Be Strong in the Lord! (Ephesians 6:10-13)

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Will you turn over in your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6. And this morning we'll be looking at verses 10 through 13. Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 10, going through verse 13. Hear now God's Word.

Final Point

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand.

Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's Word. Well, we're not too far off from October 31st in Reformed circles known as Reformation Day. And Reformation Day is that day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church in Wittenberg. But there was something else that happened in Martin Luther's life.

And what happened there is he was sent off, he was called to the Diet of Worms after he was excommunicated from the church and he had a bounty upon his head. Anybody who found him after he was condemned at the Diet of Worms was given a reward if they would kill him. And so the duke in his area had him kidnapped in the night, knowing that this death was upon his head, and stole him away to a castle in the city of Wartburg.

And while he was there in Wartburg, at the top of the castle, in seclusion, in disguise, with a big long beard grown out, he translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into the German language. Indeed, what Martin Luther did with that German Bible became the standard for what German grammar would be based upon for the next 350 years. But it wasn't a great time for Martin Luther when he was up in seclusion in that castle in WÃ1⁄4rttemberg.

It was actually a time of great spiritual depression and fighting for him as he was separated from everyone he knew, he was separated from everyone he loved, as he was in isolation by himself and spending long hours, he would talk about how he was tormented by temptation and the devil. And there's even a legend that one day he was so upset with this temptation and he was so upset with Satan trying to discourage him from the work he was doing and translating that he took his inkwell and he threw it across the room. And for years and years those ink splatters could be seen on those brick walls of the castle when Martin Luther fought princes and principalities of darkness. Brothers and sisters, we are engaged in a battle, not with flesh and blood, but against rulers and principalities of the air, against the devil himself.

But there's something we need to be very careful about, a temptation that we had. We need to be careful not to rely on our own strength. But as we look the next two weeks at who our enemy is, and then next week about how we actually enter into warfare with our enemy, today we need to focus on where does our strength come for the battle. And brothers and sisters, your strength must be in the Lord. Brothers and sisters, your call today is to have strength in the Lord.

First Point

So first we'll need to identify where our strength comes from. Next we'll have to see in the text where we find our task. We'll have to identify our enemy. And we'll have to know the goal we're working towards. So first we need to identify our strength. We need to identify our strength.

There's a modern line. It's a modern lie that we are told time and time again that if we are to be strong, we need to look inward. I just wanna read you a few quick quotes I found on an inspirational website for how do you find strength. Here's what our culture will tell us today. And I'm serious, these are posters on office walls.

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time, Anna Freud. Few men find their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used. Wow, it sounds really motivating, right? You have deep wells of strength inside of you.

But within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out. Look within you so the world won't blow your candle out. Here's one of my favorite ones from Mariah Carey. That's a great person to take life advice from. You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength and say, I am proud of what I am and who I am.

Brothers and sisters, this is what the world tells us. Look inside, look inside, you have a strength inside of you, but that is not what the gospels tell us. That is not what the whole planoply of scripture gives us. What the scripture calls us to is a strength that is not in us, but one who is greater than us. Indeed, our real identity is what we saw in Ephesians chapter two. Just turn there with me for a second. Look how Ephesians, how God tells us who we are versus what the world is telling us to look inside for this inner well of strength.

And he, that's Christ, and Christ made you alive, who were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom you were, you, I'm sorry, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the loss of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. We belonged, not to God, but to the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling the desires, the lusts of our own heart. But verse four, but God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith in that not of yourselves is not a result of works lest anyone should boast. Brothers and sisters, our true identity is not found in who we are strong enough ourselves, it's looking at what the scriptures tell us who we were. Children of wrath, dead in our trespasses of sins, but made alive by the grace of Jesus Christ. We don't look inside ourselves for strength, we look to the God who made us alive for strength.

Our real strength. is in the Lord, this is what chapter one of Ephesians taught us. We talked about this last week, it's easy to, as we've gone paragraph by paragraph through the book of Ephesians, we've been here for a whole year, I'm sure every one of you remember every sentence from chapter one and two of Ephesians, don't you? No, no, but Ephesians 1 and 2 laid the foundation, laid the groundwork for the rest of the chapter. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18, it said this, that the Lord might open the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him up from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Do you see it is God who raised us up in Christ. It was God who rose Jesus Christ up from the dead and sat him down at his right hand. It is God's strength that the book is founded upon. How are you going to have a strong relationship with your spouse? It must be rooted in the power of God. How will you find the strength to have a strong relationship with your children? It must be founded upon the truths of who God is. How are you going to find the strength to have a working relationship with your employer or with your employees? It's rooted and founded in the power and strength of God.

