Standing Firm in the Invisible War

• Spiritual Warfare [00:27:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines spiritual warfare as an invisible cosmic struggle in the unseen world that manifests in the visible physical world, citing Daniel 10 as the clearest biblical presentation of this reality.
• [Daniel 10](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+10&version=KJV) Context [00:28:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reviews the historical setting of Daniel 10 (536 B.C., post-exile) and Daniel's prayerful intercession for his people, which triggered a heavenly response and demonic opposition.
• Angelic and Demonic Conflict [00:29:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the specific conflict in Daniel 10 where a good angel dispatched by God is intercepted and battles a demonic spirit for three weeks before being reinforced by Michael.
• The Reality of Spiritual Warfare [00:29:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a 'titanic battle' in the heavenly places between good angels and demonic spirits, asserting that this spiritual realm is as real as the physical world and influences earthly powers.
• Territorial Demons and Political Influence [00:32:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the concept of 'princes' of nations (e.g., Persia, Greece, USA) as high-level demonic spirits assigned to influence governments, elections, and societal foundations.
• Satan's Attack on Society's Foundations [00:36:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Satan is actively undermining the image of God through gender confusion and corrupting biblical marriage, leading to a moral landslide in the United States.
• The Nature of Prayer and Delay [00:40:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor clarifies that while God hears prayers immediately, demonic forces can obstruct the *answer* to those prayers, causing delays that are often misunderstood as God's silence.
• Encouragement and Victory [00:39:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor concludes with encouragement that the church is indestructible and believers are unconquerable because 'Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.'
• The Ongoing Nature of Spiritual Warfare [00:42:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that spiritual warfare is continuous and relentless, citing Daniel 10 where angels must repeatedly fight demonic princes, and quoting Martin Luther to emphasize that the devil 'takes no vacations.'
• The Completed Victory of Christ [00:47:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the victory over Satan was achieved at the cross, and believers are called to 'stand firm' and extend this victory through the gospel, rather than trying to win it anew.
• The Armor of God [00:51:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor details Ephesians 6, identifying Jesus Christ as the embodiment of the armor (truth, righteousness, peace, faith, Word) and emphasizing that believers must 'put on' Christ daily.
• Spiritual Warfare and Armor of God [00:54:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies Jesus as the true armor of God and warns that the enemy strikes when believers are vulnerable and not 'wearing' Christ.
• Submission to God [00:56:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > Correcting the common misquote of James 4:7, the pastor emphasizes that resisting the devil is only effective after submitting to God.
• Communion and Grace [01:01:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explaining the theology of 'unworthily' as an adverb describing manner rather than an adjective describing status, encouraging sinners to come to the table.
• Prayer and Thanksgiving [01:07:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor leads a prayer acknowledging God's goodness, grace, and the need for salvation through Christ.

• Sermon Illustration [00:22:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal experience at the Hill Cumorah in New York, where he walked alone in freezing temperatures and experienced a sudden, unnatural windstorm that nearly blew him over, which he interprets as a physical manifestation of spiritual warfare.
• Sermon Illustration [00:29:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the biblical narrative of Daniel praying in Babylon while the temple building was interrupted, leading to a three-week cosmic battle between a good angel and the 'prince of the kingdom of Persia' before the angel could deliver God's answer.
• Sermon Illustration [00:31:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of 'unzipping' the realm we live in to visualize the hidden spiritual world raging around us, and compares the communication of prayers to signals passing through 'hostile territory.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites Ray Stedman's insight that world leaders cannot explain the 'unknown element' behind modern societal collapse, attributing it to a spiritual war driving visible history.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the historical analogy of D-Day in June 1944 to explain that while the war against Germany was effectively won then, the 'mop-up' operations continued until V-Day in May 1945, illustrating how Christ's victory at the cross is being extended today.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a story where Billy Graham, asked if he was a pessimist or optimist, replied he was an optimist because he had 'read the last pages of the Bible.'
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares an anecdote about his friend Philip de Corsi and his ancestor John de Corsi, a warrior from Northern Ireland who wore his armor to protect himself from King John.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > A historical anecdote about John de Corsi, a warrior who kept his armor on at all times except Good Friday, when he removed it to pray. The enemy attacked him during this vulnerable moment.
• Sermon Illustration [00:58:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > A story about William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who stood before a plaque reading 'Here God laid his hands on William Booth' and prayed, 'Oh God, do it again, do it again, do it again,' illustrating the need for daily renewal of God's touch.

• Pastoral Charge [00:51:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Trust in Christ, receive Him as Savior, and welcome Him into one's heart and life.
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > Submit to God and draw near to Him daily.
• Pastoral Charge [01:02:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > Retrieve a self-contained communion cup from the lobby.
• Pastoral Charge [01:06:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Partake in the elements of bread and cup during communion.
• Pastoral Charge [01:07:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up and prepare to sing a hymn together.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:00:00] and cold Sunday morning. My name is Seth Brown. I'm the pastor of Adult Connections and on behalf of the elders and the staff, we are thankful for your presence with us this morning as we gather to worship the Lord and lift up his holy name. If you're joining us here in the worship center, thank you for doing that. If you're joining us in the chapel for our overflow or at home, we appreciate your presence as well and we are just again glad to be able to join together as God's people and to worship him this morning. If you're a guest with us here at Faith Bible Church for the first time this morning, thank you for being here as well.
[00:00:30] we would love to meet you and so after the service we encourage you to visit the welcome center you go straight out these doors in the back of the worship center here and the welcome centers right across the foyer and there'll be some folks to greet you and meet you
[00:00:42] after the service and get to know you a little bit and so again thank you so much for for visiting with us if this is your first time we hope that you are blessed and encouraged by just being with
[00:00:50] us and and and worshiping the lord with us this morning there are a couple of announcements i do want to pass along this morning before we lift up the name of the lord in our singing and worship
[00:00:58] him in that way. First off, the Iwana Derby for kids is coming up this coming Saturday.
