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Program Code: IIWSS023038S


00:00 (uplifting theme music)
00:13 (music ends)
00:16 >>Welcome to "Sabbath School,"
00:17 brought to you by It Is Written.
00:19 We're delighted that you could join us this week
00:21 as we continue our journey through the book of Ephesians.
00:25 We are looking at Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus,
00:28 pulling it apart, pulling it back together,
00:30 and seeing what it means to you and me in our lives today.
00:34 This week we are on lesson number 13
00:36 with an interesting title: "Waging Peace."
00:40 We're going to find out what that's about in just a moment.
00:43 But before we delve into this week's lesson,
00:45 let's begin with prayer.
00:47 Father, we want to thank You
00:48 for the journey that You have taken us on thus far
00:52 in the book of Ephesians.
00:53 We ask that this week You will help us to better understand
00:57 Paul's exhortations to us, his encouragement for us,
01:00 and the hope that we have in Jesus.
01:03 We ask that You'll bless our time together this week,
01:05 and we thank You in Jesus' name.
01:07 Amen.
01:09 Well, our guest this week,
01:10 as he has been throughout this quarter, is Dr. John McVay.
01:15 He's the president of Walla Walla University.
01:18 John, welcome back once again.
01:20 >>Good to be back with you.
01:21 >>So we're almost to the end, week 13.
01:25 >>We've got one more to go. >>Week 13,
01:27 second week studying what is arguably
01:29 the greatest passage in the New Testament
01:32 on the cosmic conflict or the great controversy,
01:35 at least as it has to do with our behavior
01:37 as Christian disciples.
01:38 >>That's right, and we're gonna pull that apart
01:41 this week, "Waging Peace."
01:43 Now, when we take a look at this week's lesson,
01:46 let's kind of review a little bit
01:50 of what we've looked at before last week.
01:53 There's this armor of God that Paul talks about.
01:56 Walk us through that;
01:58 that'll help us get ready for where we're going this week.
02:00 >>Sure. So you'll remember from last week
02:03 that Paul issues this, repeatedly,
02:06 this call to "be strong in the Lord"
02:09 early on in chapter 6, verses 10-20.
02:13 Last week, we spent much of our time
02:15 with verses 10-13,
02:19 and he talks about these authorities,
02:21 these rulers and authorities
02:24 and cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil
02:26 in the heavenly places.
02:28 So we know something about our foe, right?
02:30 And now he's going to go back through all of that,
02:34 but he's going to do it in a detailed image.
02:37 And if you really look at how he does this,
02:39 he portrays the Christian disciple
02:43 donning various implements of war,
02:46 various pieces of armor and various weapons.
02:50 He imagines that happening in much the same order
02:53 that a Roman legionnaire might put those things on.
02:58 And he assigns various names
03:01 to various pieces of the implements
03:05 of a Christian soldier's armor, doesn't he?
03:09 >>He does. >>Yeah.
03:10 >>So let's kind of walk through there.
03:11 He says in verse number 14,
03:13 "Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,
03:18 [and putting] on the breastplate of righteousness"--
03:21 he goes on from there--
03:22 "having shod your feet with the preparation
03:24 of the gospel of peace,"
03:26 then, "taking the shield of faith
03:28 "with which you will be able to quench
03:29 "all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
03:32 "And...the helmet of salvation,... the sword of the Spirit,
03:34 which is the word of God."
03:36 So elements of armor, some defensive, some offensive,
03:40 it's kind of an all-encompassing attire
03:44 that he pictures here. >>Sure.
03:45 Yeah, it is, and in Greek the term is "panoplian,"
03:50 which is the complete "armor" of God.
03:52 So it's not just armor;
03:54 it's the head-to-toe protection
03:58 that God provides for Christian disciples
04:01 as they engage in the cosmic conflict.
04:03 And these are significant and important, aren't they?
04:06 >>Very significant. Now, a question might arise
04:10 about these different elements of the armor
04:13 that we are supposed to put on.
04:14 Are these human virtues? Are these divine gifts?
04:19 How do we see these different portions
04:22 or pieces of the armor?
04:24 >>Well, Bible students do argue about that point.
04:28 And I'm gonna fudge it, Eric, and say they're kind of both.
04:31 They're kind of both.
04:32 If you have to say, "Which are they primarily?",
04:35 I think primarily these are the gifts of God
04:38 to the Christian disciple.
04:40 So this is God's truth, the belt of truth, belt-on truth.
