Our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel (Quality: Average)

[0:00] We will speak again with the Lord's help from the Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 6, and verse 15.

[0:13] Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 6, and verse 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

[0:31] This is part, as we have been considering, of the Christian's armour. And brings to his knowledge that his pathway is one of warfare.

[0:47] And that he is to be provided with an armour sufficient to meet the forces of evil which are tackled.

[1:02] Not literally, of course, it cannot be that, but spiritually. It is the lot of every newborn soul to be opposed by the powerful force of evil.

[1:19] For the adversary of souls will never let one believer rest secure. He will try all methods and means that he has to snatch one from the grasp of the Saviour.

[1:42] Knowing full well that if he did so, he would gain a resounding victory.

[1:53] As one Hebrew writer says, it follows. If one believer can be lost. If follow, so may all.

[2:06] Every emphasis is placed in the word of God upon the one man who was lost. And Jesus does not leave it to his disciples, his prophet, anyone else to name him.

[2:28] He names him himself. Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?

[2:38] He spake of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. By these beautiful, though unspeakably solemn words, the door is sealed against all anxiety as to whether there is another real Judas.

[3:06] There can be traitors. There are. But this one man is the very pity of a traitor who with a kiss betrayed his master.

[3:21] So that this settles the matter once for all, we may perhaps suppose that it does.

[3:34] If this were so, what uncertainty you would take your path in the way you live.

[3:46] You have enough in your heart. You realize this that the traitorous spirit to be prayed, cried for 30 pieces of children.

[4:03] But the door upon this door is closed. And a resounding defeat these words were to the great enemy.

[4:19] Having said this, Jesus defeated him on any future project that he might have with regard to temptation concerning other people.

[4:36] How many have known something of the sharp edge of this dagger, this sword of the devil that says to them, yes, and you yourself are a traitor.

[4:57] I have lost none save the son of condition. What an admission is from the lips of Jesus not giving evidence of weakness but rather that the scripture might be fulfilled.

[5:24] We stand therefore upon this ground that the Lord has safeguarded his people in every place where they need safeguarding and especially upon this matter of their being a traitor.

[5:46] So that if you come into the Lord's house at any time feeling that this was your true position, you may turn to the word of God and see that there was but one.

[6:04] I do not say that you have a traitor's power or could be if you were led. I think most of us are pretty well solemnly convinced that the root of it is led.

[6:24] but as regards its awful spirit just one man and one man only and he an accepted disciple with a position of responsibility among the twelve.

[6:46] This is some indication therefore the preparation of the gospel which we came this morning in our thoughts upon this text.

[6:59] Your feet shodd with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We are given this insight into the way this peace was prepared.

[7:18] but it was prepared in another most massive clear and decisive way and that was this the Lord Jesus endured temptation from this power face to face.

[7:41] We do not I do not I fear ponder this matter as much as I ought. There should be such a scene as recorded the forty days passed in the wilderness and the time when the Lord Jesus stood face to face with the great adversaries if thou be the Son of God.

[8:11] and he was led of the Spirit. Do not be startled by this as if there was something in the nature of an emergent same measure.

[8:29] There wasn't. The time came after the Lord's baptism by John Baptist that he was immediately led by the Spirit.

[8:43] One version says by the Spirit into the wilderness. This was a part of the preparatory work in the life of the Lord Jesus and further a preparatory part of the gospel of peace that was to be declared that the Lord Jesus should come into mortal combat with the foes.

[9:17] The weapons that are used were well known by the word of God. Satan took the sharpest weapons he took for it is written he said for it is written by these means it was his design to ensnare the Lord Jesus in the very words of the prophets the very words of Moses the very words of the psalmist he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways lest thou dast thy foot against a stone our Lord's answers were equally scriptural it is written it is written it is written sharp point of divine proof therefore was upon this awful battle ground the

[10:43] Lord Jesus dealt with this great temptation now to believe this is to believe that the Lord Jesus endured temptation in such a way that he received the full force of and knew with whom he was dealing and knew what was involved and knew that this was part of the preparation of the gospel of peace that having done battle with this great foe and overcome him the believer may see that there is a tremendous victory on his side that the power is conquered in this instance there is no other record like it there need not be another record like it once is sufficient but the

