Address—C. Hendricks
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Oh Lord, when we the path we trace which thou on earth has tried to man, thy wondrous love and grace, thy faithfulness to God, we wonder if thy lowly mind and fame would likely be in all our rest and pleasure. Finding learning, Lord of the someone raised opportunities.
Who?
Let's begin reading tonight from Ephesians Chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter 6.
Verse 10.
Ephesians 610. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God, that she may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
Against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins gird 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 ducks of the wicked, and 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 thereunto 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, for which I am an ambassador of bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
We are quite acquainted, I believe, with the truth that the Epistle to the Ephesians contains.
Probably the highest truth that we have in the entire Bible setting before us Christ in His exaltation, God's eternal purposes with respect to Christ and His church.
And all that we've been brought into in him, in members of the one body, being the habitation of God by the Spirit, being sealed by the Spirit, and having an inheritance in him, being chosen in him before the foundation of the world, blessed with spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
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Children of God.
Saints of God.
All the blessings that he unfolds to us in this epistle, and they are the 1St 3 chapters we might say are the doctrinal part of the epistle.
As much individual truth in chapter one, His eternal purposes, in the 10th verse, we have God's eternal thought to head up all things in Christ, heavenly and earthly, even in Him in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
So we are brought into the most intimate and nearest place of relationship with himself, and the chapter ends with Christ being head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, that Philip Allen all.
We could go into that in more detail. That's not my purpose tonight. I wanted to look more at the practical side of the epistle. First three chapters we have the doctrine, and then chapters 4-5 and six we have the the practical.
Response that flows from our position in Christ and all the blessings that we've been brought into notice in Chapter 4, it begins.
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith your call, when he talks about fear about our walk, and again in chapter in verse 17 of chapter 4. This I say, therefore testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
And we have in these three chapters 4-5 and six we have 3 spheres of responsibility, 3 spheres in which the Christian finds himself walking. Chapter four, one through 16, is the sphere of the assembly. We have assembly truth, collective truth. There is one body and how we are to walk or we're to walk, worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called.
And that calling is we're calling members of the body of Christ. That's the number one point. And we're called to be the habitation of God by the Spirit, the Spirit of God indwelling the Saints collectively. You get that at the end of Chapter 2.
These are the two things that we're called to in our collective relationship with one another. Again, we are called to be members of the body of Christ and to walk worthy of that calling. And we're called to be the habitation of God by the Spirit, the Spirit of God, of inhabiting the house which we are. We are indeed the House of God and the temple of God. It's not my intention to develop that anymore tonight.
But just to point out that the 1St 16 verses of chapter 4.
Have to do with the sphere of our collective responsibility in the assembly with respect to fellow members of the body of Christ and those who are in the house which the Spirit of God inhabits. Then from chapter 4, verse 17 through.
Through chapter 5, verse 22, we have our responsibility.
In the world, our walk. In the world we're not to walk as the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. We were once in that state. We were once Gentiles, and now we're Christians. And so we're not to walk as they walk. We're to walk in a way which is glorifying to the Lord and pleasing to Him.
The reason I was thinking of this hymn that we sang is that the one this hymn sets before us is the Faithful. 10 Lord, when we the path retrace, which thou on earth has tried to man, thy wondrous loving grace, thy faithfulness to God.
Faithful amidst unfaithfulness, the darkness only light of its thy father's name, confessing in his will be light. We're called to be that unmoved by satans. Subtle Wiles, we're called to resist. Stand against the Wiles of the devil. He was attacked by the enemy, and he was unnewed by Satan's several wives. So his path.
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Is our path.
And as well as we consider the Christian warfare, which are the verses that we read tonight, that we realize that a warfare has to do with three Spears from assembly. The world Christian finds himself in the world rubbing shoulders with the unsaved rubbing shoulders even with other Christians in his business or at school or as he passes through this world and then the last.
Sphere.
Is from chapter 522.
