[0:00] Psalm 27, I'm going to sing verses 1 to 5, Tunis Kilmarnock, that's on page 236. Psalm 27, on page 236.
[0:21] The Lord's my light and saving health, who shall make me dismayed? My life's strength is the Lord, of whom then shall I be afraid?
[0:34] When as mine enemies and foes, most wicked passions all, to eat my flesh against me rose, they stumbled and did fall. Against me, though an host in camp, my heart yet fearless is.
[0:48] Though war against me rise, I will be confident in this. One thing I of the Lord desired and will seek to obtain, that all days of my life I may within God's house remain, that I the beauty of the Lord behold me and admire, and that I in his holy place may reverently inquire, for he in his pavilion shall me hide in evil days, in secret of his tent me hide, and on a rock me raise.
[1:17] Psalm 27, 1 to 5, Tunis Kilmarnock, the Lord's my light. The Lord's my light and saving health, who shall make me dismayed?
[1:42] My life's strength is the Lord, of whom then shall I be afraid?
[1:57] When as mine enemies and foes, most wicked persons all, To lead my flesh against me rose, Lest of the landed foe, Against me, O Anos, then come my heart yet fear and says, Though war against me rise, I will be confident in this.
[3:05] One thing I of the Lord desire and will seek to obtain, That all days of my life I may within God's house remain, That I the beauty of the Lord behold me, And admire and admire, And that I in his holy place may reverently inquire,
[4:12] For he in his pavilion shall me hide in evil days, In secret of his tent me hide, And on a rock me raise.
[4:45] Let us bow in prayer. Let us bow in prayer. Gracious Lord, as we gather together this morning, We give thanks again for another opportunity Where we're able to come into the presence of the King.
[5:01] And although we are here, And one is here leading in prayer, We pray that we might all engage in prayer, That this be an opportunity for us all to come before the Lord, Bringing before you our praise, Our thanksgiving, And bringing also before you our prayers and supplication, And our intercession.
[5:27] We give thanks, We give thanks, O Lord, For this opportunity that we have, And it's a wonderful time, Where we're able to begin the week, Marking it in a very public way, Where we come into the presence of God, Seeking to praise him, And thank him for who he is, For what he has brought to us, And for us in this world, And thanking above all, For the greatest gift the world has ever known, In the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:55] And so we ask, O Lord, That we will be able to give true, Correct thankfulness to you, For all that you do. We pray, O Lord, To enable us to see again, Just how wonderful this is, And that we are in the place, Where we can hear what God, The Lord will speak to us.
[6:17] We pray that our ear will be open to the word, We pray that distracting thoughts, Which are so much part and partial of church life, Will be kept at bay.
[6:28] Grant us the grace to focus upon you, And your word, And help us to be aware, That times like this, Are times of greater opportunity, So that we come to understand, What the Christian life is, And what the spiritual battles are, And we pray for the faith, That lays hold upon you, And upon your word.
[6:50] We confess our sin, Recognizing that we are not, What we wish we were. Sometimes we're aware of our sin, Other times we're not. Sometimes you give us a little insight, Into just how perverse often, And corrupt we are, Because there are times, We even catch the way we think, The distorted thoughts that we have, About people, About situations, And we ask, Oh Lord, To forgive us, For all these things.
[7:22] Forgive us, Lord, For the natural rebellion, That is within our hearts, Against you, Where we are ready, By nature, To reject you, To say, We will not have this man, Rule over us.
[7:35] And even when we are brought, To submit before your claims, Before your authority, And power, We also recognize, That there is still within us, That which desires to rebel.
[7:46] But we give thanks, For your grace, That where sin did abound, That grace doth much more abound, The superabounding grace of God.
[7:57] And we pray, That we will be molded, And shaped more and more, Into the resemblance, Of our Lord and Saviour, Our mediator, The Lord Jesus Christ. Pray to bless everybody here today, And we give thanks, For all who have been able to come, We pray to bless them, Bless them in home, Their own homes, Their families, And all whom they love.