04:45 So the belt as part
04:47 of the Roman military man's equipment
04:52 played a little different role
04:53 than the belt you put on probably this morning.
04:56 It was this fairly massive piece
04:59 that helped them gird up their loins.
05:02 You know, you tucked stuff in all around it,
05:04 you got ready for battle,
05:06 and from it hung pieces of thick leather
05:09 that actually formed part of the armor
05:11 and helped protect the soldiers.
05:12 So you had this belt.
05:15 And Paul envisions it, uses it as an image
05:18 for God's truth, which he grants to Christian disciples,
05:23 the truth of the gospel that he's been discussing
05:25 throughout the epistle to the Ephesians.
05:28 So, Paul is really portraying
05:33 the Christian's--
05:34 the transformation of pagan believers into Christians
05:38 by imagining them donning these pieces of armor.
05:41 This is how they are transformed.
05:42 It's a little bit like putting on "the old man"
05:45 and putting on "the new man" that we saw back in chapter 4.
05:49 And so they're putting on these different implements,
05:53 but they don't so much possess God's truth
05:57 as God's truth possesses them, right?
06:00 And we can kind of do this with each of these implements.
06:02 These are more God's gifts to us
06:06 that protect us and enable our Christian witness
06:09 than they are our own virtues
06:11 that are our own individual virtues.
06:14 But--and I think this is important--
06:17 Paul is trying to activate them and to say,
06:20 "These aren't just abstract gifts of God
06:23 "that you set on the shelf, but you need to live into these.
06:27 "You need to live into this truth.
06:28 "You need to live into this battle.
06:30 You need to live into the gospel of peace,"
06:33 and so on. So it's both, in a way, virtue,
06:37 but principally, gifts, assets
06:41 that God provides us, with which He equips us
06:44 as soldiers in the great controversy.
06:46 >>So He's giving us these things,
06:48 but I guess one might say we have to choose to put them on.
06:52 We can't just look at them and go, "There they are."
06:55 >>Exactly, exactly. >>We have to--I don't know
06:57 if I'm comfortable with the word "own,"
06:59 but we have to embrace these gifts--
07:02 >>Yes. >>...and put them into use,
07:04 put them into practice.
07:05 And one would expect that the more we embrace them
07:08 and the more we put them into practice,
07:10 the more perhaps comfortable
07:11 we'll feel in that armor-- >>Sure.
07:13 >>...and it will become a natural extension
07:15 of who we are in our lives--
07:18 >>Sure. >>...which is encouraging.
07:20 >>We can talk about each of these pieces of armor,
07:23 but let's touch together on a couple of them.
07:27 The shoes, "As shoes for your feet,
07:30 "put on what will give the readiness
07:32 to proclaim the gospel of peace."
07:35 Now, I think that's a really key mention here
07:38 because I think Paul controls his metaphor by that phrase.
07:43 We might read this and say,
07:45 "Oh, Paul's talking about actual combat."
07:48 And we might remember that 30 years ago,
07:51 there was a group of people in Waco
07:54 who stocked up arms and read the prophecies
07:58 and imagined participating in actual combat.
08:01 What a sad story that is.
08:03 And Paul warns us away from misreading
08:07 his powerful, high-testosterone image here.
08:12 He guards us from that by saying,
08:14 "What we're really about is the gospel of peace."
08:19 So he kind of deconstructs his own metaphor,
08:22 and that's led someone to say
08:24 that what Paul's talking about here
08:26 isn't waging armed actual combat.
08:30 It's about the church waging peace.
08:33 But what it does help us capture is the churches,
08:37 the investment of Christian disciples,
08:39 the zealous engagement
08:41 and investment of Christian disciples.
08:43 We're not just sentries
08:45 standing off somewhere at a corner of the battlefield
08:47 watching it unfold.
08:49 We are fully engaged, throwing ourselves into this battle,
08:55 which is waging peace.
08:57 >>So the army is not that group over there.
09:01 The army is a group of which I am a part.
09:04 >>Yes, exactly. >>And my calling
09:06 is to wage this peace with others.
09:10 As you've mentioned,
09:11 in the book of Ephesians Paul is trying to strive for unity
09:15 and using us to bring about that unity too.
09:18 >>And throughout the letter, he's been discussing
09:20 the strategies of Christian disciples.
09:24 He's been thinking about the great controversy
09:26 throughout this letter.
09:27 We see hints of that going on as we've seen.
