[0:00] The Bible says, Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts 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.
[0:49] And we'll pause there and catch the rest of it in a little bit, Lord willing. So this is the end of the epistle, kind of the climax if there was a movement and a building up from the believer trusting Christ and being sealed with the Spirit, and what takes place in chapter 1, and we covered some deeper things about the body of Christ back there, but as it moves into their walk, it moves now into this taking a stand.
[1:18] And it's kind of like the maturity of the Christian. Christian, he's now a soldier, and now he's going to be engaged in some spiritual warfare. And this is what this is. It's spiritual warfare.
[1:29] He's very clear to declare that it's not flesh and blood that we're fighting against, but there's spiritual wickedness in high places that are against us. And you're not armed with this armor of God so that you can go fight the devil.
[1:44] You're not armed so that you can go pick a fight with anybody and say, devil, I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. You don't do any of that. You're armed so that you can live the Christian life, and so that you can, in living the Christian life and drawing attention to the work of God that's happening, you're going to need to absorb some things and to be able to stand against some attacks that are absolutely going to come.
[2:09] And you can't predict when they come, and you can't predict how they come, but you need to be prepared for when they come. And so you need to be armed, and you're going to need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of whose might?
[2:23] Verse 10, his might. And if you go out with the arm of flesh, it will fail you like the song says that we sing. So I think there is some individual significance to these pieces of armor, but at the same time, overall, it's just an object lesson of putting on Christ, of putting on the new man.
[2:43] As we've discussed in previous weeks. Paul borrows in giving us from Isaiah. I want to turn you to Isaiah 59. He gets some of these concepts or ideas from the scripture, and then applies it to the new man to paint the picture of this Christian soldier.
[3:01] But it's none other than Jesus Christ. Now look at Isaiah 59, and here's where some of the concepts come from. All right, verse 15.
[3:25] Isaiah 59, 15. So there's the second coming of Christ.
[3:57] Verse 20, the Redeemer shall come to Zion. So in the second coming of Christ, he's pictured as that soldier coming back with that helmet of salvation. And by the way, I don't want to focus on the helmet as if it's some significant thing protecting your head or to really draw attention to that as much as this is Christ.
[4:17] He is the salvation. He is the deliverer. In that day, they say that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And in that day, what's Paul say?
[4:30] He calls out of Zion there shall come a deliverer. So Jesus Christ is the deliverer. He is the salvation. It's not just some article of clothing or something you put on is the point.
[4:40] It is none other than Jesus Christ himself illustrated in this armor. Come back to, well, you know what? Keep your place in Isaiah. We'll be back there in a second. In 52.
[4:57] We'll go back to Isaiah 52 in a moment. And if you can hold that place, come back to Ephesians. So actually, we'll just read it and then you can lose your place there.
[5:11] I wanted to read verse 7 of Isaiah 52. Another article kind of hinted at here. One that applies. In verse 7, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith Zion, Thy God reigneth.
[5:32] And the image there is like in the Old Testament. You see those runners. You can see it with David and Joab. And Joab sends out a man with a message. And he runs. And another one outruns him.
[5:44] Cushai, I think, and Ahimeaz. I'm not sure if those are the names. But they take off running with a message. And it says, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.
[5:57] When that runner shows up with a good news, oh, it's a wonderful thing. And the picture is of the Christian soldier bringing good tidings of good news, of the gospel of your salvation.
[6:10] I'm getting ahead of myself, so just hold that thought. We'll come back to it. Not in Isaiah, but come back to Ephesians 6. And verse 13.
[6:21] Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Now, you're going to see the word stand in one form or another four times in just a couple verses, starting in verse 11.
[6:36] Stand against the wiles of the devil. You saw it twice in verse 13. Withstand. Having done all to stand. Verse 14. Stand therefore. And that's the position of the Christian soldier.
[6:50] It's not attack and take back ground from the devil, like some of these preachers like to boast. The command is to stand and to withstand. You're holding ground. You're not giving in.
[7:01] You're serving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And as the devil and as the enemy tries to knock you off that position, you withstand him. You stand.
[7:12] And you're armed. You're not going to defeat the devil. You can resist the devil. And he will flee from you. But you're not going to just go after him and find his lair and get him out and rid the world of that.
[7:26] That's foolishness. Your job is to just stand and to take it. You can't defeat that enemy in the sense of kicking him out and not having him come back anymore or annihilating him.
