In this sermon, the preacher focuses on 1 Peter chapter 4, specifically verses 1 to 7. The main theme is about living a life that is aligned with the will of God, rather than indulging in sinful desires. The preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing that the end of all things is near and living in light of that reality. He encourages believers to be clear-minded, self-controlled, and prayerful in their daily lives. The sermon also highlights the argument from the past, present, and future as reasons for living a righteous life.

Will you kindly turn with me prayerfully to the first words in 1 Peter chapter 4, the first passage in this very wonderful chapter. I'm not going to read it now altogether, but we shall be looking at verses 1 to 7 with the exception of verse 6. Let me introduce the theme of it by reading from the first verse. Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in the body is done with sin. Now that introduces us to our theme tonight. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do, living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account of him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. And then verse 7. The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled, so that you can pray. May the Lord help us as we meditate upon this very comprehensive passage, describing the more negative aspect of the Christian life and calling. If you go on in this chapter, you will find that Peter balances the negative with the positive, as the Scriptures invariably do. But there are times when it is necessary for us to concentrate upon the negative, and I believe this is such an occasion. The Christian has made a decisive act of refusal and rejection, even in his acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot accept Christ without rejecting that which is contrary to Christ. The Christian is presented with alternatives. In the choice of the one, he rejects the other. And Peter is here describing a way of life that we, consciously or otherwise, we reject, we set on one side when we receive Jesus Christ as Lord. Some of us, in coming to Christ, are very much aware of this. Others make the positive act of faith in Christ without fully appreciating all that is involved. But as Paul reminds the Thessalonians, there is the negative and the positive. There is the turning away from idols in order to serve the living God. There is the call to faith in Christ and thus to come near to him and cling to him and walk with him. There is the call to leave that which is evil, so that, according to common parlance, we are a converted people. We are a people who have turned around and we now walk in the direction which is quite different from the one we normally, we usually and by nature walked in. We walk in a different way. Our faces are now toward the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Doubtless, these Christians of the first century were no less subject than we are to the taunt that our opting out of the baser indulgences that feed the beast in us was but a crazy perversion of things on our part. Surely this is not necessary. You don't have to deny the world and the flesh and the devil to become a Christian. Why not have a little bit of both worlds? Why not really play safe and have a leg, have a foot in both worlds? Some of you here tonight have been tantalized and have been maligned and have been misused by those very words, in those very words. So too were these early Christians. Peter brings the issue to the bar of rational judgment and he insists that the whole time process, past, present, future, gives the lie to the worldlings viewpoint that we should cling to the world we have and get all we can of it and never abandon it. That is a lie. And Peter would insist that the whole time process, past, present, future, assures us that the only rational thing to do is to say take the world, but give me Jesus. Nearer my God to thee, even though it be a cross that raiseth me. This is not only our duty, but this is the right thing to do and this is the only way of peace and of joy and of fulfillment. Now I want to turn briefly tonight to this argument of the time processes or the time process. First of all I want you to notice Peter's argument from the past. Verse 3 in the NIV reads thus, You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do. Now Peter is speaking, he is addressing Christians. And the first thing he says to them is this, You people, he says whoever you are, you spent enough time and too much in the past doing the kind of things that pagans love to do. There is no reason on earth why you should spend your present time or any time given you in the future doing this kind of thing. The past was enough and too much. Clearly this is one of the inspired understatements of scripture. The apostle is obviously speaking ironically here. You see a Christian is necessarily a person who has experienced a change of heart that has led to a change of life and behavior and a change in his mode of evaluating things. And if he has tasted and seen that the Lord is good then he ought to be, she ought to be in a position to let the world go by. Having Christ in all his grace and in all his glory and in all the privileges that accompany his coming into our lives. Really the world and its sins and its mode of living, says Peter, is really and intrinsically wrong. So wrong that it is indefensible and incompatible with our new life to walk according to the standards of this world. The very memory of his past indulgences in the gratification