Chapter 69 and it's the sphere of the of the family. Notice in verse 22 wives in verse 25, Husbands, chapter six, one children.
Verse two father and mother parents and verse four and he fathers in verse 5 servants in verse 9 in chapter 6 Masters.
So you have a wife and her husband, children and the parents, servants and masters. This is the domestic sphere. This is the circle of the home and the family. And there are, there is conduct which is proper to the high calling that we've been brought into is unfolding in those first three chapters which.
Is appropriate and proper for those of us who are the Lords.
Now Satan is going to attack us.
He's very subtle, he's a wily foe and he is going to seek to cause us to fail.
In anyone or two or all three of those spheres, the assembly, the world, the family, any one of them. And if he can troop us up, he will do so in order to engage the enemy.
We have to realize who the enemy is. We have to realize what he's about. We have to realize the spheres that we are responsible to walk worthy of the Lord in, and we have to put on the whole armor of God. There's no way we can stand against the Wiles and the artifices of the enemy if we don't have all the armor of God on. We cannot do without.
Any peace of the armor?
We need it all because if we fail to take and to put on the whole honor of God, the enemy will find entrance in that very area and defeat us in that area.
Notice verse 11 of chapter 6 put on.
Verse 13 Take unto you the whole arm of God.
Verse 16 of all taking the shield of faith. Verse 17 Take the helmet of salvation. These are action verbs. They bring before us our responsibility. We are to put on the army. He doesn't put it on for us, He provides it for us and it's ours to take it, put it on, to wear it, and to be equipped to be equips us.
He gives us all that is necessary to be engaged in this warfare and.
It's for us, it's our responsibility to put it on notice, verse 10, where we began reading, says finally. And I read, having said all that, he has said the doctrinal part of the epistle, and then he has.
Encouraged the Saints to walk worthy of their calling, and not to walk as the other Gentiles walk, and set before them the wonderful truths.
That pertain to the different spheres that we were talking about, the assembly sphere, the sphere of the world, the sphere of the domestic sphere, the sphere of the family. And then he says finally my breath be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
In order to engage in the warfare that we're engaged in, and to do it successfully, we need the whole armor of God. Absolutely essential. The strength lies in him does not lie enough, finding my brethren be strong in the Lord.
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Strength is his. He is the victor, the mighty victor. He is the one that has vanquished the enemy. And the strength that we have lies in dependence and obedience to the word of God. That was his path. His was a path of loneliness. His was a path of dependence. His was a path of implicit obedience. That's where our strength locks. It doesn't lie in our reasonings. It doesn't lie in our.
Fancy strength?
Are fancy that we are able to meet various situations that in front of us as we go through this world. But we need to have that spirit of dependence be strong in the Lord. He has provided all that we need, and in the power of His mind and in the power of His might. We can never excuse ourselves when we fail by saying, well, that's the way I am naturally, if I lose my temper, and short of temper and irritable of.
Disposition and I lose my temper.
I can't say, well that's the way I am naturally. That's just my nature to be short tempered because the Apostle Paul, before he was converted, calls himself an insolence overbearing man. And after he got saved, he says I was gentle among you as a nurse cherish with her children and as a father that deals with his own children. So the grace of God and all that God has provided for us.
In this, warfare is sufficient to enable us to overcome all the natural tendencies of our nature, whatever they are.
Some are much more patient than others, some are more quick tempered and some are slow to arrive at a decision. Others are very quick and arriving at a decision and they might be impetuous and say things before they think. Peter was something like that, very, very outspoken and oftentimes he spoke too soon.
John and James were called the sons of Thunder. You don't usually think of John as the son of Thunder, because when he came became acquainted with the Lord Jesus, he made it his business to be near to the Lord Jesus. He is always the one you you can trace in the Gospels, that was near to the Lord Jesus who lay on his bosom. He was so close to him that even Peter, the boldness of the apostles, had to nudge John and the Lord said in the 13th of John.
