Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
6. I'd like to look at Ephesians
chapter 6 verses 10 to 12. 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 wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon You
this evening, Lord, we do so in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We recognize something of our
weakness. We know that we're weak, but
we really don't realize how weak. I ask you tonight, teach us something
of ourselves. Teach us who you are. Lord, reveal
unto us who we are in you. And Lord, we'll be careful to
give you the honor and glory and praise for Christ's sake. Amen. You know, I've said this numerous
times. It's something we need to be
reminded of. Six chapters in this book. The
first three reveal unto us the glorious placement of God's people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's mercy and compassion to
choose to show mercy to those that He's everlastingly loved.
And so there's a doctrinal stand that we have in Christ. And then the last three chapters
speak of the evidence of that stand, of the walk of a believer. A believer desires to walk like
a believer. We're commanded to, you know.
We're commanded to walk as that which we profess. And we want
that. The Apostle Paul says in verse
10, Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might." Now, that word, finally, right there,
is not a word that means just in conclusion, like he's saying,
okay, now, well, we're coming to the end of this letter to
the church at Ephesus, and so, you know, in closing, that's
not what he's saying. Finally, here is a word that
sets forth, be reminded of from now on. Finally. Continue in this thought from
henceforth. Now, we're in this world right
now, and as long as the Lord gives us breath, we're going
to continue to walk. being kept by the power of God
through faith. So from now on, boy, how often
we need to be reminded of that. Finally, finally to you that
believe. Apostle Paul is speaking here
to brethren. You know, you talk to brethren,
Brethren understand. They understand what you're talking
about. They understand what you're saying. They understand the Word. They've been taught by the Spirit
of God. You that are of like faith, you
that love the gospel of God's free grace, you that are chosen
of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ Himself and regenerated
by God's Spirit. You that are taught of God, he
said. How comforting it is to talk
to brethren. You fellowship. There's a kindred
spirit, you know, a believer. I've said this before and I can't
explain it. I don't think anybody can explain
it. But a believer talks like a believer. Now there is a When someone is just trying to
be religious, and they're just... I mean, there is a spirit about
it that is not blessed to kindred spirit. It's just not... A believer has a savor of life
about his speech. And there's something about talking
to a believer that just, you understand. And you recognize,
you know, the Spirit of God bears witness with my spirit, bears
witness with your spirit and each other's spirit that we're
brethren. It reminds me when Abraham told
Lot, you know, remember Lot's kindred, his herdsmen and Abraham's
herdsmen, they were having a squabble. They were having a squabble over
grass. And Abraham said to Lot, Lot, listen, we're brethren. We're brethren. You can't have
a squabble over grass. You take what you want. I'll
take what's left. That's a meek spirit right there.
You take what you want. I'll take whatever's left. Of
course, you know the story. He set his eyes towards Sodom.
Finally, my brethren, Be strong. Be strong. You know, as we get
older, we see more clearly the frailty of this flesh. You are
so thankful for God's Word. There is a battle that is going
on. There is a war within and a war
without. But you know, I tell you this,
the war within is the real battle that's being fought with a believer. That old man strives against
that new man. There's a fighting that's going
on. That which is flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. And they don't mix. They don't get along. 180 degrees. There's a battle that's
going on. Here's a word of comfort. Be
strong. Listen, here's a Scripture that
I need to read and be reminded of. Romans 7, verse 18-19. Listen to this, because you know
a believer will say, that's me right there. Romans 7 verse 18, For I know
that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do." That's a believer. That's a believer. He's going
to say, I want to be found faithful. I do. I want to have a right
attitude. I want to have a right attitude
toward the Lord. I want to have a right attitude toward you.
I want to have a right attitude toward circumstances. I want
to walk as a believer. That which I would, I don't do. might look like I do outwardly,
but I'm going to tell you something. You don't know what I'm thinking.
Things don't go my way, and I wish I could say without fail, I always
say, the Lord's will be done. I know that's right. I know that's
right. I know it's the right thing to
do. But how to perform that which is good, I'll find out. Finally, my brethren, be strong. Oh, be strong. That is a command
that I'm thankful to report to you this evening that is something
done for us that we can't do for ourselves. Be strong. I wish I could do that. I wish
I could do that. Here's the miracle of this command. 1 Thessalonians 5.24, Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. The Lord commands us, be strong. Be strong. The believer is persuaded that
he's His labor is not going to be in vain. He knows that. He
knows that. That which he does, I've preached
the gospel. We ask the Lord's will be done.