We live in the might of His strength. In the Old Testament, this was shown story after story. Do you remember the book of Joshua? As they're standing there, right on the other side, the Jordan and Jericho is right there. What does God tell them? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed. Why? For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Their strength was not to be in their numbers. Their strength was not to be in their military prowess. Their strength was not to be in their own confidence and zeal that they could take Jericho. But their strength was that if they entered over that Jordan River, God would be with them. And if God was with them, who could be against them? They had strength and they had courage because the Lord was with them.

This is the same strength and courage David finds in 1 Samuel chapter 30 verse six when he says, now David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his own son and his daughters. But David strengthened himself, how? David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

Peter O'Brien, when he was a commentator and pastor down in Australia, when he was writing on this passage, he said this, if we think that the Christian life is simply a matter of human effort or exhortation, then we have misread the nature of the campaign and will not be able to resist the evil one's fiery darts. If we think it's by our effort, if we think it's by our exhortation, our giving out of all of our strength and all of our might, we've missed where the book of Ephesians started and how it got to where it's at. We find our strength in the Lord. We find our strength in the Lord, Psalm 20, verse seven says, some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God.

Psalm 147, verse 10 says likewise, he does not delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. Do you see when the Israelites would go out to battle, there was a reason why they were never allowed to have horses or chariots. Have you ever thought about that? The law specifically said that the king was never allowed to amass horses or amass chariots. Why?

Because the second the king thought he could amass this great army with all the weapons of war, what would he trust in for strength? He would trust in himself and his army rather than the Lord, his God, who is his covenant master. Indeed, this is exactly why King Nebuchadnezzar had to go eat the grass, because he thought he had the strength in himself. But brothers and sisters, we find our strength in the Lord.

In the year about 250, there was a man named Probius who was arrested for being a Christian. And he was whipped while he was in prison. He was bound with chains because he would not worship idols. And he was brought out into the arena. And they told him that he needed to sacrifice to the heathen gods or else. And this was his response.

I come better prepared than before, for what I have suffered has only strengthened me in my resolution. Employ your whole power upon me, and you shall find neither you nor the emperor nor the gods you serve, not even the devil, who is your father, shall compel me to worship idols." Where does someone find that sort of strength? Do you know what happened to Probius after he made that statement?

They put him back in jail, and they whipped him more, and they shackled him more, and he still would not worship their false gods. Eventually, indeed, he was beheaded. Where do you find that type of strength? He didn't have it in himself. He didn't look to himself, but he looked into the God who saved him and loved him and cared for him, his master, and there he found strength. Where do you find your strength?

Where do you look when temptations and the fiery darts of the devil come and attack you. We do need to know, though, who our enemy is. See, it's not just knowing that God is our strength, but we also need to recognize who our true enemy is, and what do we find? Our enemy is the devil himself. Look with me again at verse 11. put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 1 Peter chapter five, verse eight, tells us clearly, be sober. Be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour. Don't get complacent. Do not fall asleep.

Do not think that somehow because you can't see the devil, because he's not flesh and blood, that he doesn't seek to devour you. That he doesn't want to snatch out that seed. That he doesn't want the trials and temptations of this life to wither into wilt your plant that has been planted. Your devil, the devil seeks to devour you. Your adversary prowls around like a roaring lion, and here it says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The wiles of the devil.

This is an interesting word. It's the word in Greek, methodos, method. But it's not just one, it's plural. See, Satan has methods, Satan has wiles, Satan has schemes, Satan has plans, Satan has ways in which he wants to trick and to deceive and to devour and to murder and to steal. He has stratagems and tactics and they are constant and they are repeated and we always feel them.

But you know what happens when an oppressor comes and he beats you down enough? Sometimes you feel like this is just normal. But God is saying here, no, no. What does he say in verse 11? Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. See, Satan has outward attacks, frontal assaults against you.

