Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. The apostle here begins this chapter of Ephesians 2 by describing the person who's outside of Christ. as being dead in trespasses and sin. And it might surprise you then that just having used this description, that he would then go on in the next two verses to describe how this same person, the dead person, is living in disobedience to God. Either Paul is thoroughly confused about whether this person outside of Christ is alive or dead, or else he's making a careful distinction. I think we all know that he's making a careful distinction. But what is that distinction? Well, the distinction is between spiritual death and physical death, or if you prefer, between spiritual life and physical life. And this is a theme that runs throughout the Bible. It's not just something that we read about here in Ephesians 2. The distinction Paul is making is the distinction that Jesus made with Nicodemus when he said that unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And yet Nicodemus didn't get that distinction. He didn't understand it. He didn't know what Jesus was talking about, that he was referring to a spiritual rebirth. And so Nicodemus asked what would be a rather obvious question if that's your frame of mind. How can a man be born again when he is old? Can't he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? If you're only thinking in terms of physical life and death, then Nicodemus had asked the obvious and logical question. But the very point Jesus was making with Nicodemus is that there's more to life, more to physical life and death than what's physical. There's the spiritual as well. Something similar was spoken to Martha on the occasion when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus asked Martha whether she believed Lazarus would rise again, she said yes. And she was thinking about Lazarus's physical life, that he would be raised from the dead in the resurrection in the last day. But Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, shall live. and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." And this would make absolutely no sense if we didn't distinguish between physical death and spiritual death. If Martha was thinking like Nicodemus was, then she would have responded by saying something like, what are you talking about, Jesus? My brother is dead, and you show up and you're speaking about a person who will never die. Is this your attempt to comfort me? You're not doing a very good job. But Martha understood the distinction between physical life and spiritual life, and she got it. She totally got it. And so she positively responded to what Jesus had said by affirming her faith in Jesus as her Christ, as the son of the living God who has come into this world. So physical life and death is the easy part for us to understand. If a person is breathing and moving and making noise, then that's pretty good evidence that that person is physically alive. Conversely, if a person no longer has a heartbeat, and there's no respiration, and there's no brain activity, then this is how we know that that person is physically dead. Spiritual life and spiritual death is not quite so obvious. It's not so obvious because it's discerned by different factors. In fact, we wouldn't even know what those other factors are unless we had the Bible to tell us what they are, unless we studied the Bible on this subject. And the Bible says that we begin our physical life as spiritually dead people. And this has to do with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. There we read how God warned Adam and Eve about what would happen if they ate of the forbidden tree Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Well, you know the story. Adam ate of the tree. Did he die that day? He didn't die physically, because the Bible tells us that he lived for 930 years. fathering many sons and daughters. Well, Adam wasn't 930 years old when he ate of the forbidden tree. So he did not die physically when he ate of that tree, but he did die spiritually. And spiritual death can be described as separation of the soul from God. Ephesians 4.18 uses the word alienated. It says that a person is alienated from the life of God because of that person's sin. And since God is a source of spiritual life, to be alienated from the life of God is to be spiritually dead. That person's soul is no longer connected to the source of life. Like the branch that's cut off from the vine, The soul is no longer receiving the life-giving nourishment that comes from God. Ephesians 4.18 also describes the spiritual dead as having their understanding darkened, blindness of their heart, and being ignorant to their awful situation. Understanding darkened, blindness of heart, and being ignorant to their awful situation. In other words, the spiritually dead don't know that they're spiritually dead. They might be physically alive. They might go to the doctor for regular checkups and they go to the gym to keep their body in optimal health, but their soul is alienated from God. Their sins have so blinded their hearts that they don't even know that they are spiritually dead. This is the condition that the apostle Paul is describing in verse one of our sermon text. He's writing to people who had received redemption from Christ and he tells them, you were dead in trespasses and sins. You were spiritually dead and there was nothing you could do about it. You were dead in your sins and you didn't