Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind. Paul's epistle to the Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10. Paul giving final directions and guidance to the Ephesians, very affectionately addresses them as my brethren. It's a good thing to be reminded when we view those of the Lord's people, especially those that he has written to, in this way where he in the first chapter speaks of them as being so blessed and so favoured with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, acknowledging They're being chosen in him before the foundation of the world and to view them and to speak of them as brethren. We think of what Joseph said when he was found wandering in the field. I seek my brethren, and it's a good thing where we have a choice and a desire for those that are bought with the same blood and redeemed by the same dear saviour have the same prospect in heaven and are under the same tribulation and same trials as what we are. And so the apostle here addresses the Ephesians, finally, my brethren.

Now I want this evening to speak of being strong in the Lord. And often when we are brought to know a truth of God, whatever that truth be, very often what precedes it is to feel our own weakness and to feel our need. By nature and under the fall we have nothing, we have no strength, we're under condemnation, And yet we think that we can do things. If we ever to seek and to rely solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ, we will painfully feel that what the Lord said, without me you can do nothing, is very true. We think of Samson as the strongest man we might say that ever lived.

And there was one time that he slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. And he says, with the jawbone of an ass, I've slain a thousand men. He threw away the jawbone. But then he was overcome by thirst. And he cried to the Lord, shall he have all this deliverance and then die of thirst? And the Lord clave a hollow in the jawbone of the ass, and there he had water for his thirst. And Samson went from thinking that he had that strength, really proud of it, what he could do, to suddenly feeling all that strength gone, and weakness, and dependence, and the Lord supplying that need.

You think of Peter, though all men forsake thee, yet will not I. As if he had some inner strength, that he did not need the Lord to sustain him, or even to pray for him, make intercession for him. But Peter had to go into Satan's sieve. He had to be permitted to deny the Lord those three times. When Peter is restored, the Lord says to him, strengthen thy brethren. It is a very different Peter, not the proud, self-sufficient Peter as before. Now he knew his need and would point others to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is notable wherever the Lord was to use a man or a woman, they were to know their weakness first.

We think of the promise given to Abraham for the seed, promised seed. But 25 years goes by and no child. And Sarah's worm is barren. That which is impossible with man is not impossible with God. and Isaac is born in God's time and way. But not before Abraham and Sarah had to know that it wasn't to be by their own strength or by their own power. And the same thing was with Elizabeth, John Baptist's mother as well, was barren and could bear no child.

The Lord prepares the way for his people to receive him to receive the blessings he has to give and we should note that dear friends don't be discouraged when you do feel your own weakness when you feel you cannot resist the devil you cannot resist your own flesh you don't have wisdom you make mistakes you aren't able to Access the Lord, you cannot bring peace into your own soul. Don't be discouraged because the Lord by these means will bring us to really our text. Not to be strong in self, not to be strong in our own resolutions, not to be strong in our own efforts, but to be strong. in the Lord. The preparations of the heart in man, the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

And the Lord will dig up, He will plough, He will bring down before He raises up and He will teach us where that strength is. Really all of us in nature's darkness come under that word when we were without strength. In due time Christ died for the ungodly. We have no strength. We have no mind of our own. The Lord himself has instigated salvation. He is the author of it and the performer of it and his people are to prove it. in their own experience as well.

So I want to look this evening, firstly, the person in whom we are to be strong, the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind. Secondly, why? why we need to be strong in the Lord. We have this in verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And then thirdly, how we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind. There is given to us seven headings. It's done as a picture of being a suit of armour that going from verse 13 right through to 18, take unto you the whole armour of God.

Firstly, the person in whom we are to be strong, the Lord. The person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So we're not looking firstly at what He has done or what He will do, I'll come to those in a moment, but His person. Be strong in the Lord. How many times we consider and think of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The more that we know of Him, the more He is revealed to us and opened up to us, the more we will want to know Him. Now in a natural sense, if we were to meet a stranger we would see them outwardly.

But in the first instance, we would know nothing whatsoever about them. As we spent time with them, we would start by perhaps asking them things. We'd find out about them, about their life, about what they liked, about what they had done. But then when we spent more time with them, we'd actually find out about them, how they acted, how they reacted, how they spoke to us, what their manner was. We would gradually find out more and more about them. And if indeed it was a person that had a long history, interesting history, then we'd inquire more and more. We'd want to know more and more about that person.