There are governmental structures, this is what Probius found, where there are open and outward and visible ways in which ungodliness is portrayed. Governments like China, governments like Yemen, governments like Saudi Arabia, that if you confess Jesus Christ, you're fine. But if you try to teach it to your children, they'll kill you or take your children away. There are governmental structures where our brothers and sisters in China, if they're gathering together as a Christian community, they'll be put under house arrest and monitored by the police and their landlords will have pressure placed upon them that they have to get evicted from their house. that their employers have pressure upon them that this person won't join the communist party and because of that, they're not loyal and you should fire them.

There is princes of this age of darkness that is clearly seen. Those are easy targets. Those are things that we can pray about. On the back wall there, there's a map with black right in the middle across the 1040 window where most of these governments are located.

Christians are brothers and sisters who are in these countries who suffer this outward persecution, who it's so heavy upon them that they can taste it and they feel it all the time. But Satan's not always like that. The devil's not always that upfront, but he's often more covert.

We see it most often in social and cultural pressures in our own day. There's a word I would encourage you to know and to learn and to look out for when you see it going on in our culture, normalization. Normalization. Just make it seem normal. The more you show it, the more you present this thing, the more you just put it into TV shows, the more it's just on commercials, the more it's just talked about in culture, the more and more and more it's just there, the easier and easier it is to let down our guard to certain sins. This is not, you know, me speaking just Pastor Brian. This is what the left, the theological and liberal left who is pushing an LGBTQ agenda has made known.

They put pressure on Hollywood executives to normalize little children's shows. There used to be a day in which you might think you could just turn on a children's channel for your kids and the TV show would be okay, or maybe turn on PBS Kids for your children and walk away and they'll be okay. go look up the articles about Arthur the Aardvark and for the gay episode and Arthur the Aardvark. We were watching TV and just watching it with the kids. And on a children's television channel, there's a advertisement for David's Bridal. Why there's a wedding advertisement on Nickelodeon kids, I don't know. I don't think kids are getting married very often. But guess what they have in the commercial? Two brides and two grooms.

Normalization, cultural influence, it's just there, we live in it, constant surrounding. This is the topic of the day, this is what we're dealing with, but this happens all the time. This happens all the time with greed. This happens all the time with lust. This happens all the time with gluttony. This happens all the time with any host of sins.

We don't want to just call out one sin is greater than another, but brothers and sisters, every time you're watching a gut busters show, It's a cultural influence that, well, overeating's not that bad. Overeating's not that horrible, but yet we know it's detrimental to our health, yet we know that our body is a temple unto God. I'm not trying to pick out specific sins, I'm just trying to show you that I have been told by some of you, we've never heard a pastor preach against gluttony.

Brothers and sisters, it's because it's normalized. Satan has so made it just acceptable. There are so many acceptable sins in our culture. They're just so normal to us. Children, you are bombarded with this all the time. Young girls are told they have to look a specific way, but if they don't look that way, they should be ashamed, but then they'll flip the channel, and on the other channel, what will they see? They'll see, well, you just need to be comfortable in your own skin and in your own body. contracting images just to sow confusion in the minds of our children.

Boys told they're not, maybe they might not be boys because they like a certain thing or do a certain thing. Brothers and sisters, our world has made masculinity look exactly like this and femininity look just like this. And if a boy doesn't think exactly this way, well, maybe he's not actually a boy. Well, maybe he just likes something. But that doesn't mean he has a gender confusion. Satan loves to sow confusion. Satan loves to say it's this way and if you don't fit this way, well maybe God made a mistake. Brothers and sisters, don't fall for it.

Encourage your children, love your children, show them that God's plans are much greater than this. mothers are told in our current age, especially this time of COVID, it's okay to just be upset with your kids. It's okay to just start drinking at 10 o'clock in the morning because you can't handle your children.

And I mean there's entire meme cultures around this to try to just make it soft and make women who are educating their children at home now and have never done this before feel like they're unworthy or aren't somehow capable of this. And so you hear this cultural push. We find this all over the place in billboards when you drive down the road, on commercials when you turn on the radio, television, advertisements. Indulge yourself, satisfy your longings, buy this and you'll have a happy life.

Brothers and sisters, your adversary, the devil, wants to snatch that seed that has been planted. Sometimes he will do it by bringing trials and tribulations. Sometimes he will do it by sowing heresy in the church. Sometimes he will do it just by lulling you to sleep with the deceitful desires and pleasures of this life.

We must stand vigilant in the Lord against our adversary because there are not just outward temptations, but there are even inward temptations. This is what Ephesians chapter 5 said, that Satan can tempt us inwardly with falsehoods that we might want to speak lies.

