Let's turn in God's Word to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. We'll read together from verse 10 to 20. And take up verse 10 this morning. Ephesians 6 verse 10. Let us hear God's Word. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 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. Wherefore 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. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds. Therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Amen. So then, Ephesians 6 verse 10 this morning, with God's help, be strong in the Lord. And so we come in Ephesians to the final portion of the letter. Paul begins this section, finally, my brethren, In his letter, in the first three chapters, Paul sets forth the grace of God from conception in eternity, in the plan of salvation for sinners, in its accomplishment in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, and in its application by the Holy Spirit. Chapters 1 to 3, broadly speaking. And then from chapter 4, there is the therefore. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. And so in the next, from chapter 4 through to chapter 6 verse 9, there's a setting forth of duties. How would God have his people live, those whom he has called by his grace and reconciled to himself through Jesus Christ? How would he have them live? And so Paul sets forth what it is, what the church is to look like in this world, something of that, and our duties to one another as members of the Church, as to how we ought to live individually, as to how we ought to live in the family, in society. And then in the final section, as well as some final words and greetings at the very end, but Paul sets this all in a sense, in the context of a spiritual battle. Paul shows that our life in this world can be described as something like a battle. We can think of that in terms of our life in general or life in this world, that there are struggles and difficulties. But particularly we must be reminded, and we are reminded by Paul, that the Christian life following after Christ is a battle. The Bible describes a fighting and a battle, a wrestling that there is within, there is within the heart of each believer. battle between the spirit and the flesh, the flesh and the spirit lusting against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit, but also without, not just within each one, but without, in this world, the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan. The Bible shows from the beginning There is this great division and also a great struggle between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. And we see that even from Genesis 3, verse 15, in the garden, where after the rebellion and the fall into sin, God comes to Adam then and confronts him with his sin, but then in his words to the serpent, to Satan, in verse 15, says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So there's a promise of one who will come to destroy the serpents and to bring him and his works to an end, but also that there's this enmity, a division, a battle or a war put between those who are called the seed of the woman, so not only Christ, but those who are found with Christ and in Christ, and those who are the seed of the serpent, those who remain in rebellion against God. There's that division and that enmity. And to become a Christian by nature, we all are on Satan's side, we're all there as it were in the garden with Satan, with Adam, when God's coming come in and confront Adam with his sin, we're there with Adam and when a man or a woman or a child is called by God out of sin and brought to himself, he's enlisted in God's army. He is called to take up arms against and to battle sin. to battle against Satan and against the world. often uses this language in terms of how we are called to live in this world as the people of God. 1 Peter 2 verse 10, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. So there's these lusts within us, warring against us and seeking, in that sense, our downfall. We're to abstain from them and resist In 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 to 5, we see something more of the personal individual responsibility, but something more of the global nature of this. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. war, and we've got Paul speaks there of weapons of our warfare that are not the weapons of this world, but that are given by God and are mighty. And so that we're called, as Paul says to Timothy, to fight the good fight of faith. And this is something of the context of of what Paul is speaking of here in Ephesians 6. As we think of going to war, if we think of going into battle, there are two key things that we need in that situation. We can think of, we read in Joshua 1, of the people of Israel crossing the River Jordan to conquer the land. We read that they went over armed. They went over and they had armor. They had, and they would have had that which was for their defense and that which was for attack. So there's armor and obviously that's a key thing in this passage, but also there must be strength. Those two things, there must be strength and there must be armor. Because if we can think of, there might be a strong man. who is going into a battle, but if he does not have the right armoury, whether it be for defence or for attack, he will be vulnerable and ineffective. But if we think on the other hand, there might be a weak man and an untrained man who might have all the armour, he might have all to protect him and weapons for attack, but if he is weak and unable to use them, then it's next to useless. And so in the Christian life as well, as we think of the war that we are involved in, in our own lives and in the world, in history, in God's plan, that we need strength and we need armour. And these things belong together, but we can distinguish And Paul, as he begins to speak of this context of life and of our duties in this life, he begins with strength. And that's what we're considering this morning. We need strength. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. And I want to say three things about this this morning that we see. Firstly, we need strength. Secondly, Christ is strong. And thirdly, Christ gives strength. And we see these things in the verse. So firstly, we see from the command and that the command is given, we see that we need strength. Finally, my brethren, be strong, be strengthened in the Lord. And when Paul says, my brethren, he is speaking to all those who profess Christ, all those who profess Christ to be trusting in Him, to love Him, and to be desiring to do His will. And it says that they ought to be strong and must be strong in the Lord. And as we read this command, be strong in the Lord, it reminds us, doesn't it, of those words we read in Joshua chapter 1 of Moses' encouragement, exhortation to Joshua as he went to enter the land. So Moses In Deuteronomy we read that Moses also gave this same exhortation. Here in Joshua, this is after the death of Moses, and the Lord came directly to Joshua to give him this encouragement. Joshua 1 verse 6, Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people thou shalt provide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto your fathers to give them. And we see those words coming throughout this passage. to be strong and of good courage, and also from the Israelites at the end, they repeat those words to Joshua. And again, why was Joshua being particularly encouraged, and again and again, to be strong and of good courage? Because of the great challenge that lay before him. He was now responsible for this whole nation, and God set before the nation of Israel, His chosen people whom He delivered out of Egypt, set before them this land, He promised it to them, but He said, go and take it. And so these great and powerful enemies that were in there, that they were yet to discover even more about, God said, go, and fight against him. And so Joshua was being encouraged to be strong. And also, in the context of that command that he be strong, that he would obey the law of God, that he would follow it, strictly turning not from it to the right hand or to the left. And so as we consider this command, be strong in the Lord. Why are we commanded to be strong? As we think on Ephesians, it comes, Paul gives his command after he's been talking about the duties that belong to us in this world. how we are to live, how we are worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. This is how you are to live as the people of God. This is how you are to live as one professing Christ. This is how you are to live as those belonging to God. Be strong to carry out these duties. You need strength to do these things because it's difficult, it doesn't come naturally to us, and we will always be struggling against our own deceitful hearts and the temptations of the world and of the devil in regards to these things. We only have to think of even just the duties in our families, in marriage and in the workplace that we've been considering in recent times, of the temptations that come to us from our own hearts, the pressures from the world not to do these things that God has commanded. And so we need this encouragement to do these things. We need to be told, be strong, be courageous to do what is right. But also we need strength to face and to fight the enemies yet to be described. We need strength because the trouble that we will face and the difficulties that we face aren't only from our own deceitful hearts. It isn't only from those in the world around us who are not interested in the things of God and are wishing to discourage us from following after Christ. It is a spiritual battle and there are those involved in the battle and against us who are of great power, of principalities and powers those spiritual wickedness in high places. And so because of that, so looking at our duties and looking at those foes and considering something of that which Paul is to go on to, we must be strong. We need strength. There is temptation from within, there is opposition from without, and so we need strength. If we would be strong in the Lord, we must begin recognising that we are weak. We need strength. It is not that we are strong and we must be stronger. We are weak. We are unable. We must begin with that. And that's not a council of despair. It's not about being pessimistic, but it's about facing the reality, acknowledging who we are and what we are by nature. And that is Paul already in Ephesians, in emphasising and showing the grace of God In salvation, he makes a great point in Ephesians 2 of showing what we are like by nature, why it is that the grace of God is necessary, because we cannot bring ourselves to God. We are, Ephesians 2, 1, we are dead in trespasses and sins by nature, verse 3, children of wrath. And that describes all of us. So we are, so weak spiritually that we are dead. We cannot come to God unless He draws us. That describes us in our sins by nature, but what about as those joined to Christ? Well, we know too that while we are in this world, we are yet weak and we must always remember that. We must And the Bible again shows us the reality of it again and again, Jesus to his disciples, didn't he? These were his 12 that were with him and others whom he sent forth to preach the gospel, to do great miracles, healings, casting out demons. And yet, the next chapter even, it would seem sometimes, oh ye of little faith, how weak they were and how, in Matthew 16 we see Peter at one moment making a grand confession of Christ as the Son of God and that was a revelation Christ had given to him of the Father and yet in the next moment that he was Christ had to rebuke him for speaking the things that belonged to Satan and discouraging Christ from going to the cross. And so that we all also as believers must acknowledge our weakness. As Christ says, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And that is the reality. We are weak. And what Paul describes in himself in Romans 7, is the true experience of every believer. We must be always mindful of that. Romans 7 verse 18 and 19. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. So how can we do the duties that God sets before us? How can we stand against the wiles of the devil? How can we stand in the day of evil? We must acknowledge first and foremost our own weakness. We must forget about any strength that we think we have. not putting our confidence in the flesh or thinking of our own inner resources, our own fortitude, but rather looking away from ourselves to be strong in the Lord. Matthew Henry in his commentary says this on this verse, we have no sufficient strength of our own. Our natural courage is as perfect cowardice and our natural strength as perfect weakness. All our sufficiency is of God. His strength we must go forth and go on. And so this, how would we be strengthened? It must be in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord. And when we read, be strong in the Lord, it is not just, it's not speaking of a response of thankfulness to the Lord, in the sense of, be strong, because look at what Christ has done for you. Be strong thinking about what Christ has done for you, but rather be strong because you're joined to Christ. You have been saved by Him, and you've been joined to Him by the Holy Spirit, and He lives in you by His Spirit. Be strong in Him. Our strength is in Christ, in the power of His might. And so the teaching of scripture that we'll consider now is that our strength doesn't come from within ourselves, even in terms of being motivated by what Christ has done, but rather the scriptures show God as our strength and that God himself gives strength. And that is what we are to be seeking. So then, secondly, Christ is strong. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. as so often through this epistle, Christ and the Lord, the Lord referring particularly to Christ, say, chapter five, verse 29, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourished it and cherished it, even as the Lord, the church. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. We're joined to Christ, found in Christ. And we can be strong in Christ because He is strong. He's able to be our strength. He's able to give strength because He is strong. And Paul encourages us to be looking to Christ and to His strength. in the way that His strength is described, that in the power of His might, sort of doubling up those words, describing how strong He is, His mightiness, His power. And as we think of Christ's strength in regards to how we need strength, that we can see that Christ was strong to obey the commands of God. that he was strong to fulfill his duty, and that for our salvation. Christ always did those things that pleased the Father. He never fell. He never failed. Hebrews 4 verse 15 tells us that He was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So Christ in the face and receiving all these temptations that we receive to fall away from God, not to do our duty, Christ was tempted in all those ways, yet without sin. and he fully kept the commandments of God in all parts of his life as regards the worship of God, as regards how he was to think about God, as regards how he related to those around him, as regards his duties in the family and in the world. He fully kept the commandments of God, strong to obey, and also strong to fight his foes, to defeat those principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. In Luke 11 there is a description of Christ giving a parable concerning his kingdom in relation to Satan. Read from Luke 11 verse 18. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. That is another name for Satan. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Wherefore shall they be your judges? But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man arms, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted and divided his spoils. And so we see there in this parable in verse 21 and 22, Christ is ascribing Satan and his kingdom. See, Christ has come and in his ministry, he is casting, Satan has taken some, set up his kingdom and taken some possession also of men by these evil spirits that were in them, and Christ has come in and is setting these men free. and those who were in slavery to Satan in those quite visible ways. And he describes how Satan is as a strong man with his kingdom and looking after its goods, but then one stronger, Christ, is coming upon Satan and defeating him and plundering. plundering him, setting those prisoners free whom Satan had taken for himself, as it were. And so Christ is described as the one stronger than Satan, than the prince of devils. Also in Colossians 2, in verse 15, Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. There Christ, particularly at the cross, spoiling, defeating the principalities and powers. There we see him bruising the head of the serpent, as was prophesied so long ago. Also 1 John 3 verse 8, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. And so as we think of, I said that the scriptures describe history as