[00:01:04] And so any kid who's in Iwana and their dads can make a car, can put a car together and race that on Saturday. It's going to be a wonderful time. I've heard cash and prizes are going to be awarded
[00:01:14] to the winners. It's a rumor, may not be the case, but regardless, we would love for you and your kid to come out and your child, that's kind of sounds condescending, your kid, your child to
[00:01:26] come out on saturday and race in the awana derby that's gonna be a great time and then on sunday in faith kids they're going to be doing some very special things for valentine's day and so
[00:01:34] you're going to be on a part of that you're going to be want you're going to want to be a part of that as well and so we would love to see you back here next sunday in faith kids and speaking of
[00:01:42] valentine's day for my second announcement we have a very very special announcement i need everyone's attention please for this actually and andy brooks i need a drum roll for this yes next sunday morning, you're going to want to be here because we are bringing back coffee next Sunday. Yes,
[00:02:01] yes. There was rejoicing all around. That is the most we've ever like yelled or worshiped at all on a Sunday morning at this church right there. Yes. Coffee next Sunday. The Holy Spirit has spoken to Jay and Jay has given us the go ahead to bring coffee back next Sunday. And I don't
[00:02:23] really know where to go from there. Besides, except we do need volunteers. We're bringing our coffee ministry back. We need volunteers. Contact Ricardo Colon if you want to be a part of that. That actually takes a bigger team effort than you think it does. And so to actually have
[00:02:36] coffee next week that will not be all drank by the time you get here, we need some folks to find Ricardo this morning or get in contact with him this week about being on the coffee team. So yes,
[00:02:48] there was rejoicing all around. Coffee's back next week. With that in mind, and to sort of bring us back to a little bit more of a worship mode. I want to call us to worship this morning from
[00:02:57] Zephaniah chapter 3 in verses 14 through 17. There the prophet Zephaniah says this, Sing for joy, daughter Zion. Shout loudly, Israel. Be glad and celebrate with all your heart, daughter Jerusalem. The Lord has removed your punishment. He has turned back your enemy. The
[00:03:15] king of Israel, the Lord, is among you. You need no longer fear harm. On that day it will be said to Jerusalem. Do not fear, Zion. Do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is among you,
[00:03:27] a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love, and he will delight in you with singing. Please pray with me as we sing to the Lord this morning.
[00:03:37] Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather as your people, to lift up your holy name.
[00:03:43] We thank you, Father, that as you delight in us with singing, God, we can delight in you. And so we do. We give you this time, Father. We commit it to you. We ask that you would be in our presence
[00:03:51] and that your Holy Spirit would lead us as we worship you together. May you be glorified and honored in all that we do. We ask all of this in the name of Christ. Amen. Let's stand and sing

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:04:02] together. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation. My soul praise him for he is

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:04:17] Lord, He is worthy of that.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:07:49] Psalm 145 tells us this, that God is great and He is greatly to be praised.
[00:07:56] It says that His greatness is unsearchable.
[00:07:58] It means it is profound and it is above our thinking this morning.
[00:08:02] So as we continue to sing this morning, let's focus our hearts and minds 100% on Him and His greatness.
[00:08:11] Let's sing this together.
[00:08:13] You give life, you are love

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:08:19] You bring light to the dark Let's pray for just a second.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:10:11] We recognize your greatness in this place.
[00:10:17] We recognize that you are above our thinking, above our understanding, that your love, your greatness transcends all that we can understand this morning fully.
[00:10:29] But God, it humbles us.
[00:10:30] And so may we be humbled before you to know our great need of you.
[00:10:35] may we join our voices with all the earth in singing your praise loudly this morning let's

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:10:42] sing that together church and all the earth and all the earth will shout your prayers our heads together this morning as we enter into the lord's presence well father we've

[00:17:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:17:58] You've sung praises to your name, and we pray that our praise this morning and our worship to you is a fragrant aroma of worship.
[00:18:05] And now, Father, we seek you for wisdom and help and illumination and instruction as we open your inspired and errant word together.
[00:18:14] We pray this morning that you'll help us, you'll challenge us, you'll correct us, you'll comfort us, you'll move us to action, you'll give us ears to hear.
[00:18:23] Father, I pray above everything else, the voice we hear this morning will be your voice speaking to us through your word, that your Holy Spirit will be our teacher.
[00:18:34] We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're delighted you're here with us this morning for worship here at Faith Bible Church. Welcome. Those of you who are here with us in person, we're grateful you're here with us. And those of you who are watching online as well,
[00:18:54] thank you for your presence. This is the first Sunday of the month, and so we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper at the end of the service. I always like to remind you of that, so you can be
[00:19:04] preparing your heart to celebrate the Lord's Supper as we go along through the service this morning. Also, this is Super Bowl Sunday, so I've got a couple slides here I thought I'd show you I've run across. This is actually from a couple weeks ago, but I like, it's the old guys there,
[00:19:20] Breeze and Brady there. History awaits, these two old guys. Here's a good one for today, though. This just in, Buccaneers signed seven more former New England Patriots, so they ought to win if they got that on their side. Here's a few thoughts about, for those of us maybe who are
[00:19:39] teams not in the Super Bowl. Dad, what's a Super Bowl? I don't know, son. We're Chargers. Some of you don't know there's a team called the Chargers in the NFL. They don't get there very often.
[00:19:49] Here's another one. Dad, what's the Super Bowl? I don't know, son. We're Bears.
[00:19:54] Now, this one hits a little close to home for me, because I love my Dallas Cowboys, but this is pretty good. Dallas Cowboys' last Super Bowl party. There it is. But there's always next year. You know, there's always next year for us. But being a Dallas Cowboys fan, there's one
[00:20:07] thing worse. That's being a Jets fan. How Jets fans last watched their team win the Super Bowl.
