In our scripture reading tonight, we will be reminded that the law of God for us now, redeemed in Jesus Christ, is a royal law of liberty. By nature, we are in bondage to sin, meaning in bondage to hating God and the neighbor. But through Jesus Christ, this is our freedom to love God and the neighbor by keeping his commandments. So in Exodus 20, we read, And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates, For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." Let's sing now from Psalter number 9. We'll sing, lead me in thy righteousness, in stanza 3. Let's sing the three stanzas of Psalter number 9. ♪ O come all ye faithful joyful and triumphant ♪ I know a song that will last, I know a song that will last. Let's worship the Lord together now in congregational prayer. Father in heaven, We come to thee, for thou art Jehovah, the great I am that I am, the eternal God of the covenant. Thou art the God to whom we turn in prayer, for thou alone art God who hears and answers prayer. Thou art the Lord. almighty master, ruler, king of the universe. We know that all things belong to thee. There is no one like to thee in wealth and power. We know that thou dost have the resources to supply us with food and drink, health and strength, all that we need for our bodies here in this life, but also all that we need for our souls. We come to Thee, O God, knowing that Thou art also the God of great mercy and grace and love, that Thou dost desire to hear our prayers, to hear our prayer, to hear our worship, to hear our love for Thee as our God. We ask Thee to work in our hearts that we may gladly and willingly set aside the things of this life that we may focus on the worship of Thy name. We set aside our earthly work. We set aside our daily activities. We come into thy presence on this day that thou hast set aside for our benefit to worship thee and to receive thy grace. We come confessing sin again and know that we need forgiveness and plead for that, not because there is any way for us to bargain with thee to say that we deserve forgiveness, but only because we believe in Jesus Christ, the one whom thou didst send to pay for our sins, and in whose name thou dost command us to pray. Lord, we come not only desiring forgiveness of sins, but desiring the strength and the power to live daily in repentance, to live daily in conversion, to live daily in fleeing from and turning from all sin and walking according to Thy commandments in a life of sanctification and holiness. Lord, we come before Thee and recognize that we are powerless to turn our lives from sin. The devil comes, the world tempts us, our sinful natures are also against us. We are so easily led in the way of sin and we are grieved, oh God, by our sins and our weakness. So we turn to Thee, the God of all power and grace, through Jesus Christ in Thy spirit, Lord, transform us. Grant that we may remember each day who we are and whose we are. That we may remember each day that we are not unbelievers. We are not worldly people. We don't belong to Satan or to this wicked world. Grant that we may remember that as those who have been given the gift of faith, we are now believers. As those who have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we are saints. That we are the children of thee, the living God. And as we remember that tonight and in this week, we pray, oh God, that that will have a radical impact on the way that we live and talk and behave. Too often, we are content with half measure. Too often, we are content with compromise. Lord, help us to see tonight that there is no agreement between Christ and Satan, no agreement between good and evil, no agreement between righteousness and sin, that we may Confess and flee from all of our sins. And we pray, Father, that the benefits of godliness may be enjoyed by us. May we enjoy praising Thee. May we enjoy walking in peace and unity with one another in our families and in the congregation. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt help us to overcome sinful pride and to live in humility and love with one another. Grant, O God, that we may also experience that as we walk in godliness, we give a witness to others in the world and may rejoice when even those who don't know Thee glorify Thee, our Heavenly Father, because they behold our good works. Some we know, O God, grudgingly, unwillingly must acknowledge the power of thy grace and thy spirit as they witness the quiet contentment and faith and godliness of thy people. But others, O God, we know may be gained to Christ, so that they with us proclaim thy praise and thy power and thy grace in Jesus Christ. Lord, bless us as a congregation. Remember us in all of our needs. And remember us also in all of our joys. We bring praise and thanksgiving to Thee for the birth of another child added to the Mulder family. Give to the parents grace and strength that they may lead their children in their home to worship and to serve Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Continue to carry on Thy covenant in our midst. Be with expectant mothers. Give them and their children in the womb health and strength according to Thy will. We pray, Father, that Thou wilt also be with those who are preparing for marriage. Thank Thee that we may celebrate Thy good gift of marriage in this season of weddings. Be with those who are looking forward to the life of husbands. May they be faithful in ruling and caring for, in love their wives. Be with those who are