even know you were dead. But God made you alive by his grace and his mercy. The remainder of what the apostle writes in our sermon text is supporting evidence to demonstrate more clearly the point that the Ephesian Christians were spiritually dead in their sins, but God made them spiritually alive by his grace. And Paul elaborates on both conditions. He elaborates on what it was like when they were dead in their sins, and he elaborates on how God saved them by his grace. And so as we consider this passage of Scripture this morning, we're going to be reminded, as we are each and every Lord's Day, that it's by grace that we have been saved, through faith, not of ourselves. It's a gift from God, not of works, lest any of us should boast. But because the apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, determined that it was profitable for the Christians in Ephesus to be reminded of the kind of life or death, spiritual death that sinners live, that they lived as sinners, we're going to take up this subject for ourselves as well. Now you might wonder whether it's really all that edifying for us to dwell on the details of what the Bible has to say about sin? And the answer is yes, it is. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a well-known, well-respected preacher of old, said that apart from sin, one cannot understand the whole of history. Apart from sin, one cannot understand the whole of history. And what he meant by this is that apart from the knowledge and understanding of sin and all that results from it, we can't understand the wrath of God. We can't understand the justice of God. We can't understand the incarnation of God. We can't understand the crucifixion of Christ. Why did God destroy the world with a flood? Because of sin. Why does one nation wage war against another nation? Because of sin. Why do earthquakes and tornadoes happen? Because of sin. Why do famines happen? Because of sin. Why did Jesus take on human flesh? Because of sin. Why did Jesus die on a cross? Because of sin. Why did he rise again from the dead? Because of sin. Why does he make intercession for the saints before the Father's throne even at this very moment? Because of sin. So yes, it's important for us to have a knowledge and understanding of sin so that we can understand what God has done in history, what he continues to do in the present, and what he has promised to do in the future. Our lives. even as people who have been redeemed in Christ continue to be lives that are filled with temptation to sin. And so we don't have, if we don't have a proper understanding of sin, then we don't have a proper understanding of our ongoing need for Jesus Christ. In consideration of this point, One Christian commentator wrote, there is nothing more profitable than for the child of God to have always in remembrance the Adam state of a fallen nature in which we were all born. And this reminds us that our justification in Christ doesn't provide immunity from being influenced or persuaded or negatively affected by sin. Sin still raises its ugly head in our lives, which means we still need the grace of God the Father, and the intercession of God the Son, and the strength of God the Holy Spirit on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, second-by-second basis, or else we would fall right back into dominion to sin, or being dominated by sin. Now a petition to the Lord is that he will lead us not into temptation, but will deliver us from evil. That's because sin and evil continue to be constant threats to us. Until the Lord sees fit to bring us home, to be with him in paradise, we are in an ongoing battle against sin. And the Christian life, therefore, is a life of warfare. This is why the apostle reminds the Christians in Ephesus how they were under the control of sin before they received God's saving grace. And the powers and the forces that had control over them while they were dead in their sins are the same powers and forces that continue to try to control the Christian today. So if a Christian is going to be successful at fighting against sin, then he needs to know who his enemies are, right? He needs to know who his enemies are. He has to be able to identify who or what he's fighting against. And this is why Paul lists those enemies in verses two and three of our sermon text. They are the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world, the flesh, and the devil. And my aim with this sermon series, not just today's sermon, but the whole series that we're beginning today, is to spend several weeks in consideration of each of these three enemies. And the Bible has a lot to say about these enemies. What they look like, how they operate, the threat they pose to us. And the Bible teaches or the Bible describes several resources that Christians have available to us for defeating these enemies. We have the Bible, we have the church, we have prayer, we have spiritual armor. And all of this makes manifest the reality that we have the sustaining grace of the triune God who upholds us in our battle against sin. So my ultimate goal with this sermon series is that each of us will know and experience the glorious power of God. that you will grow in your strength and that you will grow in your knowledge of the Lord and the power of his might. So let's take a look at how our sermon text defines these three enemies. And then we'll look to see what it says about how these enemies are overcome. The world is described in verse two. Paul