[7:38] That's not your job. It's not going to happen. Even Michael the archangel didn't dare mess with him. He said, The Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. He didn't try to pretend he's going to take a hold of him and do something to him.
[7:51] So that's the emphasis there is to stand. Consider a couple guys back in the Old Testament. Consider in Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar built this great image.
[8:03] And he said that everybody's going to bow down. He invited all the top guys in his kingdom, all the governors and the lieutenants and all the princes of the provinces. He's got all these big money guys out there.
[8:15] Not the peasants, not the servants. It's the big guys. And among them were Daniel's three Hebrew friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. We know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
[8:27] And they're out there on that plain, and they're standing there, and they know that what's coming is music. And when the music plays, everybody's supposed to fall down and worship the image. And they had a choice.
[8:39] And what was their choice? It was either fall down or stay standing. And did they do anything? They just stood, didn't they? But what did they do? They stood. They didn't bow. It's what they didn't do that got them to stand out.
[8:52] No pun intended there. So they stood. And then they got tossed into a fire. And then the Lord showed up and delivered them out of that fire. But what was their duty?
[9:03] It was just to stand. And it wasn't to fall down and bow down. And that's going to make a good picture, even in this age, when even the body of Christ is just falling away. That's the word apostasy.
[9:15] There come a falling away first. And there's the body of Christ, just falling for it all. And giving up their truth, and giving up the word of God, and giving up the standards, and the ways of God.
[9:27] And just little by little, letting it go, letting it slip, and getting sucked into something more attractive, they think. And as they do, they're falling. And they're falling, and they're falling, dropping.
[9:39] And the command is to stand. And you can take that, the position of that soldier in Ephesians 6, and consider those men back there in Daniel 3, and think that's what I'm going to do.
[9:49] When the music plays around me, I'm just going to stand. I'm not going down. I'm not giving in. I don't care what they say. I don't care what they threaten. I'm just going to keep standing here. In the power of His might.
[10:00] That's how I'm going to do it. And you can determine that, and have some resolve inside of you, that you're going to be steadfast, unmovable. The Bible says to stand fast in the faith.
[10:12] Actually, you can find that word a few times in your New Testament, to stand fast. And so there's the calling. All right, so moving on past that, look at verse 13.
[10:23] He says in the middle there, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. In the evil day. What is the evil day? Well, some people today, oh, that's the tribulation. Church is going through the tribulation. And we want to hold on and endure to the end.
[10:36] And that's not what Paul ever says, ever. And that's not what that means. Just because somebody wants to believe it and take passages from Hebrews or Matthew and start to tie them together with the end time revelation.
[10:49] And then they want to find it in Paul's epistles. Well, you know, if they find the word tribulation anywhere in Paul's epistles, that's what it's talking about. Well, that's foolish. And no, it doesn't mean that. The evil day is a generic term.
[11:01] And it means the day when trouble comes. Take a look at Job. Look at Job chapter 1. Evil doesn't mean the devil.
[11:15] Evil alone doesn't mean that it's sin or wickedness necessarily. Evil is just, it's something ugly.
[11:25] It's something negative. The Bible said, the Lord said, I the Lord create evil. And so it's not sin specifically. But in Job's life, so you know in Job chapter 1 and 2, right, you know all that befell Job in this day.
[11:44] And then in the first day that it's mentioned, there come a day, there was a day. The things that befell him with his children, with his livestock servants, it all just gone.
[11:56] And in chapter 2, then his health is gone and he's laying down full of sores and he's laying on a pile of ashes where it says he sat among the ashes in verse 8.
[12:07] And now verse number 9, and it said, His wife unto him, dost thou still retain thine integrity, curse God, and die? But he said unto her, Thou speakest to one of the foolish women, speaketh what shall we receive? Good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?
[12:20] And all this did not Job sin with his lips. So Job is a likening or declaring that what has happened and taken place in his life is evil. Sure, it's evil.
[12:31] It doesn't mean it's sin or anything that he did wrong and that he's reaping what he sowed. Just, this is evil. It's an evil day that he's facing right now.
[12:41] And even while sitting in a pile of ashes, Job retained his integrity and he still stood. And he wouldn't curse God and he wouldn't charge God foolishly and instead, back in chapter 1, he blessed the name of the Lord.
[12:56] So that man could stand even in that evil day that befell him. And there'll be an evil day that's going to befall you, maybe more than one. It could be an evil week. It could be a month.
[13:08] It could be a couple years. Some people have some pretty rough things they have to endure in this life. And it's not just a 24-hour day. And so you need to be prepared for it.