[8:17] We pray, O Lord, To be with those, Who are going through difficult times, There are so many things, In this world, That can cause us problems, Some days, Our horizons are clear, Other days, They're full of difficulties, We pray, O Lord, That in all the obstacles, And difficulties, In all the sorrows, And the sadnesses, That are often part of this world, That you will grant grace, And help, That you will give light, And dark, That you will give hope, Where there might be despair, That you will give peace, Where there's restlessness, And that you will give a sense, Of your love, Where there might even be, An element of bitterness, Or other things, We ask then, O Lord, That you will deal graciously, With us, Pray for those who are ill, Those who are, In hospital, And those who are going to us, Remember young Hannah Morrison, Who will be, Having a little operation, This week, We pray for her,
[9:18] We pray Lord, For all who are, In hospital, Those who are, Under going treatment, Those who are, Maybe a long term time, In hospital, We commit to you, We pray for those, Who are old, And that all the natural, Vigour of life, Has gone, The energy, That they had, And even although, The spirit might be willing, The flesh is now weak, And we pray for them, In advanced years, We pray, O Lord, For those who care, Those who, Bring such a good quality, Of life, To those who are in need, And deal with, So many of the things, That we take for granted, But they are no longer, Able to do, And so we give thanks, For all, The whole caring profession, We ask, O Lord, That you will bless us, Nationally, And internationally, And we, Seeing a world, That is increasing, In violence, Or at least our, Perception or awareness, Maybe it's just, That the world, Is becoming so small, Because of, How quickly,
[10:19] News travels, But we realise, That all over the world, It is becoming, More threatening, More dangerous, And just in following, As your word says, Towards the end, It will be nation, Rising against nation, Kingdom against kingdom, There will be wars, And rumours of wars, That the love of many, Will wax cold, And there are so many things, That your word tells us, That we are seeing today, And so we pray, That we may read these things, And be aware of them, But we pray for protection, And that we will be kept, We pray, Lord, To keep us from the evil one, Because we know that, He is always seeking, To devour, And to destroy, And so we pray, For personal protection, And we pray, For national protection, Lord, We pray, To bless the conference, Evangelism, That was held, Over the weekend, And we give thanks, For David Robertson, And Alistair I.
[11:15] MacLeod, Who encouraged, And challenged, And brought, Your word, In so many different ways, To bear, In very powerful, And very practical ways, We pray to bless them, Pray to bless David, Who will be preaching here tonight, And ask that you will empower him, And that he will know your presence, And we give thanks, For the way that he engages, So publicly, Especially with those, Who are so opposed, To you, And to your name, And to your cause, We give thanks, Lord, For his gifts, In that way, Of being able to debate, And to take on those, Who are foremost, In opposing your word, And we pray, Lord, To bless us all, And do us good, Have mercy on us, And take away our sin, In Jesus name, Amen.
[12:00] And just a wee word, To the young folk, Before we sing again, As I mentioned in the prayer, There was a conference, Friday night, And yesterday, And the minister was preaching here, Last Sunday night, Alistair I. MacLeod, Was one of the speakers, And the preacher, Who will be preaching here tonight, Was also one of the speakers, And Alistair just made a wee, Just a very, Just mentioned about it, And I thought it was, Such a clever illustration, And he was talking about, How we should be, Like the Lord Jesus, And he mentioned one night, That a little girl, Was out with her dad, I think they were driving, Somewhere in the car, And it was a really, Really, Really bright night, And the moon, Was absolutely full, You know sometimes, The moon is, Sometimes we can't see the moon,
[13:01] Sometimes it's just that, Just that little, Little bit of a circle, Sometimes there's half a moon, Sometimes there's, Three quarters of a moon, Sometimes there's a full moon, But it's hiding behind the clouds, And just every so often, It peeps out, But there are other times, The moon is full, Sometimes at harvest time, The moon is huge, It looks so much bigger, I'm sure you've all seen nights, And you think, Whoa, The moon is so big, Well this particular night, It was a night, Where the moon, Not only was really full, And big, But really, Really bright, And sometimes, There are times like that, You think, You say to yourself, Oh it's really, Really bright tonight, It's like the moon, It's like it's glistening almost, It's so bright, And she said to her dad, Oh, She said, The moon is full, And then she said, The moon is the sun, It was so bright,
[14:04] That's what she said, The moon is the sun, And of course, Her dad said to her, The moon isn't the sun, And explained, Very simply, That the moon actually, Has no light in itself, Now that might sound strange, When you look up at the moon, To realize that actually, The moon doesn't have light in itself, It's quite dark actually, So where does the moon's light come from?