With our Lord Jesus Christ, by nature we are strangers to him. We do not know him. We think of when our Lord was on earth and the Jews, they viewed him, Jesus of Nazareth. But they did not know him. They did not know from whence he came, the man that was born blind. They said, why, he said, we're in, why, here is a marvellous thing. He know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. There was gradually being opened to that man, who the Lord Jesus Christ was. The Jews were content rather to discredit him, to speak against him, but they did not know him.

The Lord even had a word to reprove to Philip, when Philip said to him in John 6, show us the father and it sufficeth us, or John 14, sorry. And our Lord said to him, Philip, have I been so long with you, Philip, and yet hast thou not known me? If you have seen me, you've seen the father. Also, I and my father are one.

And the disciples, as though with the Lord, were getting to know him, getting to know his manner, his teaching, as to who he was. And though we see him not in the flesh, though we hear him not as they did, yet still he is to be known by his sheep. We have that especially in the picture of the sheep in John 10. I know my sheep and am known of mine.

The person of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man. One that is. Come not to destroy men's lives, but to save them. One who is not the type, but the true high priest of God. One who is the foundation upon which the church is built. One who is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. One who is the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. One in whom the Father delights and in whom all fullness dwells. The Lord Jesus Christ is set before us as the only name given among men whereby we must be saved.

What a solemn thing to be a stranger to him. How much time do we spend with him in his word, in prayer, Do we know his voice? Does he know ours? Or is it like the Song of Solomon that desired to hear, to hear the spouse's voice? Are we like one who cry, be not silent unto me? Lest if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Are we like the Church of God in Song of Solomon that's able to describe her best beloved as to who he is and what he is to her?

If the Lord is to be the one in whom we are strong, then surely our desire is that we might know him. that you might have him shown to us, revealed to us. Our Lord says that no man can come unto me except the Father which has sent me.

Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. The Lord Jesus Christ is he in whom the Father delights, in whom the Holy Spirit receives of and reveals them to us all. the Eternal Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us, made like unto His brethren, He who lived perfect life, died a sacrificial death, ascended up into heaven and makes intercession for His people, the Head of the Church of God, the One who will have his people, as he prays in John 17, to be with him and to behold his glory, that one who will share his inheritance with his people. That's an amazing thing, that we should be partners with him in his throne and have an incorruptible, eternal inheritance with this person, with our Lord, Jesus Christ. to know him who he is, to know what he has done and what he will do and what he is doing. In the context here, it is especially important to view what he has accomplished in bruising the serpent's head, in finishing the work the father gave him to do, and that he is not a dead saviour. but a living saviour, one able to do exceeding far above all that we can ask or think, one who waits to be gracious, one who has promised to be with his people even to the end of the world by his grace and through his Spirit. Be strong in the Lord, the one that sat before us, is one that is a living God, one that has all might and all power.

We are so used to, today, to have self-help remedies. Just follow a set of rules. Just obey these things and you can do this or that. You will have enough willpower to overcome, to be able to be what you want to be. But though the Lord gives directions in his word as to how we are to walk, how we are to be strong in the Lord is in the context here. But it is his power that we need and want. If we are to have the power of His might, that is not brought by us. It's not imagined. It is His power.

When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, they went out with a strong hand, a mighty hand. When they came to the Red Sea, God divided that Red Sea. When they had no water, the rock was smitten and the waters flowed. They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. When they came to Jericho, and they came first to Jordan, Jordan was stocked up. They went over. Then Jericho, the walls were flattened. It was all in the Lord's direction, what they should do. the rod that was to be lifted up, or to go around the walls of Jericho.

But it was God's power, it was the Lord's power that flattened those walls, that did those things. It was not in man's strength. Our Lord on earth gave witness to who he was, or the Father did, through the miracles that he performed. Those things were things that man could not do. And he did. He raised the dead. He opened the eyes of the blind. He healed the sick.

And all the time they're set forth, they're set forth before us in the gospel day. We need the same power of God. Same power the apostles waited for at Jerusalem. The same power that the Thessalonians had when the word came, not unto them in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power.

This is not to be a theory or just something understood in the head. We need that the power of God be drawn down, be bestowed upon us, that actually performs and does for us. Some of us have known that in answer to prayer where we have needed either direction, we needed the fear of man taken away, we needed wisdom to do a certain thing, or we wanted something found that is lost, and the Lord has performed and done that which we have asked of Him. And it's been with us A certain thing that what was done was done by the Lord, by the power of His mind. It wasn't just token.

We do not want a religion without power that has no witness from heaven. And the only way to prove that is to know and feel our own weakness. and to know that the only deliverance is when the Lord does come and does give us the power and does give us might.

