on it.
Oh, the company representative said. You don't, you don't have to declare this as income. There's, it won't go on our books as anything like that. It there's no.
No need to put that on your books as income.
My father in law's comment was Sir, he said. I like to keep my books as if the Lord were looking over my shoulder.
And that was that.
Was their blessing from it.
Quite a few years later, he got a phone call from a man whose name he didn't remember.
I was asked to come to the death bed and it turned out to be that same salesman.
00:25:00
All, he said. I don't know where I'm going. I'm leaving this world shortly and I don't know where I'm going.
And I figured that you were one man that could probably tell me how to get right with God.
It pays off, but that wasn't the point. The breastplate of righteousness and how many lives of dear believers have been ruined when they have in a moment of weakness and don't think I'm not tempted in the same way, have allowed something in their lives that wasn't righteous, and not only did it give them a bad conscience.
But a piece of the armor was missing.
And sometimes someone else found out about it, or it came to light and it was the ruin of them.
How important, then, always, always to be wearing that breastplate of righteousness so that when you and I stand before the world, there's nothing that we have to worry about.
Now, is any one of us absolutely perfect? If someone wanted to, could they point to me?
And say, yes, there was a time when you said a sharp word to someone when you acted in an uncharacteristic way for a Christian.
I'm afraid that would be true, but let's be very sure that we act righteously.
And if we have acted unrighteously, let us make sure that it is corrected right away.
Verse 15 Your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
At first glance, that might seem to be a rather strange statement.
Because here is a man who is a soldier who is wearing armor, and we do not normally think of a soldier as being a man of peace. Yes, we have peacekeeping missions where certain countries send peacekeepers to patrol an area of the world where there is violence.
And they are there in order to keep the peace. They are not there primarily to fire shots or to deal with things, but they are ready to do so.
But here is a soldier whose feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Does that mean that I am to be ready to preach the gospel whenever there's an opportunity?
I don't believe that's the main thought, but I wouldn't deny the thought. I wouldn't take it out of that.
Expression here. It's a wonderful thing always to be ready to have a word for the Lord.
To be positive.
But what does it really mean to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace?
It means that the one who is living in heavenly places.
The one who is living in the consciousness of the fact that all his hopes are heavenly.
That everything that really belongs to him is up there, that every hope of his is centered not down here, but up there. He can walk in peace through this world.
A brother that's sitting here today made the remark once and I have enjoyed it ever since, he said. Did anything happen to day that disturbed the throne of God?
Some of us are old enough to remember President Lyndon Johnson of the United States back in the 1960s, and I understand that.
Excuse me?
There was a point in his life when he was having a very important meeting, cabinet meeting.
With his closest advisors, with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense and various others.
Over the war in Vietnam and somebody came in and interrupted that cabinet meeting.
00:30:05
I guess if you're going to interrupt the cabinet meeting that includes not only the president of the United States but a number of his closest advisers, you better have something pretty important to say.
And Johnson, I gather, was not very pleased about it until someone said, Sir, we have to interrupt to tell you that Martin Luther King has just been assassinated.
It shattered Johnsons Day, I understand, as well it might. It shattered that cabinet meeting. It broke up right away.
But does that ever happen? We say it reverently to God Himself.
Many times you and I may turn on a computer and say, wow, look at that piece of news or somebody else.
Comes to his or her desk in the morning and there is something staring them in the face.
That spoils their whole day. Does that ever happen to the Lord? Oh no.
Does it need to happen to you and me? No. Does it not mean that we should be burdened about something or concerned? Yes, we should. Should I shed tears? Yes, indeed I should. It doesn't mean that we are unfeeling. It doesn't mean that we shrug things off. It doesn't mean that we say, well, what happens, happens. Oh no.
And our Lord Jesus on earth never did that either. But to walk in peace means to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And that expression perhaps is hard to wrap our minds around. But I for my own soul, I believe it simply means.
That having had peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And knowing where I am going and knowing where the pathway will end.
And knowing that an all wise Father, whatever he allows in my life, is allowing it for my blessing.
I can walk through this world in peace.
What an effect that has not only on my own soul, but on the lives with whom I live and move, with those with whom I interact, whether believers or unbelievers. Peace.
Verse 16.
Above all.
Why does it say above all?
These first few things, if we could categorize them.
They set us straight, first of all.
I have to be set straight before I can go out to war.
The defensive armor must be in place before I can pick up and deal with the offensive weapon.