[11:54] Lord Jesus prepared this pathway of peace for the believer's faith and comfort that though he were a son and the inferences that might therefore be reasonably thought to be excluded from such bitterness warfare though he were a son yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered and that he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin and more than all points we believe the apostle Paul's language refers to the temptations common to man and to believers in particular whereas although

[13:04] Bunyan graphically describes a Bunyan and Christian meeting in the dark valley no such encounter has literally ever taken place and never will else there would be no hope of victory so that this preparation is well expressed by our hymn writer and he says our captain stood the fiery tent and we shall stand through him now your temptations are very real to you aren't they now the pathway to peace and of peace in the gospel is revealed to you that the conflict is not yours yours and the battle is not yours that was what was told

[14:09] Jehoshaphat and he prayed so sweetly and confessed neither know we what to do but our eyes were for these battle is not yours but the Lord now this is a stumbling stone and a rock from which we all stumble until he's taken out of the way don't you endeavor to do battle with the devil in your own strength get down on your knees to resist the devil this is the only place nor need you get down on your knees it may not be convenient thrust into some terrible temptation what can you do what have you done what do you do if it is not to look up for divine preservation in this the way is prepared and the keeping guarding the power of God

[15:30] Peter refers to it who knew something about you who are kept by the power of God through faith and to salvation now this peace is absolutely assured God by the victory of Christ not only in the desert but in his subsequent life running into a period of some thirty years it was there where the scripture is largely silent that we see what we were speaking of this morning in Isaiah's sixty-first chapter they shall say that their righteousness is of the Lord how glorious therefore is this prepared way of peace that whilst it doesn't lead to complacency cannot same time there is the comfortable assurance that the power which belongs out of God is exerted to keep the fate of his silence as the psalmist says the gospel of peace therefore is a prepared gospel

[17:14] I read to you again from Isaiah those one might almost call them sacred words they have been to me through my life and highways will be there and a way and it should be called way of holiness this is a highway the high road that we should call it today a metal road ah indeed it is a high way a way through the waste howling wilderness cast up stones gathered out all encumbrances removed and what are these because we mustn't keep our eyes fixed on the figure what are these your own righteousness is this something that is likely to hinder you what better to defeat any thought of gaining

[18:37] Zion by your own efforts than temptation look what it reveals the temptation of this great foe discovering to you what you're capable of doing and what lies in your heart that he can work on how readily he'll seek it out and know your weakest spot and do his worth bring you down into the of defeat there shall be a high way in this way the saints have trod down from Adam's day to this and you may be able to go on further and say this is the way I love of sorrow and mourn because

[19:40] I found it not my grief my burden long has been because I could not cease from sin some of us could look back to the days when those verses like that were so real as they discovered to us our actual condition of desire to cease from sin we knew not the gospel then in its fullness but there would never be such a time as that when we should cease from sin in a sinful body but there is a time and a promise time when sin shall be subdued shall not have dominion over you shall not be your master that's just the same thing only in god's order the way that he has determined it to be revealed i will subdue their iniquities not take them away to this end therefore the way is prepared and there's comfort in your feet can wear this blessed sandal shall

[21:14] I call it of gospel truth you can tread comfortably along this way and you are brought to see that it is grace that subdues sovereign in all its ways powerful in all its operations happiness dwells in the discovery of this and also prayer consists of asking for it to be subdued this is a highway the people that walk on it haven't got in the eyes of the world a very pleasing title they are called fools what a fitting word therefore this is like a good many others that are so apt the way fearing man though fool shall not err there is he shall not make a mistake he can do to the preparation therefore the gospel of peace communicated to him in this way that it is certain and that there can be no possibility of a miscarriage or loss but he's still a fool he does not think however that this means he can do as he likes and bear no anxiety or concern for the very reason that the