09:30 And interesting to read, say, the end of chapter 4:
09:34 "Let all bitterness and wrath
09:35 "and anger and clamor and slander
09:36 be put away from you, along with all malice."
09:38 So that's not the kind of war, you know--
09:40 he's actually setting those things aside.
09:44 And the strange weapons for this Christian army are,
09:48 "Be kind to one another," (laughs)
09:50 "tenderhearted, forgiving one another,
09:51 as God in Christ forgave you."
09:54 These are the kind--they're strange battles,
09:57 or strange weapons, for an actual army,
09:59 but they're just the ticket for the militia of Christ.
10:03 >>For a group that is called to wage peace.
10:06 >>Yes.
10:07 >>And that's a fantastic picture there.
10:10 John, there's several commands
10:13 that Paul gives as we move through this section,
10:18 and I wanna kind of start digging into those
10:20 before our break. We'll come back and do a little bit more.
10:23 But what are some of the big commands that we see Paul give
10:27 to the church here in Ephesians 6?
10:30 >>Well, I like to distill this passage into four commands
10:33 because they're kind of easy to remember
10:36 and it helps embed this passage in my mind.
10:39 So the first one, for example, would be follow the leader.
10:44 And when I say this passage,
10:46 I'm taking the whole passage now, chapter 6, verses 10-20.
10:49 And we see this happening,
10:51 Paul underlining this command early on:
10:53 "Finally, be strong in the Lord
10:55 and in the strength of His might."
10:57 That's how he starts the passage, right?
10:59 In other words, follow the leader.
11:03 So, it's as though Paul sees himself as a general,
11:07 and he's stepping onto the battlefield on the eve of battle,
11:12 and he's given a big speech,
11:14 and he's conveying the orders of the commander-in-chief,
11:18 who calls us to battle
11:20 and promises to be with us in the fight.
11:23 And so in those early verses there,
11:25 he's really giving us that command,
11:28 deep in our hearts and souls: "Follow the leader."
11:31 It's a good, strong command, isn't it?
11:33 >>It's a great place to start.
11:35 What about the second command?
11:37 >>The second command, I would say,
11:38 is encapsulated in, oh, verse 12 especially,
11:42 and that is know the foe.
11:44 He wants us to avoid
11:46 underestimating our enemy. We don't wanna do that.
11:50 We have to have a realistic assessment of our foe.
11:53 And he says you're not just up against flesh and blood;
11:57 you're up against spiritual forces of darkness.
11:59 You're up against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers.
12:03 You're up against all of that.
12:05 He wants us to have a realistic assessment
12:08 of what we're up against. If you move down the passage,
12:10 he wants to remind us that those forces of darkness
12:13 are led by a wily devil.
12:17 And so we're up against it.
12:20 He wants us to have a realistic assessment of our foe.
12:24 So, second command, know the foe.
12:27 >>So we've got follow the leader as the first command,
12:29 second command, know the foe,
12:31 and we're gonna be looking at the third and fourth commands
12:33 when we come back in just a moment.
12:35 I wanna encourage you--time is running out.
12:37 We're on week 13 of 14.
12:39 If you don't yet have the companion book
12:42 to this quarter's Sabbath school lesson,
12:44 be sure to pick it up very soon.
12:46 It is called "Ephesians" by John McVay.
12:49 It's the companion to this quarter's lesson.
12:51 You can find it at itiswritten.shop.
12:54 Again, that's itiswritten.shop.
12:57 We're gonna come back in just a moment
12:59 as we continue looking at week number 13.
13:03 We're looking at two more commands that Paul gives us,
13:06 and we're gonna tie together this thought of waging peace.
13:10 We'll be right back.
13:11 (uplifting theme music swells and ends)
13:15 (serene music)
13:16 >>[John Bradshaw] It's a land rich with culture.
13:19 Colorful bazaars, stunning mosques, and ancient ruins
13:22 now occupy the same territory once conquered
13:25 by the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires.
13:28 In the midst of this tumultuous history,
13:30 followers of Christ began to form their first churches.
13:34 One of these churches was instructed by Jesus
13:36 to "be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain,
13:40 "that are ready to die,
13:42 for I have not found your works perfect before God."
13:46 What were the believers in Sardis missing?
13:49 And how is this letter to a church
13:51 that existed 2,000 years ago
13:53 relevant to the church today?