Every army knows that that defensive Armory must be in place.
And if my state of soul, if my walk before the Lord is not right, the offense is not going to be worth having.
And don't think for the moment that I am pointing the finger anywhere but back here. But I want to lay this on each one of our hearts because many times in these last days.
Perhaps you and I collectively and maybe individually, bemoan the fact that we are not more effective as.
Ambassadors for Christ in this world.
We are not more effective in preaching the gospel. We are not more effective in sharing the truth with others.
I suggest that part of it has to start with the fact that the armor is not in place, and if there are too many ****** in my armor, Satan has a place to get in.
His Wiles of the devil. The Wiles of the devil. What is a while it means something sneaky, something underhanded, something that catches me unawares.
00:35:01
You will remember that there were times in the Old Testament.
When somebody got hit even though he had a good armor on.
There was a king by the name of Ahab, we remember, who went out to war and what happened. Somebody drew a bow at a venture, hit him right in the wrong spot. Ahab was a little bit concerned about that war, despite the fact that he dismissed Mikhail's prophecy about him. He wanted Jehoshaphat to be in the limelight and not he.
But the Lord saw to it that that arrow that was drawn at a venture hit its mark.
And to know Satan, he has a way of getting his arrows in sometimes or his fiery darts. And so it says here number four in verse 16.
Taking the shield of faith above all, you know a breastplate has to stay in place, but a shield can be moved. A shield can be moved around.
A shield can be held here, or held there, or over there or over there.
Very, very important.
And here we have the shield of faith.
If Satan knows that, he can't aim something at the breastplate of righteousness.
He will shoot fiery darts because he can aim them anywhere. They can hit me anywhere. In the head, in the arm, in the leg, in the abdomen, anywhere.
But my shield can be against them. If I've got that shield. What is the shield of faith? Oh thank God. I know the vast majority and I hope all here.
Have that faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
You have no question about your salvation. You know that if something were to happen to you today that it would be to be with Christ, which is far better.
But as we've often remarked, it takes only a little faith to bring the soul to heaven.
It takes only a little faith in the right person.
But what about the faith in our everyday lives?
Quite a while ago now.
I remember a young man.
Where things had gone badly in his life.
I knew him, knew him well. I have no question that he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But when things didn't go well in his life and some rather serious difficulties came into his life, he made this remark not to me but to someone else, but it was repeated to me.
He said, and I hesitate to repeat the words, but he said these words.
The Lord let me down.
The Lord let me down.
Going back even a number of years before that, and this would be at least 40 years ago, I was talking to a sister who was old enough to be my mother and I wanted to be respectful of her and to her, but she was obviously having a very difficult time in her life.
And she complained about this and that and the other thing, and about the way things were going in her local assembly. And I, of course, was an assembly far distant from where I lived, and I knew nothing of the details of what she was telling me.
And I ventured to say to her, I said, have you been able to get on your knees and take the burden to the Lord? Have you been able to raise some of these questions that you have before the Lord?
And her answer was.
I have tried to do that.
But the Lord doesn't answer me.
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What was wrong? I would suggest that both of them had dropped the shield of faith and the devil had gotten a fiery dart in. What was the fiery dart? The dart was the same kind of thing he said to Eve thousands of years ago. Yeah, hath God said?
And way back in the Garden of Eden, Satan persuaded Eve that God wasn't doing the very best for her, that somehow God was keeping back something that was good and for her blessing. And Satan, if he can, will put a fiery dart in that will persuade you that the Lord isn't doing the very best for you, that he hasn't given you a, shall I use the term, a fair shake that he hasn't given you.
Breakfast.
But can still remember a brother praying in a prayer meeting and I hesitate again to repeat it. And I'm not throwing stones at the brother.
But I must confess that I shuddered a little when I heard the words. He was praying about another brother who was having a lot of serious difficulties in his life. And the brother began to detail the difficulties in his prayer, and he actually said these words. He said, Lord, if it is your will, please give him a break.
There's nothing wrong with praying that the Lord will alleviate the suffering. There's nothing wrong with praying, for example, for Jim Highland, that the Lord will alleviate suffering. But does the Lord ever allow anything in your life and mine which is not for a good and blessing? Of course not. And in your life and mine, I believe we will find if we take the trial from Him, that we will learn far.
More from that trial than if we simply had smooth and easy times. Now, that doesn't mean that the trials aren't sometimes difficult. And we have to ask the Lord why He allowed it, because it can be for different reasons. It doesn't mean that the Lord is chastising me for something in my life with which he is displeased.
