This evening a fast survey of the battle of God's people. We'll begin with the Old Testament, then we'll look at the battle of all battle, the battle of our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. And now we look at our battle as outlined for us in the book of Ephesians. Let's begin by reading Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 to the end of the chapter. Chapter 17 of the book of Exodus beginning by verse 8. The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. The more I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, They took a stone, put it under him, and he sat on it, and Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with a sword. And the Lord said to Moses, Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered, and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely erase the memory of the Amalekites from their heaven. Moses built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner. He said, for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. Now let's go to what we find in the Gospel of Luke. to Gethsemane, Luke 22, chapter 22, verse 36. Jesus went out, as usual, to the Mount of Olives, and disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, Pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed, Father, if you are willing, Take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer, he went back to the disciples. He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping? he asked them. Get up and pray. They will not fall into temptation. And then our battle, as outlined for us by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 6. And we'll begin reading by verse 10 and read through verse 18. Ephesians 6, 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God. that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions for all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert, and always keep on praying for all the saints. We are not done with fighting the powers of the evil one. Our catechism points that out to us. If I may just read Lord's Day, the first question and answer of Lord's Day 52. It's very clear on that. Question number 127 about the petition and what does it mean, deliver us from evil. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. What does that mean? By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own, even for a moment. And our sworn enemies, the devil, the world, our own flesh, never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Spirit, so we may not go down in defeat in the spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory. Many years ago, as we made our way from northwest Iowa to the dire area, Meeting after meeting, when the groundwork was laid for the founding of the United Reformed Church, we had no illusions that we were dealing with the last struggle in the Christian faith and the Christian church. We were trying to find our way. We didn't like what was happening. At first, we didn't even want to hear about leaving. But that's finally what came of it. But never was the thought that if that gets accomplished, then we will be safe, we will be done struggling. In the comfort of our churches, in the comfort of our home. You'll never get the illusion that the devil is not trying to get a hold of us. Yes, it's our own flesh. Yes, it's the world around us. But beyond all that is a scheming of the evil one. That's what we find here in Exodus. The Amalekites, the nomadic people who were grazing their sheep in that Sinai Peninsula. And here came these folks, a whole bunch of them, some millions of them, out of Egypt. You can imagine what they did to their pastures, which were not very much to begin with. There were people with livestock, camels and sheep, and they didn't like them coming. They were only out of Egypt for six, seven, eight weeks. They were not accustomed to fighting. They weren't ready for that. I wonder where Joshua picked up the ability. He may have fought in the Egyptian army. Who knows? He had some ability along that line. But they were not a fighting people. They were builders, bricklayers. And they weren't sticking together too well either. They were stragglers in the bunch. Moses tells about that as he, in his farewell speech to the people of Israel, in Deuteronomy 25, verse 17 and 18, he reads this, We remember the Amalekites did to you among the way when you came out of Egypt, when you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind. They didn't meet the people head on, but they would pick out the weak ones, the slow ones, the tired ones who were lagging behind. That's where they attacked. And then he says, the fear of God. They had no fear of God. Now that's amazing. They knew what had happened in Egypt. They knew how easy it was to defend it. What were they thinking? Well, I'm sure they did some injury. I'm sure they killed some people. I'm sure they took some children captive. I'm sure they took some property. But they should have known better to think that they really could fight with Almighty God. But then it's amazing, it's utterly amazing what the devil will do to people and what he will make them, entice them to do, what will put them up to. How did they deal with them? Moses gave a command to Joshua, and made a decision as to what he would do. He had his staff, a wonderful staff, by which he done miracles. He forced Pharaoh by the Red Sea, and since that time, make a water come out of a rock. Not that that staff was magic, or just Peter Wood, But Moses seemed to have felt that piece of wood had a special significance before God. So he told Joshua, take some men, take your swords, and go to fight. And I, I will lift up this piece of wood before God. Nothing special about that wood, basically I will pray that the Lord had honored us before and given us powder of wonderful things. He may do so again. So Moses spent the day praying. It was hard for him to hold up his hand. By this time he was 80 years old. He may have had weak shoulders, but either way, try to hold up your hand all day long. I couldn't do it