of the flesh should shock and nauseate a regenerate Christian against going that way continually or returning to it. Now in order to get this point across the Apostle does two things of strategic importance that I want to mention. The first is this. He reminds these Christians here that the way of life from which he has been weaning them away in the course of this epistle was nothing other than the expression of their pagan philosophy and unbelief. Before they were Christian their way of life was purely pagan. Now if you have the King James Version I think it may tend to mislead us a little bit there. The NIV says you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans do. In the King James the reference is to what Gentiles did, the way of the Gentiles, the behavior of the Gentiles, as if it referred ethnically to the Jews. Well the point is not so much that they lived as Gentiles rather than as Jews. The point is that they lived as pagans rather than in accordance with the will of God. Now you have only to say what Peter says here. You have time enough in the past to do all that men want to do in a pagan world. You've only to say that in order to see its reasonableness. It was enough and too long for a man who is now a Christian to have spent his past non-Christian days in living as a pagan. That's involved in our confession of faith. If that is not so there was no reason why we should have trusted Christ in the first place. There was no reason for our repentance. There was no reason for our conversion. There was no reason for anything we've done unless that was enough. If we were convinced by the Holy Spirit and convicted then the significance of that convincing and convicting was this is enough and too much. We need to turn and turn by the grace of God we did. Obviously then the reference would be a dagger thrust to any Jewish Christians who are here reading Peter's words. They've not only abandoned the high standards of Jewish morality but some of them seem to have been even as Christians, Christian Jews forsaking the standards of Christianity as well. They've fallen below two standards not only that of the law but the standard of Christ. Lest this general thrust fail to achieve the end in view however you notice that the inspired apostle feels constrained to specify the kind of morally distasteful characteristics that marked the contemporary life of the pagan society around him. He mentions the kind of things that were done. You lived in license and debauchery, drunkenness, revelry and tippling and the forbidden worship of idols. That's the New English Bible version. Doesn't really matter which one you have. They're all gross evil sins and they shock you if you're a Christian and the Holy Spirit is living in your heart. All of which you see, all of which adds to the pungent word that Peter says here. It was enough to live this way in the past not to go back to these things again. You are now called to live according to the will of God. To go back to these things is altogether contrary to common sense as well as to your own new nature as a Christian. I don't propose now to examine the precise nature of these sordid sins. Suffice it now to note and to mark the principle underlying Peter's approach. He mentions them by name. Now I've read them but I'm not going to dwell on them. But I want you to notice that Peter mentions them by name. And the longer I live the more do I come to conclude that there is some very sound psychology in this. I believe that this is very important. It is a principle which tempted Christians ought more often to resort to. When Satan and society are pulling at your heart and enticing you into some kind of sensual involvement, boldly write down that sin by name and look it straight in the eye. You say to me that sounds crazy to me. Why on earth should we do a thing like that? I'll tell you. For the simple reason that modern man has so manipulated our language that sins are not called by their proper names tonight. I don't want to dwell at any length on this. Perhaps it would be worthy of something at greater length someday. But let's just take the obvious. Theft by overcharging in business has become sharp practice. Homosexuality has become gay living. And if there is anything which is contrary to gay living it is that. Adultery has become extramarital sex. Lust has become freedom or permissiveness. Now the fact that I'm not going any further doesn't mean to say that I can't. Because the list goes on and on and on. And you see what's happened? Satan has so got hold of us that we've taken the sting out of truth. And we've changed our vocabulary in order to pacify our own consciences when we are tempted to sin. And we don't call the things by name. I say to you as a believing man and a believing woman, when the devil comes after you and when the world entices you and your passions are aroused and you're about to do this that or the other, name it as God names it. Call it by its own biblical term as God has christened it. Look it in the eye. See if you can then leap over the hurdle in disobedience and in rebellion. And I know of men and women who have been saved from terrible rebellion by this very principle of looking it straight in the eye and saying what does the Word of God call this? This argument from the past is most telling therefore when considered by a truly Christian person. Men who have come under a strong conviction of sin at the threshold of their Christian lives especially, especially. And those who have humbly acknowledged the Spirit's assessment as being