Take a Stand
Notes
Transcript
Welcome- Mothers Day, Reflect on
Call to Worship see Eph 6:10-24
Prayer
Worship through Song
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
Paul’s letter is loaded with theology and wisdom. In Chapters 1-3 he goes through a discourse on defining the theology of the purpose of the church. With a very visible focus on who is at work. Christ
…List some of the in Christ, by christ, through Christ statements.
The second half of the book is practical on how to live this new life as a believer in Jesus. That life does not just continue on like it did before Christ. We have been moved from the darkness to the light...
Add verses on who we were to who we are.
Then in chapter 5 he used the Christian household to demonstrate the work of the Holy Spirit in mutual submission to one another. We have examined the different ways in which this submission is to be expressed in the different roles of the home.
Now he comes to the last major section of the book. Many title this the Armor of God. This has been a section of scripture that I would expect that most Christians have heard taught at least once if not many times. there have been some great preachers that would come back to this section over and over again each year.
They are meaningful, powerful, and to be honest easy on people. These are the verses that we can look at and be like, “Now this is what I am taking about. I like this make me strong, make me powerful. Let me go out and beat up the world.”
We can see these as good for us verses and miss some of the meaning. What I want us to do is to come to the scriptures over the next couple of weeks and really try to examine them to see what God is saying here. What it is not saying. We will talking about the spiritual realm which is foreign, hard to understand, and in many ways completely misunderstood and many Christians are full of many false ideas. Much of which is due to the lack of information on the specifics of the spiritual realm. So let us start the conversation and dive into the word today.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
After Paul has spoken of what it means to be a Spirit filled believer he then comes to the opposition. We acknowledge that the scriptures on husbands, wives, fathers, slaves and masters makes sense and we even understand the many benefits and blessing that would come from living this way.
So what is it it keeps believers from living out this way. Paul transitions into the reason that hinders a person from living this way. He starts with:
Ephesians 6:10
Ephesians 6:10
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
Finally, Paul comes to his closing remarks of the entire book as he wraps up this letter. He tells the church to be strengthened.
Strengthened: To be enabled or to become capable of a task to be performed.
Why would Paul state that we are to be strengthened. How do we typically get strength. If it is physical strength. We work out, go to the gym, pump the weights. If it is endurance we run, we push and we gain strength. If it is the strength of mind we read, we study, we listen to sermons, we ask questions. We exert effort that challenges and stresses our minds and bodies and we see changes in our personal being.
How does Paul say a believer is strengthened?
We are to be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
Paul has continued to speak of the flesh of man verses the Spirit filled believer. If we look back at chapter 3.
It is by God’s power given through the Holy Spirit that we have any strength at all.
16 I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
He prays that God may grant the believer, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
We need to be strengthened. There is an immaturity that must be addressed for us to live in the way that Paul is teaching. We have been shown to be weak and immature in many ways.
11 And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. 14 Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. 15 But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. 16 From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.
Our God is great and mighty.
17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe.
In our flesh we are still as weak as we were before but it is by the power of the Spirit in our lives that we are able to live in a God honoring way.
10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
The cross, the death and the resurrection of Jesus is a mighty work.
A work that only God can do and one that demonstrates his vast power and the scriptures say the we are given strength and power in some measure that God has. Because God is working in us.
We cannot work hard enough to gain the strength that he is speaking of here. That is because we are not left alone to live our lives the way we want. We believe we are a free people.
Ephesians 6:11
Ephesians 6:11
11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
Paul introduces the armor of God and the purpose of it. We are to put on the armor.
The word “put on” means to be clothed.
To cloth themselves with the complete armor. The tense of this word is to put but does not lead to a time of removing it. It is to be put on once.
The purpose of being strengthened and putting on the the armor is so that a believer can stand against the schemes of the devil.
The Greek word for scheme is methodeia which is where we get the word methods. These are organized systematic plans and there origin is the devil.
Paul seams brief here but if we go back to chapter 2
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
The lost and unregenerate are dead in their trespasses and sins. Paul has been speaking of walking in the light, and walking worthy of their calling. But before Jesus , before salvation they walked and lived in the ways of the world. The ways of the world is the evil age of this time, an age where the world is ran by the systems that reject the ideas and morals of God. This evil age is under the ruler and authority for the spirit of the air which is the devil.
In contrast to walking in the light, the lost live carrying out the inclinations of the flesh and thoughts. This is their nature. it is what they are.
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
Walk through this passage.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.
The ESV The methods of the enemy are summed up in the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life.