[14:32] It comes from the sun, It's the sun, Light reflecting, Of the moon, And it's quite amazing, In fact, I think, If I remember rightly, I don't remember many facts, But I think it's something like, Only about 3%, Of the sun's light, That shines off the moon, But, The point is, That although the moon, Doesn't have light in itself, It still shines bright, And that's, How we should be, As Christians, That's how we should be, That the light of Jesus, Because Jesus said, I am the light of the world, Just as the sun, Is at the very center, Of our world, Of our universe, And lights up life, Jesus said, I am the light of the world, And I light up, People's lives, But he also said to us, You,
[15:33] Are the light of the world, That's what, That's amazing, How can we be the light of the world, Is it our own, Light, Our own goodness, Our own thing, No, It's Jesus' light, Shining, In us, So that, For instance, Jesus' love, Should be, In our life, So that people will see that love, Jesus' care, Because Jesus was always caring, Should be in our life, So that we care for others, Jesus' peace, Should be in our life, So that, Even although there are difficult times, People will be able to see that peace, And the more time we spend with Jesus, Speaking to him, Listening to him, As we're doing just now, Or listening, Or reading his word, Or thinking about him, The more time we do that,
[16:34] The more we become like him, You make that little prayer, Lord, Help me, To be your light, In this world, That's a great prayer, And I believe it's a prayer, That the Lord will answer, I'm going to sing again, From Psalm 25, This time from Sing Psalms, And it's on page 30, Psalm 25, And that's on page 30, And the tune is, Herringate, And we're going to sing from verse 12, Who then are those, Who fear the Lord, He'll teach them, He'll teach to them, The chosen way, That they may prosper, All their life, Their children, And the land will stay, God's friends, Are those who fear his name, With them his covenant, He will share, My eyes are always on the Lord,
[17:37] He'll free my feet, From every snare, Turn to me, Lord, Show me your grace, I suffer pain, And loneliness, The troubles of my heart, Have grown, Deliver me from my distress, Look on my pain, And suffering, Forgive all my iniquity, See how my foes, Have multiplied, How fused their hatred, Is for me, O guard my life, And rescue me, And let me not be put to shame, For I take refuge in you, Lord, From those who would destroy my name, From verse 12, To the end of Psalm 25, Who then are those, Who fear the Lord, To the end of Psalm 25, To the end of Psalm 25, He'll teach to them The chosen way,
[18:39] That they may prosper, For all their life, Their children in the land will stay, God's hands are those, Who fear his name, Within this cup, That he will share, My eyes above, The Lord, He'll heal my feet, He'll heal my feet, From every sin, Turn to me, Lord, Show me your grace,
[19:43] I suffer pain, And loneliness, The troubles of my heart have grown, Deliver me from my distress, Look all my pain, And suffering, Forgive all my iniquity, See how my foes have multiplied, How fierce red-reaches for me,
[20:48] O God, my life, Come rescue me, And let me know, Be put to shame, For I take refuge in you, Lord, From those who would destroy my name, Because I hope in you alone, Let our brightness protect me still, From all their troubles,
[21:48] O my God, Redeem your people Israel.
[22:00] And let's turn to read God's word in Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6, In the pulpit Bible, That's 1178, Ephesians chapter 6, Children, Obey your parents in the Lord, For this is right, Honor your father and mother, This is a first commandment with a promise, That it may go well with you, And that you may live long in the land, Fathers, Do not provoke your children to anger, But bring them up in the discipline, And instruction of the Lord, Slaves, Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, With a sincere heart, As you would Christ, Not by the way of eye service, As people pleasers, But as servants of Christ, Doing the will of God from the heart,
[23:03] Rendering service with a good will, As to the Lord and not to man, Knowing that whatever good anyone does, This he will receive back from the Lord, Whether he is a slave or free, Masters, Do the same to them, And stop your threatening, Knowing that he who is both their master and yours, Is in heaven, And that there is no partiality with him, Finally, Be strong in the Lord, And in the strength of his might, Put on the whole armor of God, That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, But against the rulers, Against the authorities, Against the cosmic powers, Over this present darkness, Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, Therefore take up the whole armor of God, That you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
[24:04] And having done all, To stand firm, Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth, And having put on the breastplate of righteousness, And as shoes for your feet, Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, With which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, And take the helmet of salvation, And the sword of the Spirit, Which is the word of God, Praying at all times in the Spirit, With all prayer and supplication, To that end keep alert with all perseverance, Making supplication for all the saints, And also for me, That words may be given to me, In opening my mouth boldly, To proclaim the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in chains, That I may declare it boldly, As I ought to speak.
[25:05] Amen, and may God bless to us, This reading of his holy word. We're going to sing again from Psalm 35, And this is again singing Psalms, It's on page 43. Psalm 35, Page 43, Verse 21 to the end, Psalm 35, On page 43, Verse 21, Triumphantly they shout and say, His wickedness we see, Lord you have seen, Hold not your peace, Lord be not far from me, Awake and rise to my defense, Contend for me, My God, Do not let them gloat over me, In justice judge, O Lord.