right and proper should see the reasonableness of this appeal of the Apostles. It was enough that you went that way in the past. Don't live that way anymore. Now do as your Lord did. He died in order thereafter to live to the will of God. You and I need to die and to suffer, to be crucified, to reckon ourselves dead in order to live the rest of our lives not to the will of man or to the flesh but to the will of God. That's what he said. It's the argument from the past. Let me put it very bluntly. If in your heart of hearts tonight you have to confess before God you don't need to confess it before us. But if in your heart of hearts you have to confess that you have lived and you are guilty of some of these debasing sins that Peter mentions and Paul mentions elsewhere tell God now. Don't you think that was enough and more than enough? And if you cannot say that then you need to ask yourself a question whether the Spirit of God is having his way in your life. The argument from the past. The argument from the future. We are obviously to understand that the Christians who are here at rest and commanded not to live any longer according to human passions had actually lived in that way in days gone by. Probably prior to their conversion. There may have been exceptions but this would appear to have been the general rule. Here as in ancient Corinth as you remember. The might and mercy of God had been excavating and reclaiming individuals from the most sordid and debasing mode of living. You will doubtless remember Paul's reminder to the Corinthians. Don't be deceived he says. Neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor thieves nor greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed you were sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. But such were some of you. The grace of God moves triumphantly into all kinds of moral conditions in order to rescue the perishing and to transform the rebellious into obedient children of God. He does that. Such is the infinite grace of God that it comes into our morally decadent society and calls men from the most hideous evil to be children of God and servants of his. Never was Corinth an exception. The same thing has been happening all over the world throughout the course of time. Now the conversion of men in such circumstances often resulted in almost total break between them as new Christians and their old companions. The companions that were theirs before they became believers. How else could it be? If they lived on that level before they became Christian now it became impossible to walk in that way of life. Therefore they came such a complete break that they could no longer do much more than be civil towards one another. As far as the Christian is concerned, his old friendships or her old friendships are now a mission field. But they cannot live together. They can't do the things they once did anymore. Life has changed now. The Christian has a new sense of values and a new sense of duty and a new sense of calling. And so Peter says very well what some of you here tonight know very well. They, that is your old friends in sin, they are surprised that you do not now join them in the same wild profligacy and they abuse you. Of course they do. This is proof of the change that has taken place in your life. This is proof that something of God has taken place in your life. But you gotta suffer for it. As we well know this is a fairly general experience among Christians who are converted from this mode of living. When men feel constrained to break away from a way of life in which they have been involved over the years, they automatically imply that such a mode of life that they've left behind, such a mode of life was wrong. And their old time friends think this is a bad judgment upon us. And so they don't like you for it. What was wrong when you did such and such a thing? What was wrong when you came our way? What was wrong when you joined with us? Come on, join us again and be merry. Now it is against this kind of background that the Apostle bids these Christians consider their actions in the light of future events. Sarcasm and abuse may be exceedingly hard to bear at times. But if it is seen in the light of the future, it will serve to assure them that however cruel such an experience may be, it is nevertheless the only reasonable thing to do. Face it and accept it. Any alternative is wholly unreasonable in the light of what God has revealed. Let's notice what Peter says here. One, it is evident that Peter is thinking especially of the persecutors and the accusers and abusers of the saints when he says of those pagans, they are surprised that they do not now join them in the same wild profligacy and they abuse you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Get that. They are surprised that you do not now join them, yes, and they abuse you. But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. Now perhaps the most important thing to note here is this. God's assessment of the actions and attitudes of these people and of ourselves is something that cannot be escaped. The divine assessment of our actions, yours and mine, as much as the actions of these people refer to here, God's assessment cannot be escaped. And God's judgment cannot be avoided. That's what Peter is saying. You see, we must sooner or later accept the judgment of God upon our lives. The fact that the Christian has done so already in this present age, that's what we do when we repent and when we turn to Christ. We accept the judgment of God upon our lives here and now. We