for five minutes. As his hands went down, the Amalekites were winning. As his hands were up, the Israelites were winning. Aaron and Hur, his helpers, soon caught on to that. They said, Moses is on the rocks, you sit down. And then he got next to him, said, you hold one hand and I hold the other hand. So the three of them held their hands up in prayer. Nothing magic about that rod. Nothing magic even about the posture. There's something very powerful about the prayer. Here they were, the Israelites, untrained for war, ill-equipped for fighting, not too much food. Well, yes, they had manna now, and they had also water, but not a lot of resources when it comes to doing fighting work. We don't know how strong the Amalekites were. But to the answer of prayer, the Amalekites were taken care of. Joshua overcame the Amalekites with the sword. And what does Moses do? We did it! We did it! No. He built an altar and called it the Lord is my banner. The banner is something people gather behind to fight or to march. Moses, the Lord, is my banner. Why? For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. It's that, isn't it? Hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. Now Moses didn't get that far above his head, though his staff got a little higher. Yet, even though we're talking about how long was that staff? Six foot? We're talking about eight foot up in the air? Not very far. Yet it reached the Lord. The prayer of God's people has power in the fight against the evil one. It was prayer that won the battle. And this prayer prepared our Lord for the battle that lay ahead of Him. Actually, the suffering of our Lord began early in His life, throughout His act of obedience. suffered, but really it was in the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that the struggle became intense. If I may, I'd like to back up just a little bit to Matthew. We find a little more information there, a little more detail. And we notice that the Lord went back to the disciples two times. before he finally went back a third time and he left, and they left the garden of Gethsemane. Then Jesus, Matthew 26, verse 36, Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to them, Sit here while I go there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with them, and began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, My soul's overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me. Go a little further. He fell on his face to the ground and prayed, My father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. Then he returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. Could you not watch with me for one hour? He asked Peter. Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is growing, but the body is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, then your will be done. And he came back, he found them sleeping because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near. The Son of Man betrayed the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer. it's very difficult for us to understand the exact proceedings, the exact happenings in the struggle, in the warfare between the powers of light and the powers of darkness. What exactly happened at Gethsemane, we do not know. To what extent The Lord was fearful, he was sorrowful. Was he being tempted some more by the devil? It has been expressed by other Christians that way. There's no sense of disobedience. Thy will be done, not mine. But yet there was a sense of dread. Was it the dread that he heard? An echo from paradise, and the day thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die? Was it the unimaginable that the Lord of life should die, but the devil made it difficult? We cannot fully think into those things. It was awful. It was awful. And there was no Aaron. There was no Hur. There was no upholding. His disciples slept. He was rebuked the first time. There may have been rebuked a second time. Whatever the rebuke was, they had no answer for the Lord. He was not left alone totally. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. In his deepest need, an angel was provided to encourage him. His prayer was not with uplifted arms, but it was like a crawling dust fell down on his face. But he conquered. In a sense, he conquered in Gethsemane. It was the first prayer. The second prayer used a slight difference. It was the third prayer. And after the third prayer, there was a resolve. Come, let us go. My betrayer is here. And then we see our Lord no longer full of sorrow and agony and struggle, but resolute Here I am. Take me. Don't let these men go. Don't let these men go. Don't take them. Resolute before the Sanhedrin. First before the high priest, then before Sanhedrin, then before Pilate, then before Herod, then before Pilate again. And during the beating of barred soldiers, and the mockery, steadfastly, with a power of prayer in Gethsemane, walking the way of sorrow all the way to Calvary. And then a prayer for those who were crucifying Him. He fought the fight to the very end. even in the midst as death approached, and he felt totally forsaken by his Father, he still was steady in his way. Though he was no longer able to say, Father, why? He was still, my God, why have you forsaken me? the same steadiness, the same resolve to finish the task which the Father has set before him. And thus he was able to say, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. The devil, he may have thought he won the case. He had told Adam, you will not really die. Well, he ate of the fruit of a tree. And here the second Adam died at the hands of God's people. Those Pharisees said, you see, to Sanhedrin, and the mob that had crucified him, evil had won. So he thought. So it seemed that then there was Easter morning. Easter morning when the power of death was broken, when our Lord rose victorious from the grave, majestically appeared before his disciples, and 40 days later ascended to glory to the right hand of God and ruler over all things in heaven and earth. But prayer was a very essential part of