[25:55] Down to the last verse, I will extol your righteousness, I'll praise you with my tongue, I will proclaim your greatness, Lord, And praise you all day long.
[26:07] Psalm 35, Verses 21, To the end, And the tune is cool, So triumphantly they shout and say, Amen. Amen. Amen.
[26:20] Triumphantly they shout and say, His wickedness we see, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, You have seen, Lord, Lord, Lord, Your peace, Lord, Be not far from me, Thou may not rise to my defense, Fountain for me, Thou may not rise to my defense, Do not let them gloat over me, In justice judge,
[27:21] O Lord, Let them not think within their hearts, At last just what we want, Nor let them say we've swallowed him, Let them not be their tone, May all who look at my distress, No shame and loss of grace, May all who triumph over me,
[28:22] Be covered with disgrace, May those who long to see me clear, Shout out with joy and sing, The Lord be praised, Who loves to see, His servant prospering, I will extol your righteousness, I'll praise you with my tongue, I will proclaim your faithfulness,
[29:28] And praise you all day long, Let's turn again for a little to Ephesians chapter 6, And looking at verse 10, Finally, Finally, Be strong in the Lord, And in the strength of his might, We're very familiar with the quote, We often see it quoted, And it's so true, That the Christian life is not a playground, It's a battleground, That is very, very true, Because sometimes we have the notion, That when you become a Christian, And everything is going to be plain sailing, Everything is going to fit into place, That the struggles, And the trials of life are over, And no, Not at all, In many ways, There's almost a new beginning,
[30:28] I'm not saying for one moment, That people who aren't Christians, Don't have trials, And sorrows, And pains, Of course they do, But there is another element, That comes the moment, You become a Christian, Of course there are so many blessings, We emphasize these blessings over and over, And over again, There's that sense of identity, Sense of belonging, When you become a Christian, You belong to God, And that gives such a sense of peace, Of purpose, Of knowing who you are, Knowing who you belong to, Of knowing where you're going, It does give this purpose in life, And these are things, Which are huge, In our lives, Even although we might not realize it, When you don't have that, Within life, There's a vacuum, There's an emptiness, And it's only when a person, Really comes into faith, In Jesus Christ, That you, You receive this, And it changes, Your whole perception,
[31:28] And your whole life, So there are so, So many blessings, But there are also, Additional troubles, Because, The moment, You begin to follow the Lord, You have a, You have an enemy, We always have an enemy of our souls, Whether we're following the Lord or not, But the evil one, Becomes an intense enemy, Always got to remember, That Satan, Has always hated, Since we believe, Of his fall, As a leader of that revolt, Which we believe, Which we understand, In heaven, That he is, The chief architect, Behind so much of the evil, That takes place in this world, He is opposed to God, To God's righteous rule, And so much of the evil, And suffering, That goes on in this world, It comes about, Through the kingdom of darkness, You just go to the book of Job, And you see something,
[32:30] Of that intense, Behind the scenes struggle, Between right and wrong, Between evil and good, And you see how Job, That the devil was behind, All the calamities that came, All the suffering, That came into Job's life, So, We have an enemy, And it would be very easy, To become crippled, If we give all our focus, To this enemy of our souls, To become sort of defeatist, And afraid, And that's something Satan would love, That we would become afraid, Afraid of him, And that it would impair, And slow down, Our Christian walk, And that we wouldn't enjoy, That walk, And that's why the Lord says to us, Look, he said, And Paul writing, Finally, he says, Be strong in the Lord, And in the strength of his might, And of course, This verse is in, We'll look at that in a minute,
[33:31] Because it's very strategically placed, This particular verse, It goes on then to talk about, As we see in verse 11 there, Put on the whole armor of God, That you may be able to stand, Against the schemes of the devil, And we're told, We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, But against the rulers, Against the authorities, Against the cosmic powers, Over this present darkness, Against the spiritual forces of evil, In heavenly places, So we're brought to see here, Just how difficult, How dark, How threatening, How dangerous, This world that we're living in, And we're aware of it, We know we're living in a, We're living in, As it talks about in the Bible, Perilous times, And in a sense, That's where we are, I suppose, At one level, Because news travels so fast, And because the technology, Has made the availability of news,