[13:18] You need to put on the whole armor of God and be prepared for when those fiery darts come that you can stand against them. Ephesians chapter 6, don't let your guard down.
[13:30] Don't think, I've been saved for a while. Well, I'm not going anywhere. You might be surprised when you let your guard down how hard and how much it can hurt to make you feel like, I just can't keep doing this.
[13:43] You haven't been put in a place yet, probably. If you feel like, I'm going to withstand everything and that nothing's going to knock me out, you maybe haven't been put in a place yet to where you have to really think it through because you don't have the energy in you to get up in the morning or to pray or that book just is, it should be sweet to you, but it's not right now.
[14:03] If you haven't been in that spot, then maybe you shouldn't run your mouth and maybe what you should do is don't let your guard down because that day might show up unannounced as a thief in the night.
[14:16] All right, so verse number 14, he says, Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
[14:26] Truth and righteousness, just hand in hand, going together there, girding your loins and protecting your upper body and your midsection.
[14:38] And so this is where I don't necessarily feel like I need to make some spiritual application to each portion of it. And I'll give you the reason why. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5.
[14:51] 1 Thessalonians, a little bit to your right, and chapter 5. These things are qualities and virtues that live and reside within the new man.
[15:15] And it's not to say specifically the one does this and the other does that as far as this armor goes. I think in one way, it's just, it's all generically an object lesson or illustration of putting on Christ and walking in the Spirit.
[15:34] So Ephesians 6, it said that you have it on the breastplate of righteousness. Now in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 8, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of righteousness.
[15:50] No. Is this a different breastplate? Are we supposed to take righteousness off and put on faith and love? What, oh, did Paul make a mistake? No, it's, we don't need to analyze it so literally about it.
[16:03] This is what it is. It's, these are all elements, faith and love. And for a helmet, the hope of salvation. There it's worded slightly different. And so I don't key in so individually on the hardware as much as the overall putting on the whole armor of God and standing.
[16:24] And so anyway, back in Ephesians, you have on the breastplate of righteousness. Look back at chapter 4 of Ephesians and notice this new man that this is a quality of the new man.
[16:38] Verse 4, 24, 424, and that you put on the new man just like you put on the whole armor of God that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
[16:49] So that's who you're putting on. That's what you're putting on. And so he illustrates it by calling it a breastplate when he's talking about a soldier. All right, verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
[17:03] And so there's that verse that we kind of was pointing out in Isaiah a minute ago that your feet are shod. What's that mean? It means your shoes are on and they're tied. You don't lay around typically.
[17:14] You don't lay around in your house with your shoes on. If you're on the couch just vegging out watching a movie, your shoes probably aren't on. If you're reading your Bible with a cup of coffee in the morning, probably you don't have your shoes on.
[17:27] And so you're not really prepared to do anything except what you're doing in that moment. But when I walk out of my bedroom some mornings or sometimes in the day and I've got my shoes on, my wife says, where are you going?
[17:40] I say, wherever I want to go. But why does she say that? Because she sees my feet. She sees it. It stands out that I'm prepared. I'm preparing myself to go somewhere.
[17:51] And that's the thought that your feet are shod with the preparation. They're prepared of the gospel of peace. You're prepared to go. You're prepared to give the gospel.
[18:02] And so that man that's, look at Romans chapter 10 because Paul quotes Isaiah, the verse we read, and ties it to this man preaching the gospel. His feet are shod.
[18:17] And Romans chapter 10, you know most of this passage for sure. You know verse 13, And so the soldier is to have his feet shod and be ready to go and go with that gospel of peace.
[18:50] The gospel that brings peace, the peace of God, or peace with God, I should say. All right, verse 16 says, Above all, taking the shield of faith.
[19:03] Now it's interesting that he throws those two words in there, above all. Above all. Above all what? Above everything else in your Christian life? Above everything in Christ?
[19:15] Well, there's something special about faith. It's, how can I say, what does the Bible mean if there's not faith?
[19:28] What do you get out of that book without faith? It's just a book. It's just words. It takes faith. It's, my pastor that I grew up under, the old man, he used to say, faith is taking God at his word.
[19:46] That's just a line he had. I wrote it down, I love it. Faith is taking God at his word. But without faith, it's impossible to please him. And without faith, you don't know, you don't believe this book, you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't have a walk with God.