This is especially in the case when we have like here brethren. He is dressing them as brethren. Those that have belief, those that have faith, But they then are walking that out in a world where there is sin, where the devil is active. And this is what we want to look at our second point, why we need to be strong in the Lord. The apostle pictures it as the people of God in this world is not just flesh and blood. Yes, we might have those that oppose us and hate us and resist us.

But behind that, there is these powers. We have a picture with the book of Job and we have Satan coming amongst the people of God. And the dialogue between our Lord and Satan and Satan moving the Lord to work in that way against Job. Who could ever come and say to Job, Job, all you're dealing with is some serpents and a bit of wind. All it is, is men. You need to get a stronger army and build a bit stronger house or don't blow down next time. But we know from the account he's dealing not with men or natural things, Satan is behind it.

You think of the account of David numbering Israel. David, at last, it is right that he did. He said, I have sinned. He numbered Israel in a time of peace and didn't have ransom money paid. There's no mention of that. And in the law of God, the thing that is to be prevented with the ransom money is a plague. Lest the people be plagued. And the people were plagued. But mere told in those two accounts, one, it is God. dealt with the people because of their sin. The other was that Satan, he provoked David to number Israel.

Underneath is these powers, these forces that are working that we cannot see. We do not know of that spirit world that is a real world. The devil is a real fallen angel. There are many devils. There are many that are in this spirit world. We cannot see them, but we know their effect. And, of course, in a natural sense, an enemy would rather that you didn't know he was an enemy or didn't know he was coming. In Nehemiah's day, what frustrated his enemies was that they realized that Nehemiah had found out their schemes and their designs. We're told concerning Satan, we are not ignorant of his devices.

He tries the same thing again and again. With our fallen nature, we might know, we see the snare, we trap it further in anyway. We can be perhaps as foolish as Ahab. When Ahab was going up with Jehoshaphat, against Ramoth Gilead. Then he had his 400 prophets. Go up and prosper. And Jehoshaphat wanted a servant of the Lord. What does the Lord say? Micaiah. Well, Ahab says, I hate him. He never speaks anything good, but only evil towards me. Well, Micaiah comes and first he just mocks, and he just takes the same strain as those 400. Go up. go up and Ahab says, how long must I adieu thee to always speak the truth in the name of the Lord?

Obviously the prophet had used that method other times as well. But then when the prophet clearly said that God had put a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets, that God is not a liar, God is not the author of evil. uses these evil spirits for his ends. But God doesn't do it deceitfully.

He says to Ahab, this is what I've done. This is why they're prophesying like that. You ask the prophets, have you got an evil spirit? They say, no, we haven't. But God says you have. But Ahab, he would rather believe those prophets than the one prophet of the Lord. He's warned, but he doesn't take that warning. How solemn to think that we are in a world of which we have many evil spirits, and God does warn them of us, of them, and we can be just like Ahab. We can use our own wisdom, our own strength, and think that we can master them ourselves.

Why does God permit it? Why does God allow there to be such spiritual wickedness? Why should it be that there's so many evil men, women, as it were, beset with the devils and having those evil spirits? We might say in the context that is here, that God's people, they need to be strong in the law.

Our Lord, who defeated Satan at Calvary, who in bruising his head had his heel bruised, will also prove that Satan, as regards his people, is a defeated enemy, but only defeated in the Lord Jesus Christ, not defeated by themselves. You read in the Acts of one who sought to imitate, imitate the apostles in casting out devils. And the devils turned around and said, Paul, we know. Jesus, we know. But who are you? And they fell upon them and overcome them, destroyed them. We only have power as to what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's a reason why we need to be strong in the Lord. We might wonder, why isn't?

I've tried and tried to master this lust. I've tried and tried to master this sin. I've tried to overcome these evil desires and these evil propensities. And I can't do it. I can't overcome these things. We're only thinking, well, it's just natural things. Just a bit of willpower will do. Well, if it did, how would that profit us spiritually? How would that lead to the honor and glory of God? How would that bring us closer to Him? It wouldn't. We think of with the fulfilling of the law, what is said there, what the law could not do. in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemns sin in the flesh.

The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. The law of God, the Ten Commandments, they cannot give life. They cannot impart strength or grace. It is the Lord Jesus Christ under the New Testament in his blood, he having fulfilled the law, he having brought in an everlasting righteousness. And so we have with the battle, the resistance that God's people have through this world, there are many adversaries. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. Yes, we should.

But we cannot conquer in our own strength or in our own might. Our weakness is to be known and felt, realized in a painful way. Like Jehoshaphat said, we have neither might nor power against this enemy. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.

