Aid and Comfort in the Spiritual War [Family Worship lesson in Revelation 12:13–17]

How are believers able to overcome the fierce persecution of the devil? Revelation 12:13–17 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these five verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that believers’ strength and help is God Himself.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Solving the Puzzle of Remaining Sin [2023.06.21 Midweek Sermon in Romans 7:13–20]

When a believer experiences his remaining sin, he realizes what he was apart from the Spirit, he realizes that He is now in the Spirit, and he realizes that the sinfulness of his former nature still dwells in him.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

The Priority of Family Worship [2023.06.07 Synod Sermon in Ephesians 5:1–6:20]

Pastor Hakim preached the Wednesday afternoon sermon at General Synod this year. From Ephesians 5:1–6:20, he proclaimed that Family Worship is one of the primary means by which the Lord strengthens us to walk as children of light, as well as one of the primary activities in which we walk as children of light.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3 files of this sermon)

The Necessity, Centrality, and Duty of Family Worship [2023.06.04 Morning Sermon in Ephesians 5:1–6:20]

Family worship is necessary as a means of being strengthened by God's grace; central to life on the battlefield in the conflict between light and darkness; and, ordained as a duty by God to punctuate believers' lives.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

How to Stand against the Devil (Family Worship lesson in Ephesians 6:10–18)

How are we to stand against the Devil? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. Ephesians 6:10–18 prepares us for the first portion of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these nine verses, the Holy Spirit teaches us that thought the devil wars ferociously against us, yet we can stand in God’s strength by His Spirit’s use of His Word and prayer.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Waging and Winning Spiritual War (Family Worship lesson in Revelation 12)

How are we at spiritual war? Pastor leads his family in today's "Hopewell @Home" passage. Revelation 12 prepares us for the first portion of morning public worship on the previous Lord's Day. In these seventeen verses, the Holy Spirit teaches us that a defeated devil has made war on every Christian, and we are to wage and win that war by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of His testimony.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Minds Protected by the Spirit through Scripture and Prayer (2021.01.03 Evening Sermon in Ephesians 6:17–20)

Our minds are vital, and the Spirit protects them by meditation upon God's Word of salvation, which we constantly turn over in prayer before Him.

Armed Together in Christ's Strength through Corporate Worship (Family Worship in Ephesians 6:13–16)

How does Christ, our Strength, Strengthen Us? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. In these four verses, we learn that what the apostle describes here as taking up the armor of God is the use of that corporate worship that He has been describing throughout the epistle.

Our Battlefield, Enemy, and Resources in the Spiritual War (2020.12.13 Evening Sermon in Ephesians 6:10–13)

Christians are former darkness, transformed now into light that exposes the darkness in the evil day. Their battlefield is especially their own marriages, parent-child relationships, and everyday work. Their enemy is the devil himself whose vast forces are organized, powerful, and evil. But they have the high ground, being united to Christ and seated in heaven with Him Who Himself is their infinite and glorious Resource for this battle, as the Spirit applies Him to us by means of the armor.

Public Worship as Spiritual Warfare (2020.12.12 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – December 12, 2020

Dear Congregation,

One of the things that we have noted as we move through the “prayer passages” in the book of Revelation is how almost every time the Lord is about to do something marvelous, it begins with the prayers of His people—especially and specifically the praises of His people. They proclaim His glory and greatness, and then He demonstrates that glory and greatness in action.

Those who are following the M’Cheyne calendar will find a similarity here with something that occurred in the reigns of both Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat. God’s people called upon His Name and basically had a worship service, and the Lord acted decisively and majestically to deliver them and to devastate their enemies.

When we come to consider Ephesians 6:13–16 in the evening sermon next week (and on Thursday, for those making good use of the Hopewell @Home), we will find that corporate worship is of the essence of the armor of God and the imbuing of His people with His strength for His battle.

Even (especially) our babies get to participate in this. God has ordained strength to come out of their mouths as they prattle along in the public worship of God, “O Yahweh, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger” (Ps 8:1–2). The Lord Jesus’s own paraphrase of this is “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise” (Matt 21:16).

Certainly, God has assigned unto us many duties in the home and in the nation where He has placed us, during these particular and trying times in which He has placed us. And, He has assigned unto us many other duties in the church.

But tomorrow, on His holy day, in His holy assembly, He calls us to a duty that has sometimes been a precursor to the glorious breaking out of His mighty power in behalf of His church!

Looking forward to praising His great glory with you, as out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants He brings that strength which He has ordained,

Pastor

Standing by Grace, in the Evil Day, for the Glory of God (Family Worship in Ephesians 6:10–13)

What is our spiritual warfare like? Pastor leads his family in tomorrow's "Hopewell @Home" passage. In these four verses, we learn that the evil day of 6:13 draws us back to where we left off in 5:15–17. If we are to walk as children of light through the filling of the Spirit (5:22), we must do so standing against the onslaught of an organized, evil, powerful enemy who hates that we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and hates how God's transforming grace is displayed in how we conduct ourselves in our marriages, parent-child relationships, and everyday work.