[23:13] Holy Spirit will not suffer such a thing as that to come to pass he will not suffer him to sin that grace might abound it is to this end therefore that he is brought to see the blessedness of the prepared way he will still admit himself to be poor and you will see a lame man and a dumb man these aren't complimentary titles are they either one thing or the other they offend you or you love them because they're true there's no middle course anywhere in the scripture a blind lame dumb foolish man who's going to listen to this save those therefore who listen to the prepared gospel of faith now what a comfortable shoe sandal or whatever word might come to mind to be shod with is this

[24:44] I once was blind but now I see was deaf but now I hear you who know what this is tell me is it not comfortable walking would you have anything else declared to you in the name of the Lord God of hope would you see I know it is popular it never has been or can be but it is true and for this reason it is the preparation which is the comfortable shodding of the feet of the beneath he is described by what he is but his eyes shall be opened his deaf ears shall be unstopped he shall leap remarkable thing for a lame man to do but this is the prophecy so often fulfilled he is further than this told that the wilderness shall break out and streams in the desert and the park's ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs a water in the habitation where there were dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rust highly figurative but oh what a stretch arises from those beds of the dragon and what a change when that dragon is removed and in place of it there is grass life with reeds and brushes stench of death taken away strength of sin taken away and by what means therefore by the atonement of

[27:20] Christ by the life that is in Christ Jesus wretchedness the unhappy surroundings where there was once death stench ungodliness enmity hatred shall be reads and writes it is easy enough I know to look at these figures point of issue is they thought to be part of our experience we've got to know and do know through grace what it is to find those things which were once our happiness and joy like the sower wallowing in her mire in her native enemy had brought our heart so that the things that you once loved you now hate and the thing was that you once hated you now love and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace but I said this morning that this walking is with an object in view that object is mentioned in this chapter mentioned in the chapters in Isaiah that we read this morning mentioned by our

[29:05] Lord as the kingdom of heaven on earth that is now and here and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and saying shall flee away there is there is this happy change in Zion upon earth to those who walk comfortably and are well shod by the gospel of the grace of God the peace the perfect peace that is prepared and prepared for them we have only touched just one or two points of this preparation the life of Christ followed by the sufferings and death of Christ sacred belief in the incutation of sin to the

[30:25] Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane will bring such a one to consider the great facts of the imputation of his sin to the head even to the very heart of the Lord Jesus this is the righteousness of the gospel not only this standing in the sinner's place Isaiah again 53rd chapters you know made sin for us who knew no sin we might be made the righteousness of God in him consider these things therefore in your own heart your profession of religion which most of you have made and are in course of making and walking along life's pathway as you are consider how much you know of these peaceable things in the quiet resting upon these gospel truths and how they affect you in your prayers and approaches to the

[32:00] Lord whether you come empty handy for example or whether you come full handy that old man that came in just now I've known him for many years he told me outside tonight and I invited him to come in been in before he spoke I said to him it is the end of matters be ready return at end and you know what he said and I'm looking forward to it struck me as being unspeakably soft and I been to see him at his house I remember one occasion I saw him there playing dance by himself it's only a little thing perhaps but it struck me with awe and there the dear old man is on the verge of eternity where do we stand where are we in relation to the gospel of peace the prepared gospel and prepared by the doing and dying of the

[33:27] Lord Jesus what do we know of the good hope which is so fully associated with this it's called a way of holiness now is it this in your estimation you know of nothing as holy do you from here on this earth except the gospel of the grace of God the word of God but this holiness is the name of this highway and it is holy it's this way that the sites of trouble all through the ages no new religion can be introduced as I think I said last Sabbath evangelists so called are so keen to introduce a new method of salvation in this 20th century forgetting that there is a long cloud of witnesses that have gone before that will contradict them and that salvation by grace and in covenant mercy must have been the same throughout all ages old and new testament and upon those grounds entirely you may utterly reject anyone that comes to you with another gospel let it be to you anathema thus said

[35:17] Paul in the beginning of gospel days thus say we according to the word of God in these latter days there is the highway that is cast up the stones gathered out and the people of God treading the same way wearing the same shoes clad with the preparation of the gospel of peace but they are aiming for Zion now Zion is referred to in two ways Zion or Jerusalem and Paul refers in his epistle to the Hebrews to the heavenly