[20:01] We walk by faith. By faith ye stand, to connect it to what we're the soldiers supposed to do. So without faith, this whole thing falls apart. It's all stood up upon faith.
[20:13] Faith, you need it. So above all, taking the shield of faith. To call it, to talk about it being the shield that quenches the fiery darts, that's great.
[20:24] But again, I don't focus in on the elements exactly too much here, as much as what he's conveying. There will be fiery darts. And they are the wiles of the devil, in verse 11.
[20:37] You're to stand against the wiles of the devil. I didn't mention it, but that word is talking about deceitfulness, and trickery, and subtlety. And this Bible declares, that's how our enemy is.
[20:50] The Bible, that word wilely, I remember it showing up back in Joshua, I think it's chapter 9, when the Gibeonites faked that they had traveled for a long way with their clothes, old clothes, with the bread, moldy bread, and the wine.
[21:05] And they showed up, and it says they did work wilely. They were being deceitful. And that's what the wiles of the devil are. They're deceitful things. And you can count on those fiery darts, not just to be cancer, and not just to be death in the family, and not just to be some major rebellious child, or something that just breaks your heart.
[21:26] It can be something deceitful. It can be false doctrine, that could take you out. And how many men are taken out, and boasting something, and drawing pictures on YouTube, and trying to get a following, with some false doctrine.
[21:40] They're not standing against the wiles of the devil. They fell for them. And they can come in all different shapes and sizes. So verse 16 says, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
[21:55] Your faith, as long as it's not misplaced, your faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And you'll be, there's a verse in, I think it's 1 Corinthians, I'm not sure if that's right, but Paul says that, he describes their faith growing, about increasing.
[22:17] He says, your faith will increase. And as you grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, your faith will grow as you walk with God. And as it grows, it becomes more and more capable and able to quench all of them.
[22:31] All of them. You can stand in the power of God. There's nothing in this life that can take you out if you're standing in the power of his might and you're holding up that shield of faith. Verse 17 says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
[22:48] The word of God is a small W. You should note that and understand that. People like to capitalize it, feeling like they're showing reverence to the Holy Scriptures. But in this book, it's always a small W.
[22:59] Always. And anytime you see a capital W, you're talking about a person because it's a name given to the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 1, in 1 John chapter 1, he is the word of God.
[23:12] He is the word. And it's interesting, there's two are inseparable, by the way. There's a distinguishment to be made, but it's hard to make it sometimes. Take for instance, let's look at Hebrews chapter 4.
[23:23] and Revelation chapter 1. Hebrews 4 and Revelation 1.
[23:35] The word, with a small W, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
[23:53] Words are something that are spoken or written. And in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, the Bible says, for the word of God is quick, meaning that it's alive.
[24:08] It's quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing. The word of God is piercing, like a sword. Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
[24:21] That's something that you and your hands cannot do, is pierce between spiritual, part of your being, the spiritual side of you, your spiritual nature.
[24:33] You can't pierce to the dividing asunder. You can't separate them, soul and spirit. And of the joints and marrow, and, this word of God, is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
[24:47] Neither is there any creature that's not manifest in his sight. And this is, we've got to get away from that or we'll start parking there. So the word of God is likened to a two-edged sword, but it has the work of a sword, piercing.
[25:00] Not a literal sword you could hold in your hand, but it's illustrating the effect that the word of God has. Now go to Revelation 1. That's a small W. That's the scripture.
[25:12] In Revelation chapter 1, here's Jesus Christ. And lo and behold, look what's coming out of his mouth in verse 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword.
[25:30] Now that's not the only reference to that. It's in chapter 19 as well. Actually, look at that. Look at 19 while we're here. Revelation 19.
[25:45] Because his name's mentioned in this one as well with a capital W. And in verse 13, He was clothed with a vesture, dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
[26:04] You see the capitals. And in verse 15, out of his mouth go with a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations. Now, what comes out of your mouth?
[26:16] Words come out of your mouth. Is there a sword? I'd say what comes out of his mouth is the Word of God that man is incapable of standing against.
[26:29] The Word of God that he'll smite him with his Word. We could go back through some of these passages in the Psalms, and it's too much to cover right now, but it's his Word that goes forth and just pulverizes them.
[26:44] They can't stand against it. It says one place, as soon as they shall hear of me, they shall fear me. They're hearing what he's speaking. Now, the Word of God is like to a sharp two-edged sword.
[26:58] And we have the written Word of God in our hands, and it's the sword of the Spirit. It's the offensive weapon. At the same time, it's a defensive weapon.