[00:20:13] So, well, anyway, well, I'll try to get some better stuff next year. That's the best I could come up with this time around. Well, if you'll take your Bible with me and turn to Daniel chapter
[00:20:22] 10, we're going to continue our study in the book of Daniel. This is a series we've titled The End Time and The Meantime. We've made our way to Daniel chapter 10, and this morning we're in part two of a message in Daniel 10. Part one was two weeks ago. Last week, Jonathan
[00:20:39] Murphy, Dr. Jonathan Murphy from Dallas Seminary, came and spoke here, and that was a great message, by the way. I loved that. That really ministered to me, and we'll get Dr. Murphy you love being here. We'll get him back here before too long again, I'm sure. But this is
[00:20:53] part two of a message we left off with again a couple weeks ago. And last time in Daniel chapter 10, we talked about the condition of Daniel there in the first verses. He's praying there for three
[00:21:04] weeks, and we kind of laid forth, laid out the setting and the context. Then we saw the coming of Christ. While Daniel's there praying, he sees a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ. We call that
[00:21:15] of Christophany. 600 years before His coming to the earth, Jesus appears there to the prophet Daniel. And then we got in a little bit into our third point you can see in your outline there
[00:21:27] this morning of the cosmic conflict. And if you weren't with us last two weeks ago, you might listen to that message to kind of fill in a few of the gaps for here this morning. So this morning
[00:21:38] we're in part two of a message in Daniel 10 that I've titled The Invisible War. Let me read chapter 10 verses 10 through 14 to just kind of get us into the text here this morning.
[00:21:50] Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And he said to me, O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I'm about to tell you and stand upright. For I have
[00:22:01] been sent to you. And when he had spoken these words to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this
[00:22:11] and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard. And I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days.
[00:22:24] And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. Now I've come to give you understanding of what will happen to your people
[00:22:33] in the latter years, for the vision pertains to the days yet future. May the Lord write His eternal word on our hearts this morning. About 10 or 15 years ago, I was invited to speak at a
[00:22:48] Calvary Chapel up in the northern part of New York, up in the Finger Lakes area. It's called the Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes. I went up there three successive times in January. I asked
[00:23:00] the guy on the third time, why don't you have this conference in July? I mean, it's freezing up there in January. He said, well, nobody has anything to do in January, so more people come to the
[00:23:08] conference. So I certainly understood it's cold up there in the northern part of New York upper state in January. While we were there, I was there with a couple of other speakers, and the pastor
[00:23:19] of the church asked us if we would want to go over to a place called Palmyra, which wasn't very far away. In case you don't know, Palmyra is the birthplace or near the birthplace of Joseph Smith,
[00:23:31] who was said to have been visited, of course, by the angel Moroni, given the set of golden plates that the Book of Mormon were written upon. And there near Palmyra, at a place, a hill there
[00:23:42] called Cumorah, is the place where supposedly the angel Moroni gives these golden plates with the Book of Mormon on them to Joseph Smith. And on this hill called Cumorah, there's a 15-foot tall, or actually a 25-foot tall shaft of white granite, and on top of that is a statue of Moroni,
[00:24:01] this angel from Mormonism. And Moroni has his right hand in the air and his left hand has a replica of these plates that supposedly contained the Book of Mormon. We drove there to the place,
[00:24:14] and there was a Mormon temple down there in the lower part of the area and a visitor's center and all of that, and Joseph Smith's childhood home. But then there's a parking lot around behind
[00:24:25] where you get out of the car and walk across this grass walkway over to this hill of Kimura where this granite statue is. And so we drove around that area. It was freezing cold that day
[00:24:36] and I had a really light jacket on. I didn't know we were going to be outside. So we started walking out across there and it was probably in the 20s and it was a sunny day. And the good thing about
[00:24:47] it, there was no wind. I mean, it was dead still, dead calm. So we get out of the car and we're talking there for a minute. We take off walking, and if you've ever been around me, I walk faster
[00:24:56] than most people do. So I took off, and I was about 50 feet ahead of the rest of the guys, and ended up being even more than that. And I started walking out there, and the wind started
[00:25:05] blowing. And I mean, it started blowing and blowing, and it picked up. And literally, I mean, you know, I talked to the other guys, you know, so there was other people there to witness this
[00:25:12] with me. It had to be blowing 50 miles an hour. I mean, literally, I could hardly stand up, and my ears were frozen. I mean, it's in the mid-20s, and this wind is just howling. It's
[00:25:22] almost blows me over. And it's hitting me in my eyes. I can't see, you know, you get that kind of cold air in your eyes. And so I'm about three quarters of the way there. And I look back and
[00:25:32] the other guys have already turned around and are headed back. So I turn around and going back and literally I can barely make it back there. The wind is blowing so hard. I mean, it's just, you
[00:25:41] know, I'm from Oklahoma. I know what wind's like. This was wind and freezing wind. And so I get to the car and I couldn't get in there fast enough. I mean, my ears felt like they were getting ready
[00:25:51] to shatter. I was so cold. And I sat down in the car. We all just looked at each other. And I looked out the window. We all did up at the trees up there, and they were dead still. There wasn't
[00:26:01] one puff of air blowing of wind. And we talked about that for a little while, those of us who were there. It was my friend Tommy Ice and the pastor of this church. That was one of the strangest
[00:26:11] experiences of my life. I'm glad there were others there with me to witness that as well, because there was no natural explanation for what happened there that afternoon there at Camorra. And I believe that experience there was a very real expression of spiritual warfare.
[00:26:27] Someone didn't want us there for some reason. Now what we experienced there was a physical manifestation of the spiritual invisible war. And as real as that encounter was, and it was very real, I don't believe in spiritual warfare because of what happened to me there that day.
[00:26:46] I believe in spiritual warfare because it's in the Bible. That's why I believe it. It's clearly presented in the Word of God. And there's no passage in Scripture that presents a more clear, more compelling picture of spiritual warfare than Daniel chapter 10. Daniel chapter 10 is about
[00:27:04] spiritual warfare in the unseen realm. And spiritual warfare, if you want just a definition of it, it's the invisible cosmic struggle that's being waged in the invisible unseen world, but it's fleshed out and manifest in what's visible and seen so there's a an unseen cosmic
[00:27:24] conflict that's taking a place in the invisible world but it manifests itself and it's fleshed out in this visible physical world that's what daniel chapter 10 is about and the bible is clear that spiritual warfare is real i'm satan is real demons are real and daniel chapter 10 pulls back the
[00:27:45] curtain for us to give us a rare glimpse into this high-level spiritual conflict and combat in the invisible realm. So it's about the spiritual realities of spiritual warfare. You could call this chapter Angels and Demons. That's what this passage is all about. Now, we got to start
[00:28:07] last time looking at Daniel 10 and five keys in this passage to understanding spiritual warfare.