says that the Ephesian Christians used to walk in trespasses and sins according to the course of this world. And the word course literally means age. It's the Greek word from which we get the English word eon, which means a long period of time or an age. So a more literal translation of verse two would be that the Ephesians used to walk according to the age of this world. And what Paul is describing here are the ungodly attitudes, the ungodly doctrines, the ungodly philosophies that are accepted and promoted within this world. So it's not the material world that he's identifying as our enemy. It's not the earth, it's not the trees, it's not the sun and moon and stars that are our enemy. Rather, it is the unbiblical ideologies of this age that are our enemy, the world. Paul used the same Greek word in 1 Corinthians 1.20. In that verse, he rhetorically asks, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And this verse reinforces that it's the wisdom of this world that's our enemy. It's the value systems that are in rebellion to the rule of King Jesus. It's the arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It's what we call worldview, worldview. When we accept the wisdom of this world or live in conformity to its principles, then that's when the world has succeeded in leading us into sin. What's the warning? that's given to Christians in Colossians 2.8. Beware, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. In our day, one of the most vivid expressions of the enemy of the world is the theory of evolution. It proposes a theory of evolution, an ideology, a philosophy, a worldview that proposes an explanation of the origin of life that replaces God as a creator with naturalistic prophecies. We'll consider that in subsequent sermons. And there are other philosophies and other ideologies that continue to wage war against God in this world as well. Gender issues, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, all these things have been quite evident within the American society in recent years. And the interesting thing about this is that They're often imposed upon us in the form of tolerance, right? All we have to do is tolerate these things, yet the world eventually demands that we not only accept them, not only tolerate them, but eventually that we get to the point where we're required to conform to these ideologies. The world does this through imposing civil legislation or through insinuation that it is not sinful, that it's actually good. That it's promoted as a healthy form of, you know, if you don't agree with these things and you're archaic, you're a hater, you're a bigot, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. This is the world, the enemy of our world knocking on our door. We need to be able to recognize and acknowledge the enemy where the enemy exists. The second enemy mentioned in our sermon text is the devil. Verse two describes him as the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. And this might sound like a strange designation for the devil, but it's actually a very, it's very consistent with how the Bible, the whole of scripture, portrays demonic forces. By air, Paul is referring there to the spirit realm. He's saying that Satan is a ruler of all the demonic spirits that were cast out of heaven. And if you know the Bible, then you know how Satan used to be a high-ranking angel within the hosts of heaven. And the book of Revelation describes how Satan led a rebellion in heaven. And as could be expected of anyone who rebels against God, the rebellion failed. It failed. Satan was defeated along with a third of the angels that he had convinced to join him in the rebellion. And so they were all cast out of heaven. I'm reading from Revelation 12, seven through nine. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the world, the whole world. He was cast to the earth and the angels were cast out with him. And so the devil and all the angels that were cast out of heaven are our enemy. They are actively pursuing the people of this world to perform mayhem upon them. In 2 Corinthians 4.4, Satan is described as a god of this age who has blinded those who do not believe. lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, should shine on them. That's his ambition. Now, Satan, of course, is not God. He is not a god. He's a fallen angel. He's a created being. But he has usurped the place of God in the lives of those who are dead in their trespasses and sin. Augustine made the comment that every one of us is like a horse with a saddle on our back, and there can only be one rider in that saddle. Either God is the Lord or Satan is. And either way, somebody is sitting in our saddle, somebody is riding us and controlling us, telling us where to go, when to move, when to stop, and what to do. Now, if you're a Christian, Then that means that you used to be under the dominion of Satan and his demonic forces. You used to be a son of disobedience when you walked according to the prince of the power of the air. But because God has made you alive by his grace, Satan is no longer in that saddle. Now Christ is in that saddle. Yet that doesn't mean that Satan isn't still trying to get back in the saddle. He and every other demon still continue to wage a spiritual battle, spiritual war against you. Particularly against you because now you have the name of Christ upon you. Ephesians 6, which is one of the chapters that I'll be dealing with in greater detail when I preach on the