We might be tempted to uncontrolled anger, Ephesians 4.26.

We might be tempted to stealing, Ephesians 4.28.

We might be tempted towards corrosive and talk that is meant to tear other people down, Ephesians 4.29. We might be tempted from within ourselves to lust and gluttony and drunkenness and hatred, filthy language, violence and excess.

See, we cannot look to inside ourselves for strength because brothers and sisters, inside ourself was the problem. The book of Jeremiah says that our heart is deceitfully wicked above all else. This world will tell you just follow your heart. Brothers and sisters, when that happens, say thanks for the advice, Satan. I'll go the other way. No, we don't follow our heart, we go to the Lord, we find strength in what he has said and his spirit enables us to follow his path, to walk in the light, to follow after paths of wisdom. Children can tempt their parents and parents can tempt their children. The devil can use adult parents to tempt their adult children. Children contempt their parents to sin by disobedience, pride, fits, envy. We could go on and on with all of these. None of us are above this. None of us are beyond this.

Do you remember what happened with Jesus and Peter? When Jesus tells them that he's going to have to go and he's going to have to suffer? Peter, who has just said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, what does he take Jesus to the side and do? He rebukes Jesus. He tells him, far be it from you, Lord, that this should happen to you. And what does Jesus do? He locks eyes with Peter. He says, get behind me, Satan.

How often do we just speak the words that are in our hearts without checking them according to what God's Word says? We must be on guard against the devil. Next week we're going to get more nitty-gritty in verses 13 through 20 about what that means. But lastly, we need to identify our task. Identify our task. Look with me at verse 12.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principality, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. We are to wrestle. That's what that word means there in verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

Boy, do I love going to wrestling with my boys. I love taking them downstairs into the little dank dungeon of the elementary school and seeing them wrestle. getting close, and often I'll have to tell them, get close, get close, don't stand back, lock up, come on, be aggressive, shoot, don't just let them take you, you've got this, come on, come on, this entire passage is filled with confidence, this entire passage is filled with encouragement, come on, you can do this, get close, dig in your heels, don't let them push you down, don't get on your back, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world, you can do this. It is hand-to-hand combat, it is warfare, but you can stand, not on your own strength, but because you are in Christ. You can hold your ground.

The days are evil. The days are evil, Ephesians 5, 16. We know that we live in this present age filled with darkness, but brothers and sisters, you are able to walk in the light because you are in Christ Jesus. We read Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves.

It is a gift of God, not a result of works, lest anyone should boast. But what comes right after that? That God has prepared good works for you to do. that you might walk in them. This is the good work that God has prepared in advance that you should walk in, that you can stand against the devil and his schemes, and it is not a vain attempt. There are days in which it's going to be easier and days in which it's going to be harder. There are days in which you won't face that much temptation, don't be lulled into complacency.

Brothers and sisters, in 1945, or 1944, on June 6th, there was a great invasion of the Allied forces into northern France on D-Day. And on D-Day, the decisive battle was won, in which there were no more serious offenses of the central powers. They had won the decisive battle. It had been won.

It was just a matter of days. The writing was on the wall. But VE Day would not come. Victory in Europe Day would not come for months and months and months, not until May the next year. There was a separation. There was a separation between the decisive day that turned the war towards the allies and the day final victory was grasped. Brothers and sisters, the battle was won on that cross. Jesus won the decisive victory.

But we are still waiting for him to come again. That day of consummation, when final victory, when victory on earth, real VE day will actually happen, is not yet come. And right in the middle, we find ourselves in the battle of the bulge. Satan is fighting in his final attempts. These are his last gasps. We do not live in a time and age in which Satan has full power and is running and doing everything he wants to do. No, the battle has been won.

But we are called to dig in our heels. We are called to stand firm. We are called in Jesus Christ to fight that good fight of faith. Because the day is coming when our Lord will return. We are in him now. He will come again. and there will be peace. Don't give up the fight now. Run the good race. Find your strength in the Lord. Know your enemy. And always have courage in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the victory we have in Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that you would give us strength We pray that when we are tired and when we are weary, that you would lift us up upon the wings of eagles. Lord, we pray that you would walk with us, that you would care for us, that you would be with us wherever we go, that you would not let Satan and his minions have dominion over us, Lord, but that your kingdom might come here on earth as it is in heaven, and that we would be those who would be found faithful. In Jesus' name, amen.

And thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.