[00:28:14] I'm going to just review these first two and add a couple things in as well.
[00:28:18] The first thing, and by the way, all five of these you can see in your outline start with the letter O.
[00:28:22] It helps me remember them better.
[00:28:24] But first of all, spiritual warfare is obscured.
[00:28:27] What we mean by obscured is it's hidden.
[00:28:29] I mean, it's invisible and hidden, but it's very real and it's raging.
[00:28:34] Now, remember the setting of this chapter in Daniel chapter 10.
[00:28:37] It's 536 B.C.
[00:28:39] the exiles many of the jewish people have gone back to about 50 000 of them have gone back to the land of israel after the 70 year exile in babylon daniel's 85 years of age at this time
[00:28:52] he's probably more valuable to the jewish people in babylon than in israel so he stays behind and he's there fervently praying for his people he's gotten news that things aren't going very well with the group that's gone back there's some some interruption of the building of the temple
[00:29:09] there, and things aren't going along very well. So he's praying for his country and his people and his homeland, much like a lot of us should be doing today, right? Praying for our country.
[00:29:20] Things aren't going very well, and we're deeply concerned. And like Daniel, the best thing that we can do is to pray. And we find out in this chapter that when Daniel prayed, the moment he
[00:29:33] prayed, God heard his prayer. And God dispatched an angel to come and give Daniel this answer. It's a special delivery message that's being brought to Daniel. But at the same time, Satan dispatches one of his demonic spirits to intercept that answer to try to hinder the work of God.
[00:29:55] And so somewhere between heaven and earth, this good angel and this demonic spirit do battle together. This good angel is accosted by this demonic spirit, and when these two angels clash, a titanic battle erupts in the heavenly places. And it continues to rage for three weeks. That's
[00:30:13] what this passage tells us. Now again, we don't know how the angel opposed the demon. We don't know how angels and demons fight. We don't know what weapons they use. We don't know what it looks
[00:30:25] like, but it's real. And then after three weeks of intense high-level cosmic warfare, God's angel, with the help of Michael the archangel here in verse 13, defeats that demon, and this good angel continues to earth with his answer to Daniel's prayer. And we're going to see that answer in
[00:30:46] chapters 11 and 12 in the coming weeks. But the point here is that's what's going on around us all the time. It's obscured, it's hidden to us, but it's real. Again, as I said last time,
[00:31:00] if you could just unzip this realm in which we live and step into another dimension, you would see a world, a spiritual world, that's just as real as the world we live in. And it's raging
[00:31:12] all around us all the time. And I don't know about you, but that's helpful to me in a lot of ways because it explains a lot of what we see today.
[00:31:22] There's something much deeper and much more sinister is going on than what we can just see.
[00:31:28] There are these powers behind earthly powers and earthly leaders that are influencing them and bringing these things to pass.
[00:31:36] So this spiritual war is obscured.
[00:31:39] Secondly, this spiritual warfare is organized.
[00:31:43] We engage a well-organized enemy.
[00:31:46] Satan leads a vast, well-organized kingdom that opposes God's work at high-level cosmic combat. In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, it says, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. That's what we think about. We think the battles in our
[00:32:01] world are, you know, progressives and conservatives and this group against that group. Certainly humans are responsible for what they do. But it's saying our fight isn't against people, but it's against principalities and powers. It's against world forces of this present darkness.
[00:32:18] us. It's against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. And by the way, if you read Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 18, you'll find the word against six times. We have an enemy that is against us. Colossians 2.15 gives kind of a further breakdown of the hierarchy of the
[00:32:38] demonic spirits and calls them powers and authorities. So there's a hierarchy of these demonic spirits, and they're evidently appointed and assigned to certain geographical areas and nations. They have authority over certain kingdoms. And some have termed this, you know,
[00:32:55] territorial spirits. But notice here in verse 13, this good angel is trying to bring the answer to Daniel. And he says in verse 13, the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days.
[00:33:08] Then behold, Michael, this is of course Michael the archangel, one of the chief princes came to help me for I'd been left there with the kings of Persia. Now the kings of Persia here may be
[00:33:18] other demonic spirits or human kings, but clearly the prince of the kingdom of Persia here is not a human being, not a human king or prince, because no human prince could withstand a mighty angelic being for three weeks. And so we know from Scripture and what the Bible tells us about
[00:33:38] creation that Satan's not omnipresent. He can't be everywhere at once, so to exert his influence globally, he assigns his emissaries to do his evil work all over the world. And so what we have here,
[00:33:51] the prince of the kingdom of Persia is a high-level demonic angel assigned by Satan to influence and manipulate and control and direct things that are happening in the kingdom of Persia. And of course, Persia in that day was the superpower of the day. And you can be sure today that there's demonic
[00:34:12] princes, you know, in the U.S. Senate, the White House, there's a prince of North Korea, a prince of Iran, a prince of China, a prince of Russia, a prince of the United States. Satan's network is
[00:34:27] vast and it's insidious, and it's an invisible structure that works behind the scenes in global governments. So within the corridors of power, in every country in the globe, dark sinister forces are at work shaping the policies of those world governments, operating to influence decisions,
[00:34:47] to influence elections, all kinds of things. So Satan is very active in politics. He loves politics. And again, these demonic spirits may be divided all the way down where there's a prince of the United States, there may be a prince of Oklahoma, there may be a prince of Edmond,
[00:35:03] of Oklahoma City. But you notice down in verse 20, there's a prince of Greece. He says, I'm going to go fight the prince of Persia, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come forth. This
[00:35:15] would have been the demonic spirit that was in charge of Greece. And by the way, Persia is the world power in this time Daniel's writing this, but after Persia, Greece is going to come. And so
[00:35:27] the demonic spirit is already at work there. And I think it's interesting, Satan seems to be working overtime in these nations that have the most influence, Persia and Greece in that day.