He says one of you shall betray me. Peter had to nudge John and say yes, who is it?
Well.
Down asking the question, Peter generally so bold, was not at that time he wasn't close enough as John was. Well, we want to cultivate that spirit that we had to see in John, though naturally speaking he was a son of Thunder. You see that that nature coming out in John when John and James the Lord's face was set to go to Jerusalem, and the Samaritans wouldn't receive him. And they said, shall we command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them, even as Elias did?
In the Lord Jesus had to rebuke him and say, you know not that manual spiritual, for the Son of man has not come to destroy him his lives, but to save them. And then they went to another village. So there are even occasions traced out in the gospels where the the, the, the natural disposition of John came out. Well, we can't hide behind that and can't excuse our failures. And that's why it's important that we realize that our strength.
To resist the enemy. Our strength. To stand for the Lord is, is his strength. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole arm of God that you may be able to stand against the Wilds of the devil, the Wiles that presents him in the character of a more as an Angel of light. So the one that will present a case to us that seems very plausible.
Reasonable to act that way. But it is. It is his subtlety that would lead us astray. Get us to act. If thou be the Son of God, you're hungry. If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread and to satisfy your hunger. But the Lord Jesus didn't have a word from the Father to do that. And so he said, Man shall not live that bread alone. But every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man, that he didn't have a word to do that, and so he would not act in.
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In Independence of the Father.
And that's one of the things that I want to stress tonight that all that we're going to say about the Christian warfare, if we if we just talk about it in a doctrinal way, we just talk about having this different ward, different armor on. And we don't relate it where we learn principles of truth from the epistles but we don't relate it back to the person of the Lord Jesus who was down here and went through this scene and met all the artifices of the wild and.
Machinations of the enemy. We don't relate it to him, to the Lord Jesus himself.
We're not going to have the power that we should have turned back to the 4th chapter and it says in verse 20 while we're on this point, but you have not so learned Christ.
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.
The truth is in Jesus.
And again, that's why I thought of seeing this hymn. We want to we want to ponder his path. We want to ponder his speed and how he walked. We're to walk in his steps.
Were to walk as he walked, John says first John 26 he that saith he abideth in him off himself also so to walk even as he walked.
Blessed precious Savior to walk down here the path of lowly dependence. When he came from heaven's glory and laid aside the form of God and took upon Him the form of a servant. He then came into a different set of circumstances where it was appropriate for Him. The eternal Son, who had never up to that time obeyed because he always given orders. He was the Supreme commander. He was God the Son.
And only that. But now he becomes a man, and it's proper for man to be obedient to to his God and to his Father. And so here we see that perfect obedience manifested in the Lord Jesus Hebrew. Hebrews 5 puts it this way. Though he were Son, though he were that Person who is the eternal Son of God, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
He came into the place where obedience was proper to him, and he never departed from it, never departed from it.
But that the world may know that I love the Father, even as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do arise horoscope, and that was his path.
The Father has not left me alone, for I do always those things that are pleasing to Him. The root principle of sin is to do your own will. Sin is lawlessness is the absence of being subject to another. And when the Lord Jesus became a man, He took the place of subjection.
Took the place of subjection. As God He is the supreme ruler. But he became a man. He entered his own creation, and when he did so he assumed the responsibility to be a subject and obedient. How wonderful to trace that and.
The truth we learned the epistles. We must always relate them.
To the Lord Jesus the truth as it is in Jesus, notice it doesn't say in Christ, it says you have not so learned Christ. It shall be that you have heard him and have been taught by him, even as the truth is in Jesus, in the man, in the man Jesus that blessed one used down here.
So the question should not be asked, I've heard it asked. A certain circumstance presents itself to us and we're in a quandary what to do? And we say, what would Jesus do? That's not the right question. The right question is what did Jesus do?
If we say What would Jesus do? Then the answer depends upon what I think he would do. But no.
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I believe there's never a circumstance that we could be in.
That he hasn't been here.