it were as this contest between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. But it is not an even contest. Obviously Satan is but a creature. God is the sovereign over all and all things happen according to his will. and also that from the beginning it was sure, certain, that Satan would be vanquished and Christ would reign and His Kingdom would fill the earth and that is what in the New Testament at the cross and in the resurrection of Christ that is made certain. We see that Christ is far stronger, He is strong as God, He is almighty. How powerful is He? He is powerful as the Creator of all. Colossians 1 verse 16 and 17, For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. So as we think on those enemies, those spiritual enemies that are arrayed against us, not just flesh and blood, but those principalities and powers, our Lord Jesus Christ created them. And He, in His providence, upholds them. They only exist according to His will. And He has, at the cross and in the resurrection, He has vanquished them, those powers of darkness that were against Him and against God. And though they still exist, their doom, as Luther wrote, their doom is sure. So Christ is that mighty king. We read in Psalm 24 of the king of glory and the Lord's strong and mighty, mighty in battle. That's a description of our Lord Jesus Christ, particularly now as ascended into heaven, sitting at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning. Christ is strong. And so he is well qualified to give strength to his people. And so then thirdly, Christ gives strength. So we need strength, Christ is strong, Christ gives strength. Command is be strong, be strengthened in the Lord. Our strength is in the Lord. We can think of that in a material way. In Him we live and move and have our being. If God would take away our spirit we would fall to the ground and return to dust. The Bible says that apart from Him we have nothing We have no strength or anything. But also spiritually, He gives strength and is the strength of those who believe. So the Bible describes God supplying our need for strength in both of those ways. Both in terms of God giving strength to those who are weak. Think of Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40, verse 28 to 31. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not? Neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young man shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. So God gives strength to those who are weary and to those who look to Him and to who ask Him, who wait upon Him. but also that He is our strength. Isaiah 12 verse 2, Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. And as we think on the Lord Jehovah being our strength. That is possible and God does that by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit that Christ dwells in us and we in Him by His Spirit so that Christ in us enables us to do our duties and to resist the foes and to stand against the wiles of the devil. And so that Christ says, and again, realizing our own weakness, without me, ye can do nothing. But what does Paul say? I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. This is how Christ in us the hope of glory and the enabling to serve God on the earth. We read in the scriptures of those, of the people of God and able to do mighty acts. Think of Noah strengthened for that century to build the ark with his family, to build the ark and to do that that great work and to be faithful to God in that time, a preacher of righteousness. Think of those suffering for Christ's sake, the prophets enduring in the face of all the opposition, Jeremiah in the bottom of the pit, in that muddy, muddy pit, trusting in the Lord. Think of those that are, you know, in Hebrews chapter 11, describe those who trusted in God, and it speaks at the end, in a summarising way, of those who suffered and endured great affliction for the sake of Christ. What shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mounts of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings. Yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, for whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And so we see great faith, great strength in affliction, in trial. We can think of situations of great suffering, also through illness, of tragedies in families, even also of the ongoing mundane difficulties of day-to-day life and the difference between between falling apart in that sense, and between continuing, enduring, and glorifying God with contentment and joy, which can only be by the grace of God. Because that is what we're talking about when we talk about strength being strong in the Lord. Strength to do also not only those great things, How does Christ strengthen? Christ does strengthen. We have abundant testimony in the scriptures that He does, and from history. each one who trusts, who does truly trust upon Him. In your own experience, you would know at particular times when you've been strengthened to do your duty and to resist temptation and to walk faithfully before Him, however small that way might have seemed. But how does Christ strengthen? Well, Christ strengthens first and foremost in regeneration. in raising those by His Spirit who are dead in trespasses and sins to life, in giving spiritual life, because we are so weak that we are dead in trespasses and sins. Romans chapter 5 verse 6 describes us and our sin as in this weakness for when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. So our being unregenerate, being separate from God, described as being without strength, and Christ renews and strengthens that we might believe upon him, but also that there is that ongoing strengthening in as He would