13:56 Find out by watching
13:57 "The Seven Churches of Revelation: Sardis"
14:01 and learn what it means to truly overcome.
14:05 "The Seven Churches of Revelation: Sardis,"
14:09 brought to you by It Is Written TV.
14:17 You know that at It Is Written,
14:18 we are serious about the study of the Word of God.
14:22 And we encourage you to be serious about God's Word also.
14:26 Well, I wanna share with you another way
14:28 that you can dig deeper into the Word of God,
14:31 and here it is: itiswritten.study.
14:37 Go online to itiswritten.study,
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14:48 It's gonna be good for you,
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15:01 As you get into the It Is Written online Bible study guides,
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15:08 So don't forget: itiswritten.study.
15:11 itiswritten.study.
15:16 (uplifting theme music)
15:20 >>[Eric Flickinger] Welcome back to "Sabbath School,"
15:22 brought to you by It Is Written.
15:24 We are continuing to look
15:25 at lesson number 13: "Waging Peace."
15:28 And, John, we've looked at two
15:29 of the four commands that Paul gives us already:
15:32 Follow the leader and know the foe--
15:35 both very, very important. >>Sure.
15:37 >>But he doesn't just give us those two;
15:38 he gives us at least two more. What are the other two?
15:40 >>Yeah, the third one would be join the army.
15:44 Now, it's really interesting, Eric,
15:45 'cause you look at the way our passage has been understood
15:47 down through Christian history.
15:49 Most of the ink has been spilled
15:52 on a very individualistic understanding of the passage.
15:56 I am the lone Christian soldier battling against evil.
16:01 And there's been a lot of ink spilled.
16:03 There was a gentleman back in the 17th century,
16:06 William Gurnall, who preached a bunch of sermons
16:10 on this passage and wrote three volumes
16:12 totaling more than 800,000 words and 1,500 pages.
16:16 So down through time,
16:17 there's a lot of literature on this passage.
16:19 Much of it sort of assumes that Paul
16:22 is addressing the individual Christian warrior.
16:26 But that would be really quite strange, wouldn't it,
16:28 in a letter, as we have seen,
16:31 that focuses so much attention on the church,
16:34 to talk about church, church, church, church, church,
16:36 and then in the letter
16:38 with a portrait of a single individual,
16:40 would seem pretty strange to me.
16:43 >>It would; it would be very inconsistent.
16:45 >>Very inconsistent.
16:46 So it seems to me that we understand this
16:49 to be Paul's final metaphor for the church,
16:52 his final image for the church as an army.
16:56 This is a call to arms.
16:58 This is a call to the church militant--
17:00 importantly, as we've just talked about,
17:03 not waging any conventional war but waging peace.
17:07 But we need each other just as much
17:09 as those soldiers in actual combat need each other.
17:12 We need one another.
17:14 So the third call would be simply to join the army.
17:19 Join the army.
17:20 The church, says Paul, is a well-equipped fighting force,
17:25 a united army engaged in the long-running battle
17:29 of the great controversy. And just as others
17:33 in conventional battle need one another,
17:36 we need each other. In fact, I like to think
17:39 that if we view the passage that way,
17:41 and there are all sorts of hints that we should do so,
17:44 if we view the passage that way,
17:46 there's a secret weapon buried in the passage.
17:50 And that's Christian camaraderie and esprit de corps,
17:54 and that makes sense in a letter
17:57 which is about unity, right?
17:59 And Paul here goes after his theme of unity,
18:03 all things being united in Christ,
18:05 chapter 1, verses 9 and 10,
18:07 one more time under the image of the need
18:10 for a united, fit fighting army waging peace.
18:15 >>So we've got one more command here
18:19 that Paul gives us. >>One more, yep.
18:20 And this is a rather important one.
18:23 We've touched on it a bit earlier.
18:25 But it would be fight to the finish.
18:29 Fight to the finish.
18:31 I do believe this is a high-testosterone image,
18:35 in which Paul--
18:36 one of his great goals or objectives
18:39 in finishing his letter this way is to activate us,
18:43 to energize us to zealous participation
18:48 in the cosmic conflict as soldiers of the cross.
18:53 So he doesn't want us to just relax in the chaise lounge
18:57 watching others fight the battle.
18:59 He's recruiting us into the army of Christ.
19:03 He's wanting us to be active.
19:05 We've talked a little bit about that command to stand
19:08 that is used four times here,
19:10 and the fact that that command to stand
19:13 doesn't mean to stand as a sentry, not fighting.