Submitting to Christ on the Question of a Wife's Submission to Her Husband (2020.11.08 Evening Sermon in Ephesians 5:22–24)

In these three verses, we find the glorious role God has given Spirit-filled wives in displaying the power and reign of King Jesus.

The Spirit-Filled Life of the Spirit-Filled Wife (Family Worship in Eph 5:22–24)

What does the Spirit-filled life look like? What is the first battleground of Spiritual warfare? Pastor leads his family in today's "Hopewell @Home" passage. In these three verses, we find the glorious role God has given Spirit-filled wives in displaying the power and reign of King Jesus.

Am I in Spiritual Warfare? Yes! (2020.07.17 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)

Hopewell Herald – July 17, 2020

Dear Congregation,

I received a question about spiritual warfare this week (this person was “feeling resistance” during prayer) and thought that there might be many of us who could use some clear biblical thinking about the topic.

From Genesis 3 on, Scripture is teaching us about God's sure victory over Satan and how it applies to and involves us.

So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:14–15

One of the main ways that God distinguishes Himself from us in His deity is by how completely unchallenging He finds spiritual warfare to be. So, in His famous interview with Job, putting Job in his place, much of the Lord’s discourse (chs. 40–41) focus upon behemoth and leviathan, which were real creatures but also emblematic of the power and of the devil. They are so fearsome! Yet, the Lord rules over them all.

So also Scripture teaches us that God bends even the wickedness and wicked actions of the devil to do whatever is good for His people (Ps 74:14). The devil’s attacks upon Job became the means by which already-godly Job grew dramatically in his knowledge of the Lord. When Satan attacks Christ in the wilderness, his temptations become the occasion by which Christ is qualified as our Mediator, being tempted as we are in every way (except without sin). When Satan enters Judas to attack Christ’s life, the ensuing crucifixion is the means by which Christ is exhibited as a propitiation and redeems us by His blood. How great and continual is Christ’s victory and Satan’s eating dust!

But the period of Satan being permitted even to be used in this way quickly draws to a close. The crushing of Satan is joined to the restoration of God's forgiven people in Isaiah 27. This is the same idea as in Rom 16:19–20, where the Lord tells His people to be wise about goodness, and simple about evil, since He Himself is about to crush Satan under our feet.

We know that Satan attacks, particularly by weakening the fellowship of the church. So, in 2Cor 2:11, if a church nurses bitterness instead of forgiving and showing affection, it becomes susceptible to the devices of the devil. And, 1Tim 3:6–7, a young believer who might become puffed up and bring shame upon the church, should not be made an elder, even if he has the other characteristics. Because humility is essential for both elders and church members (1Pet 5:1–7), lest a believer become disconnected from the flock and become easy prey to the prowling lion (1Pet 5:8).

It’s not surprising, then, that the “classic” spiritual warfare passage comes at the end of the letter to the Ephesians, in which we have already seen such a glorious theology of the church these last few months.

Ephesians 6:10–20 and the warfare/armor of God is actually one bookend to an extended spiritual warfare section, with Eph 5:3–16 as the other bookend. This section describes the clash between the unclean kingdom of darkness and the saints who are children of light.

But, what are the “books” between these two bookends? Where, primarily, does the battle take place for us? Public worship (5:17–21), marriage (5:22–33), childhood and parenting (6:1–4), and the workplace (6:5–9).

When we study 6:10–20 to understand how to use the weapons of our warfare, for battling well in these areas, we find that it basically boils down to always always clinging to the gospel of Christ, and always always praying.

On balance, the great part of our warfare is to live in a godly manner in all the ordinary spheres of life, while resting and rejoicing in Christ's finished work in our behalf in the past, together with the certainty of His forthcoming final victory.

In these ways, we resist the devil and he flees from us (James 4:6–7). In other ways, the Lord permits him to attack us, when it is for our good (2Cor 12:7–9).

But it is especially by clinging to the shed blood of Jesus as the heart of all our verbal and life testimony that we overcome—ultimately winning, even if we are killed in the meantime (Rev 12:11, cf. Rom 8:35–39).

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Revelation 12:11

Looking forward to that part of the battle that is our corporate worship,

Pastor

Resisting the Devil by Drawing Near unto God in Prayer (James 4:7–9, 2020.06.10 Prayer Meeting Devotional)

The devil flees when we resist him by submitting to God and drawing near to God. In drawing near, we must turn away from those sins and disproportionate pleasures that have occupied our hands, hearts, and minds. But, when we come thus in humiliation, we find that rather than shrinking back from us in condemnation, God Himself draws near to us in grace!

190110FW 1Cor 16:13-24 - Battling That Loves and Loving That Battles

An imperfect, but hopefully helpful, sample of a family worship lesson in 1Corinthians 16:13-24