looking forward to living as wives in Christian marriage. We pray that they may have submissive spirits and be ready to help their husbands as believing women do for the sake of Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, Father, that marriage may be a picture of the blessed relationship between Christ and His church. We ask, therefore, also that Thou wilt be with those who have suffered great distress in marriage, been sinned against in marriage, been abandoned in divorce by spouses, We know that that's a great grief. We pray, Father, that Thou wilt uphold and comfort them in the knowledge that their marriage with Christ is an eternal marriage. We ask Thee, Father, to be with our denomination of churches. We pray that Thou wilt continue to lead us in the truth and in godliness and the unity of the Spirit with one another, with sister churches, with other churches with whom we have contact, And may we continue, Father, to seek to walk in faith and godliness with the blood-bought and Spirit-renewed people of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Bless us in our efforts to spread the gospel through missions. We know, Lord, that this is our great calling in the New Testament Church, the Church of Pentecost, the church where the Spirit is poured out not only upon Israel, but upon people from every nation, tongue, and tribe. Grant, Father, to us that we may have men then for the preaching of the gospel in missions and in our local congregations, and be with Reverend Lanning in his work, and his wife also, of spreading the gospel as a missionary in our churches. Be with each of the pastors who have calls, Motman, Decker, DeBoer. Give unto them to know where thou wilt have them to serve in thy church. Continue to guide and to care for each vacant congregation, seeing to the needs of the office bearers and the members of those churches. Continue, Lord, to build them up in faith. Be with all of the pastors in our denomination and their wives and their families. Help them to bear up in the face of temptations, in the face of attacks from the devil. Help them to bear up under all of the pressures and the stress of the labors that they perform as servants of Jesus Christ. May they also be the first partakers of the joy and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we pray, Father, that in the church, as those who know Jesus Christ and serve Him, the office bearers, but all of the members as prophet, priests, and kings, may even in the midst of trials and struggles and difficulties of many kinds, Know above all, may we all know above all, joy and hope and peace and comfort in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we bring this prayer, asking for the forgiveness of sins, asking for thy spirit to lead us and to direct us, that we may hear thy word and that we may praise thee. that all may be done to the glory of thy name. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. We worship the Lord now, giving of our offerings for the Reformed Witness Hour and for the Reformed Free Publishing Association and the effort to publish books. So, Yeah. Let's sing Psalter number 386. Another Psalter number where we bring a prayer to God. And basically our prayer is deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. Notice stanza four, guard thou my thoughts. And then stanza eight, defeat my foes. And then, oh keep me, Lord, nor let me fall. Protect and lead me safe through all. So we're going to sing one, three, four, and eight. 386, one, three, four, and eight. ♪ O praise to Him I cry ♪ To Thee I call on the ev'ry night ♪ Remind to me of graciousness ♪ Let us sing his praise ♪ I'll be near, I'll be near, I'll be near, I'll be near, I'll be near, I'll be near, We're almost finished with the Heidelberg Catechism once again. This evening, for this applicatory service, we're going to consider Lord's Day 52, question and answer 127, and focus on the sixth petition. And in connection with that, we'll read from James chapter one. So we'll read there first, James chapter one. And let's begin at verse 13. James one, this is the word of God. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way in straight way, forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain." Pure religion. and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. It's in connection with the calling to be doers of the word, to love God and the neighbor, and the calling then also not to work the wrath of man, which is not the righteousness of God, we consider the sixth petition of the Lord's Prayer, which is the sixth petition, that's question 127, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. That is, since we are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment, and besides this, since our mortal enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh, cease not to assault us, do thou therefore preserve and strengthen us by the power of thy Holy Spirit. I emphasize that, by the power of thy Holy Spirit, that we may not be overcome in this spiritual warfare, but constantly and strenuously may resist our foes, till at last we obtain a complete victory. What we consider tonight, beloved, is the calling to live as those who have been delivered from sin by Jesus Christ. We remembered this morning the deliverance that he has given us from sin. That deliverance is founded on what he did 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross and purchased us from sin We don't belong to sin, to