acknowledge that we are sinners. We acknowledge that we are unworthy. We acknowledge that we deserve the wrath of God. And we turn to Christ for refuge and for forgiveness. But you see, involved in that is the acceptance of the divine judgment. And therefore we shall not come into judgment, but we are passed from death to life. But now, if you don't accept God's judgment upon your sin in this life, then you will have to accept it beyond this life. The pagan may now reject the divine value judgments, and he may well cling to his own sinful way of living. He may do so to the very end of his earthly pilgrimage, so that he has saturated his body and his mind and his soul with the most sordid things of this fallen earthly life. But the game is not over. He may fondly think so, but the game is not over yet. Where God's judgments have not been accepted this side of death, they will have to be faced beyond death. God is judge of the dead as well as of the living. That's what Peter says. And allying this passage then is the basic and undeviating apostolic conviction that God simply cannot be flouted. His opposition to sin and his pledged condemnation of it is of such an order that we simply cannot escape it. Death does not bypass the throne of God. Take your own life hoping to escape something beyond death. You still have to come up to the throne, the great white throne of God. There is no escape. God has ordained it so. The order of the universe is such. There is no way to bypass the judgment. Persecuting pagans will therefore be required to answer for their sordid way of life in general, as well as for their abuse of the Christians in particular. And on yonder side of death, where they will have to face the facts, there is no fountain where sin is washed away. Where the tree falls, it lies. Better confess your sin in this world where forgiveness is to be found for the penitent than move into a world where the books have been closed and the door is closed and judgment is unrelieved. And secondly, if Peter uttered these words of verses four and five with his eye especially on the persecutors, he probably wrote the opening words of verse seven with his thoughts largely upon the persecuted. In verse seven he says, the end of all things is at hand. And I believe whatever else is involved there, there is a note of hope for those who are being persecuted, who are being taunted, who are being abused by their old-time friends, and who are being harassed to come back into the world, back into its sins, back into its evil way of living. It's all right, says Peter, without saying it very deliberately. It's an aside as it were, but the end of all things is at hand. And those who taunt you today will not be here tomorrow. We Christians must ever live our lives, you see, in the light of the end. We must always do that, or we don't see things in biblical perspective. The faith we have embraced comprises the revelation that God has given, as well as the redemption he has accomplished. And that revelation insists that the end is very important. It insists that the real horizon stretches beyond the apparent meeting point of sea and sky. Oh, I remember as a boy going to the seaside how tantalized I was, and how unbelieving when they told me that the sea went out further than the horizon. I thought the sky was a kind of curtain behind the water. Didn't you ever think like that? Was I altogether unusual? But I couldn't see how anybody could get beyond that. And I remember arguing with youngsters of my own age, I don't remember how old I was, but it's just impossible, until we saw a boat go out and go beyond the horizon, and then later come back again. And then we knew that some point had been proved. The horizons that we see are not the end of things. There's something beyond what I can see. You see, pagans think of the end somewhere around the place where the heart stops beating, and a man or a woman stops breathing. That's the end. No, Moses, the Bible, the end is not there. The end is beyond that, beyond the curtains. And Christian men and women need to live their lives in the light of the end, which is beyond the curtains. As far as these early Christians were concerned, that meant that they must learn to look at such issues as living according to the flesh, and enduring the sarcasm and even persecution of their old-time friends in the light of the end. Oh, they're hard to bear now, but you will be glad that you heeded the word of God when you come to the end of the road. Everything must be looked at and considered in the light of the ultimate. The pagan's vital miscalculation is that he has wrongly identified the end. He has usually placed it, as we've said, far too near the now, the here and now. It is amazing how the serious acceptance of this view of things will transform our sense of values. Complacency and moral complicity can scarcely thrive beneath the glare of the end. There should be some place in your life and mine from day to day, from week to week, where we regularly bring our lives under the glare of the eternal throne of God, and consider our mold of activity, our actions, our attitudes, our words, our ambitions, what we're doing, what we're thinking, the mode of living, our relationships. Consider everything in the light of the end. My friend, if you're not doing that, you're not living biblically. And it is only when you bring the whole of your life here and see it in the light of eternity, it is only then that you can see things in perspective and be sane and sober as Paul, as Peter tells us a little later