He has met all the necessitudes of life the word says so. It says that he was tested. He was tempted in all points, like as we are cinepark, every trial and difficulty, temptation and testing that we're put through. He went through sin apart. He had no temptation from evil nature because he didn't have one. That's The only exception, but all the testings and all the temptations from without, from the enemy without.
And from all that is we meet with as we pass through this scene, the results of sin, sickness, pain, suffering, sorrow, weeping, He went through all that he had compassion and love and feeling and righteous indignation at the hardness of heart of those that would not believe while I mentioned that point.
Notice in chapter 4, verse 26 being angry.
And sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Turn back to mark chapter 3, marks Gospel, chapter 3. All of these truths that they read in the Epistles, we want to always connect them with the Blessed Lord Jesus.
Mark 3 verse one he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a wooden hand, and they watched him whether he would heal him on the Saturday that they might accuse him.
And he saith unto the man which had the withered hands stand for it. And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? But they tell their peace. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, you say it unto the man stretch forth on hand, And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored old as the other. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him.
How they might destroy him.
It's driving because he had healed men who sat today.
Well, that provoked the Lord Jesus to a righteous holy Indian nation and angry.
One of the Puritan writers has said about this verse in Ephesians 4, verse 26, to get angry and Sydney that we ought to be angry at nothing but sin.
Nothing but sin. Oftentimes we get angry when we get offended and when we get insulted and when our rights are trampled upon. But that's not the that's not righteous anger at all, That's just self justification. And that's the kind of anger that the word tells us we're not to have. Notice At the end of chapter four in Ephesians it says in verse 31 what all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be kind one to another and so on. So I believe the only time in the New Testament.
In the Epistles, where anger is a proper emotion, is here in Ephesians 426, there are times when it would be sin not to be angry.
From the Lord's heart is trampled. In August, when the Lord saw how that they were making merchandise in the father's house, the overthrew the money changers tables, drove them out and said make not my father's house and House of merchandise. There was that the zeal of U.S. House devouring him. And there was a righteous anger against the the profanation, the profaning of the.
Father's house. We ought to have that righteous indignation with sin when it's presented to us, but we must not dwell upon it. That's why immediately it says consignment, because that can so quickly degenerate into personal feelings.
Against the individual that may have committed the offense which is so which is so grievous. These Pharisees, the Lord says, is it is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they wouldn't answer him because set their teeth and just were waiting for him to do that which they could accuse him of and.
And there was no right feeling in their souls. They were locked into a religious system and legal way of doing things, and they couldn't break out of that. They couldn't see how the grace of God was greater than all their legal restrictions and forms and ceremonies, and that going out in goodness to meet a need.
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Goes beyond the letter of the law, which they were so bound by, and that caused the Lord Jesus anger. He looked upon them. There are things that we would be wrong, absolutely wrong, not to be angry about, but then we mustn't dwell on it. So it immediately says, And sin, let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Very well known, brother.
Some years ago with the Lord now just to say never.
Lay your head down on your toe at night with an unkind thought towards anyone.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Don't hold that anger, It will soon be generated into sin. You will give place to the devil. And so he says in the next verse.
And neither give place to the devil in verse 27.
Well, let's go on to the 6th chapter now and really giving some thoughts that flow from the the armor that we have.
And we will remember these thoughts as we proceed in chapter 6 of Ephesians, verse 11. Put on the whole arm of God. But you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil, the whole armor of God. I want to emphasize that it's set again in verse 13, taken into the whole arm of God. We cannot do without anyone that's provided to us.
The Enemy, verse 12. 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. Now that last expression, high places, is This is the fifth time in the Epistle to the Ephesians where that expression is. Let's quickly look at them. Chapter one, verse 4.
Verse 3 Excuse me, Chapter one. Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ, heavenly places or the heavenlies. You notice the word places is is in italics.
Which means it's been supplied by the translators. It's really in heavenlies, in the heavenlies in Christ. So our blessings, our spiritual, and they're heavenly.