himself. We belong to Jesus Christ, our faithful Savior. And we remembered this morning that this deliverance from sin is given to us by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. And that Holy Spirit comes to us and says, I'm going to take what Jesus has earned for you and apply it to your heart. You're justified. Your sins are all taken away. You're not guilty, you're righteous in the sight of God. The Holy Spirit brings that to us. But now, beloved, we consider the work of the Holy Spirit to produce holiness in us, in our lives. He is the Holy Spirit. And that means that he is the third person of the Trinity is not only holy, but he is the one who is sent by God through Jesus Christ to a people who are unholy and he begins a work in us so that we become holy saints and begin more and more to be holy. What is this holy life? It's not one of two easy ways of life. One of them is the way of sin. Now, when I say that the way of sin is an easy life, I don't mean that it's a life without consequences, that it's a life without sorrow and misery and all the rest. What I mean is that for the one who's living that way of sin, there is no struggle. As a bond servant, a slave to sin, living that life of sin is the way that they go without any resistance whatsoever. So from a certain point of view, to be a slave to sin is to live an easy life. There's no struggle. The other way of life is the way of perfect righteousness. That's perfect freedom. And that will be an easy way of life for you and me in the glory of heaven. We don't have that now. No, a holy life today for you and me is a life of sinning. But now, do you see the difficulty? The struggle? Sinning and fighting sin. Not doing very much good, but struggling with a desire saying, I want to do good, and I want to do more good. It's a life of spiritual struggle, striving. The catechism calls it spiritual warfare. Constantly, instrenuously resisting foes. This, beloved, is what we consider tonight. You have been redeemed. You have been renewed. Now you're called to a life of spiritual striving. Spiritual striving, this is what we are to pray for in the sixth petition, and we're going to consider in the first place the cause of the spiritual striving, secondly, the possibility of this daily, constantly striving, and then thirdly, the weapon we're given of prayer in the spiritual warfare. Are you holy? Is your life a struggle? Why is that? Well, the answer, first of all, is you have a sinful nature. The Catechism identifies foes here. are mortal enemies who want to kill us spiritually. And the first is the devil, the second is the world, and the third is our own flesh. But you understand that really the important element here is our own sinful flesh. If you and I didn't have a sinful nature, we would perhaps by the power of God, of course, be able to withstand the devil and withstand the wicked world and we would walk in righteousness and there would be no sin in our lives. But why, the question is, is there sin in your life? And we're taught by James, aren't we? You can't point the finger at the devil. Don't point it at God, but you can't point it at the devil. You can't point it at other people. You can only point it at your own sinful flesh. There was... And I don't want to go too deep into this, beloved, because there's a mystery, of course, of how Adam and Eve did fall into sin, but there was no struggle for them when they had no sinful flesh. God said, love me, keep my commandments, don't do what I tell you not to do, eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam and Eve had within themselves only a perfect, holy desire to love and to obey God. And as I said before, I'll say it again, when you and I have our sinful natures taken away by God, what a day that will be, there won't be a struggle anymore with sin. We will be holy, perfectly holy. But we are fallen sinners. We have sinful natures, the flesh, if you want to call it that. that are bad, that are dead in sin, sinful natures that cannot and are not saved from sin by God. Beloved, our sinful natures are not changed, they are not improved. God does not save our sinful natures, but he saves us from our sinful natures. And that sinful nature is our sinful self that hates God, that loves the devil, loves the world, loves everything that is opposed to God. Now, I'm going to say something that I'll expand on in a moment. This is not all we are anymore. But that sinful nature still cleaves to us. And it's important for us to acknowledge our flesh because this is what explains our sin. Why do you experience? Why do I experience? There is a part of me that wants to listen to Satan. There is a part of me that when the world in some way sends a message to me, influences me, in some way tempts me. There is a part of me that wants to go in the way of sin that the world presents to me. Whether that be in a TV show, whether that be in an advertisement, whether that be in a movie, whether that be on the internet, this is part of why I need to pray, don't let that temptation be put in front of me because I have a sinful nature that wants to say yes to that sin. The devil, though, doesn't always need to use the world. He can tempt me and you through our own minds and hearts. My own sinful flesh often, well, thinks about sin, obsesses about sin, plans how to commit sin, justifies, excuses, says this won't be so bad. and then leads me to actually do the sin. This explains the sin in my life and your