Episode Transcript
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Well, please remain standing and let's
turn our attention to Ephesians, Paul's letter
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to the Church in Ephesus. We
are coming very close to the end now
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of this book. Tonight I'm going
to be preaching from Ephesians six, eighteen
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through twenty, but I'm going to
read a little bit more than that,
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as I have been doing in this
section. I hope that is not vain
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repetitions, but blessing to you as
you memorize God's word and in treasure it.
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If Fusians six ten through, well, I'll just go to the end.
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We're so close. I'll start it
verse ten. Let's hear God's word.
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Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of his might.
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Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand
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against the schemes of the devil,
for we do not wrestle against flesh and
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blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the cosmic powers
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over this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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Therefore, take up the whole armor
of God that you may be able
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to withstand in the evil day and, having done all to stand firm,
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stand therefore, having fastened on the
belt of truth and having put on the
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breastplate of righteousness and, as shoes
for your feet, having put on the
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readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the
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shield of faith, with which you
can extinguish all the flaming darts of the
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evil one, and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
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which is the word of God.
Praying at all time, is in
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the spirit, with all prayer and
supplication. To that end, keep alert,
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with all perseverance, making supplication for
all the Saints and also for me,
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that the word, that words,
may be given to me, in
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opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the
mystery of the Gospel for which I am
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an ambassador in chains, that I
may declare it boldly as I ought to
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speak, so that you also may
know how I am doing and what I
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am doing. Ticcus, the beloved
brother and Faithful Minister in the Lord,
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will tell you everything. I have
sent to him to you for this very
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purpose, that you may know how
we are and that he may encourage your
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hearts. Peace be to the brothers
and love with faith from God, the
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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be with all who love our Lord
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Jesus Christ, with love incorruptible.
He may be seated well, as we've
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come to the end of Ephesians,
having considered the many blessings that God gives
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to us in Christ, blessings which
are given in love, blessings which are
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given to us in a love that
is predestined and planned even before the foundations
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of the world, that God is
established a new creation and New People,
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a temple in which we are being
built up upon the foundation of Jesus and
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Apostles and the Prophets. As he
has given US instructions for how we ought
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to live in the world, he
now comes to the end of this book,
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of this letter, and gives us
instructions on how we are to persevere,
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on how we are to remain strong
in what truly is a battle.
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We cannot forget this fact that the
Lord is has placed us are in a
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situation in which we are called to
fight, to be watchful, to be
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alert. If this weren't the case, he wouldn't say so and he wouldn't
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use all of this language of weapons
and shields and armor, etc. The
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the our enemy, the devil as
against us. He has plans against us,
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and we are to be a prepared, we are to stand strong.
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But as we have been learning and
considering these various aspects of what we call
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the armor of God, we've been
learning that this armor is essentially to stand
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in union with Christ himself. To
put on the armor of God is to
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be in Jesus Christ his this,
these various aspects of his armor, I've
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been referring to as the strengths.
These are the strengths that God gives to
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us for the fight, strengths which
are not separate that we somehow go out
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and collect apart from our union with
Christ, but the strengths that we receive
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in our union with Christ. To
remind you of that, I'd like to
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read to you a verse we sang
earlier, from be Thou my vision,
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verse three. This is exactly the
point we've been making. Be Thou my
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battle shield, sword from my fight. Be Thou my dignity, Thou my
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delight, Thou my soul shelter,
Thou my high tower raised, Thou me
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heavenward, Oh power of my power. You See, there it is,
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and what we've Sung and what we
hear here in our text, our power,
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our strength, our shield, our
salvation is God himself, God as
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he comes to us and has revealed
himself to us in Christ. We've been
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been considering how Christ protects us with
his righteousness, his peace of faith,
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with truth, and how we go
about putting on these things so that we
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might be ready for war. Now, having thought about these various aspects of
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the arm, of these very strengths
in which God gives to us, Paul
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now speaks about one of the most
important activities that we take on as we
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stand strong in Christ. Here's how
Chrisostom put it. See how clever this
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blessed author is. He has armed
them with utmost protection. So now what
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remains? Only to call on the
king and urge him to extend his hand.
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What remains, after knowing the strength
that we have in Christ, it
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is to pray to God and ask
for his help to stand strong to receive
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these blessings. And so is we
look at this passage, I'm thinking particularly
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of verses eighteen through twenty, we
find an exhortation, a very clear exhortation,
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to pray. Paul tells us to
pray all kinds of prayers, prayers
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and supplications, he says, and
he connects prayer with a kind of alertness
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and perseverance, as we encourage one
another along the way, and he even
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asked the Ephesians directly for their praying
of for him, he says, and
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pray also for me, that words
may be given to me in opening my
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mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of
the Gospel. Here we have, at
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the ending, a reminder that Paul
writes this letter as a prisoner. He
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writes this letter as one who is
in chains and as one who doesn't want
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to give up. That's not typical
of emissaries and ambassadors to be people in
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chains. Usually these are people that
receive diplomatic immunity, these are people that
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receive special favors. They they are
not put in jail. Nevertheless, Paul
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is a very special ambassador, a
very special emissary. He is the ambassador
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and emissary of God, of Christ, who has called him to be an
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apostle. Now, of course,
this would you would think that this would
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elevate him above all others, other
all other offices in this world. But,
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as is the way of Christ and
all of his servants, we take
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up our cross and we follow him. And so Paul is here and chains
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being an ambassador of the Gospel and
Ambassador of Christ and his word. But
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he's not going to give up,
though his his body is chained. He
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does not want the Gospel to be
chained. He wants it to go forth
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freely and boldly. He's looking for
an opportunity. It doesn't want them to
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be scared or overly depressed. Tells
them that Ticke Akus is coming, that
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the barrel of this beloved brother and
Faithful and Minister in Christ will let them
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know how he and his companions are, that he may encourage your hearts.
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Nevertheless, Paul wants them to pray, not only for him but for all
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the saints, he says, and
this is the essential message of the pastor
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it's pretty straightforward. Pray, pray
at all times, pray all kinds of
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prayers and pray for all the saints. This is how we act as those
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who are in Christ. This is
what we do when we put on the
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armor of God in this battle,
that we fight well, rather than simply
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ending there, which I don't think
would be all bad. I do think
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it's worth spending a little time thinking
a little bit more about this, maybe
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answering just some simple questions, but
questions that we all have and we all
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ought to be able to answer about
what prayer is and and what we're called
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to do in it. In answering
some of those questions, I would like
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to use our larger catechism and which
gives biblical expressions and answers to some of
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these basic questions about what is prayer
and how do we pray in these kinds
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of things. If you want to
follow and read along with me and some
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of these questions, you can turn
to page nine hundred and sixty four in
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your hymnals, nine hundred and sixty
four and nine hundred and sixty five.
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We won't be reading all of this, but I hope it will give you
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an encouragement to study and and and
and learn our catechism as you see these
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biblical expressions of our faith in it. The first question, as we do
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a little teaching tonight, that I
want to answer simply, what is prayer?
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The catechism answers this in question one
hundred and seventy eight. Prayer is
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an offering up of our desires under
God in the name of Christ by the
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help of his spirit, with confessions
of our confession of our sins and thankful
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acknowledgement of his mercies. That's what
prayer is. Prayer is not a wish.
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Prayer is not self reflection. Prayer
is not simply being quiet. Martin,
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Martin bootser, there are former in
Strasburg. Put it this way.
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You said prayer is a deep conversation
of the mind with God, and I'm
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sure he means not only the mind, but