13 No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. 14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
As believers there are two parts of us. We were slaves to sin unable to willingly choose anything other than the things that we desire. The flesh, it wants the the selfish things of this world. the schemes of the enemy are the world’s methods to give us what we want and desire. When those wants are put in front of us we are tempted in the flesh to give into the temptations and sin is conceived.
The enemy has many schemes and one of them is to temp people to believe that there is no enemy or the other extreme and that is that he makes people do things. The devil is strong, but there are limits such as the devil or demons inhabiting true believers. In a quote by John MacAurthur,
There is no clear example in the Bible where a demon ever inhabited or invaded a true believer. Never in the New Testament epistles are believers warned about the possibility of being inhabited by demons. Neither do we see anyone rebuking, binding, or casting demons out of a true believer. The epistles never instruct believers to cast out demons, whether from a believer or unbeliever. Christ and the apostles were the only ones who cast out demons, and in every instance the demon-possessed people were unbelievers.
We are to put on the armor to resist the schemes of the devil and he is not alone.
Ephesians 6:12
Ephesians 6:12
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
The struggle is real. The word struggle hear is also translated to wrestle. In the fighting of the time battles would usually break down into hand to hand, life and death, combat. This is the image that Paul is developing here. He points us to the true adversary the one we are really struggling with. The schools are not our enemy, the political leaders are not the enemy, those that abuse us and persecutors are not the enemy. The enemy is the one who has developed the methods to lead people these actions. Actions that they willingly and many times we willingly act on.
The devil is the ruler of the world and the list he goes through is a list of levels and a hierarchy of the evil spiritual reams. Paul has referred to the heavenly places and the heavens at other times and he is addressing the influence of the enemy and bringing them back to focus that if they continue to focus on each other and create division among them that they will not be walking in the Spirit.
Salem witch story.
If the the enemy is revealed, then our hearts should break for the place they are in. As Paul reminds us the we were once in the world as well.
Doesn’t it feel like the world is systematically doing in the wrong direction? To the Christian it is. But to the lost it is not. The devil is working through the lost as the father of lies to first attempt to keep people from God, which he cannot, and to tempt people to embrace their desires of the flesh, eyes, and pride to keep them turned from God and living in destructive and ungodly ways.
Satan Club
See we have looked at the attack on the family, on marriage, on gender, in our schools, on parents, in politics, in our finances, in the media, in pornography, in digital idolatry, and in many other areas. We see the it everywhere. Have our eyes been opened. Paul states...
Ephesians 6:13
Ephesians 6:13
13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that we can resist, so that we will be able to oppose these schemes, to hold our ground.
Having prepared everything. If there is any hope to resist, we must have prepared in everything, done it all so that we can take a stand.
I don’t know about you but I feel like we communicate that we are loosing ground every week. But maybe what we need is men and women who have been strengthened by God, filled with the Spirit, who have prepared that are standing in that strength.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world. 10 The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while. 11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.
The Victory
We are to stand. To stand knowing that even though we still feel and wrestle in the battle but the victory has been won. The rulers will fight but will not win.
14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
And we stand in the fact that not only is the victory won but we will not be lost in the process.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conclusion
Conclusion
How does this apply to us today? We stand in two places either lost or saved, either in Christ on not in Christ. If you are here and you are still working through who Jesus is and what he did and you have this desire to have your questions answered, know that Jesus loves you and God loves you and he died for you. You are in a place that only responds to the schemes of the world. Keep asking questions come and speak with me and we will help you.
If you are a christian you may have not realized or have forgotten that the systems and methods of this world are working to keep us living and succumbing to temptation after temptation in sin. If you are saved nothing can separate you from that but you may find yourself being blown around, feeling like you are loosing ground and getting knocked down over and over again. Maybe you don’t feel like you can stand up anymore.
One of the issues is that we tend to deal with sin after the fact. Instead of temptation before the fact.
13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
We need to start to be aware of our surrounding so that we can avoid the snares of temptation. We have been set free from slavery to sin but we still must endure temptation. Do you keep finding yourself in the same sins over and over again. Back at the same place doing the things you know are wrong. The question we need to ask is what is it that I want in my flesh that the world is enticing me with and how do I stand to resist those temptations.
It is by his power and not our own that we stand up. It is by his power that we are able to resist the world, it is by his power through the work of the Holy Spirit that we will hold our ground and endure.
15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote. 16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.
How has this challenged the way you think?
How has this challenged your affections?
How is this challenging you to live differently?
Prayer
Prayer
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.