enemy of the devil, describes our fight against Satan and the demons this way. Verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. And this is a description of our enemy. This is what is going on in the spirit realm, the air, every minute of every day. You are being assaulted or attempts to assault you are being made by spiritual hosts of wickedness that you cannot even see. Somebody will ask, can a Christian be demon-possessed? I'll give you the quick answer now and a more detailed answer later on in the sermon series. No, a Christian cannot be demon possessed. If the Holy Spirit dwells within you, then no demon can force his way into your heart. No demon can occupy you, no demon can sit in that saddle when the Holy Spirit's already sitting there. But Christians can be deceived by demons. We can be taken advantage of by demons. Let me give you just one quick example from the scriptures. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul instructed the Corinthian church to excommunicate an unrepentant man who was involved in gross immorality. And they did. What happened is that God worked through that process, through the process of discipline, to eventually bring the unrepentant man to repentance. And it's here that Satan began his attempt to bring division into the Corinthian church. There was a large contingency of Christians in Corinth who didn't want to allow the forgiving, to forgive the man or allow him back into the church. They heard his repentance. but they didn't want to allow him back into the church. And so Paul wrote to them in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 2.11, warning them that they must forgive the repentant sinner, quote, lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. lest Satan, listen to that, lest Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now these are Christians that Paul is writing to. These are Christians. These are Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and yet in some significant manner, the demonic forces of wickedness are still able to take advantage of us. I like what John Gill has to say about this warning. Some of Satan's crafty contrivances and designs are known, though not all of them, and this particularly, that he sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light and under pretense of showing a just indignation against sin and keeping up a strict and righteous discipline, destroys souls, ruins churches, and brings religion into contempt. This was one of his devices in former times when persons who fell into any gross sin after baptism and a profession of religion were never to be restored or received into the communion of the church again, even though their repentance be ever so sincere. This cruel and inexorable spirit under the show of strict religion and discipline is what the apostle here would caution against as one of the wiles of Satan. The wiles of Satan are plentiful. And while demons cannot possess a believer in the manner in which they do an unbeliever, they can still take advantage of us. They have many schemes, many wiles that they can effectively use against us. And this is why we're told in Ephesians 6.11 to put on the whole armor of God that you may stand, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now the third enemy mentioned in our sermon text is the flesh. Verse three says, we all conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Now if you skim through the epistles of Paul, You'll see how seriously Paul takes the enemy of the flesh. Over and over again, he warns that there are things that our flesh wants to do and things that our flesh finds pleasure in doing, but God says that we ought not to do, we cannot do. Let me read for you from Romans 6, 12 through 13. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you shall obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as, members meaning body, members of your body, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourself to God as being alive from dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under the law, but under grace. And Romans 13, 13 through 14. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. And when we think of the lusts of the flesh, we often think of sexual immorality. And certainly that's part of it. But Galatians 5 makes it very clear that the sins that are of the flesh are much, much more extensive than just sexual sins. Listen to the list that Paul gives in verses 19 through 21. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I told you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so the enemy of flesh, or the enemy of your flesh, might wage war against your soul, through an angry temper, right? You lash out at people and you abuse them with your words. Or maybe it's a sarcastic tongue by which you derive pleasure by cutting other people down. Or maybe you're overly competitive. You have an overly competitive spirit where everything is a competition for you and you're not happy unless you're the winner. When we allow the flesh to exercise control over our lives, it brings forth sin. The sins of the flesh will always take you further than you wanted to go. They will always keep you longer than you intended to stay. They will always cost you more than you intended to pay. And over the next several weeks, we're gonna consider each of these three enemies in greater detail. We're gonna see how each of these enemies wage war against our soul, tempting us to sin, trying to destroy the