[27:09] And boy, oh boy, do you need that book. You need that book to stand. You need your faith to quench. You need that book, or you're not going to stand for very long at all. Verse number 17 says, Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
[27:26] And this doesn't stop the thought here when he stops talking about these elements of the armor. The thought carries right on in as the soldier's supposed to stand, having his loins girt about. In verse 18, praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.
[27:41] You don't wrestle against flesh and blood. You pray. This is a spiritual battle. Spiritual warfare. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
[27:54] It's done in prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
[28:05] He puts the word all in there a lot of times. And supplication for all saints. I've said this to you before. I feel it in my being, in the new man, that when I spend time in prayer, I get up stronger.
[28:20] And it's not that I'm just praying that God will strengthen me and put His strength in me and put your Spirit... I don't have to pray like that. But just praying for help and praying for wisdom and praying for other people, for all saints, and I just get up stronger.
[28:34] I feel kind of tired and weak, but something inside just feels like like you're a little bit more immune to some of the world and to some of the fleshly appetites and desires.
[28:46] And praying will strengthen you. It'll do something for you. It'll clean you up because you're communing with God in the Spirit, in the new man. You're walking in the Spirit, but it'll just kind of insert some strength, some energy in the new man to do what's right.
[29:02] And now in verse 19, we've got to move. And for me, this is about praying. Paul's asking specifically for them to be praying for Him. 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 in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
[29:23] We hit this a little bit Wednesday night here, talking about some keys to effective soul winning, and prayer was one of them, spending time with prayer, in prayer, being prepared by prayer, but praying as you go and as you talk to others, just, Lord, give me the right words.
[29:39] And Paul says, I need the prayers of the saints to help me, says it two times, to open his mouth boldly, that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So he needs some encouragement.
[29:51] He needs some strength to preach. You think, well, the Apostle Paul, I mean, good night, right? He's the man. He's traveled the world. He's preached. He's started churches. He's stood against.
[30:03] It's in 2 Timothy that he references lions being delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He's gone through so much. Oh, surely he's strong enough. But he says, no, I need your prayers.
[30:15] I need prayer to stand up and to open my mouth and speak as I ought to speak, to speak boldly as I ought to speak. So prayer is essential in the battle.
[30:26] And in this battle, Paul's asking for soldiers to pray for him that he could get the work done. You notice he calls it that he makes known the mystery of the gospel.
[30:38] The mystery of the gospel. I mentioned this earlier in Ephesians back in chapter 3 that this time period that the Apostle Paul, he's the authority to the Gentiles in revealing the word of God to them.
[30:50] His doctrine is unique. He's a special guy. And in his ministry, I'd like to call it the mystery program compared to what was before that with all the prophecy to Israel and the kingdom, which you could call that the kingdom program or the prophetic program, which we'll pick back up here when we're gone.
[31:10] But right now, there's this, it was a mystery. It was hid from all the ages and it wasn't revealed. And now the Apostle Paul is, he's the guy. You need to know the Apostle Paul.
[31:21] So what Greg was talking about with these fellows we talked to the other night, that would have been their biggest downfall, was not understanding the ministry of the Apostle Paul for today.
[31:33] And of course, as many people don't, I mean, he even said it, this guy was like, you need to rightly divide the word truth. You need to study to show yourself approved unto God. I'm like, man, this guy's giving it, when I walked up, he was giving it to Greg about some stuff.
[31:45] And it just seemed like he's got the right thinking that what needs to be done, but he just didn't know how to do it. And so they were in Matthew talking about enduring to the end.
[31:57] They were messed up on some resurrection stuff and several other things as the night just bounced around. But that's what I said to Greg about those fellows.
[32:07] That is their biggest problem is they don't have the understanding of what the Apostle Paul's ministry is. In 1 Timothy, I think it's 2.7, he says, consider what I say and the Lord give the understanding in all things.
[32:22] And that's something we need to take literal for us today is to consider the writings and teachings and doctrine of the Apostle Paul. Consider his teaching and then the Lord will give us understanding in the whole thing.
[32:33] And you can get the big picture a whole lot clearer when you get nailed down your doctrine today. All right, moving past that, verse 20, we read that. Verse 21 says, But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do.
[32:47] Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts.
[32:58] So Tychicus here, this is not the only mention of him. Look at Colossians chapter 4. Paul has this habit of sending people to the local churches that he's in jail.