life. Beloved, you will have sin all your life here as long as you have your sinful nature. But that's only part of the answer. Why is my life a spiritual struggle? I have a sinful nature. The other part of the answer, and this is really the chief part, the most important part, the part that we should dwell on, I also have a new nature. I have the life of Jesus Christ. How? By the Holy Spirit living in me. You see, the question is not this, why do I sin? That's simple, because I have a sinful nature. But if you're a Christian, you begin to ask another question. Why do I hate this sin? Why do I struggle against this sin? Why do I find myself saying, there is a part of me that does want to do this sin, but there's a part of me that says, no, why am I doing what I don't want to do? And there's a part of me that says I don't want to do any good. But there's a part of me that says, why don't I do that which is good? In other words, when a temptation comes, if you're a Christian, it's not so easy anymore to say, well, whatever message the world is bringing to me, do this, it will feel good. It's not so easy for me anymore to say, yes, I'm going to do that. But I find that I'm resistant to that. I find that I'm beginning to say, no, I don't wanna do that, and why? It's not just because I could get caught and it could have consequences, but you're beginning to find that you think like a Joseph in Genesis. How can I give in to this temptation and commit this sin against who? Against God. And the question is, then why do I find that the answer is not anymore, no, when you're asked, do you love God? But I find that the answer is, yes, I do love Him, and I do want to please Him. The answer is, the power of the Holy Spirit, as the catechism says. So that the Holy Spirit, as we saw this morning, has come to you and implanted in you the life of Christ. You've been begotten again. James speaks of that. This is the good gift that comes from above. Don't you dare point your finger at God as if he's the one who works evil in you and gives you to do evil. That's not God. That's you and your own sinful nature. Do not err, beloved. This is the truth. Whatever good you have, and James has in mind this. that you don't always do evil, that you fight evil and you begin to hear the word of God and to do the word of God, to visit the fatherless and the widow and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. You know where that comes from, that comes from God. So that by the Spirit you have been reborn, by the Spirit you have a new mind, the mind of Christ. That mind of your sinful nature wants to sin and hate God and oppose Him. But when you have the mind of Christ, the mind of Christ says, no. No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to sin. I don't want to be like the ungodly people of this world. I want to be unspotted from the world. I want to love God. live according to His royal law of liberty, and love my neighbor as myself. So what is the cause of this spiritual struggle in you? Salvation, new life in Jesus Christ. James is going to go on in chapter three to describe this salvation as fellowship with God. And it logically makes sense, doesn't it? James says those who love evil, who are friends of the world, well, they're not friends of God. And you understand the implication is if you're a friend of God, Well, you're not going to be a friend of the world, but a foe, and you're going to strive, struggle, fight against the world and sin. So this is the cause of spiritual striving. We have within us the antithesis. Do you understand that? The antithesis, the struggle between righteousness and sin, between good and evil, That's the struggle between our new natures and our sinful nature within us. God has given us the gift of life, and that is the beginning of a struggle that goes on and on the whole of our lives. This beloved is what we're looking at now in the second point of the sermon. What is the possibility? So the cause is this, of this spiritual striving. you have new life, opposed to your sinful flesh. But now, it's one thing to say, I've made a beginning, or actually, God has made a beginning in my life. God has taken hold of me and said, you're no longer dead in sin, I've given you new life through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in you, and now here's the calling. Don't be passive, be active in striving. That's the language here. And beloved, you can see it, can't you, even in Jesus teaching the disciples. Here's how I want you to pray. I want you to pray for daily bread, I want you to pray for the forgiveness of sins, but now I want you to pray that you not be led into temptation, that you be delivered from evil, because this is how I expect you to live each day of your life. fighting against sin, fighting against the world and against the devil, and working hard, putting forth effort to serve your God, to thank Him for salvation in Jesus Christ. By the Spirit, you now have the power every day to live this way. I don't want to dwell on this, but by the Spirit, what you have the power to do every day isn't necessarily something glamorous, miraculous. Watch this, I can speak different languages. Watch this, I can touch sick people and heal them. Watch this, I can raise people from coffins. No. It's a struggle. It's not glamorous. It's painful, slow. And when other people look on you, too, they might say, your growth and sanctification is not very impressive. But this is it. You've