That was a wonderful instance. of the Lord answering their prayers and saying, you shall not need to fight in this battle. And the Lord went forth and put them to war one against another, and all they had to go was to collect the spoil. The Lord did the fighting for them. They believed, and they went forth praising the Lord. Many such instances of the Lord appearing for his people, fighting for them, helping them, appearing for them.

And this is where the apostle says, be strong in the Lord. And he gives the reason why. In the third place, how are we to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his mind? Well, he goes on in the verses that follow. exhorting to put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. This is the directions that then are given, to take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Now I know, I think fairly recently we have been through these, but I want to put it as the seven distinct points, this is done in the way of an armour, but there's seven points, rather than confuse it with looking at the type with the armour, just look at the points themselves. What we are to pay heed to, if we're strong, in the Lord and the power of his mind.

The first one, in verse 14, is the truth. Our Lord said to those that believed on him, if you continue in my word, you shall know the truth. The truth shall make you free. And he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And before Pilate, Pilate asked him, what is truth? Truth is reality viewed from God's perspective. And the only way we know from God's perspective is through the word of truth. And may we remember as well, this is the first thing that's taught. And who are we fighting against? Satan, the wicked one? What did he come in the garden of Eden? He come hath God said. undermining the truth, contradicting what God has said. And we are warned then to look for that which is the truth, not a lie, not that which is deceitful, but that which is the truth.

The second one, also in verse 14, is righteousness. A breastplate of righteousness is something we do not have by nature. We have no righteousness of our own. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and yet we hate to let go of that. We hate to. We hate the idea that we're not good people. If you want to offend anyone, You tell them that they're sinners. You tell them that all their good charity works and all that they've done, they are smoking God's nostrils if they're using them to obtain salvation. Paul, he says in Romans 10, those that he desired to be saved, he said, they were ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own.

If we are to at all stand then the righteousness that we are to stand in is not our own, it's Christ's righteousness. This is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Church of God, the Lord our righteousness, which is the same name as the Lord. This is the name wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. May that be very uppermost in our mind, when we are beset with evils and things, even if I conquer all of these things, that does not make a righteousness to make me stand before God.

That is a fruitless work. But to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, to say really to the devil, you may cause me to fall, you may cause me to sin, But I'm not looking to my righteousness for heaven. My righteousness is in Christ. That is where I am looking. What discouragement to the Satan when he thinks that he can make someone fool, make someone lose their hope of heaven, but that person turns around and says, sorry Satan, but my hope of heaven is not in my works, it is in Christ. And that is a perfect righteousness and you cannot touch that. What an answer to the adversary.

And then we have in verse 15, the gospel. We'll feed Chod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Gospel is good news of salvation. And it brings peace to troubled souls. And so there, in a way, we have the two parts. The preparation of the gospel of peace is the trouble, and the bringing in of that gospel is the good news of salvation to sinners. The hymn writer says, sinners can say, and none but they, how precious is the Savior. And again, it is not going along with Satan's temptations. or to bring us back under the covenant of works, but saying, I've known the law, I cannot fulfill the law. My hope is not there, but my hope is in Calvary.

My hope is in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon that good news of peace through the Lord. These words, says the Lord, I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. May we always remember that gospel is a gospel of peace. When our Lord came upon this earth, The angels heralded his coming with on earth peace, good will toward men. Satan will always bear ill will toward men and toward the Lord Jesus Christ. He'll always divide between chief friends.

He'll always say that you have sinned. He'll tempt first, and then when we fall, he will say you can't go to the Lord now. You can't pray now. because of what you've done, and you'll always divine. Whatever comes into your or my mind that turn us away from the Lord, away from hope in the gospel, away from prayer, that doesn't come from the Lord, it comes from Satan. The gospel rules. Satan will divide and he will try to turn us away from the Lord. He is an accuser of the brethren. Then we have in verse 16, fourthly faith, above all taking the shield of faith.

This is What is given by the Lord is the faith of Jesus Christ, not a duty faith. It's not from us, but it comes from the Lord. He is the author and finisher of our faith. And it is faith that comes through the Word of God that says, I will trust in the Word, not in my feelings, not in what Satan is saying. It holds fast in the conquest that the Lord had over Satan. When Satan came and tempted him, it is faith that looks to that which is unseen and that which trusts in the Lord. Faith is an anchor of the soul that holds that soul steady. A shield of faith, wherewith ye shall quench, able to quench all the fiery dance of the wicked. Who is he that overcometh the world? It is those that through faith overcomes the world.