It can be a number of things. Sometimes the Lord simply wants to see.
The fruit from one who goes through a trial and glorifies God in the midst of it, that's wonderful. Sometimes the Lord sees that there is fruit, but He says there's a potential for more fruit in that person. And whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. I grew up on a fruit farm, and we pruned trees that were producing well with far more care.
Than we did with one that wasn't doing so well. Why? Because we knew that that tree that was producing well had potential. Very definitely.
The shield of faith, and I believe it says above all, because if I let that shield of faith down, Satan is going to get that fiery dart in and persuade me that I'm not really.
Permitted to trust the Lord in the way that I should. And if you and I have that faith in the Lord, in everything.
We can go to Him, take any difficulty, any problem to Him, in faith that He will hear and answer. Now, that doesn't mean He'll answer necessarily in my time frame. Sometimes I want the answer right away, and the Lord doesn't always do things right away. But does he hear? Indeed He does.
Maybe you've failed. Maybe I have failed and I hesitate to go to the Lord in faith because I say, how can I go to the Lord when I have been disobedient or I have allowed sin to enter my life?
Ah, I can always go to the Lord and say, Lord, I confess that sin.
But now, Lord, once I have confessed that sin, I can seek for the Lord's help in it. I can seek for the Lord's help in the midst of a difficulty. I never need to be. If we could use the term at my wit's end, I may be at my own wit's end, but the Lords never.
At his wit's end.
00:45:03
Verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation.
The helmet.
The helmet goes on the head.
Is the head important to be protected? Indeed it is.
In years gone by, an arrow to the head perhaps was not as dangerous as it could be. Depended on how much force was behind the arrow, whether it was shot from a bow or from a cross bow or something like that. But other things could hit the head the Romans developed.
Catapults and things like that that were perfected, I think, under Julius Caesar. Important to protect the head and in your life and mine, it is important that the mind be protected. The helmet of salvation. Does that mean that?
I need to be saved or no? It goes beyond that. It means that on my head is that absolute certainty.
That at the end of the journey, my salvation is going to me, not merely to be with Christ.
But to be like Christ?
What gave the Apostle Paul that boldness when he stood before his accusers?
What gave man all down through history that boldness to stand before?
Those who were physically stronger and menacing in every possible way.
And yet they stood there boldly before them. What was it?
Oh, the helmet of salvation was firmly in place. The helmet of salvation.
Sometimes if we have sinned in our lives, we don't have that helmet of salvation in the same way, and we find that if we get far enough away from the Lord, perhaps we can even doubt our salvation or be a little hazy about what's what's going to happen and so on. Is that ever necessary?
No, indeed it isn't. No, that helmet of salvation ought always to be firmly in place.
So that as you and I go about in this world, we realize.
Very definitely where we are headed. Salvation in Scripture, as we know, is spoken of in more than one way.
There is the salvation that we have experienced when we get saved.
Saved from the penalty of sin. But there is the salvation which we experienced, all we experience all the way along the Christian pathway. The experience of being saved from the power of sin in our lives.
And finally, when we are called home to be with the Lord, not in death, but when the Lord comes for us, we will be saved from the absolute presence of sin.
Now don't get me wrong, I want to make it clear what I'm saying. The believer who departs to be with Christ is definitely saved from the presence of sin right away. But those of us who are still here will not be saved from it until the Lord takes us home, until He comes. How long that will be, we don't know. We have said the Lord's coming must be soon.
I firmly believe that.
But here we are.
Approaching the year 2020.
And we are still here. I don't expect to see this year lived out, but we don't know. Maybe it will.
But in the meanwhile, we need to be wearing that helmet of salvation.
But now we come to number six.
And the sword of the Spirit.
Notice that the.
Offensive weapon is toward the end.
Again, we repeat, everything has to be in place as to defense.
Before I can go on the offense.
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The sword of the Spirit.
What we want to emphasize today is that it is not your sword or my sword.
Sometimes we try and take it up that way, but if I think that a mere knowledge of the word of God and that is important, I am not in any way speaking against that very important. But if I think somehow that a complete knowledge of the word of God.
Not that it's ever complete, but a good knowledge of the Word of God constitutes my sword.
Ah, no, I'm mistaken. It's the sword of the spirit.