on. Peter told the saints nearly two thousand years ago that the end of all things was at hand. No little discussion has surrounded that statement, involving all kinds of interpretation of the apostles' words. Perhaps the main point he wanted to make was this. I'm not going to argue with anybody who thinks differently, but I'm sure he meant this much, that since Jesus Christ has come, we are living in the last days of the last day. We are living in the very last age. Everything else led up to the coming of Christ, the first coming of Christ. And everything now leads up to the second coming and the consummating of what he came to do in the first place. The night is far spent, says Paul in writing to the Romans, the day is at hand. Little children, says John, it is the last hour. We are living near the end. Having made reference to Noah towards the end of the last chapter, it may well be that at this point Peter was thinking of his Lord's warning in Luke 27, as it was in the days of Noah, he says, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Why, you see, they were not doing things that were altogether wrong. What were they doing? Well, they ate and they drank. It doesn't say that they drank what they shouldn't drink. They married. Marriage is an ordinance of God. They were given in marriage. In other words, they went on with their ordinary life, but they never considered the end. They went on as if life was going to be just like this forever, nothing more. Suddenly, as to the rich man, God says, this night I will require your soul from you. You and I must live in the light of the end, my friend. Christian people, if you are persecuted, if you're harassed, and I know some of you are, now listen, do this. See yourself in the light of the end and see the wounds you're bearing in the light of the end and see the sins of your enemies in the light of the end. Psalm 73 brings out this amazing thought, doesn't it, of how the psalmist was so puzzled by the way that the unrighteous flourished until he says, I saw their end. You may be very broken hearted because you're a good man or a good woman. You're seeking to honor the Lord. Your business is not doing well. You're not getting the promotion that you expected. In fact, you would say everything's going against you. My friend, do exactly what the old psalmist did. Follow his thoughts in Psalm 73, and when he went into the house of God and put the matter before God, he says, then I saw their end, and I realized it. You need to see your enemies in the light of the end, and you need to see yourself in the light of the end, and when you see things in the light of the end of the wicked and of the just, respectively, then life becomes not only tolerable, but you will have a saline property in your judgments that will enable you to be sane in days of trial. Mayer, in his commentary, refers to the fact that when Hugh Latimer, the martyr, the Anglican martyr, was summoned to stand his last trial before his very vindictive foes, he was somewhat careless in replying to the questions that were addressed to him, as if he couldn't care less. And of course, in one sense, he couldn't care less because he was not afraid to die. He knew that all was well with him, and all was well between him and his Lord, and in that sense, he couldn't care less. But he was careless about his words. At least, he was thus careless, we read, until, and now I quote, during a pause, he caught the sound of a pen, a quill, behind the curtain, writing down, apparently, every word he was saying. From that moment on, says Mayer, he weighed his every word with care. Can you hear the pen moving? Can you hear the quill behind the heavenly curtain? Do you remember the Savior saying that for every spare or evil word that men will ever say, they will give an answer. You and I must live our lives in the light of the end. And that just gives me a moment in closing to speak of the argument from the present. I can't deal with it as it ought to be dealt with, but I want you to notice verse 7. The end of all things is at hand. Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer. That's the RSV, or according to the NIV, be clear-minded and self-controlled, so you can pray. Now let me summarize this. What Peter is here saying is this. Look, he says, you've had enough time living according to the passions of your fallen nature. There is the argument from the past and there is the argument from the future. Now, he says, there is the argument from the present. What is the argument for the present? This. If you don't do it, if you don't consider your ways and abstain from evil passions, your mind will not be clear and you will not be able to be so controlled that you can pray. But in a smaller nutshell still, what Peter is saying is this. Unless you and I abstain from the passions of this evil nature of ours, you and I can't pray properly. In other words, our life with God in the here and now, in the present, is not what it ought to be. Sin, you see, becomes like a curtain between us and God and it at least makes him appear remote. I say at least. I can't go into all that sin does, but it makes God appear remote from us. The scriptures are full of this in one way or another. The book of Proverbs says, if one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination unto the Lord. You all remember the words of Isaiah, behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you. See the point? Many of us bemoan that we can't pray better. We can do this and we can do that, but we can't pray. We are not growing in our prayer lives. God is not as near to us as we thought he ought to be. My friend, pose this question. Is it because you are indulging in the passions of the flesh? Is it because you're still going with the world in a way of debauchery and evil and things that are displeasing to God? Then he's not the sense of his nearness vanishes. You see, he's a holy God still. When the Lord's people thus rebel and refuse to be corrected, then the position hardens to a menacing degree. Listen to these words. I'm drawing to a close. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer them. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge and they did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof. Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their way. This is a disastrous road to travel. For the further you go, the more distant, indistinct and remote does God become to you until at last he has become dwarfed by circumstances. And it's become so little in your sight that he's unworthy of your obedience, unworthy of your worship. He's become so small and so distant and so remote. You're not quite sure whether there is a God at all. And I tell you, there are many people who are on fire for God and sat in the pew that you were sitting at some time or other, but they've lost it. And they've lost it because sin came between them and God and they allowed it to stay there. It's as serious as that, my friends. We're talking about realities. And you and I know if we're honest with one another, but God can become indistinct and remote from us because we allow sin to come between us. It says, Peter, you can't pray then. Keep sane, keep sober. That's one of the translations of these two words. Sin makes you insane. You don't see things God's way. And that's the ultimate insanity. Sin makes you drunk. You're not sober. And the drunken man doesn't know whether he's walking straight or not. He thinks he is, but he's in his own dreamland. And you become spiritually drunk when you allow the sins of society to creep into your soul and to live there. Says one of the commentators, C. B. Cranfield, to be sober unto prayer means avoiding all that would fuddle the mind. I don't often use that word, but it's a good word, isn't it? Fuddle the mind. Did you know that sin fuddles your way of thinking? All that would fuddle the mind, impair alertness, warp the vision, obstruct communion with God, whether in temperance of the body or preoccupation with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, or plain, smug self-righteousness, or whatever else it may be. We are to take heed, says Cranfield. Watch and pray, for we know not when the time is. In closing, may I speak to someone, to anyone, who may have to say tonight in your heart of hearts, yes, but this is exactly what I've done, what I shouldn't do. And I bear in my own soul tonight the consequences. God is distant from me. Prayer is unreal to me. I've not considered things in the light of the end. I've always thought of the here and now. I wanted my satisfactions here and now, right now, and I couldn't wait, and I've got them. And the aftermath is in my life. I can't pray. God is distant. Oh, precious, precious word of God to the penitent. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us, notice that, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. You need that, my friend. This is the only place where you and I can turn, and this is the only place where once again we can discover the nearness of God, the sweet realities of prayer become effectual. It is at the cross of Christ. To the rest of you, in particular, I end in quoting a hymn which I came across the other day by A. M. Plumtree, Keep thyself pure, when lusts assail, When flesh is strong and spirit frail, Fight on, a fadeless crown thy need, Thy body as thy captive lead. Keep thyself pure, thrice blessed, Thrice blessed he whose heart from taint of sin is free, His feet shall stand where saints have trod, He with rapt eyes shall see his God. O Holy Spirit, keep us pure. Grant us thy strength when sins allure, Our bodies are thy temple, Lord, Be thou in thought and act adore. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, God of our fathers and God and Father of our Lord Jesus, You know us by name and You know us by our fame. You know all about us, what is true and what is false. You know all about us, what is hidden to the human eye and what is not. You know all about us. Forgive us who are penitent in Your presence for the things done in the body of which we are sincerely sorrowful and acknowledge before You now. Cleanse us from sin and its defilement. Purge out the dross from our spirits and renew a right spirit within us. Oh, wash us that we may be clean. Forgive us also, O Lord, that we have so dallied with evil, that we have often been a prey to wicked men and women. Rather than be to them the light we should have been and the salt, we have made ourselves open to sin by not obeying Your word and being filled with Your spirit and being led by Your truth. Oh, God, we pray that You will enable us to put on the whole armor of Your word and spirit that having done all things we may be known among those who stand, standing in the grace of Christ our Lord. Thus lead us out into a new week and into a new day and we pray that as we go we may go in the knowledge that You are with us and go in the knowledge that You are the God who makes all things new and we can start again with You. So let it be for the glory of Your name, through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.