19:17 It refers to the moment when two phalanxes would meet.
19:21 And at that moment, when you're meeting that opposing army,
19:24 what you have to do is dig those hobnail boots in and push
19:28 your, push the boss of your shield forward
19:32 and stand in battle.
19:34 So it's not a quietistic, passive stance
19:38 that he's looking for. He's saying to us,
19:41 "You're in this battle,
19:44 "and you need to be all in this battle.
19:46 Fight to the finish."
19:48 >>And yet in all of that is this idea
19:51 of waging peace. >>Yes.
19:52 >>So he takes those two seemingly opposed ideas
19:57 and melds them beautifully together here.
19:59 >>It's a vigorous military metaphor,
20:02 but he gives us enough hints and clues along the way
20:05 that we know how to apply this.
20:07 This is not conventional war,
20:09 but this is zealous engagement in the cosmic conflict,
20:13 zealous engagement in waging peace.
20:15 >>Very powerful.
20:17 John, I wanna read a quote here and have you respond to it.
20:22 This comes from a book called "Testimonies to Ministers"
20:24 on page number 22. And here's what it says:
20:28 "When men arise, claiming to have a message from God,
20:31 "but instead of warring against principalities and powers,
20:34 "and the rulers of the darkness of this world,
20:37 "they form a hollow square,
20:39 "and turn the weapons of warfare
20:41 "against the church militant, be afraid of them.
20:44 "They do not bear the divine credentials.
20:47 "God has not given them
20:49 any such burden of labor."
20:51 That's a rather interesting passage.
20:54 >>It is.
20:56 >>The word "friendly fire" comes to mind.
20:57 >>Yes, it does. >>Your thoughts on that?
21:00 >>Well, again, to know the foe--our second command, right?--
21:04 is to be able to identify who's your enemy
21:06 and who's your friend. And Paul is really concerned
21:10 that we not misidentify each other
21:13 as the enemies in this conflict.
21:15 In fact, in the truest sense,
21:17 our enemies are not in human form, right?
21:20 If you're fighting the battle of the great controversy,
21:24 or you think you're fighting
21:25 the battle of the great controversy,
21:26 and you're fighting against human beings,
21:29 you haven't fully understood Ephesians 6, verses 10-20.
21:32 You haven't understood that your foe
21:34 really are the supernatural powers of darkness.
21:37 So, friendly fire is not something we want to have happen;
21:40 that is, we do not want to damage fellow combatants,
21:44 fellow disciples in the cosmic conflict.
21:47 We want the force of our waging of peace
21:51 to go against those supernatural forces of darkness.
21:55 >>Very powerful.
21:56 So one thing that doesn't jump out at us in this depiction
22:01 of the armor of God is prayer.
22:04 How does that figure into all of this?
22:08 I'm going to make the assumption
22:09 that it does-- >>Sure, sure.
22:10 >>...because prayer is part of Christian warfare,
22:14 as it were. But how do we see that fit in here?
22:16 >>Well, verses 18-20 is Paul's call to prayer.
22:19 Some Bible scholars see this as separate
22:22 from the armament passage.
22:24 They see the armament passage
22:26 as only chapter 6, verses 10-17.
22:29 However, as I've studied ancient battle literature
22:33 to try to understand Paul's imagery here--
22:35 because he seems to be very much drawing
22:37 on the tradition of Greek and Roman warfare--
22:41 as he shares this image of the church,
22:46 I'm impressed by how often soldiers
22:49 are portrayed as praying.
22:52 And so while I don't think it's given to us here
22:55 or portrayed here as a separate weapon,
22:57 it is part of the battlefield context.
23:00 So, a soldier gets all suited up, ready to go to the fray,
23:04 ready to enter the fray.
23:05 He knows all of the difficult things
23:09 that are gonna happen out there on that battlefield.
23:11 He's mentally trying to get prepared for that.
23:15 The next thing that that soldier will do,
23:17 often in ancient battle literature, is pray.
23:20 Now, he's praying to the gods--plural, right?--here.
23:23 But Paul wants us to pray with him
23:25 and about him to God, capital "G,"
23:29 to the one true God, to Jesus Christ.
23:31 He wants us to pray to God.
23:34 And so I think this is part of his battlefield setting
23:38 that he's painting for us here.
23:40 >>So prayer, very, very significant.
23:42 John, there's one other section in here
23:44 that I think is important to tease out a little bit,
23:49 and that's what Paul refers to in verse number 20.