[00:35:39] and if we transfer that to today, then the number one nation on Satan's hit list would be the United States. And I don't think any Christian could ever doubt the fact that Satan's unleashed a
[00:35:50] relentless attack on the heart and the soul of our country. I mean, he's uprooting and he's undermining and he's undercutting the foundations of society. It's an all-out attack against the United States. Demonic forces are influencing our government and our leaders, and they're chipping
[00:36:10] away at the foundations of biology and morality. And you think about what Satan's doing. The first thing God does in Genesis chapter 1, or the crown of His creation, is He creates humanity. And it
[00:36:26] says, male and female, He created them. And what is Satan doing today? He's bringing in all kinds of gender confusion and chaos. It's really striking at the very heart of humanity. It's striking at the heart of the image of God that God placed upon us. He's seeking to unravel God's
[00:36:46] design and God's order for humanity. What does God do in the next chapter with the man and the woman?
[00:36:53] He brings them together in marriage, the most important human institution we have to hold together the fabric of society. But what is Satan doing today? He's striking at the heart of natural marriage, of biblical marriage, of really the only definition of marriage,
[00:37:10] to corrupt and to confuse. So you have gender in chapter 1 and creation in the image of God. You have marriage. These are the things that Satan is working overtime to destroy in our country.
[00:37:22] And he's stirring up leaders to oppose God's people, to silence us and to cancel us. So he's trying to overturn the foundations of society, a total breakdown of the institutions God has put in place for the order of society. And we see, based on that, a moral landslide
[00:37:39] that's taking place in our country. And you can see Satan's hand in all of this because this is otherworldly and supernatural. I mean, certainly human beings are sinful. We have a great capacity for sin. But the suddenness and the scope of what is happening today, to me, is otherworldly and
[00:37:59] supernatural. No human forces could have accomplished these things so quickly. Ray Stedman years ago put it like this. This is a very insightful quote. He says, as the world's great leaders grapple with the dilemma of modern life, all they can say is, what is wrong? What is the
[00:38:17] unknown element behind all this. We can't explain this. Something is missing from our understanding of human nature and human behavior. What is it? Something missing. I mean, we're missing something of what's happening here. And he says the answer, there's a spiritual war going on behind the scenes
[00:38:34] of history, and that spiritual war in the unseen world is driving the events in our own visible world. The biblical teaching of spiritual warfare shines a spotlight of truth on the basic problem of human existence in human history. One of the fundamental truths of God's Word is that behind
[00:38:52] the facade of this world, there's an invisible, relentless battle raging. Satan is locked and loaded, and his bullets have our names on them. And if we don't want to end up on the casualty list, we have to understand this battle and arm ourselves with God's powerful resources. He has
[00:39:09] us in his crosshairs. And I would say today, you think about America. We're the last bastion of hope and freedom for this world, for Satan to bring his plan to effect in this world. America's
[00:39:20] got to be neutralized. We're in his crosshairs. The church is in his crosshairs. Believers and our families are in his crosshairs and under assault. But I want to give you some encouragement this morning. What did Jesus say about the church? The church is indestructible, the church of Jesus
[00:39:36] Christ. What did he say? I will build my church. The gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
[00:39:44] and also believers are unconquerable. You think about this. We may be buffeted. We may be battered, but we're never overcome. Greater is he who is in you, John says, than he who is in the world.
[00:39:58] Now, spiritual warfare then is obscured. It's hidden, but it's real. It's organized. We fight a highly organized enemy. Then finally, number three, spiritual warfare is obstructing.
[00:40:10] that's obstructing. Satan's goal is to obstruct and to hinder and thwart God's work.
[00:40:18] Our prayers can be, the answers to our prayers can be obstructed. That's what happened to Daniel.
[00:40:23] Now think about this. When we communicate over, we communicate over the air through hostile territory, our prayers. Our prayers penetrate a spiritual zone, and they trigger this spiritual warfare. But I want you to see in this passage, Satan and demons can't keep our prayers from
[00:40:41] reaching the ears of God. As believers, we have a direct open line to heaven. You'll notice in verse 12, it said, Daniel, do not be afraid from the first day that you set your heart on
[00:40:54] understanding this and humbling yourself before God, your words were heard. So God heard Daniel's prayer the moment he uttered it. So God hears us the moment we pray. In fact, God knows what we're going to pray before we pray it, right? He knows our mind. So demons can't stop that, but they can
[00:41:14] obstruct and interrupt the answer to the prayer. And that's what happens here in Daniel 10. Three weeks, this battle ensues in the heavenlies till the answer finally comes to Daniel. And by the way, that helps us understand a little bit, I think, sometimes the next time you're praying
[00:41:31] for something and there's a long delay, we have no idea what might be taking place.
[00:41:37] This three-week delay was not because it took three weeks for God to hear, not three weeks for God to make up His mind what He was going to do, but it was because of this
[00:41:46] cosmic combat. So spiritual warfare is obstructing. Satan and his demons work to hinder and thwart God's work and the work of God's people. It's always interesting to me when I'm in a passage that deals with this topic, I always feel an extra measure of buffeting from the enemy
[00:42:06] during the week in that time. And I won't go in and talk to you about that, but it's interesting, just in your own mind and your spirit, things maybe that happen around you, I always sense that.
[00:42:17] Satan doesn't want to be exposed. In 1 Thessalonians 2.18, the apostle Paul said, I wanted to come to you, but Satan blocked our way. Satan hindered Paul from coming to the Thessalonians. We don't know how, but he did. Look, Satan doesn't want to be exposed. He loves to work
[00:42:37] incognito. He likes it best when he's ignored or when he's even denied by people. So he doesn't want us to expose him. But we have a real enemy who seeks to obstruct and hinder and block the
[00:42:52] work of God. The fourth key here to understanding spiritual warfare is it's ongoing, it's continuous.
[00:42:58] Notice this angel, this good angel, is bringing the answer to Daniel. He's been accosted by this demonic spirit, and Michael the archangel has to come help this good angel defeat the prince of Persia. But notice down in verse 20, after all this takes place, then this good angel says to
[00:43:17] Daniel, do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia, so I'm going forth. So a rematch has already been scheduled with the prince of Persia.