Then at the end of chapter one, that's the first occurrence of that expression, the end of chapter one, verse 20. It says, verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward? Who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places in the heavenlies. Christ is seated in the heavenlies. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.
He's seated there. Our blessings are there. And then in Chapter 2, verse 6, God hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenlies in heavenly places. In Christ Jesus, our blessings are in the heavenlies. Christ has been exalted far above all principality and power, and seated on high in the highest place in the heavenlies, and we're seated in the heavenlies in him.
Our position? This is the doctrinal part of the epistle.
Our blessings are heavenly, our blessings are spiritual, and he is in the heavenlies and we're seated there. And in the third chapter, verse four, we have the 4th instance to the intent that now that is the truth of the mystery that he's been talking about in the third chapter.
Is that unfolded and the mystery consists of verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs with the Jews.
And of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel joint partakers. I'm going to read that as it is in a new translation. But the Gentiles should be joint heirs and a joint body and joint partakers of this promise in Christ by the gospel. That is, there's three things mentioned, and the truth of the mystery is that the Gentiles are joint heirs with the Jews in these three different ways.
There's no subordination now. The Old Testament speaks of the blessing of the Gentiles, but always subordinate to Israel. Israel is the head, and the Gentiles come in and play subordinate to Israel. They're going to be the head in that coming day, and the Lord will reign in Jerusalem and and Israel will be in a place of promise. Today they're not, but they will be in that coming day. But in that day the Gentiles will be blessed also, but under Israel, subordinate to them.
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Not as joint ears, not as joint members of the one body, not as joint partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. That's the mystery that Paul is unfolding here in Ephesians 3 and it's in it's verse 10. Now it's to the intent that now, right now, under the principalities and powers, in heavenly places in the heavenlies, there's that same expression that he might might be made known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God so.
God is brought out of these Gentiles, those that were without Christ. They were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope and without God in this world, God has brought up the Gentiles into this one body, made the joint heirs joint partakers of all the blessings that the Jews are brought into. There's no advantage of the Jew over the Gentile today. We're all blessed jointly.
In Christ? Well, that's the mystery that was hidden and never revealed in the Old Testament.
That the Gentiles should be brought into a place of favor and blessing just with the Jew and and there's no advantage of the Jew over the Gentile in this present day. Now the heavenly beings, the principalities and powers in heavenly places are learning through the Church the manifold wisdom of God. That God in his marvelous wisdom has purpose to have a bride for his son church.
Is composed of June Gentile and he's brought them together into one new man made peace and.
That the the heavenly aims of the principalities and powers of the heavenlies are learning the manifold wisdom of God through the ascendant marvelous grace of God and wisdom of God. That's the fourth time. And then the fifth time is in our 6th chapter.
The one that we were looking at, verse 12, Let's read it again. Well, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We're not in a wrestling ring fitting our physical strength against an opponent. That's not the nature of the conflict, Paul says. But against principalities.
Against rulers, Against the ruler, Against powers, Against the rulers of the darkness of this world, Against spiritual wickedness in the heavens. In chapter 3, the powers that are mentioned in the heavenlies are.
The good powers, those angels elect holy angels. Here they are fallen angels that are mentioned. Both are in the heavens. And here we have a power that is in the very sphere where Christ is the very sphere where we are seated. The very sphere in which all our blessings are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies the very sphere where the good angels behold and manifold wisdom of God.
In the very sphere where the evil angels, the evil forces are raised against us.
To cause us to misrepresent.
What we are in Christ, whether it be an assembly in the world, in our families, to misrepresent in some way, and in order to properly withstand the enemy, in order to resist him and to be aware of his Wiles, his cunning. He presents himself not as a roaring lion here, but the wild suggests. He presents himself as a very subtle, crafty, wily foe, transforming himself even into an Angel of light, so as to deceive us.
And the apostle says in chapter 4.