The Lord's will is going to be done. God's Word is not going
to return void. He's going to accomplish the
purpose for which it was set. I know that. We're not going
to fail, and I'll tell you why we're not going to fail. Because
He's not going to fail. He shall not fail. And we're
in Him, you know. Be strong! Be strong! Be strong! Do you want me to tell you when
you recognize how strong you are? Listen to this Scripture. This is when you'll realize that
you're strong. 2 Corinthians 12, 10, Therefore
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I
am weak, then am I strong. You know, the natural man is
going to say, I tell you what, I'm strong because I'm strong.
I am strong because I can. Because I can accomplish. A believer
says, here is my strength. Here is my strength. Knowing
that being found in Christ, I am strong because in myself I know
I am total weakness. Paul says, I take pleasure in
infirmities of this flesh. I take pleasure in persecutions
from the enemies of the gospel. I take pleasure in the distresses
of my mind and heart that I'm called upon to suffer. He said
I take pleasure even in the necessities of life, being hungry or thirsty
or a lack of shelter. I take pleasure of that because
when I am made to see and to behold my weakness in myself,
when I behold the inability of my flesh then that's when I realize
that my only strength is in the Lord. 2 Timothy 4, 17, Notwithstanding,
the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching
might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear,
and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. I know this. I have No strength in myself. I know that. The natural man
thinks he's strong. The natural man thinks he can.
I can. I can. I can come to God. I can be faithful. What must I do, good master,
to inherit eternal life? What's the Scripture says? Well,
I shall not, I shall not, I shall, I shall. He said all of these
I kept from my youth up. Saul of Tarsus? What was his
strength, you know, concerning the law? Blameless. He was strong thinking he was
strong in himself. For a believer, when I'm weak,
that's when I'm strong because I realize where my strength is. Finally, my brethren, be strong. Now listen to this. In the Lord. in the Lord. Not in myself, but listen to
what in the Lord means. You know, when we talk about
being chosen in Christ, chosen in Christ, being found in Him,
that is that Almighty God looks upon and considers us as being
truly in Christ, represented by, kept by, answered for by
Him. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord." I looked up that word, in. I wanted to know, in
the Lord. That is a phrase that we hear
all the time. But here's what it means. When
you look the definition up, it means a fixed instrument in a
place or in time or in a state. In the Lord means being found
and considered in Him. It's not that we just, I can
remember thinking people using, you know, if you'll ask anything
in my name, I'll do it. And they'll, you know, I command
you in Jesus' name. Or that silly, I can't think
of his name right now, Simon Magus said, you know, I assure
you by the God that Paul preaches, come out. And remember that demon
jumped out and beat him and stuff like that? I assure you by Paul's
God. Men think that they can just
command and use the name of. But Paul is setting forth here
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Consider where you
are. Consider how you got there from
before the foundation of the world that God the Father chose
you and placed you in Christ. Secure your surety, your husband,
your Redeemer, your Savior. Consider the blessing. Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord. God put you there. God has kept you there. And listen
to the blessing of being there. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. That place, that state, of being. Where are you? I mean, you look around here,
you see individual people. But for believers, we're all
in Christ. That's a marvelous thought that
I try to get my mind to comprehend. We're in Him. We're in the Lord
collectively, together. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. That in the power of the might,
it's in the exhibition of it. In the display of it. Be strong
in the Lord. And in the exhibition of His
force and strength and dominion, be strong in that. Behold it. Look around. Look around. God saved some people. There are some people sitting
here that have been here since they were infants. And you're
still here. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power, in the exhibition, in the display of His might. Philippians 2.13 says, For it
is God which worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure.
The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, Listen to this in the display
of His power. Listen to this. For by the grace
of God, I am what I am. And His grace was bestowed upon
me and was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than them all,
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Be strong
in the Lord and in the power in the revelation, what He's
shown us in the power of His might. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord. How? How do we do that? I want to do that. I want to
do it. Be strong in the Lord. I'm observing
it. I see it. I see the grace of
God. I see the grace of God, I see
something of it. I'm standing here, I'm looking,
I see something that He's done for me, but I don't see what
He's done for you. We're here tonight because we
want to be. I want to hear something of the
grace of God again. Tell me again how God keeps His
people by grace, through faith, the power of God. Tell me again
how the Lord is calling His people out, how He's strengthening and
keeping us and teaching us. We're learning and beholding. But how? How am I found to be
strong in the Lord? 1 Peter 5, 7, casting all your
care upon Him, for He cares for you. Casting all your care on Him.
