Biblical Text: : Mark 7:14-23, Eph 6:10-20, Onward Christian Soldiers

One of the things that largely disappeared from Christian vocabulary in the preceding couple of generations was martial language. There are some reasons. This sermon makes some guesses. But losing that language has cost the church dearly I believe. First, it is biblical. Using military words for the Christian life is all over the New and Old Testaments. The Epistle Lesson for the day (Ephesians 6:10-20) is just the most direct. And second, the Christian Life is the life of sanctification. And the life of sanctification is a life of stuggle against Satan, the World and our own sinful flesh. Now while pride might want us to use that martial language against Satan, the honest answer is that we are called most often to use it against ourselves. This sermon works on those themes, and it does it using the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers as the opening.

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