[00:43:30] He's got to go back and fight again. And then it says in verse 20, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. So the prince of Greece is coming. He's going to move on to the next front,
[00:43:44] if you will, and fight against this prince of Greece as well. And then if you go down and look at verse 21, it says, however, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. And
[00:43:56] we'll talk about that more next time, the book of truth. I think the book of truth is God's blueprint for history. He says, yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces
[00:44:07] except Michael, your prince. That's Michael, the archangel. And then notice chapter 11, verse 1, which really goes with chapter 10. He says, and in the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and a protection for him. So two years earlier, this angel had fought with
[00:44:24] Michael at another point in time. But the issue here is just simply the fact that demonic forces overcoming them is not a once-for-all matter. It's not a one-and-done kind of a deal. The victory has to be renewed again and again. This spiritual war is a war that must be fought continually.
[00:44:45] It's 365, 24-7. It's a relentless battle. Donald Gray Barnhouse said this years ago, there's no truce in the invisible war. There's no armistice in the invisible war.
[00:44:57] There are hundreds of millions of battles being fought every day in the invisible world.
[00:45:03] And think about that.
[00:45:05] Just ongoing, hundreds of millions of these battles.
[00:45:09] Martin Luther, who, by the way, was no stranger to satanic attack and warfare.
[00:45:15] Luther said this years ago, The devil takes no vacations.
[00:45:19] He never rests.
[00:45:21] If beaten, he rises again.
[00:45:23] If he cannot enter in the front, he comes in the rear.
[00:45:26] If he can't enter at the rear, he breaks through the roof or enters in by tunneling under the threshold.
[00:45:30] He labors until he's in.
[00:45:33] He uses great cunning and many a plan.
[00:45:35] When one plan miscarries, he has another at hand and continues and continues in his attempts until he wins.
[00:45:43] It's an ongoing battle.
[00:45:45] And something I think I can show from Scripture is I believe that we can expect an intensification, an escalation in demonic activity and spiritual warfare as the end draws near.
[00:45:58] We know in the Bible the tribulation period, that final age before the coming of Christ is going to be a time of unprecedented demonic activity. Daniel chapter 9, which I think is the strangest chapter in all the Bible,
[00:46:12] talks about a demonic invasion of the earth during the tribulation. The Antichrist is going to be indwelled by Satan and be Satan's vessel to unleash his horrors upon the earth during that time.
[00:46:25] but you think about this satan knows the signs of the times may know him better than we do he knows that the end is drawing near and so i believe he's ramping up his efforts because he knows time is
[00:46:40] short and so there's never been a time when it's more important to understand the war and put on the full armor of god than for you and me today now speaking of the armor of god that brings us
[00:46:53] to the fifth point here, our fifth O, and that is overcome. We overcome in spiritual warfare through Jesus Christ. Here's a great thought. Forget a lot of other things I've said here today. Maybe this is a good one to remember. We don't fight for victory. We fight from victory.
[00:47:13] The victory's been achieved. We're not out there trying to win the victory. In fact, when you go to passages like Ephesians 6, it says, stand firm. Never talks about us taking ground so much as standing and holding what Christ has done for us. Here's a real important idea or something
[00:47:29] good to get in mind. When Christ died at the cross, he defeated Satan. In Hebrews 2, 4, it says that Christ defeated him who has the power of death, that is the devil. So Satan was defeated
[00:47:44] at the cross. You say, well, if he was defeated, then why do we have this war going on? Well, the victory today is being extended and advanced through the preaching of the gospel. It's kind of
[00:47:56] like in history, you know, in June of 1944, you had D-Day. And really after that, in the aftermath of D-Day, World War II, at least as far as with Germany, it was over. It was just kind of a mop-up
[00:48:08] operation of extending the victory. And of course, V-Day or Victory Day didn't come until May of 1945. So you had an 11-month period there when the victory was being extended. And so when you think about Christ and His victory over the enemy, the victory over Satan was accomplished at the
[00:48:28] cross. But it's being announced and being advanced through this age as the gospel is going forth and the ground is being taken, if you will, and souls are being snatched from the snare of the devil
[00:48:41] and being brought to Christ. But the victory will someday be actualized at the second coming of Jesus Christ when He returns. So it's accomplished at the cross. It's being announced and advanced today as the gospel message goes forth, and it'll be actualized someday when Christ returns to earth.
[00:49:01] I like what Erwin Lutzer says. He says, today Satan's out on bail. That's a good way to look at it. He's allowed to roam until his final judgment. The sentence to the lake of fire has
[00:49:12] only been postponed. The verdict has already been read. We have seen the lightning. The thunder is on the way. The lightning happened at Calvary. The thunderclap will take place when Christ comes.
[00:49:26] It's a beautiful way to look at what Christ has accomplished for us. But all of this will be consummated when Jesus comes back. But our mission today is to extend that victory of Jesus Christ
[00:49:38] at the cross through the announcement and the proclamation of the gospel. When Jesus comes, He'll finally consummate that victory. Many years ago, Billy Graham was in a dining room at the United States Senate. He was talking to some people, and one of the senators said,
[00:49:55] Billy, we've been having a discussion about pessimism and optimism. Are you a pessimist or an optimist? And Billy Graham said, I'm an optimist. And the senator said, why? And Billy Graham said, I've read the last pages of the Bible. It's a pretty good answer. Well, I've read
[00:50:11] the last pages too, and I hope you have as well. And if you have, you and I should be optimists because we fight from victory, not for victory. Now, let me just, as we close here this morning,
[00:50:24] I want to mention three passages of Scripture. There's so much more we could say about this topic, but I want to just mention three key Scriptures for you to take with you and to meditate upon and to think about in these coming days. Simple passages, you're probably familiar
[00:50:39] with all of them, but I just want to close with focusing our mind on God's Word. In 1 John 4.4, the Apostle John says, greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Now, that's a
[00:50:51] great encouragement to us today, but you notice there's a conditioner. It's greater is He who's in you. He has to be in you. If you don't have Christ as your Savior, He's not in you.
[00:51:02] And the Bible would say right now that you're bound literally in the snare of the devil.