been given life by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Every day, you are involved in the warfare, the battle against sin. and the battle to do good and to show gratitude to God in obedience. This is the issue then. Not just what God has done for you, In order to be holy, he had to choose you in eternity unto holiness, Ephesians 1 verse 4. In order for you to have the right to be holy, Jesus had to pay for you to redeem you from sin in order to give you the right to be the children of God. In order for you to be holy, you need to be regenerated by the Spirit. In order to be holy, you need the Holy Spirit working in you. But now, You need daily to say, I'm going to live the life of sanctification depending on the Holy Spirit who has been given to me by Jesus Christ. This means you need to be humble, not proud. Pride, beloved, does go before the fall. James will say in chapter three, God resists the proud. As one who has been given new life by the spirit of Jesus Christ, don't ever have the pride, this is the pride that says, now I can manage on my own. Beloved, what if God would say to you and me, all right, you go ahead and you face the world, the devil in your own flesh, in your own strength. Well, what does the catechism say? We are so weak in ourselves that we cannot stand a moment. What is the sad result of pride? Well, when temptation comes, we're not let out of it, we give into it. And instead of being delivered from evil, and that could mean from the devil or from evil things, we're given over to it so that we commit sins in our lives. We face enemies that are too powerful for us, even as regenerated people. This means, beloved, we do need the Holy Spirit constantly. And we need the means that the Holy Spirit gives to us constantly as well. We need this, His Word, as a power in our lives every day. We need the preaching as a power of the Holy Spirit in our lives every Lord's Day. We need the accountability that the Holy Spirit gives us. Do you know how He gives that accountability? Yes, probably we should say first of all through the office bearers of the church, through the pastor as he preaches the word, the Holy Spirit comes to you and examines your life. The Holy Spirit comes to you and exposes your sin. The Holy Spirit comes to you and gives to you the calling to flee from that sin and to lead your life down the pathway of obedience to God. But this is also the accountability that comes through the work of the elders, yes, but also the communion of saints. Children and young people be thankful. For your parents, especially. They point out sin. call for repentance and a new course of life. That is a means the Holy Spirit uses to help us spiritually strive against sin and for living a godly life of sanctification. That you and I need the Spirit is clear from Galatians 5 verse 17. And, well, if I didn't preach on this the last time we had an applicatory service, I would have today on Pentecost. Walking in the Spirit is the calling in Galatians chapter 5, but this is what the Apostle says. For the flesh, that's our sinful nature, losteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit that's in us against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. And what the Apostle Paul is saying is here's why you are able to strive against sin, strive for holiness, because the Spirit of God is in you. But he also says, And in this battle, in this striving, you have the victory. Why? Well, the Catechism is really making this point, and the Apostle Paul in Galatians 5 makes this point in Galatians 5, verse 17. James is making this point. The fight isn't fair, beloved. Now think about this. How often don't you think the fight isn't fair from this point of view? I have a sinful nature, the devil's so powerful, the world's so powerful, I can't overcome sin. No, the Bible says the fight isn't fair from this point of view. As you're fighting Satan, the world, and your sinful nature, God is the one who is fighting for you and through you. so that in the battle, the Holy Spirit is victorious, and you and I are victorious in sanctification and holiness. Is the victory this? I never sin. Well, I have to say, first of all, beloved, yes. That will be the victory in the life to come. But in this life, and this is important, lest we despair, don't ever think that the victory of sanctification through the Holy Spirit is going to be, I will never sin. No, the victory is this. The Holy Spirit works in me, so I say, I'm going to confess this sin. And I'm not going to continue in this sin. I'm not going to despair and give up because I've committed this sin. I'm going to confess this sin. I'm going to ask God to forgive me of this sin. And maybe it's only in a small way, but I begin to see that the Spirit is working in me so that I grow in fighting sin and in keeping the commandments of God and love for God. And when we confess our sins, beloved, what do we find? Victory, forgiveness. And when we are renewed in repentance and wanting to turn from sin and walk in God's way, what do we find? Victory each day. Keep striving. Say today, by the power of the Spirit, I'm going to try a little more. a little harder to fight sin and to serve God. And then make sure you use the weapon of prayer. I use that terminology weapon because the answer in the catechism uses the terminology of warfare. We have enemies, mortal enemies who want to kill us. Enemies that cease not to assault us, and we're involved in