[34:32] Just as it's happening anywhere in the world, Accessible to us, That we're probably more aware, Of what is going on, There's always been, Sort of, This world has always been dangerous, But just now, There is just this sense, That it is, We are living, Again, That's one of the signs, Of the end, Is that, In the end, That we will be, We will be living in perilous times, And that seems to be just, Kind of, Where we are, At this particular moment, But, We're told, Here, So much in the word of God, And that's one of the wonderful things, About God's word, You know, People say, Ah, Bible's not relevant anymore, Bible is the most, Up to date book, That there is, Because it's God's word, And it's timeless, And we find, That there is so much, That is so relevant, To exactly where we are, Just now, The Bible is God's word, And it's, It's, It's truth, And I think this is one of the great problems, That we're facing today,
[35:33] Is that, With regard, We're highlighting that on Wednesday, With this whole, Freedom of speech, And we understand, Why the government are trying to, Introduce laws, That, To prevent extremes, Extremism, But, There's always a danger, That, In the forming of these laws, That the freedom, Of speech, Will be taken away, And that, That would be, Become an incredibly dangerous thing, Because, That would, Really impede, In many ways, Upon the proclamation, Of the truth, Because it's becoming, More and more difficult, It's, It's almost reached the stage, Where, A lot of people, Will not accept, They will not tolerate, Public proclamation, Of some of God's word, They'll accept some, But not other parts of it, And they will say, You're bigoted, You're narrow-minded, You cannot hold, To these opinions, And I find it, Quite extraordinary, Because, You would never go to, A scientist, Who discovered,
[36:33] Who discovered, Some new cure, And say, You can't say that, You haven't, The right, Or the authority, That scientist, Would say, What do you know, Have you spent years, In the lab with me, Do you know, And I am an authority, In this, I can tell, Same as, One of the astronauts, Who walked on the moon, And if he was telling, His experience, Of what happened on the moon, It would be ridiculous, For people to say, How dare you say that, I question, Whether you walked on the moon, Or people will say, Oh that's racist, Or sexist, Or fattest, Or whatever, All the different things today, It's becoming a world, Where truth, The biblical truth, Is being squeezed, So we must always pray, That this word, Will be given freedom, To be expressed, Within our land, It's very important, That we pray, For that, Because God's word, Is direct, It's authoritative, This is, The voice of the living,
[37:34] And through God, And so the Lord, Is telling us here, In no uncertain terms, That we have an enemy, Of our souls, He wants us to know, About this enemy, But he also wants us, To know how to defeat, That enemy, And though I'm not, Going to go through that, We'll maybe come back, To this another time, I want us really just to, To focus a wee bit here, Upon what the Lord is saying, And he's telling us that, We need to be, Strong in the Lord, And it is vital, To lay hold upon that, Because the only way, That we can combat, And fight against, The powers of darkness, And powers of evil, Are in the strength, Of the Lord, You and I, Cannot resist, Temptation on our own, If you ever try, And take on temptation, On your own, You'll fail, Said it before, Hundred times, Out of a, Hundred percent, Failure, If you try, And take on, The devil's,
[38:35] Temptations, On your own, Because we don't have, The strength, It is only, In and through, God's strength, That we're, We're able, To do that, And we've got to remember, That this God, Is the God, Who holds, The very universe, In his hands, Who guides, And controls, Everything, He's the God, Who stopped, The waters of the Red Sea, Stopped the waters, Of the Jordan, The God who, Who rules, And overrules, All things, And so, He is the one, That we are to stand in, Now, A lot of people think, That, Again, With regard to the Christian faith, And we know the statement, Very much, Let go, And let God, You've heard that statement, That we are to let go, Of ourselves, And just let God, And there is, There is a truth in that, But, With regard, To our Christian walk, It involves far more than that,
[39:37] Because we're told here, That we are to be strong, In the Lord, We are to know of his strength, We are to be putting on, An armor, We are to stand, Not stand like, With your hands in your pockets, Where you might be leaning, Against a post, But standing, Like a saint, Standing, Ready to fight, Standing engaged, It's an activity, It's all talking about activity, So it's not so much, Just letting go, And letting God, Yes, It's letting God, Empower us, But we've got to be aware, That this is a struggle, This is a fight, And we cannot make deals, With the enemy, We cannot ourselves think, We'll sort this out, We can't make a sort of a deal, With, With the demons, And say, Alright, We've got to remember, Satan is a tyrant, He wants control, He wants control, Of your soul, He wants to take your soul, He wants to capture your soul, And you cannot make a deal,