[00:51:07] The way you get out of that snare is you take Christ to be your Savior. You trust in Him, His death and resurrection for you. You receive Him into your life. Greater is He who is in you,
[00:51:18] because you've received Him. You've taken that free offer of eternal life that He gives to all who will simply receive Him. So if you've never trusted Christ this morning and received that free offer of life and welcomed the Lord Jesus into your heart and life, that's what you need
[00:51:35] to do this morning above everything else. And once you do that, you can say, greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. Another passage is over in Ephesians, and of course this is really
[00:51:48] the classic passage on spiritual warfare, really in the New Testament, in Ephesians chapter 6.
[00:51:56] I just want to make a couple comments about this. I went through Ephesians years ago. You can go find those messages and listen to those if you want to look at this in detail. But just a couple
[00:52:06] things. Notice verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. We're not strong in our own ingenuity, our own strategies, our own methods, our own intellect, our own education, whatever it is. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. That's the only strength that
[00:52:27] you and I have to stand against the enemy. Put on the full armor of God. It means to take it up, appropriate it. You can stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 13, take up the full armor of
[00:52:40] God that you can resist in the evil day. The evil day there, I think, means when Satan really ratchets it up and when he's kind of a full onslaught against you. And having done everything
[00:52:54] to stand firm, then he goes through and lists the armor of God, the belt of truth. As we gather here together every Sunday, we cinch on the belt of truth as we learn the truth of God and saturate
[00:53:06] ourselves in God's Word. The breastplate of righteousness, we think about the fact that Christ is our righteousness before God. The helmet of salvation, the shoes of peace. We know that we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. It gives us stability in our feet and our shoes.
[00:53:24] The shield of faith that extinguishes the fiery darts of the enemy, which if the shield is faith, it indicates to me the darts or doubts, the opposite of faith. We quench those with the shield of faith. We have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. By the way, the word
[00:53:43] word there, the Word of God, is not the word logos, but it's the word rhema. That means a particular saying of the Word. Remember Jesus, tempted by Satan, three times said, it is written, it is written, it is written. We need to know the Bible. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
[00:53:58] It's particular sayings in the Word that we can appropriate and use in spiritual warfare.
[00:54:05] And then the very end here, he says in verse 18, and this takes us kind of back to Daniel, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit.
[00:54:14] And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.
[00:54:18] So it ends here with prayer.
[00:54:20] And I remember the old song, Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, and it says, put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer.
[00:54:28] So all of this here is bathed in the prayers that we offer up to God.
[00:54:35] And you know, when you think about this, really, and you read about this armor of God, really the armor of God is really Jesus.
[00:54:41] You read over in Romans 13, it says, put on the armor of light.
[00:54:46] And then right after that, it says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:54:51] Jesus is the belt of truth.
[00:54:53] And He's the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:54:55] He's the breastplate of righteousness.
[00:54:57] He's our righteousness.
[00:54:58] He's our peace, and He's our salvation. He's the author and the finisher of our faith.
[00:55:06] We're to wear Christ all the time like we wear clothes, to get up every morning and spend time with Him and fellowship with Him and to put on Jesus Christ. And I can assure you, the enemy
[00:55:19] knows when you're vulnerable and you do not have on the armor of God. And that's when the enemy's going to strike in your life. My friend Philip de Corsi, many of you have been here when Philip
[00:55:32] has spoken, our friend from Northern Ireland. He loves to tell me about his famous relative, John de Corsi from Northern Ireland. He came there in the 1100s. He was a great warrior, but he was also a godly man. But King John wanted to kill John de Corsi and set out to kill him,
[00:55:49] but he was a great warrior and he wore his armor all the time, never took it off.
[00:55:54] We sent some people in to kind of do a little bit of surveillance, and they found out that one time a year, John de Corsi took off his armor.
[00:56:01] It was Good Friday.
[00:56:03] On Good Friday, he would take off his armor, he would walk barefoot around the church five times, and he would go in and kneel at the altar and pray.
[00:56:11] And John's men found that out, and that's when they went in and attacked John de Corsi.
[00:56:16] Now, supposedly, he just found a spear in there, a stick he could use, and killed 13 of the men attacking him.
[00:56:22] So he was quite a warrior.
[00:56:23] but eventually he was overtaken and he was captured and he was killed. But the point is the enemy knew when he didn't have his armor on when he was vulnerable. And the enemy knows that
[00:56:34] for you and for me and for our families as well. We don't want to leave ourselves exposed to the enemy. One final verse. This is a great one. James 4, 7. Submit to God, resist the devil,
[00:56:47] and he will flee from you. Now I hear that quoted all the time. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. That's not what it says. It says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from
[00:56:58] you. The most important thing for us to do in spiritual warfare is live a life of submission and humility, to submit to God and to draw near every day to Jesus Christ. You can resist the
[00:57:12] devil all you want to, but if you're not submitted to God, you're going to be a victim of the enemy.
[00:57:20] The first thing we do is submit to God, a life of submission and a life of humility, drawing near to Christ.
[00:57:27] A.W. Tozer put it like this, the best way to keep the enemy out is to keep Christ in.
[00:57:33] The sheep need not be terrified by the wolf.
[00:57:36] They have but to stay close to the shepherd.
[00:57:38] And in this last statement, this is great, it's not the praying sheep Satan fears, but the presence of the shepherd.
[00:57:46] That's what Satan fears.
[00:57:48] Submit yourself to God.
[00:57:49] Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
[00:57:52] Then you can resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
[00:57:55] We need to stay close to God in His presence and keep God's hand upon our life.
[00:58:04] We don't have time to go into this in detail, but if you'll go back and read Daniel 10, three times in this picture here where Daniel is in spiritual warfare, he's exhausted, he's spent.
[00:58:15] Three times the angel comes and he puts his hand upon Daniel.
[00:58:20] touches him. And I like to call that there the touch of the Almighty. God touches Daniel again and again to give him strength and to give him support. And you and I constantly need to submit
[00:58:33] our lives to God and to have the touch of God upon our lives and have his presence and his nearness.
[00:58:40] I'll close with this. I read this story this week in a book I was reading, and it ministered powerfully to me. I've been able to get it off my mind. It's a story about William Booth,
[00:58:49] the founder of the Salvation Army. William Booth went after the worst and the lowest in London to bring them to Christ and founded the organization of the Salvation Army, which was very focused certainly on helping people with their temporal needs, but on their spiritual needs as well.