[33:11] He's not able to go. And maybe that's not the only reason. He has this habit of sending men to different local churches and he can't text them. Sending an email just would never get there.
[33:23] And so he has to send somebody with a message, maybe even delivering an epistle at times. But that's the communication and he kept up with it. Look at Colossians chapter 4 and verses 7 and 8.
[33:35] Whom I have sent unto you. Sorry, verse 7 says, All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts.
[33:49] With Onesimus. Remember him from Philemon? That's the servant that was being sent back to Philemon. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you.
[34:00] So this is a common thing. Tychicus gets sent to Ephesus. He gets sent to Colossae. And so part of his duties while Paul's locked up at the very least at that time was to travel back and forth.
[34:13] And that wasn't easy. Traveling to these lands and showing up at these churches and trying to be a blessing and help to them and an encouragement of how the apostle Paul is and how things are going with him. And then to take news back to him.
[34:25] And boy, he doesn't want to hear bad news. He wants to hear good news. Let's look at another one. Titus chapter 3. Titus 3 verse number 12.
[34:47] When I shall send thee Artemis or send Artemis unto thee and Tychicus be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis for I have determined there to winter. So there's Tychicus a third time sending him to where Titus is.
[35:04] Now there's others and I won't turn through all the passages for sake of time this morning but in Philippians he references that he's sending Epaphroditus and he's going to come to you and he talks about that.
[35:18] He says in I think it's 2 Corinthians that he's sending Timotheus unto them and he's going to bring them into remembrance of all my ways which I have in Christ. And so he sends Timothy to Corinth.
[35:29] It's just the way of Apostle Paul I don't have any real comment to make on it. It's all over his epistles of sending somebody sending them sending them back. It just makes me to make any application if God wants to send you are you ready to go?
[35:48] If God wants to send you somewhere to a local church to minister to them and be a blessing to them and to bring them in remembrance of the ways of the Lord are you ready to go?
[36:00] Isaiah said here am I send me. So it's a common thing to be sent and it's a New Testament thing to be sent to a church and there's kind of guys that have made ministries out of traveling to churches and ministering and preaching and trying to edify that church and be a help to that church and a blessing to them and so it's a New Testament thing.
[36:23] Alright let's finish the book verse 23 peace be to the brethren and love with faith there's faith and love again mentioned coupled together like so many times we saw it in 1 Thessalonians that breastplate of faith and love and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace be with you all or grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity amen boy that was a mean way to end it Paul grace be to them that love in sincerity now isn't he being judgmental why would he say it that way why would he say it that way in Philippians 1 he says the one preached Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds so grace be to all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity some of them don't really sincerely love him but are using him or doing it to contend with the ministry of others and nevertheless Paul ends with peace and love with faith and grace a common thought from the apostle Paul he usually opens the epistles and closes them you can see right across the page perhaps in Philippians 1 verse 2 grace be unto you and peace it's just a common thing for the apostle Paul in his epistles it's not the same terminology that you'll see in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and it's not the same terminology you'll see in the end time epistles it's these spiritual kingdom of God qualities of grace peace love in the Holy Ghost things like that so there's the book of Ephesians we covered a lot if you were to go back and highlight certain things there's a lot in this book and it took us longer than probably it could have and that might be just me just the way it is with me to be slow and to hit things more and more but I feel like I skipped a lot of stuff too going along the way so as it didn't drag out too much but what a blessed book it's a personal favorite of mine in the New Testament in the Pauline epistles maybe it's because it's short but it packs a lot of punch and it's got so much doctrine in it that it's wonderful it's worthy to study remember that phrase that we started with at the beginning that's so important in Christ in Christ those that are in Christ them that are in Christ there's so much that's the whole thing if you're not in Christ none of it matters it's just words you need to be in Jesus Christ and that's where this applies so I think
[38:50] Lord willing we'll start a new study take a break from verse by verse and do a study on our adversary the devil and it'll be a study that I it's you know they say know your enemy keep your friends close keep your enemies closer well that's maybe not the one we want to follow but we're going to do a study that's not to be some like spooky deep stuff or weirded out stuff but it's really just so you know what this Bible reveals about your enemy he is called the enemy and he's called your adversary the devil so we'll study what we can about him and I think some of it will be new to some of you and some of it's kind of wild sort of you know I mean it's all the Bible and you'd be surprised how some of it even applies to you today the things that we see in his fall how much of that's in our flesh and anyway we'll stop there and pick that up Lord willing next let's take a break here for 10 minutes