Many years ago, a brother in a reading meeting asked this question, What is your sword? And someone younger said it's the word of God. And that is true. It says that here, which is the word of God. But the old brother wisely remarked, he said, your sword is that part of the word of God that you have read and meditated on.
And walked him. That is your sword.
And if I think that I can use the word of God in the power of the old nature or in the power of the flesh.
I will find that I am sadly mistaken. Suddenly I will be fumbling for the sword and I can't find it just when I need it and maybe an hour later I think my.
What I should have said on that occasion. Why do I not have just the right word?
Because what has gone before has not been done. And again I speak to my own heart.
But what is needed, I would suggest today more than perhaps anything else, is those who are walking in the good of what they know. To have the sword of the Spirit doesn't mean you have to know everything, Oh no.
It means that you are walking in the good of what you do know and that you want to know more.
And here's where it comes down if we could use the expression to where the rubber hits the road.
Do you and I take time to read the Word of God? We have busy lives nowadays. It's a difficult world. It's not easy to find time to read the word of God. But it's absolutely imperative and I need to walk in the good of it. I need to apply it.
I need to read the Word of God. I need to make time to read that good written ministry that the Lord gives us.
And has given us. And then I need to walk in the good of it. And if this precious book forms my life, occupies my mind, and is before me, I believe I will find that the Spirit of God is only too ready to enable me to use it as a sword.
But it cuts me too. It's A2 edged sword, isn't it? It cuts me too, and it should.
But that sword will be effective. I won't always see the effect of it.
Maybe I used that sword and I'm not conscious that it was even having an effect.
But the Lord is using it. I believe the Lord is using your sword and mind more than we think.
The Lord doesn't allow us to see the results of it because we would be lifted up in pride and think I've done something.
No, in a coming day we'll see the results of it. So never stop using the sword as the Lord gives you opportunity. And the sword isn't always used on an unbeliever either. The sword is to be used on a fellow believer. Just the right word spoken, the sword of the spirit.
It works. It has power.
And our time is nearly gone, but.
What pulls all of this together? What pulls it all together?
Verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints.
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And for me.
Prayer expresses my dependence and yours, and if there's no prayer in my life, there will be no power. Why? Because.
I must realize that despite the presence of the Spirit of God living within me, despite the knowledge of the Word of God that I may have, I am a dependent creature.
The life that I have is a derived life. It's life in Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the power and energy of that new life, and I cannot live independently of the Lord Himself. That's why our blessed Lord and Master found himself so often in prayer.
Departed into a mountain to pray. He spent all night in prayer. And so on. Why? Oh, because as the perfect dependent man, he showed us that example of how to live.
And walk and notice.
If I am really walking with the Lord, yes, there will be prayer for myself.
But it will take in All Saints, not just those within the sphere of my acquaintance either.
It will take in Saints everywhere, the whole body of Christ.
And Paul says and for me.
You might have thought, well, Paul, I don't need to pray for him. Probably the most faithful servant and the most energetic servant perhaps that the Lord ever had.
Do we need to pray for you, Paul? But here was Paul, at this point a prisoner.
And he needed the prayers of his brethren in order to be faithful. Notice that mean I can pray for every believer in the whole world within the sphere of my acquaintance. It's hard to do that sometimes. I don't know if others here, I'm sure you have, have had the experience of dear brethren and other lands Writing. It's easy today with e-mail, writing emails.
That are this long with details of things to pray about.
And sometimes I have to write back and say, brother, I'll do my best, but I find it almost impossible, impossible to remember all the names and places and details of all those needs that you mentioned.
But in a general way, my heart can go out to All Saints.
And.
Especially as it says here to those that are going on. Well, well, may the Lord bless His word to us.
Let us remember.
That today the armor, if it was ever needed, is needed more than ever. And as you and I approach the end of the dispensation and the Lord's coming draws near, may we not be LAX in putting on every piece of the armor.
You know and I know.
Sadly, about those who have failed in putting on the armor and whose lives.
Have become a shipwreck as a result of it, and I'm not immune to it. Neither are you. But if I'm ready to put on that armor, I need not fear Not the power of Satan so much, but the Wiles, the sneakiness, the underhandedness of the devil.
That's where he gets believers more than anything else.
Let's sing part of another hymn in closing.
168.
Verses 4 and 50 Pardon us, Lord, that our love to thy name is so faint, with so much our affections to move. Verse five. O kindle within us a holy desire, like that which was found in thy people of old. 168 Verses 4:00 and 5:00.