that. Yes, in the tradition of Moses, prayer was a banner under which our Lord fought the battle against sin. And that's where it's at for us. Thus we must begin. We go to Ephesians. There's a very strong emphasis. We have here the heading, my Bible has the armor of God. But the armor of God, and we cannot look at it in detail this evening, is prefaced by, finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. It's the power of the resurrection, it's the power of knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ will prevail, that His kingdom cannot be stopped, that He will come back upon the clouds of heaven, that He will establish righteousness upon this earth. It's that power which may encourage us, which must encourage us. The prayer must be the banner under which we operate. Verse 18. And pray in the Spirit on all kinds of occasions, with all kinds of prayer and on request. For this is mine, be always alert and keep on praying for all the saints. Prayer in the Spirit. What does that mean? Well, you mustn't forget that we are warned very clearly that we're dealing with somebody who's very ugly, and very much intent on our destruction. 1 Peter 5, the devil is described in these words. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. When I read this, I think of our cat, looking here, looking there, sneaking up to some birds over there. And we may well think that perhaps the devil will miss us. Probably means being here, being there, being there, and he does that all right. But if you go on to Revelation, we get an even uglier picture of the devil. Revelation chapter 12, where the devil tries to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ as soon as he was born, but the Lord is taken up to heaven, and then he turns his vengeance on the woman who had given birth to the Lord Jesus Christ at the church, and the church is being protected. The earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of its mouth. And now notice this verse. The dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring, those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. He's not just prowling, he's enraged and making war on the rest of his offspring. Now, we may say if the church is protected, how can the devil get at his offspring? I tend to interpret that that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. I wonder if the devil understands that. and therefore he goes after us individually. He doesn't leave us alone. Prayer therefore becomes very important. Prayer in the spirit because we deal with spiritual entities. Prayer cannot be Say this, say that, say that, say that, say that. That's the list you say in the morning. In the evening you say one, two, three, four, five, six other things. You rattle them off. I've said my prayers. No, you haven't. You said some words. We must pray in the Spirit. Our minds, our hearts, our soul must be in our prayers as we communicate with the Lord because our enemy is a spiritual entity. And that's where the struggle is at. It's not a mechanical thing. Yes, Joshua was able to take care of the Amalekites with the sword, but it will not work for us. Luther tried to take care of the enemy by picking up his inkwell, a little jar of ink which he was using. He picked it up and threw it across the room because he thought, and he may well have seen the devil, on the wall. The day you go to the place where Lucifer was at, they still show you a spot on the wall. The devil is a spiritual entity and we are involved with spiritual warfare, so therefore our prayers must be prayer in the spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. And thus we must stay alert, keeping on praying for all the saints. We're dealing, as we find in verse 12, "...for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of the dark world, against the spiritual force of evil in heavenly realms." What is this? Who are they? And don't think that because you haven't seen the devil like Luther did, or you haven't experienced his personal attacks in your life, that he's not fussing around or fooling around with you. Our problem is we have an upside down view of reality. Very human, very typical of our age, the age before us, materialistic age. Because we grow up out of this material universe, out of this material earth, because we are part, because we share with the stuff around us, the material aspect of our lives, We tend to think that's our basic existence and then some spirituality is added to it. The first body then soul, supposedly. Not so. All of this scene has been made out of that which does not appear. The spiritual was first and therefore the spiritual is more basic. It's on that level. that we need to be struggling with the powers of evil. We can't understand that fully. Some of us are more adept at sensing the devil. Some of us may have literally seen a manifestation of the devil that still happens. But either way, either way, a spiritual entity with a whole order of rules, authorities, against the powers of the dark age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So heavenly must not think of heaven, but in a realm of existence which is beyond us and not totally because we too are spirits. We have received a spirit from God. But a realm which we have a hard time thinking into partly because we are so dull and do not understand and feel into it fully. But these angels who fell away had an order. We know there are different orders from the angels. And he had authority. They were given powers originally. And they still have some of that authority, some of that power. They were a tough bunch. Therefore, be alert to all kinds of prayers, always and ever, and not just for ourselves. Though the devil may pick on us individually and think he has more success that way, pray for all the saints. Pray for each other and with each other. And though we cannot sidestep the attacks of the devil, we will find more strength to the extent that we unite ourselves with God's people in prayer and in accountability and in speaking about the things of the Lord and in delving