work in us to make us holy, to make us like Him. He would do that by His Word and by His Holy Spirit. So in Ephesians 3 verse 16, in that prayer of Paul, One of those things he prays for is that the believers would be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. And also that the Spirit works by His Word. As God described in Deuteronomy 8 verse 3, that He taught Israel that they did not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. And so how then? Do we keep, are we to keep this command? How are we to be strong, to be strengthened in the Lord? Well, we are to, we must be seeking Christ. Psalm 105 verse 4 says, seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face evermore. We need to be seeking strength. How? Most importantly, we must seek that strength. by acknowledging our own weakness and our own depravity that we are unable to. please God to fulfil His law or to resist temptation to do anything pleasing to Him. We cannot do that by ourselves. We are weak as regards obedience to Him and unable and must be seeking Christ and trusting in Him alone for salvation, knowing that Christ alone is who kept the law of God, that He alone is able to save us and to bring us to God. And so as we consider our weakness, we must begin considering our weakness before the demands of the law of God. God commands us to be holy as he is holy. We consider that. We must dwell upon that and think on how we cannot We are weak as regards that. We cannot be holy as God is holy. We cannot be perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. As we consider temptations that would come to us to follow, to go against God's law, to follow the world, just to go along with what everyone else is doing. We are weak in that regard. We would just, left to ourselves, we would just go with the flow and be like everyone else. That's the easiest thing as we think of enemies of holiness, those around us who might discourage us from following God and following the ways of truth, as we think on the temptations of the devil and his wiles, his traps, that we are weak in that regard. So we must be seeking Christ to To be strong in the Lord, you must be in the Lord, you must be in Christ, and that is by faith in Him. We must forget, we must forget, we must forsake all other hopes, those things that we put confidence in, in this world, our youth, our vigor, our strength, our strength of body, strength of mind, whatever it might be that we could be tempted to put our trust in, to think, yes, because I'm like this, therefore I'll get through this situation, because I'm tougher, because I'm cleverer, because I'm strong, whatever it is. I've got thick skin in terms of what people say of me. Whatever else it is that we might be tempted to put our hope in and to go to for strength, even other people, in our lives, a husband, a wife, a parent, a close friend, those that we might be tempted to rely upon, put our trust on in that sense, in that total way, we must forsake those things and see Christ and be found in Him. that also as we seek Him and as we seek to be strong in Him that we must seek that strength in the ordinary means, in the ordinary ways. All those who are found in Christ, all those who believe in Him can know that He dwells in them by His Spirit and that they are strengthened by Him Christ describes it In different ways there's the body that we are joined to him as to the head and in that sense we can think of his life that we are connected with him and to his life. The vine and the branches, the branch will only bear fruit if it's connected to the vine, part of the vine. When we think of the vine, the branches are part of the vine. We're joined to Christ by faith because his life as it were is flowing through us that we would bear fruit. But we will increase in strength not by being... We're not to think of increasing in strength by being more united to Christ in that sense. You're either united to Christ or not. You either believe in Christ or you don't. Being joined to Christ is not a matter of degrees. You either are or you're not. You either have life or you don't. but we would increase in strength as we would know Him more, as we would be seeking to cultivate our love for Him and our knowledge of Him and our faith in Him, to walk more closely to Him. that we would not be grieving the Spirit as Paul speaks of in Ephesians 4 or quenching the Spirit as he speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 5. When we think of strength and being strong in the Lord Perhaps what we're inclined to want is like a burst of strength. We might think of, and even those accounts in scripture of Samson. The Spirit of God coming upon him and suddenly his strength was multiplied in an amazing way so he did these great feats and other men that we might think of too, also among the judges. We think of this supernatural physical strength and we might think of that, we might want that in terms of spiritual things. So that's something we feel we have this enabling in that sense. And I'm not denying that there might be times when the people of God would experience some particular enabling in a situation of difficulty, but ordinarily God strengthens by the means he has given, by his ordinances, his word, as the Catechism says, his word, the sacraments and prayer. How would we increase in strength? The ordinary way that we would increase in strength and be strong in the Lord, and again to think of that that image of exercise and training that's given to us in the scriptures, being exercise in Godliness, is to be taking ourselves to the Word of God, to be reading the Word, to be studying it, to be meditating upon it. Paul said to Timothy that he must be