[36:20] Jerusalem you not come unto the mount which might be tough burned with fire you come unto the city the living God the spirits of just men made first Zion here is a blessed place it's the city of our solemnity it's called that it was that today he loved Zion he envied the birds that built their nests in the house go about Zion mark he where her bull walk tell the tarot thereof tell it to the generation following and so on Zion Zion the Zion that you love the

[37:23] Zion where the gospel of peace is public where you feel there's such a fullness and glory in it that you cannot possibly measure it the glories of Zion are beyond telling our hymn says doesn't it glorious things of the spoken Zion city of our God blessed inhabitant of Zion now this is a comfortable experience would you change it would you change it would you who were being brought in at the strike gate in your soul to experience tenderly slowly graciously who know in your heart the ring of the gospel the trumpet that gives a certain sound the glories of that

[38:32] Emmanuel Christ Peter proclaimed in that house the songs of Zion they could sometimes sing would you change for another would you leave it and say I'll experiment and see what I can do or is your love such that you feel sweetly persuaded this Zion in the city of door surrender the place where God's honor dwells to which you can say like David said years ago I have loved the habitation of thine house the place where thine honor dwells this this is the hall mark isn't it this is where the praying souls come this is where their hope is picked the ransomed of the

[39:43] Lord shall return and come to Zion many other such scriptures as you know they shall come with weeping and supplication will I lead you these twin blessings weeping and supplication surely your coming has cost you some tears cost you some confession surely you have not been dry eyed all your life but your profession everything how sweet are those tears that well out from various causes you think of Zion here I mean on earth and the blessings that God has granted for you in preserving them and giving you this central place this school for which you expect to look for no other comfort life or life this is the way that they shall come to Zion with weeping with asking or supplication so really we each have the measuring rod in our own breasts it becomes an intensely personal question is this really so with me when I get home is it with me really and will it be with me tomorrow is it something that

[41:36] I walk in how they're heading towards Zion there is the pilgrim's way this is where the valley of acre is a very good hope they're very triallous lead them to the good hope that it is a pathway of tribulation did I meet no trials here no chastisement by the way might I not with reason fear I should be a castaway but then again look at these trials have they been unbearable totally too heavy more than you could ever carry or has the Lord made a way with the temptation and the trials of escape delivered you out of are these questions then relevant to the matter of the take and your fainter shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and it peace therefore we shall prove right down to the end uncertain need I say that word of

[43:15] God said right down to the end it will be unchanged unaltered whatever circumstances may be this peace is permanent leads to the city of habit hope one great vital point therefore covers it all these all died in faith in faith believing in the perfect peace of a precious gospel believing that this peace was in the hand of another not theirs but it rested not with them but with their heads because they were united to him and because he hath lived they shall live also and because he gained the victory they also shall be as the scripture says more than conqueror this shodding of the feet therefore is tender comfortable walking with your face zion wall and this prospect will brighten as you get nearer the end you've got to come to prove it that faith will receive it in early days there is a city

[45:11] I'll go to prepare a place for you we know that if the house of this tabernacle were dissolved we we have a building of ground not made with hands eternal in the heavens and souls peace in the promise now this is the effectual cleaning of the feet therefore of the believer and this is his way to die and he asks his way and his asking is not left unanswered that's the beauty of the gospel where these words of mine go I don't know if they rest in one heart to bring comfortable hope of salvation and that quiet walking on the pathway of angiast of tribulation could it not be comfortable walking by faith as Paul says we walk by faith not by faith and he will very will say to come to the end of your journey without any knowledge of them any part in them any humble understanding belief in them will find you in a very solemn vision it does mean a volume of words from your lips but it does mean the exercise of faith in your heart so that the

[47:17] Christian armor is for him to stand through the journey and to stand having done all says the same words having done all to stand that will be it that standing will be in Christ and in the perfection of his righteousness and in the beauty of that peace which we call and rightly call perfect now then it will be proven to be peace perfect peace Amen we will close this evening in service by saying 11009 to 297 come weary souls with sin distress come and accept the promiseieren the gospel who burneth home and by whoever is and tecnología his know

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