[00:59:08] But many years ago in England, there was a custodian in a church, and he saw a man standing reading a plaque in the church that said, here God laid his hands on William Booth.
[00:59:21] And the man stood there gazing at this plaque, wouldn't take his eyes off of it. Finally, the custodian came over and said, I'm sorry, mister, but it's time to close the church. You have to move on. And the guy said, well, just give me another moment, please. The custodian said,
[00:59:35] okay, just another moment. Again, the man read the plaque. Here God laid his hands on William Booth.
[00:59:42] The custodian suddenly realized the man reading the plaque was William Booth himself, the founder of the Salvation Army.
[00:59:50] And then as he walked away, he heard William Booth praying, Oh God, do it again, do it again, do it again.
[00:59:59] That's what you and I need in our lives.
[01:00:02] We need the touch of God upon our lives.
[01:00:04] And many of us here, God may have touched your life at some point in the past.
[01:00:09] But it's not enough for today.
[01:00:13] Be a great prayer to pray in your life and my life every day as we get up in the morning.
[01:00:17] God, you touched me years ago, but do it again.
[01:00:21] Do it again.
[01:00:23] You and I need the touch of the Almighty in our lives if we're going to stand in these days in which we live.
[01:00:29] Let's pray together.
[01:00:33] Father, we come before you now and we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is in us, the one who's greater than the one who's against us.
[01:00:47] Father, all the treasures of life are found in Him. He is the pearl of great price.
[01:00:52] He's the one that a man upon whom find He will go and sell all that he has to keep it. We thank You for our precious Savior. Help us to submit to Him. Father, touch us again and again in our life. We
[01:01:05] need Your strength. We can only be strong in You and the power of Your might. We're only strong because of the One who resides within us. We can only resist the devil and have him flee from us
[01:01:18] as we submit to you. We gain and draw our strength from you and from your presence.
[01:01:25] So, Father, I pray for myself and for all my brothers and sisters here this morning that you'll do it again and again and again in our lives. Touch us, Father, so that we can be used to touch others, that we can be faithful in our generation.
[01:01:40] We can go out to announce and to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ as we await His coming again. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Mark, for your teaching of God's Word

[01:01:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:01:58] this morning. We are moving into our time of communion, and I should inform you that we practice open communion at Faith Bible Church, and what that means is you don't have to be a member
[01:02:07] of Faith Bible to celebrate communion with us today, but we do believe you need to be someone who has trusted in Jesus Christ, someone who believes in Christ and is looking to Him to be
[01:02:16] their Savior in life and in death. So we will take communion here in just a few minutes, or just a few moments. If you haven't gotten one of these self-contained communion elements, you need to go
[01:02:27] ahead and do that. We won't be passing a plate this morning, so you have time to go out into the lobbies and grab one of these communion cups, and I'll give you the instructions on when to take
[01:02:37] each of the elements here in just a moment. When we come to the Lord's table, we should consider a verse like 1 Corinthians 11, 28. And it's there Paul writes of our approach to the Lord's Supper.
[01:02:49] He says, but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
[01:02:55] For he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself. Over the years, I have found that many people stumble over that word unworthily, that they see that term and then they pull back from the Lord's Supper. They think, man, if I really examine myself, how could I
[01:03:17] possibly come? Because they know themselves to be utterly unworthy, and therefore they choose not to celebrate what's before us here today. But before you examine your heart, you should take care to examine the text of Scripture, because the word unworthily is an adverb. It's not an
[01:03:38] adjective. So the word unworthily is not describing a person who has behaved in unworthy ways. It's describing a man who in his manner of coming to the table is doing so flippantly or contemptuously or with some manner of complacency. So it's an adverb that describes
[01:04:01] the coming, not an adjective describing a sinner who needs to come. So if you feel empty this morning, you're not unworthy. In fact, the emptier you feel, the greater your need to come. If you
[01:04:19] know yourself to be a great sinner today, you're not unworthy. In fact, the more sins you have to confess, the richer the meal set before you proves itself to be. Because here's the truth I'd like to
[01:04:33] remind you of. At the cross of Jesus Christ, all your unworthiness was imputed to him, which is to say your sin was laid upon him. He took it and its penalty upon himself. And conversely, all of his
[01:04:51] righteousness was imputed to you, which is to say you are declared righteous in Christ, no longer unworthy. So by faith, a wonderful exchange has taken place, and that's what we celebrate as we come to the communion table. So bow your heads with me. I just would ask you to spend a few
[01:05:13] minutes, minutes, moments in quiet contemplation, and then I'll lead us through taking the elements together. If you have your communion cup in hand, go ahead and pull back that seal that gives you access to the wafer. From that same passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, it says that the Lord
[01:06:06] Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, he took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And after he gave thanks, he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of
[01:06:17] me. Take the bread together. Go ahead and pull back the seal on the other end. The passage goes on to say, in the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant
[01:06:36] in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Take the cup together. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[01:06:55] Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in gathering at this table and celebrating this meal together, we have proclaimed the gospel so in our gathering today we've sung the gospel we've heard the gospel and now we've tasted and seen
[01:07:18] of your goodness and grace that comes to us through the work of Christ through the gospel Lord we're a people who are grateful we're in need of grace each of us deeply needs your leading
[01:07:33] your direction and certainly the salvation that you provide through our Lord Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen would you stand and let's sing together

[01:07:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:07:46] well it's been a joy to worship with you today if you had a need this morning and like to talk

[01:08:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:08:36] with a pastor or an elder, we'll be down front waiting on you. We'd love to spend some time with you if you need prayer. We can certainly spend as much time as you need doing that. If you're a
[01:08:46] guest today and you want some information about Faith Bible Church and its ministries, there's a welcome center out in the lobby. Stop by there. There'd be somebody there to greet you and answer any questions you might have. The benediction is from the Book of Common Prayer, and it points to
[01:09:01] everything that we've been doing in this room together this morning. It says, accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Holy Spirit your church gives honor, glory, and worship from generation to generation. Amen. Go in his grace today. You're dismissed.