nourished up in the words of faith. How will we be fed spiritually? How will we be strengthened? if we're eating the right things, if we're eating, as it were, the words of faith, if we're nourished up on those things, in prayer, that we, the Lord gives strength, in Isaiah 40, to those that wait upon Him, and that speaks of trusting in Him, that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, of trusting in Him, of asking Him, What does James say? He asks, you have not, because he asked not. How often is it that in a difficult situation, whether it be with feeling overwhelmed in life with all the things that are happening in our family or around us. We're feeling the weight of our responsibilities and of, as we consider, the duties set before us. We are particularly faced with particular temptations and we just seek to muddle through and we are not And perhaps we fall, perhaps we sin in a particular way. Have we asked God, have we gone to God for strength? You have not, because He asked not. But also that as we are, have we been, and are we in the word of God? Are we seeking to be fed, to be nourished up in the scriptures? And also including, The Bible places a great emphasis upon the public worship and the preaching of the Word of God. Yes, not only the reading but the preaching of the Gospel is that ordinary way whereby God would bring sinners to himself. Romans 10 verse 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 1 verse 16 Paul says of the Gospel, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There are those who think that they can absent themselves from the ministry of the word or not be too concerned about it, and yet that they will still prosper in the Christian life, that they can still grow because they all they need is their Bible and that God will teach them by His Spirit. Now yes, God will instruct each one of His children by His Spirit through the Word, but that God would have His people to be growing and learning under the preaching of the Word. And so in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, this is particularly seen in verse 18 of chapter 1, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us which are saved. It is the power of God. So not only is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, those who are yet to be saved, that God would use the preaching of the word in bringing about their salvation, their conversion, but also to them which are saved. It is the power of God, that God would instruct us in our faith. He would build us up in our knowledge of God and our love for Christ. And that by the preaching also of the word and also by the sacraments given to us to increase our faith, to show us more clearly of the love of God and the grace of God, we also held we increase in strength by the fellowship of the saints, that we need one another. As we gather for worship, we gather before God, but we also gather with the people of God, and we gather to worship God together. And by coming, by attending non-public worship, we're encouraging one another in continuing faithful to God, that there are others who also desire to serve God and to worship Him. in a public manner and according to His command, and also that we be exhorting one another, strengthening one another's hands, as it were, to follow God. Paul in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24, let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching." So God would strengthen also through other believers and using each other to provoke, to stir up, to love, to good works. And then finally, that as we would, again, as it were, back to the beginning where we started, that we would receive strength from Christ, as we would seek Him by His ordinances, by those ways He's given to teach us and draw us to Himself. But as we would remember our weakness in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10, a lesson that we ought to learn, that Paul had to learn, and he had to learn it the hard way, in the midst of difficulty, to learn about his weakness and Christ's strength. When Paul, in verse 8, says, he besought the Lord thrice, that it, his thorn in the flesh, might depart from him. God said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, when I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. When I am weak, then am I strong. So as we consider then our duties set before us in the law of God, expounded throughout the word of God, as we consider the battle in which we are, that we are called to be commanded to be strong in the Lord. Not to be strong in ourselves, not to seek strength from anyone else, but from Christ alone, to be found in Him, to be acknowledging that we need Him. Apart from Him, we can do nothing, but I can do all things through Christ who has strengthened me. To be strong in the Lord, to be seeking His strength where He has promised to give it, in His word, prayer, the preaching of his word and the fellowship of the saints, and to seek him, that he himself would be our strength. Amen. Almighty God, we thank Thee for our Lord Jesus Christ. We acknowledge that He is strong. He is the Almighty, the Creator of all, the One who holds all things by His powerful Word. and that He was strong to obey all of Thy commandments, strong to fulfill all that was required for the salvation of His people, strong to conquer His enemies, to overcome temptation and sin, to destroy the devil and his works, to conquer death, our last enemy, rising again on the third day. We ask, O God, for grace, to be acknowledging our own weakness, and to be seeking to be found in Christ, to be seeking to be strong in Him. Please forgive us our sins. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.