into his word. The communion of the saints in prayer. Moses prayed with the aid of Aaron and Hur. Jesus prayed by himself. It's our privilege to pray together, to hold one another, to lean on one another. When you can't pray, maybe your spouse can do the praying. And when you prove you can pray, maybe your friends can pray for you. There's power in communal prayer, praying for all the saints. And it goes worldwide. Supporting our missionaries in prayer and supporting those who are suffering outward persecution in prayer. But more than that, we must go to the Word. It's in the Word in which we find our strength. It's in the Word where we find our hope. It's in the Word where we find our know-how. Notice the armor of the Lord. We'll go through it briefly, but many of them, all of them, find their roots in the word, many of them directly in the word. Put on the full armor of God, they may be able to stand their ground and have done everything to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist." The belt of truth. Now, truth here is not in the capital letter, with a capital letter, and I think that's correct. It refers to the scriptures. Now the next one, the breastplate of righteousness. Now we know we have our righteousness only in Christ Jesus. Righteousness is mentioned there as it's obtained first in Christ Jesus, but we only know about that righteousness again through the scriptures. The next one is a very direct reference to the word of God, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. A direct reference to the scriptures. The armor of God Basically, it's a Bible in different administration and different applications of it. The shield of faith. What is faith but a knowledge and a trust in God based again upon God's Word. The helm of salvation. What do we know about salvation? Salvation in Christ Jesus. the preciousness of His blood explained to us in His Word. The sword, the spirit, a direct reference to the Word of God. The armor of God, and it's very interesting to go into those details, we will not do this evening, but the armor of God is basically being saturated with the Word of God. That's the tools of the Christian. with his prayer and fight against the devil. A good example of that is our Lord Jesus Christ in the temptation in the wilderness. Time and time and time he comes back with a scripture. That's how he dealt with the devil. It's so important that we respect that Bible, trust that Bible, read that Bible, understand that Bible, Memorize that Bible. Be saturated by that Bible. Our tradition, your tradition, has been one of being thoroughly acquainted with the teachings of the Scriptures, beautifully summarized in the Reformed faith. We thank God for that. Our tradition has been, will be memorized. Many questions are answered of the Heidelberg Catechism or of the Compendium, the abbreviation of the Catechism. That was wonderful. to that tradition, we must continue to add, as we have the last generation or so, a deeper, a fuller understanding and acquaintance with the Word of God. You'll never get done with that. You'll never get done with that. And again, I say it, you'll never get done with that. No matter how old you get, no matter how often you read it, There's always new food, always new encouragement, always new insight. Things you say, huh, I don't think it was in the last time I read the Bible. You know better. You find new things no matter how often you read it. And the Amlekites are still around. No, not really. It's not the Amalekites which attacked Moses. It's actually Israel because the Lord says they have to be wiped from the face of the earth. And they were. It took a long time though. Moses dealt with them. Saul dealt with them. David dealt with them. And it seemed as though even at the time of Esther, Haman was an Agagite. It could have been a descendant of the Amalekites. But eventually, they disappeared from the face of the earth. The Egyptians, where the Israelites came from, they're still around. The same people, same lineage, the same dynasties. There's the same continuation. And the Israelites are still around, but not the Amalekites. Yet the devil has his cohorts, and there's still people who the devil uses, who we may consider the Amalekites trying to undo us. But here, way back in the book of Exodus, we find a threat. and a promise. The Lord will war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. They will not win. They cannot win because they're fighting against the Lord. And the power of evil, though they may be threatening and overwhelming, they will not win. It's sad when so many people belligerently ridicule the Lord of heaven and earth. But He will have the last word. And therefore, in prayer we will persist. In prayer we'll go on, knowing that the Lord is my banner because in prayer we touch heaven's throne. And that is the place where it's all decided. And thus we are confident that as we fight the good fight of faith, We are not fighting a losing battle, but it is like we find in 2 Peter 3, where there the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people are you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God, and speed, it's coming. The day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with this promise, looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. Jesus conquered, and his power we too will conquer and be at home in the home of righteousness. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, help us please. Lord, we're so weak and at times, Lord, we're so careless and at times, Lord, our sight grows so dim. And Lord, Sometimes everything seems to slip away from us. Then, Lord, make us strong. Lord, help us to get on our knees and help us to stretch out our hands to heaven. And again, help us to touch the throne of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your courageous fight, for Your victory, and in Your power, through Your Spirit, We too will prevail in prayer and obedience to Your Word. Blessed am I, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.