Be Strong, Stand Firm

Satan is a very real enemy. And though his defeat has been guaranteed, he is not giving up without a fight. As followers of Christ, it's important for us to recognize that we are the target of the devil's attacks. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg teaches us how we can withstand his evil schemes. We begin today in Ephesians 6 and verse 10.

Well, we're back again here. We've parked here, and I recognize that, purposefully so, and I hope that the message is dawning. I hope it's dawning upon me, first of all. And I want this morning to just recognize that there are imperatives in this, and two in particular.

First of all, be strong and then stand fast. Martyn Lloyd-Jones years ago, in preaching on this passage to his congregation, made this acknowledgment. He said, We tend to be always feeling our own pulses and talking about ourselves and our moods.

Which I think is true. So he says, Forget yourself and your temporary troubles and ills. Forget them for the moment, and fight in the army.

Forget them and fight. It's quite an exhortation, and it is the exhortation of this passage. That is what Paul is saying. It's important that we remind ourselves of the obvious—that he is writing. He's writing from jail in about the middle of the first century.

He's writing to real people who live in a real place at a real point in time. Now the people who were living at that time in Ephesus were living in a really nice place. Ephesus in the first century was a significant city, a Jew and gentile rubbed shoulders with one another in the everyday events of life. It was cosmopolitan, it was wealthy, it was in every sense luxurious. It was at the same time, though, a very superstitious place, and a place that was marked by all kinds of pagan and magical potions and notions. And this largely represented in the temple of Artemis, or the temple of Diana. And if you've visited Ephesus, you'll have seen evidences of this, along with the large open-air arena, which had a capacity of somewhere between twenty and fifty thousand. So it wasn't some little backwater place with a few strange individuals just kicking about.

It was a significant spot. And the temple bedazzled people by its marble splendor as the sun shone on it, and it also cast a large shadow over the city itself, because everyone in the city was aware of these dark forces, and many of the people were afraid of them. They were magical, they were demonic powers. And when, in certain cases, their lives were impacted by the gospel, there was a radical shift from that. And that's why I read this morning from Acts chapter 19.

It's just one little verse, but it says a lot, doesn't it? And Luke says, And many of those who had been practicing these magical arts brought their books, books that were significant books and sold for significant money. And they lit up Ephesus with this great bonfire, a beautiful picture of the change that had happened. Now, they had been brought from the domain of darkness, transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Well, then, what did that mean? Did that mean that they now were going to live a tranquil kind of life, that they would just be transported to the skies, as the hymn writer puts it, on flowery beds of ease?

No! If they'd ever thought that was the case, they found out quickly that that was not the case. Because far from them being moved from the realm of a battle, they were placed at the very center of a conflict zone. And everyone who is transferred by grace from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, everyone who becomes a citizen of Christ's kingdom, is caught up in a cosmic conflict of eternal significance. Now, we know what it is to be involved in arguments and discussions and conflicts that will eventually peter out most. But the battleground that we're considering here in Ephesians 6 is a battleground of eternal matters. And these eternal matters are being worked out in everyday life. So for the believer, he may say to himself or to herself, Why is it so hard to be married? Why is it that our children do not turn out exactly the way we had planned?

Why is it that work can be such a raging area of discord? Why is it so hard to be the church in a contemporary world such as our own? And this is not the entire answer, but the answer is not complete without this element—namely, that we are up against the schemes of the devil, that we are up against the evil one himself. The evil one has been unable to prevent us from becoming the children of God, but given that that is the case, he is now seeking to do everything in his power to prevent us from living as the children of God. That's important.

Now, it's for that reason that we've tried to take time to make sure that we understand what we're up against. And last Sunday, we recognized the fact that Satan is a real and a vicious enemy, that he does not act alone, that he trades in doubt and in division and in destruction. In doing so, he possesses supernatural power—it is not unlimited, but it is supernatural—and it is ultimately under the control of the fact that Jesus came to destroy his works.

First John chapter 3 and verse 8, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. So, the powers of darkness are defeated. They are not yet finally destroyed. The reason that Christ came was to destroy the works of the devil. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. It is clearly not destroyed, because people keep dying. The victory is absolutely assured, like checkmate in a chess game, although the evil one and his minions still want to keep playing the game, still want to do pawn to king four and so on, move their rooks and their castles around and their bishops and so on, do what all they want to do.