work of God, the work that God is doing in us. And we're gonna see how we can overcome and defeat each of these enemies. We're gonna see that God has given us spiritual resources in order that we might wage war upon these enemies. But I want you to see right now, is that we have security in our triune God because of his grace and because of his mercy. We have security because of God's grace and mercy. The first three verses of our sermon text effectively identify who our enemies are. and how we used to be in bondage to those enemies, and the great depths of depravity that are involved to those who are in such bondage. Now, then, beginning in verse 4, there's an obvious, noticeable transition. We see a clear expression of how we've been delivered out of that bondage and that wickedness. The apostle writes, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Who's the operative force here? Who made us alive when we were dead? God. God the Father. What motivated the Father to do this? His love. Verse four says, it is because of his great love in which he has loved us. Now, how did this love come to us? In the form of mercy. Mercy is defined by Easton's Bible dictionary as compassion for the miserable. Compassion for the miserable. And mercy always brings compassion to those who are suffering some form of misery. And so what Paul is telling the Ephesians is that they were in the miserable state of spiritual death and bondage to their enemies. but God had compassion upon them. His great love for the Ephesians is what motivated them to show mercy to them, mercy which brought them out of their misery by making them alive and delivering them from the powers of their enemies. Now understand, this is not merely a description of how God saved the Christians in Ephesus, but it's also a description of how everybody and anybody who has been saved has been saved. This is how salvation happens. Wherever there is a believer, this is how that person came to believe. And this includes you and me as well. God so loved us that he looked upon our miserable state and he showed mercy to us. Verses six and seven tell us that he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. Now, when we look at this portion, verses four through 10, you will notice an obvious repetition in verse five as well as verse eight. In both of these verses, it's declared that salvation is by grace. Verse five, by grace you have been saved. Verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Now, what does this mean? What is grace? Well, Nelson's Bible dictionary defines grace as favor or kindness shown without regard to the worth or merit of the one who receives it, and in spite of what that same person deserves. And so Paul is telling the Ephesians, That everything he just described to them as the favor and kindness that they received from God was undeserved. Completely undeserved. They didn't deserve it. And this applies to you and me as well. We don't deserve God's love. We don't deserve God's mercy. We don't deserve God making us alive together in Christ. We don't deserve God seating us in the heavenly place that's in Christ Jesus. We don't deserve any of this. Yet God chose to give us all of this anyways, in spite of the fact that what we really deserve is God's judgment, his condemnation, and his wrath. That is grace. That's receiving God's favor and kindness without regard to our worth, to our merit, and in spite of what we really deserve. Salvation by grace means that people are not saved because they chose God. Let me say that again. Salvation by grace means that people are not saved because they chose God. People are not saved because they pursued God and eventually caught up with Him. We're not saved because we prayed the right words in a prayer to God. It's not because we loved God or loved Jesus so much that we chose to receive him into our heart. All these things happen after we've been justified by God. They are the inevitable result of our justification having been accomplished exclusively by God's grace. And the whole point of the earlier description in verses one through three is that the condition prior to receiving God's grace was that of misery. We were dead in trespasses and sin. We weren't sick, we were dead. We weren't almost dead, we were dead. We weren't lying on a bed about to die when we finally decided to open our mouth to receive the medicine. We weren't drowning in a sea of sin, and when we managed to muster up the strength to reach out and grab the hand of Jesus just before we went under, we were dead. We were lifeless. We were powerless. We had no ability. There was nothing we could have done, possibly done, to relieve our miserable condition. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Brothers and sisters, as a recipient of God's grace, we are in the most extraordinary position. The gospel declares that our justification from sin has been accomplished entirely by our triune God. Jesus did everything necessary in order for God to redeem us as righteous and acceptable, to look upon us with his holy eyes and find pleasure with us. And this has huge, huge implications into all areas of life, but particularly as it pertains to the series that we're starting today, it has implications upon the reason why we battle against our three enemies. It means that we do not battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil in order to attain or maintain our salvation. We do not battle against a world of flesh and the devil in order to attain or maintain our salvation. Our salvation is attained and maintained by our triune God exclusively. Jesus said pertaining to his sheep in John 10, 28 and 29, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. Ephesians 1.13 describes how we've been filled in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise. 1 Peter 1 verses 4 and 5 says that we have been given an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved for us in heaven, and that we are preserved in our salvation by the power of God. Do you hear that? We are preserved in our salvation, not by my power, but by the power of God. So please understand that you do not need to attain your salvation by fighting against these three enemies. Nor are you in jeopardy of losing your salvation by being overpowered by your three enemies. It's God who attains your salvation, and it's God who maintains it. So what's the purpose then of Christian warfare? If our justification doesn't depend upon it, then why do we fight at all? because it's a matter of obedience. Verse 10 of our sermon text says, we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so waging war against our enemy is part of the good works that God has prepared for us to walk in. So it's obedience to God that we engage in, the reason why we engage in Christian warfare. But it even goes further than that. It's deeper than that. We fight against our enemies because we want to honor and glorify our triune God. The unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil is in direct opposition to the holy trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so we fight for the honor of the triune God that we love. We fight for the suppression of evil and for the promotion of righteousness because that is holy and good. We want to glorify God with our lives. We want to live in a manner worthy of our calling. We reject the wisdom of the world We put off the deeds of the flesh, we stand against the wiles of the devil in order to walk in the good works that he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in. And our confidence is that everything necessary for our salvation and the maintenance of it has already been accomplished. So we do not do what we do because the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, has given us a spirit of wisdom. We do do what we do because the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of glory, has given us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's why we do what we do. The eyes of our understanding have been enlightened. We know what is the hope of his calling. We know what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints. And we know what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards those who believe. It's the unsurpassable beauty of the knowledge of our triune God that compels us to fight the good fight of faith. My hope is that this already exists within you, that over the coming weeks, it will grow stronger and stronger as we take up the armor of God, identify our enemies, seek His grace, seek His provisions in order to fight the good fight of faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have enlisted us into this fight, that you have given us responsibilities, that you have given us opportunities to fight on your side, that we could be on your side. Father, there are two sides in this battle. and we must pick a side. We are on one side or the other. And so Father, we pray that through your grace and through your mercy, having delivered us out of our miserable state in which we were on a side that opposed you, that we now find ourselves on your side, taking up the battlement and the armory in order to fight the good fight of faith. And Father, we pray that you would give us clarity of understanding who our enemy is, help us to see the enemy of the flesh, the world, the devil in a way in which allows us to fight profitably against these things, to put off sin, to no longer be entangled in the encumbrances of sin that so easily have entangled us because our enemy is so crafty. There are many devices in which Satan uses. Father, give us the ability to stand firm against these devices. There are many lusts that are flesh desire. Father, give us the ability to put these things off and to put on righteousness. Father, there are many competing worldviews within this world that challenge and dismantle the Christian faith if they would have their way. Father, help us to discern these things, to not be deceived by the emptiness of these philosophies or the vanity of things proclaimed by man. but give us the spiritual, godly wisdom to understand those things which you have proclaimed to us in Christ. Father, we pray all these things that not only may we be strengthened in our walk and that we may fight the good fight, but Lord, that you may be lifted up and your Son, Jesus Christ, may be magnified upon this earth. Father, it is His kingdom that we defend and that we promote and that we advance through the power of the gospel. And so, Father, make us mighty warriors for Your kingdom. Make us profitable citizens within Your kingdom. Help us to be those that proclaim Your majesty and Your glory so that Your will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Father, hear our prayers in the mighty name of our King, Jesus Christ, the risen Lord and Savior. Amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material here within, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.