seeking to overcome and not be overcome in this spiritual warfare against our foes. When Jesus says, I want you to pray for being let out of temptation, deliverance from evil, he's saying, you do have enemies. We read that this morning too, didn't we, in John chapter 15 and 16. You have enemies. You are the students, the disciples of Jesus. Your master was hated by the devil and by the world. You will be hated too. But notice already the comfort there. I said this morning the comfort was that we have the Holy Spirit. But the comfort there too is how we're identified. You understand that when Jesus says to you, the world hates you, he's saying, you're not a friend of the world. When you're an enemy of the world, you're now a friend of God. That's comfort. And when the catechism says this to you too, these are your foes. By nature, that wasn't true. By nature, you weren't a foe of the devil or the world. You were of the world and of the devil, but now they're your enemies because God has made the difference through Jesus Christ. And now Jesus is saying, what are you going to do about these enemies? Well, in your own power, nothing. You need my power, and now what is one of your chief weapons against the devil, against the world, your sinful nature? Prayer. You see it, I hope, just in the sixth petition. Part of what Jesus is saying to you is this. Do you want victory over sin in your life? And if you say, I do, and you're a Christian, you'll say that. And part of what Jesus is saying is, you need prayer. You need to go to God in prayer. He answers prayer. We didn't read that, but this is what James is saying as well in James 1. Go back to verse 5 and 6. Now, Beloved, we don't need to get into discussions about this. Does God hear our prayers because our prayers are so good, so holy, so pleasing to Him? Not at all. We always pray, and we're going to see that next week, the Lord willing. For Jesus' sake, God only gives us prayer and hears our prayers because He is deserving. But the issue here is that prayer is a means God gives to us, and He says, now you use this and gratitude to me with sincerity, and I'll answer you. Remember that, beloved, in Lord's Day 45, to whom does God give his grace and Holy Spirit? To those only who his sincere desires continually ask them of him and are thankful for them. Does this mean that if you're not praying often, daily, and did you notice in Psalter 9 we talked about, we sang about the morning sacrifice? And then we sang in 386 about the evening sacrifice. Pray often during the day, morning and evening, noon as well. Does this mean that if we don't pray, we're likely to fall into temptation and sin? Well, beloved, this is what the canons of Dort say. Article four, although the weakness of the flesh cannot prevail against the power of God, your sinful nature can never defeat the grace of God. who confirms and preserves true believers in a state of grace. Yet, converts are not always so influenced and actuated by the Spirit of God as not in some particular instances sinfully to deviate from the guidance of divine grace so as to be seduced by and comply with the lusts of the flesh. They must therefore Be constant in watching and in prayer that they be not led into temptation. When these are neglected, watching and praying are neglected. They are not only liable to be drawn into great and heinous sins by Satan, the world, and the flesh, but sometimes by the righteous permission of God, actually fall into these evils. This, the lamentable fall of David, Peter, and other saints described in Holy Scripture demonstrates. Basically, beloved, the truth is this. If you're not praying, You're actually saying to God, I don't want to be holy. I don't want to resist sin. I want to walk in sin. And God's way of dealing with you is saying this, fine, I'll give you over to that. And beloved, because we have sinful natures, we find that to be easy, don't we? That's not hard. We have a period in our lives where we don't want to pray for holiness, or when we pray we don't mean it, and we really want to walk in sin, we'll walk in sin, that comes naturally to us. God means it when he says, I want you to believe in me. I want you to be thankful to me for salvation by grace. I want you to hate sin and to love me. And when that's your sincere desire of heart and mind and faith, then you'll come to me and you will pray to me morning, noon, evening, more even, every day. And when you ask, seek, and knock, I'll answer you. And by my grace and Holy Spirit, I'll sanctify you. Beloved, is this your prayer? Lord, give me the ability to resist evil. I don't want to blaspheme you or the Lord Jesus Christ. I love you. I want to thank you. Give me the power to stand against the world, to live for Christ. May that be your prayer. And may God, for Jesus' sake, answer it. Amen. Father in heaven, how humbling to confess our sinful natures, our sinful weakness. But we thank thee for exposing our sins to us so that we may confess them and know forgiveness in Jesus Christ, but also so that we may be strengthened in the battle to which thou dost call us. And may it be a battle tonight and in this coming week against sin. Lord, we do not want to live as the friends of the devil. May we also focus on the positive and battle, work hard. strenuously seeking to love thee, to obey thee, to keep thy commandments, and to love one another. By thy spirit, for Jesus' sake, amen. 342. Another prayer. Let's sing the four stanzas 342.