[40:38] With the enemy, With the enemy, Remember when, In the late 30s, When Hitler was on the march, And beginning to take, Take over, They were trying to strike deals, They were trying to, They sat down, And there was a, There was a period, Where everybody thought, Was successful, Remember when, Czechoslovakia then, Was given, And so on, And there was a, A sense of euphoria, Time of Chamberlain, And so on, Thinking, Yeah, We've sorted everything out, Where it's, We've saved everything, But they couldn't make a deal, With somebody, Who wanted to, Wanted to rule the world, And, Whatever treaties, Or whatever they had, Wasn't worth the paper, It was on, Because Hitler wanted to control, And he wasn't going to be satisfied, With anything, Until he had, Total control, Everywhere, And in a sense, That's how, How it is with Satan, We, He wants control, And there is only one, Who can deal, With him, And that is, The Lord, So that is why, We are to be,
[41:39] Strong in the Lord, Trusting him, So that every day, We're saying, Lord, Come in me, Come round me, Be in front of me, Be behind me, Alongside me, So that we're aware, Of the Lord's, Protection, The Lord's help, The Lord's, Guidance, In everything, You know, Sometimes we have a wrong, Wrong view of Jesus, We sometimes think, Of Jesus simply, With regard to his, Meekness, To his gentleness, He was all, These things, But he was an, Incredibly strong man, As well, Unbelievably so, Because what Jesus, Endured physically, And the moral, Courage that he had, To stand often, Alone, You think of it that, We don't like to be, Sort of put down, You don't like to be, Misrepresented, If you were being slandered, And abused,
[42:40] And shouted down, Every time you spoke, And things like that, It would really get to you, Well Jesus lived, With that, Everywhere he went, They were talking about him, They were spreading, Rumors about him, They were saying, He was a glutton, He was a wine, But in other words, He was always at the wine, They were saying, That all the miracles, He performed us, By the power of the devil, They would challenge, Everything that he would say, They would stir up the people, To oppose him, And he lived, With this all the time, But he had this, Incredible courage, That he just kept going, He kept going, And he kept going, And he kept challenging, And he kept taking on, All the opposition, And all the authorities, But not just at a human level, But even demonic, And this is what we've got to remember, This is our Lord, This is the one who went ahead of us, Because even the devils were afraid, Even the demons were afraid of Jesus, We read about that,
[43:41] In the Bible, But Jesus tells us, That he came, To take on the powers of darkness, That's why I say, Jesus was the strongest, Most courageous man, That the world ever saw, He came on, He came into this world, To take on, And to defeat, The powers of darkness, Because that's, That's, That's, Indeed what he tells us, That very thing, So we've got to remember, That this is the Jesus, Who is, The one, In fact, In Exodus, We're told there, That he's described, As a warrior, But I also find it, Very, Very, Interesting here, Again, Just to quote, From the word, In 1st John, Jesus says, The reason the son of God, Appeared, Was to destroy, The works of the devil, John,
[44:42] In his letter, Says that, But I find it, Very interesting, Where this, Particular, Declaration, Or command, Comes, In verse 10, Because, Prior to this, The apostle has been, Talking to us, About relationships, Relationship of husband, And wife, Relationship of, Parents and children, Relationship of, Masters and servants, Or employees, And employers, All these things, It's all about, Relationships, And so, When he's, He's talking about, Whenever you see, The word, Finally, It's always related, To what has gone before, So, This verse, Verse 10, Is like a bridge, Between, Speaking to us, About, The power, The wiles, The dangers, Of the evil one, But we've, Got to, Not to lose sight, Of the fact, That he's, Also been speaking to us, About all our, Relationships in life,
[45:43] And I believe, The reason, Why Paul is highlighting this, Is that this is where, Satan, And all the demons, Have the greatest, Success, Is in the relationships, This is where he has access, This is where he causes, Most havoc, Most damage, His success, Began in Eden, Because in his way, To get Adam, He got at Adam, Through Eve, That was his great triumph, And what was, When he has a successful strategy, He's not going to abandon it, I think a classic example, Of it all is David, David was an absolutely, Amazing believer, A man whose trust in the Lord, Was implicit, David is a man, Who conquered, Who fought, David was a man, Remember how the women, Of Jerusalem sang, Saul has slain his thousands, But David is tens of thousands,