But they cannot affect the outcome. That is the position of the believer. And it's a wonderful thing when that dawns on us. I'm very grateful for the fact that from my earliest years I was given songs that reinforced this for me. I was thinking this week of being, you know, like a nine- or a ten-year-old boy singing at the Bible class on a Sunday afternoon, on the victory side, on the victory side. I wasn't sure what that was, but I liked the song. No foe can daunt me, no fear can haunt me, For with Christ within the fight we'll win On the victory side.

I said, I don't know what that is, but I know what it is today. And thank God that I had my own vacation Bible camp, where my parents were crazy enough to think, It'd be good for you to get in there. Don't give up, young parents. Now, given that that is the fact, it is imperative, then, that we heed the exhortations that Paul writes. And the first of these is straightforward, Be strong. Be strong. Verse 10, Be strong in the LORD and in the strength of his might.

This is routine for Paul. You remember when he writes to Timothy, he says, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. He's reminding Timothy, who is aware of his own weakness, that the strength is found in the Lord. In the same way as he writes to these Ephesians, he's not giving them a sort of ethical list to try their best with, but he is reminding them that they have been placed in Christ, and therefore, this is available to them. This is something vastly different from a kind of pale reflection that you find when you read different books. For example, if I had a class that I was teaching, I might give them this quote and ask them if this was in keeping with Ephesians 6.10.

It goes like this. Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble and reasonable confidence in your own abilities and powers, you cannot be successful or happy.

That's actually Norman Vincent Peale. Okay? That is the power of positive thinking. That passes for Christianity in many places—that you come in, and it's an encouragement for you to feel better about yourself, to engage with yourself, to find your real self, and so on. Have you ever found your real self? How did you feel about that on that rainy Tuesday afternoon, when you found your real self? Exactly. Do you feel amazingly powerful?

No. It really is a crock, isn't it? But that's not what Paul is saying. You see, Paul has already laid the foundations. That's why he wrote at the beginning in chapter 1 and prayed for them, and when he prayed for them, one of the reasons that he prayed was that their eyes of their understanding might be enlightened so that they might understand something of the immeasurable greatness of God's power. That's Ephesians 1 and verse 19. The immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who are in Christ, who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him in his right hand in the heavenly places.

So, in other words, he's writing now to them. He's saying, Earlier in my letter, you remember I was praying for you that you would have an understanding of what is yours in Jesus. In other words, that you would understand the indicatives, that you would understand the what-is-ness of it. Now, in relationship to what is true of you, my exhortation is simply this. Make sure that you find your strength in God alone.

Now, you take that and you think of it in terms of what it means to apply. First of all, think of what it meant for these Ephesian believers to receive this exhortation. Now, they are no longer part of the mainstream. If we create two fictitious characters that were very, very good friends, Benjamin and Levi—and Benjamin and Levi used to do everything together, not least of all read the magic books together. They used to go together to the temple of Artemis. And now, as they make their way down a familiar pathway, they come to a crossroads, and Benjamin, he moves off to go into the temple. And Levi, he does not go into the temple. And Benjamin says, Well, what are you doing now? Well, says, Levi, I have become a follower of Jesus.

They say, Well, that's okay. You can be a follower of Jesus and a follower. There are a number of gods.

There are a number of things you can do. And then his friend says to him, Well, how many come to your little thing? Well, there's a group. As many as come to the temple?

No. And what do you do in your little group? Well, we read the Old Testament Scriptures, we have a service, and we sing. Oh, he says, That doesn't sound very exciting to me. Certainly not exciting, like what we do over here at the temple of Artemis.

What are you doing? Isn't that what your friends say to you? I can imagine that Levi would have said, And how many of the significant citizens of Ephesus come to your little thing? How many of the intellectuals come to your little thing? Well, we got a few. Yeah, but not like over here. Now, some of you are involved in science. Many of you deal with this on a daily basis. Your friends must say to you, But you're so jolly clever.

Are you telling me that you believe that stuff? Well, where is this? This is a battleground. What are we to do? Be strong. I'm not strong.

That's right. Joshua, you're taken over from Moses. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous. He doesn't say, Be strong and courageous. He says, I will never leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and courageous. Same thing is picked up in Hebrews 13. I will never leave you or forsake you, the writer quotes it. So we can confidently say, he says, The LORD is my helper. I will not fear what man can do to me. You see, we're strengthened in the strength of his might, strengthened in his grace, the grace that is made clear to us in the gospel, knowing that God loves me, forgives me, helps me, comforts me, enables me, secures me, and not on account of my merit but all on account of his mercy. There is strength in the grace of the Lord. So be strong, and in a word or two, stand firm.

This picture of standing is straightforward. Put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand, verse 11. That you may be able to withstand, verse 13.