23:52 He says, "I am an ambassador in chains."
23:56 What does he mean when he says
23:57 that he is an ambassador in chains? What's that all about?
24:02 >>Well, if you look at the context here,
24:05 he seems to be looking toward an event, doesn't he?
24:09 He says, he asks them to pray "also for me,
24:14 "that words may be given to me in opening my mouth
24:16 boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel."
24:19 And he seems to be looking toward that tête-à-tête,
24:23 head-to-head conversation
24:25 that he will have with none other than Emperor Nero.
24:28 So he's looking toward that, and he's saying,
24:29 "I know that's coming.
24:31 "Please pray for me that in that moment
24:34 "I won't quail or turn tail and run in the battle,
24:38 "but that I will stand firm
24:40 "and proclaim the mystery of the gospel.
24:42 So please pray for me."
24:44 And then he says, "I am the ambassador in chains."
24:48 Well, he's imprisoned, remember. Paul is in prison.
24:51 This is one of the prison epistles,
24:53 so he's referring to the chains of his imprisonment.
24:56 But there may be some spicing of irony here, Eric,
25:00 in that ambassadors wore a chain of office.
25:04 And so there may be a kind of double entendre
25:07 going on here in this mention where he's saying,
25:10 "These chains actually signify something far more important:
25:15 "that I am the personal ambassador of the risen Christ
25:19 "who sits on the throne of the cosmos.
25:21 Nero is almost meaningless" (laughs)
25:24 "when compared to the power and the glory
25:27 of the One that I serve."
25:28 >>So the chains that may have been visible on him
25:32 were not nearly as powerful
25:35 as the invisible chains of office
25:38 that he was also wearing.
25:39 >>Very nice way to put it.
25:40 >>Very powerful. >>Yes, mm-hmm.
25:42 >>So, John, there may be somebody
25:44 who's watching this right now, listening to it right now
25:46 who's looking at their own life
25:48 and trying to figure out how they fit
25:52 into this big picture.
25:53 They may not feel that they have the strongest shield,
25:56 their belt may not feel as wide
25:59 and hefty as others'-- >>Sure.
26:01 >>...and they don't quite know how they fit
26:03 into this larger army, as it were.
26:07 They feel a little bit alone.
26:08 >>Yeah. >>How would you encourage them
26:10 and help them to see
26:12 that Christ has a message for them
26:14 in this metaphor of a soldier?
26:17 >>Well, I might go to one piece of armor
26:20 that we haven't mentioned here much, Eric,
26:21 and that's the helmet of salvation, as it's usually called.
26:25 And the term that's used there for,
26:27 that's translated "salvation,"
26:29 is probably better translated in a battle context
26:33 as the helmet of "victory,"
26:37 the victory helmet, the parade helmet.
26:39 And New Testament scholars used to say,
26:41 "Well, did such things even exist?"
26:43 But in recent years, archaeologists have discovered
26:46 these beautiful parade helmets
26:48 that you would never wear in battle, lest they get damaged.
26:51 Beautiful! The Hallaton Helmet from the U.K.,
26:54 discovered in a U.K. bog, for example,
26:56 this gorgeous, gorgeous adorned helmet--
26:59 and so Paul is saying--
27:02 if that's correct that it's the helmet of victory,
27:04 the parade helmet--he's saying, "Enter the fray,
27:07 "enter the battle with the parade helmet on
27:10 "because you know that God is provisioning you with victory.
27:14 "You know that you have all the resources you need.
27:17 The victory is certain; it is promised."
27:20 And so I would say to that hesitant disciple
27:22 or hesitant soldier
27:24 that this is far more about God than it is about you.
27:28 This is about what God intends in Christ to do in you
27:32 and for you and through you.
27:35 You can trust yourself in God's hands.
27:37 >>I seem to remember a passage in the Bible
27:39 that says something about "the battle is the Lord's."
27:41 >>The battle is the Lord's. Amen.
27:43 >>And that's encouraging for all of us,
27:45 or at least it certainly should be.
27:47 I trust and pray that this week's lesson
27:49 has been a blessing to you.
27:50 We have one more week left, lesson number 14 next week,
27:55 and we look forward to seeing you back again then.
27:57 This has been "Sabbath School,"
27:59 brought to you by It Is Written.
28:01 (uplifting theme music)
28:27 (music ends)


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Revised 2023-09-11