and therefore, having girded your
loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your foot with the preparation of the gospel of
peace; 16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. 17 And take the
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God.

THE CHRISTIAN ARMOR AND WEAPONS.

This epistle text is fully expounded in "The Explanations and Sermons
on Paul's Epistles"--in the sermon on Ephesians 6, 10-17, entitled
"The Christian Armor and Weapons," preached in the year 1533.

_Twenty Second Sunday After Trinity_

Text: Philippians 1, 3-11.

3 I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every
supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with
joy, 5 for your fellowship in furtherance of the gospel from the
first day until now; 6 being confident of this very thing, that he
who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ: 7 even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of
you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as, both in my
bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are
partakers with me of grace. 8 For God is my witness, how I long after
you in all the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. 9 And this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all
discernment; 10 so that ye may approve the things that are excellent;
that ye may be sincere and void of offence unto the day of Christ; 11
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through
Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

PAUL'S THANKS AND PRAYERS FOR CHURCHES.

1. First, the apostle Paul thanks God, as his custom is in the
beginning of his epistles, for the grace whereby the Philippians came
into the fellowship of the Gospel and were made partakers of it.
Secondly, his desire and prayer to God is for their increase in the
knowledge of the Gospel, and their more abundant fruits. His intent
in extolling the Gospel is to admonish them to remain steadfast in
their faith, continuing as they have begun and as they now stand.
Apparently this is a simple passage, especially to learned and apt
students of the Scriptures. They may not think it holds any great
truth to be discovered. Yet we must explain this and like discourses
for the benefit of some who do not fully understand it,