Sight sees, sees all what is in the world, it sees sin, it sees the temptations, it sees all of these things. But faith looks beyond that and it sees God's plan, God's purpose, It sees Satan's temptations as to what they really are, and what his design really is. Then we have in the fifth place, in verse 17, salvation. Saving from hell and saving to heaven, really the whole plan of salvation. It's not just putting away sin, It's not just making atonement, but it's making a provision as well.

Even if our sins were all put away, if we weren't given a righteousness, how could we stand before God? What if we were to get to heaven? And then we were asked, well, what about your life? What about all the things you've done in your life? Sometimes you might be troubled about that. You say, what if all the things, all the evil things that I've done, all got to come up before God?

But that's not our righteousness. Our righteousness is of the Lord. And those other things, as far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. In the Song of Solomon, there aren't All pure, my love, there is no spot in thee. But she says, I am black, but comely. And the sinner feels that, I am black in myself, but comely in Christ. And that is the provision of salvation, not half, but whole. The soul is plucked from hell and prepared for heaven and brought to heaven. And there's no weak link. There's nothing that is not done.

If we had someone that had great debts over their head, and we went and paid all of their debts and blotted them all out, and then off we went. And that poor person was left without a home and without a house and without a means to buy any food or anything. They're left absolutely destitute. So that was a good thing. You paid all their debt, but look how you've left them. But if they, as well as paying their debt, gave them a house and gave them food and established them with all that they needed, you say, that's a real help to that person. And that's what the Lord does with his people. Salvation is not half, it's complete.

6 Then in the sixth place is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This is what our Lord specifically used against Satan. When he came, if thou art the Son of God, command these stones that they might be made bread. And the Lord quoted that word, man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then when Satan started to use the word of God to tempt, it is written, cast thyself down from hence, angels shall bear thee up in their arms, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone, brings him up to the pinnacle of the temple, tempts him to do that. Now, Lord answered, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

And comparing scripture with scripture, the sword of the spirit, the word of God, Satan hates the word of God. Satan couldn't resist that. Even by using the Word of God back again, he couldn't overcome the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if we are to stand in the power of his mind, we stand also, as he did, in the Word of God. Weaker souls, able to wield it best. And then lastly, in verse 18, we have prayer. It's put last here, and I feel so often it comes as a first thing, or a thing that runs through it all. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.

How often we start to do something without prayer, start to design something, Start to make plans as a minister, even starting to prepare a sermon, or look for a text without prayer. Or when you've got a text, just start to divide it up, open it up. But you haven't gone to the Lord in prayer, haven't been seeking for his light upon it. No, it's a vital thing. that we look to the Lord all the time. And for that help, especially in resisting Satan, to overcoming the hardening effect of this world, to give us a tender conscience again, to teach us his truths, to bring us to be in the spirit, not in the flesh, These things are to be asked for constantly, to be brought to his feet, he hearing us and we hearing his voice. Can't tell you the amount of times that I have had a text and I've looked at that and I haven't known how to open it up. And I've gone to prayer and as I've been in prayer, Those thoughts have come into my mind. What points? How to open them up? What the important things are there? And the Lord gives those. And it is very clearly noticed in that way.

But it is to be noticed as well when we are constantly barraged with Satan's temptations. When we have that deadness and hardness. to wrestle, as the hymn writer says, hard with God in prayer. Never think that prayer is an easy thing. Often we may go to prayer, obtain feelingly no help, start then to do our business or do our work, tempted again, back to prayer again. It's a blessed thing where the Lord keeps us going back again and again. May we live a life of faith and of prayer. And all the time, our mind's eye, our thought is, we need the power of His might, the Lord's might.

That is what we're looking for. We're not looking for something of our own. We're looking for this miracle This work of divine grace, the power that cometh from God, that which takes a poor sinner and makes him to be only what he is by the grace of God, that is what the Apostle Paul said, what I am, I am by the grace of God. May this word be a help. If we've been quickened into divine life, we will have a warfare. We'll have a battle.

Satan hates to see the people of God, evidently the people of God. But as the hymn writer says again, Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees, because he knows if the power of God is brought down, he cannot stand against that. To no wonder the apostle says, My brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. May that be that which remains with us this evening, that we are to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, strong in needing the Lord, strong in relying on the Lord, strong in looking to the Lord, Strong in that persuasion that without Him we cannot do anything and that we must perish.

We need that power. The same as the apostles had to tarry at Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high. We need that power. We need it daily. And in it is a sweet evidence and token of being a child of God. My brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Amen.