[46:46] He was just this, Amazing warrior, His trust in the Lord, Was so great, That when he went out, To face Goliath, Saul said, Hey, You don't have any armor, Here's armor, David says, I don't want armor, He tried it on, He says, That's no use, No, He said, I'll just go out, I'm going out, In the strength of the Lord, And remember, How he told about, How the Lord, Had delivered him out, From the hand of the lion, And from the hand of the bear, On previous occasions, He said, The Lord will do the same again, I don't need the armor, I have the Lord's armor, And David lived his life, Living his life, In the Lord's armor, Apart from it would appear, In his own home, He may, Maybe he thought, He was safe there, I don't know, But we know, How he saw, And he took, The beautiful Bathsheba, Who was married to Uriah, And to try and cover his tracks, He had Uriah murdered,
[47:49] But you know, When David did that, He opened the door, To Satan getting into his house, And you can read on, Ivor was going through, All the episodes in Samuel, But what followed on, When that door was opened, And David's defenses were down, And he stopped trusting in the Lord, In the way that he had been doing so, In such an exemplary fashion before, We find just a catalogue of disaster, We found that one of David's sons, Raped a daughter, We found that one of David's sons, Murdered another of his sons, We find a son of David, Rising up, In rebellion against his father, And leading us, It began into a civil war, Where many, Many people were killed, All because David, The man who lived, With such trust in the Lord, Who was clothed in the armor of God, For some reason, Thought at home,
[48:49] Maybe I don't need the armor of God, And he allowed Satan in, And you see, This is where I'm saying, We're coming back to the relationships, Because this is where, The evil one has, His greatest success, And so Paul speaks to us, About these struggles, Struggles in the kingdom of darkness, Now when Paul is writing this, We're aware that, And this is a part of the, The great thing, As Paul writes this, Letter, He talks to us, About being in chains, It's a very military, It's, Paul, Probably the two things, Paul uses most, In his, In his, As analogies, In his writing, Is the athlete, And the soldier, And these are two, Really powerful descriptions, Of the Christian life, And here it's, It's a soldier, Very military, With all the different aspects, To the armor,
[49:50] And I'm sure, As Paul was chained, You remember, He was in prison, He had an element of freedom, But he was in prison, And in prison, He would be chained, To two soldiers, That he, That these letters, Would be penned, As we said before, They were probably, Dictated, To somebody, Who would have written them for him, Because he, He tells us in different letters, Who some of the writers, Of the, Of the man, That he, Spoke the words, And had somebody, Because he was chained, That's the way it was, Chained to two, Roman soldiers, And that's what makes, These prison letters, Quite extraordinary, Because Paul is talking about, Peace, And contentment, So often, He's talking about love, And he's even, But I love there, He's not praying, That he would be released, See towards the end there, He says, Making supplication, For all the saints, And also for me, Pray for me, And in fact, He asked them to pray, For the other saints, First, Before praying for himself, Pray for me, That I might be released,
[50:52] No, That words may be given to me, In opening my mouth, Boldly, To proclaim the mystery, Of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador, In chains, That I may declare it boldly, Isn't that wonderful, That's all he could think about, This was his great passion, I might want to tell people, About the Lord Jesus Christ, But he's warning us as well, You know, It's very, Very important, I think, Again, Coming back to military terms, There are two things, That you would always need, If you were engaged in combat, Or you're going to fight, You would need, First of all, To know your own resources, And you would need, To know the enemy, That's why intelligence, That's why, All, The way that, Even today, With regard to terrorism, Intelligence, Is so important, It's vital, That people will know, Know the opposition, Know the enemy, Know as much as they can, About it, That's what the word of God, Is doing, It's telling us,
[51:53] So that we will know, Something of his, His strategy, Of his plans, Of his evil, But we've also got to know, Our resources, And that's what Paul, Goes on to talk about, The armor, That God has given us, This armor, He has made provision, For us, In order that we may, Take on, The evil one, Satan has many, Many names, In scripture, He's called, The adversary, Because that's what he is, He's an enemy, He's the enemy of God, And he will, Naturally become the enemy, Of all God's followers, He's called, The accuser, And he's very good at that, He accuses us, Before God, And he accuses, Us to ourselves, He's always accusing us, He's called, The tempter, And again, We're, We're so aware of that, He's called, A murderer, And a liar, Two very interesting names, Jesus himself,