Of Ephesians he says, verse 14, That we henceforth these gifts have been given in the assembly, so that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love. And they grow up unto him in all things, that he who is the head, even the Christ.
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So we've been given all the helps that we need in order that we be not deceived, that we be not misled, that we do not carry away into all kinds of false people, doctors, and they are legion out there in the Christian world. We are in the last days. The tree has grown into a massive system housing all kinds of birds of the air.
Unclean birds Speaking of these principalities and powers in the heavenlies that are on Satan's side and also it houses the clean birds, the principalities and powers that around the world side. But the enemy is arrayed against us. We should be aware of it. The way so many of us Christians live our lives is though we are not in a conflict, we're not even aware of being in a conflict. We're not even aware of the.
Spears in which the enemy will attack us and try to to cause us to.
To fail and to misrepresent the Lord.
Be unfaithful. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavens. Turn back to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 for a moment.
2nd Corinthians chapter 10.
He says.
I'm going to read from verse one now. I found myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of the price.
Notice how he begins his chapter. He beseeches them by by his meekness and his gentleness, meekness and gentleness suppressed.
Who had presence in base among you?
But being absent in bold toward you?
But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
All had told them he was going to come. He didn't come.
He tells him in the 4th chapter of the first epistle. I didn't come to you when I said I was because I wanted to scare you.
He had written a very faithful letter and he waited for the Spirit of God to work in their hearts repentance and self judgment.
He worked for the Lord to work. He waited for the Lord to work that work in their hearts that only the spirit of God can do. And they were saying he's he's not true his word. Paul is not true to his word. They were saying about Cloud, that he's only out for what he can get out of you. Corinth was a very wealthy assembly. Paul tells them in his second epistle that he determined he wouldn't take anything from you.
He was going to cut off occasion from those who were seeking to find thought with him and underrate.
To speak against his ministry and against himself, he took away all ground from them by refusing to take from them. And he's referring to this kind of thing. He says some think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. We said we were coming and we didn't come. So we're not, we're not being LED of the Spirit, because if we said we were coming and the spirit really LED us to say that we would have come. That was the argument that they were laughing against the impossible.
False argument, he intended on coming, but he waited, and he had good reason to wait.
And he says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not common, but mighty. Through God they are not common. They are not according to natural mandate, schemes and plans and manipulates people. And you see someone that manipulates bread, that tries to manipulate his bread, tries to get around and tries to to, to use worldly wisdom. They do that all the time in management. A good leader is one who knows how to to get the people to do what he wants them to do.
Well, he wants them to, but true leader.
In the face of God is to get the people to walk in obedience and dependence upon the Jesus.
And not to exalt self, but to exalt Christ. We only have one to exalt, and we only have one to follow. And I would do you a great disservice, or anyone that would speak to you if they would get you to follow them. No, we want to follow him and lose sight of all inventors of men. So it's as though we walk in the flesh. We do not war after the flesh.
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For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but.
Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ anything that was against the knowledge of God. He would refuse and cast it down, and seek to lead the Saints here in quantum into a proper understanding of the mind of God and the word of God.
And to be obedient to Christ? Well, we could go on in that chapter, but let's go back to the 6th of Ephesians.
I do not plan on getting through these verses tonight. I didn't plan it when I read them. But we have another night where we can continue the Lord helping if He's come before then, and if then we'll be home and all these precious truths will be fully understood by us.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, there's 12, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places as we look around this beloved at the Christian community. And by that I don't mean just a gathering of Saints. I'm talking about all believers the world over. And we see the division, some 12 to 1400 denominations in this country alone. And we see how that the enemy has.
In this warfare, he has succeeded to divide and scan the flock he is succeeding in.
Destroying Kristen Holmes, he has succeeded in causing brethren to act upon the principles of the world and their business dealings in their relationships with their fellow men and with one another outside of the assembly sphere.
And it's because we don't have all the harm around. We don't have the whole armor of God.