That when you've done everything, you'll be standing firm. Some of you will remember the book by the very, very effective Chinese Christian, Watchman Nee. Came out in the sixties, I think.

I remember reading it. It was his reflections on the book of Ephesians. It was called Sit, Walk, Stand. In the first section on sit, he was describing the believer's position in Christ, raised with him to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In the second section, under the heading Walk, he was tackling the ongoing experience of life in the world. Ephesians 4, walk then, not according to the way that you previously did. And then stand, his section on our attitude towards the enemy. How are we going to stand?

How are we going to make sure that we can withstand these attacks? This is eternal in its significance. The answer is by putting on the whole armor of God, by taking up the armor of God, as he puts it in verse 13. You say, what's the balance here? Well, the balance is always good in the Bible—resting in what is provided and yet doing what is required. Resting in the provision that is ours, and then doing what we're asked.

It's Philippians, isn't it? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's what we're to do. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Working out what he is working in. Well, our time is gone, so let me conclude with just a couple of comments. First of all, it is important that we realize that Paul is writing in the plural here. He's writing in the plural. In other words, he is picturing a united army. He has written to them in chapter 4 that he doesn't want them to be like children any more, tossed to and fro by the waves and the deceitful schemes of the evil one. But instead, they are to put on the complete armor of God. The full armor of God, incidentally, is simply faith in the gospel.

I'm gonna show that to you in our subsequent studies. But to put on the full armor of God is not to sort of try and do things to ourselves or make things happen in order that we might be more acceptable and more effective. No, it is actually to take hold of that which has been given to us. Satan, you see—what does Satan want us to abandon? He wants us to abandon righteousness. He wants us to abandon faith. He wants us to abandon the shoes of peace. He wants us to abandon the belt of truth. He wants us to abandon the gospel.

Do you think the great designs of his minions in churches throughout the whole Western world, where countless people are sitting, listening to a gospel that is no gospel at all? They're being told week after week after week, you're a good person, you're a fine person, all you really need to do is just get your act together and do a little better. God rewards nice people if they do their best. And you are nice people, and you can be sure that he'll reward you. After all, it's Father's Day, and you're a great dad, and the sun is shining, and let's have a hot dog, and let's get on with life. Well, it's a wonderful message, isn't it? But the trouble is, it isn't true. Because the average dad is saying, But I'm harsh with my children.

What am I to do now? You see, the gospel is what the evil one challenges. And it is the gospel, if you like, with which we are to clothe ourselves.

He's not asking, as you see, to take on a new battle against the enemy. He's saying to the readers of his letter, You can stand safe and secure in the victory that has already been accomplished at the cross. If you think about it in these terms, remember when David goes against Goliath, and he chops his head off, and the Philistine armies all go running for their lives, and right behind David come all the soldiers of Israel shouting, We won! We won! We won! Someone says, What do you mean, we won? He won! Yeah, but he won for us. We share in his victory.

Exactly. What do you mean, we won? Christ won. Now in Christ, we share in his victory. Therefore, the exhortation to be strong or to stand firm is not an exhortation that induces despair in us.

It doesn't make us say, Oh, but it's not possible to do this. The hymn writers always get it helpful for us, don't they? Stand then in his great might, with all his strength endured, and take to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God, or the whole shooting match that he's provided in Jesus, or in a hymn that is left alone for the longest time. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Stand up, stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. You dare not trust your own. Put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer, where duty calls or danger be never wanting there. We tend to be always feeling our own pulses, talking about ourselves and our moods. Forget yourself and your temporary troubles and ills for the moment.

Fight in the army. D. E. Host, who followed Hudson Taylor as the director of the China Inland Mission, said on one occasion, I would not appoint a man or a woman to the mission field unless they had learned first to wrestle with the devil. Because if they do not wrestle with the devil, they will wrestle with each other. And you show me a disunited church.

I'll show you a church that has lost sight of the enemy. You tell me that your biggest battle in your house is with your husband or your wife. You're wrong.

It's with your dad or your children. You're wrong. It's all your boss's fault. You're wrong. You're fighting the wrong enemy. And when we lose sight of the enemy, which is part of the strategy of the devil, to make us say, That is so much nonsense.

I don't exist, says the devil. Don't let him tell you I'm real. Well, you're sensible people.

You can work this out. You've been listening to Alistair Begg and this is Truth for Life. We hope you've benefited from Alistair's message today.

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I'm Bob Lapine. Tomorrow, Alistair will focus on a foundational piece of our spiritual armor. If you don't have it, you won't be prepared for the battle. We'll find out what it is tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.