[52:54] Says that, This is what Jesus said, In John's gospel, He was a murderer, From the beginning, And has nothing, To do with the truth, Because there is no, Truth in him, If we lie, And we try and deceive people, If that's the way, We operate in life, We don't mirror Jesus, We mirror Satan, And when you look at all the carnage, And all the murder, And all the violence, And all the evil in this world, Jesus tells us, This is where it started, With, With Satan, He's been a murderer, From the very start, He's also sometimes termed, The angel of light, Because he will, He will transform, Transform yourself, And he'll come whispering to you, And sometimes Satan will come, And he'll bring God's word, But you know what he does, When he brings God's word, He brings it to you, And he'll never quote it, Exactly accurately,
[53:55] He'll miss a little bit out, Or he'll distort it, He did that with Jesus, Remember Jesus' temptation, In the wilderness, Satan, Quoted scripture, In order to try and get Jesus, To do something for him, But he missed, A vital bit out, He was quoting from Psalm 91, This is the way he operates, So he's an angel of light, So sometimes, Sometimes he comes like that, Sometimes he comes, We're also told, He's like a serpent, Sly, Subtle, Like a roaring lion, Displaying his anger, And his evil, He is all these things, A dangerous enemy, But we have a more powerful friend, You think of, You think of, Legion who was, Filled, With demons, They couldn't cope, In the presence of Jesus Christ, So greater, Is he that is within you, Than he that is within the world,
[54:56] Where is Jesus for you today, Is he your friend, Is he the one who is with you, Alongside you, In front of you, Behind you, Surrounding you, Keeping you, Or are you on your own, Trying to struggle through on your own, Because, You can't win, You can't do it on your own, Even with the Lord Jesus, We often fail, We've all failed, Continually, In many different ways, And by our thought, By, By our speech, Many a time, After things that we've said, And we said, You know, That wasn't a very Christian thing to say, We say it to ourselves, We didn't display, A very Christian attitude, Some of the things we do, And we, We said the Lord, Oh forgive me that, That was not Christian, Some of the thoughts, You catch yourself with, Some of the thoughts, You allow yourself, To, To dwell on, And go on, You see,
[55:57] You have to ask the Lord, To forgive you, So even although, The Lord is with us, We still, Are struggling, But the guarantee is, That we will win, Because his grace, Will never let us go, That's a wonderful thing, It's perpetual grace, God never says, After a while, I saved you by my grace, But, My grace is actually, Running out for you, I don't have enough grace, Left for you, No, His grace, Is always sufficient, Isn't that wonderful, So may we then, Just rely, And trust in him, And ask him to fill our hearts, With his grace, And as we, Read through that, That the Lord will, Enable us to understand, That we need to put on, This armor, And equip ourselves, With it as we, Engage, With the enemy, Let us pray, Oh Lord, Our God, We, We pray today, That we may, Give thanks, For the fact,
[56:57] That although there is an enemy, There is a, Greater victor, There is one, Who is the captain, Of our salvation, And we pray, That we may know, Your strength, Your help, Give us the grace, To stand firm, In the Lord, So that we will know, The security, That we will know, Your strength, Made perfect, In our weakness, Because we are weak, In the face of the enemy, Lord be with us all, And grant us grace, For all that lies, Ahead of us this week, All the duties, That are part, And partial of our lives, And be with us, All the time, Bless, Our homes, And our families, Bless the cup of tea, In the hall, We pray, And take away soon, In Jesus name, Amen, We are going to conclude, Singing in Psalm 91, It is from the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 91, It is on page 351, Psalm 91, We will sing the,
[57:59] Just the first four verses, It is around verses 11 and 12, That Satan misquoted, To the Lord Jesus, In the temptation, It is a wonderful psalm, This about God's protection, He that doth in the secret place, Of the most high reside, Under the shade of him that is, The Almighty shall abide, I of the Lord my God, Will say, He is my refuge still, He is my fortress, And my God, And in him trust I will, Assuredly he shall thee save, And give deliverance, From subtle foul or snare, And from the noise and pestilence, And from the noise and pestilence, His feather shall he hide, Under his wings shall be, His faithfulness shall be a shield, And buckler unto thee.
[58:50] We'll sing these verses, Psalm 91, One to four, And the tune is Moravia. Mothermal singing Jimpkins' He adored in the secret place of the most fiery sight.
[59:15] Under the shade of him that is the almighty Shabbat.
[59:30] I hope the Lord my God will sing. He is my refuge still.
[59:47] He is my fortress and my God. And in him trust thy will.
[60:03] Assured me he shall be saved. And give deliverance.
[60:19] From subtle flowers near and from the voice of pestilence.
[60:35] His feather shall be high. I trust under his wings shall be.
[60:52] His faithfulness shall be our shield. And my word unto thee.
[61:09] Now may the grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen. Thank you very much.
[61:43] Thank you.