And you don't have that spirit of dependence and submission. And we may not be aware of the character of the conflict. In order for us to really know the true nature of the conflict, we have to understand our position in Christ, risen and glorified at the right hand of God.
We have to understand that we are identified with the rejected man, one whom God is exalted upon the highest heavens, and we're seated in the heavenlies in Him. There our blessings are there. Our portion is there. This is not our home. This is not our portion here. And the measure in which we don't understand that and seek our portion here get occupied with things here, is the measure in which the enemy has succeeded. It causes to misrepresent.
The Lord.
And to not walk as a Christian, to not walk as a separated 1.
This world is filled with religious systems, Christian.
That are not walking together pulling together and they're not separate. So many of us Christians are not separate from the world we are trying to get. We're trying to make the most get the the, the best of both worlds. I think is what we're trying to do often times and it cannot be done that is that is violating the scriptural principle. He cannot that he should know he cannot serve God and that.
Cannot God enriches God, and he that will be rich falls into temptation, snare into many?
Hurtful whose lust with strong men in destruction and tradition of soil.
So we're in a war there, and the enemy would would get us in any one of these three spheres to act contrary to the word of God.
Now verse 13. Wherefore take unto you That's an action that we have to take that armor to the whole armor of God, but you may be able to withstand in the evil day. We've never been in a day that's more evil than today.
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The evil day, and having done all to stand.
Notice stand that you may be able to withstand an evil day, and having done all to stand verse 14, stand therefore.
Take a stand. If the truth of God isn't worth standing for what is?
If this book doesn't give us what we are, what is worth standing for and and sacrificing for, and giving up earthly gain and earthly prosperity? What is by the truth and sell it not?
And if the truth of God isn't worth any sacrifice, what he is.
The prophet Elijah challenged the children of Israel. If they'll be God, follow him. If the Lord be God, follow him, follow.
The Wishy Washy Latitude and Aryan Laodicean Luke, Warm Christians.
Most distressing.
It's time that we stood up and were counted. I am his and belong to him. I'm going to live for him. I'm going to have that entire arm around that I'm going to be able to withstand the enemy. That I'll be aware of his wild and understand all his cunning and all his subtleties and how he's seeking to destroy. He's a great destroyer. He is destroyed. A true representation of the assembly, except in a very small remnant.
And he's doing his best. Did you know that that there are many, many groups of Satan in the world today and when they pray to their leader, the devil, they pray for the break up Christian families?
Because they know that if they can, that if Christian families have broken up and everything is destroyed, that's the backbone of the nation. It's the backbone of the assembly. The assembly cannot be any stronger than those who make it up composed. And if there's distress, if there's a.
Disharmony and unhappiness in the family.
Cannot help if we stop and you send.
If one is not going on for the Lord and his business dealings.
He has a bad conscience, Paul said. I have exercised myself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
And how important that is? Well, now we come to the armor stand. Therefore having your loins gird about with truth.
The girded lines speak of service. When the children of Israel ate the Passover land, their wines were girded. They had shoes on their feet. They were ready to move out of Egypt. They were ready for action. When the Lord Jesus and John 13 washed the disciples speed, he girded himself. He got down at their feet. He he came their servant in a new in a new way to remove the defilements of this world, and serving us in that capacity right now from the glory.
He's serving us. He was the perfect servant here, but his lines were girded about with truth. When they asked him who art thou, he said altogether that which I say to you, he he he was the truth. He spoke the truth. He lived the truth. It's not like it's true of us. So often. Do as I say. Don't do as I do.
He was the perfect expression of all the Pacific, all that, he said.
And so when they went to take him, he opened not his mouth. He did not resist. He had taught them not to. He had talked about the man might be on one cheek, turn the other cheek. And that's exactly the way he acted.
As the truth is in Jesus, that's the truth that we learn as it is in Jesus. As he walked down here, let us study him. Let us take all these precepts and teachings and and doctrines of the New Testament epistles and let us relate them to the truth as it is in Jesus. As he walked down here. Now what would he do? But what did he do? How did he react in this situation? How did he act? Was he a politician? Study him.
Did he change the world? Is that why he came? The first time? He will the second time He comes, coming in an entirely different way. He's going to establish his rights. He's going to set up his authority down here. He's going to subdue his enemies under his feet. But he didn't come.
The first time he came in, meekness and loneliness presented himself to his people to see if there was a heart in them that would respond to that kind of a Messiah. They were looking for a Messiah to come in power and glory to to freedom from the yoke of Rome. And the sentence make them the head. But they weren't in a in a moral state where it was possible for God to do it, and so the Lord came in lowly gods.
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Born in this stable, lady, the Manger, the son of man, if not where to lay his head.
From his birth, that lowly 1.
That wasn't a very attractive person to follow for the religious leaders of the day. They wanted something dynamic and powerful and to put the Gentiles in their proper place and to exalt Israel.
What were the hearts such as they had? It was impossible.
And so we have the Lord Jesus presenting himself, leaving the state of things just as he found them, and yet believing all that were oppressed of the devil, God was with him in healing and manifesting the goodness and the love in the heart of God in the midst of evil.
And distance and hardness as we saw there in 1/3.
Hardness of their hearts, which produced the emotion of anger, righteous saying.
Against their undefeated and hardness to the need of the soul where it was in the city.
Because they were locked into the system of religion that made them insensible.
Their insensibilities are manifested, the Lord says, even if He's of his own, his own disciples, oh.
Generation of Vipers, How long knowing? Who doesn't say? Generation of life is about herself. Who says that to the person. But he says, Oh, faithless generation, how long should I be with you? How long should I suffer?
He felt it and was science, so we should learn all these truths that we're talking about.
As the truth is in Jesus.
If you don't learn the truth of God as it is in Jesus, if you don't related to that blessing one.
Something's very lacking. He is the truth, he said. I am the way, the truth and the life. One man cometh unto the Father, but by me. So our lines are to be girded about with truth. Our service is to be according to truth.
According to true.
He is the truth. The Spirit of God is the truth. The Word is the truth. By word is the truth.
So we have the Spirit subjectively indwelling us as the power to live out all the truth of God.
Have our loins girted about with the truth teared up the loins of your mind, the apostle Peter says.
And then he says.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness beyond that.
And rescue your righteousness. Rescue protects the heart.
How much service is done going back to the loins of truth girded?
Gird your lungs. It's true.
How much service is done according to the truth today?
Christian how much is done in the business world? That is not according to truth, not according to righteousness.
Righteousness is very simply, doing the right thing, doing the right.
Doing the right thing, whether it's exercising my authority as a father in my family.
Whether it's a child being subject to the parents, the right thing for the children is to be subject.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
It's right for a child to go to obey. It's right for a child to do what he or she is told. It's wrong for them to assert their own independent wills.
It is right for them to obey.
It is right for a husband to love his wife even as Christ loved the church. It is right for the right to submit herself to her husband, even as the church was subject unto Christ. So let their wives be to their husbands and everything.
It is right to meet according to the truth of the one body, because we are one body impressed and not independent denominations, all of all of which deny that there is one body.
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It is right to give the Spirit of God the place supremacy in the assembly of the Saints when we come together, because we are the habitation of God by the Spirit.
And he is sovereign there, and he is given the place where he is free to use whomsoever he will for the edification and blessing of the Saints.
It is right to take A to refuse a promotion. If taking the promotion you are obligated to.
Misrepresent the truth and not do the right thing. And we could go on and on and on in these three different spheres and assembly, the world defense.
And every time we read one of these bits of war of armor, we should relate it in our thoughts, and we won't have time to go into that in its entirety. I don't think I have the capability of doing it, but just to suggest some things to us.
So let's close there for tonight.
312.
Lead on, Almighty Lord.
Lead on to victory encouraged by Thy blessed word with joy, and follow thee.