Listen, let me ask you something. Now, all of us has had a day,
whether it was today or yesterday or whenever. I mean, just the
things that we've gone through. Think of what you've been through,
what happened at work, whatever happened at home, whatever happened
in your family, whatever, whatever. Trials and tribulations. And
we've got doubts and fears and this, you know, this a crook
in the lot. Stuff like this. You know where
our strength is? Casting all your care upon Him. Because He careth for His people. He cares. I can settle down right
there. I can settle down. There's a fight. that's going
on. And the Scripture refers to it
as the good fight of faith. Listen to this. 1 Timothy 6.12. Fight the good fight. The good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, wherein
thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before
many witnesses. I know this. The Lord said, I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Therefore,
we continue fighting the good fight of faith. What is it? Preach
the gospel. Believe the gospel. Casting your
care on Him. I have no reason, none of us
have any reason to think that we're going to escape the warfare. Not going to happen. These problems
that we had today or yesterday or that you shall have tomorrow,
they're going to happen. They're going to be there. Listen
to this, 2 Timothy 3.12. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus. Listen to this. Shall suffer
persecution. You shall. You think I'd just like to go
sometime and rock Walter Groover. said to Betty, he said, I wish
we could go through this life and didn't have to go through
this with trials and tribulations and sufferings. I wish we didn't
have to do that. And she said, Walter, that's
not the way it is. That's just not the way it is. All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. The Lord has furnished His people. And remember, we're in a battle.
I mean, there's a fight going on. This fight's inside. You know that. It's an internal
fight. You say, yeah, but it's these
people. I'm going to deal with that in just a second here. Yeah,
but these people that I have to deal with, the war's right
here. I can tell you that. War's inside
right here. But listen to verse 11. Verse
11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. Put on the complete. Lord willing,
next week I'll deal with the complete armor. I'm going to
stop with verse 12 tonight, but we'll deal with the complete
armor. It's all the armor, all the armor that is given us in
this battle in which we realize in our weakness that we're strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. But here the apostle
says, put on the whole, the complete, all, offensive and defensive. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Now, I don't say a whole lot about the devil, but the Scripture
mentions it, and so I'm going to say what the Scripture has
to say about the wiles of the devil. Being able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. He's crafty. That would be an
understatement, but that's it. His ability, his arts that he employs to trip up the
people of God. Now he knows, he knows that he's
not going to take them because we're kept by the power of God
through faith. I give unto them eternal life,
they're never going to perish. But I'm going to tell you something.
To get us to be tricked up, to take our eyes off of Christ,
to look away, to look to self, you know, he's cunning. And we can more easily deal with
what we can see. perceive and look at than we
can with his cunning tactics. Because you can't see him. He attempts to draw us into a
snare. And his ways are not easily perceived. You may think that, you know,
I can sidestep him. He's good at his craft, the wiles
of the devil. The Scripture refers to him as
the liar, that old serpent, the deceiver, master of trickery. And I tell you this, you write
this down, he seldom, if ever, approaches a believer in a repulsive
form. It's often in a way of a tempting
or a suggesting that seems plausible. Like a bait. I mean, a good fishing
bait. You guys that do a lot of fishing,
you know. You've got to, here's the purpose
of fishing. You want to catch the fish. Whether
it's honey, whatever. You're going to whatever camo
you've got to wear, whatever scent it takes, how high you've
got to get in a tree, it don't matter. Whatever. You're going
to outsmart him. You're going to get him. I learned a lot. I'm not a deer
hunter. I learned a lot about deer hunting
just listening to Chuck. I mean, what do you do? Put a feeder out. Why? Because deer like to eat. And
you want the deer. And the wiles of the devil are
such that they seem to be harmless at first. They seem to be pleasurable. This can't be. That bait that's
going through that water, that looks like something that I want. That fish says, I'm going to
get it. You might. You might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand, to be firm, to be established,
to be kept intact, or to keep your place. against the wiles
of the devil. Why? Why the armor that we will,
Lord willing, look at next week? Why? It is because, verse 12,
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Here's the danger that
we face, the nature of our enemy. He does not have our best at
heart. And he's not flesh and blood.
He's not flesh and blood. You know, if it was human strength
against human strength, you'd think, well, I'd have a fighting
chance here. But this battle is different. Enemies that the believer faces
can't be withstood in the power of the flesh. We're not going
to outsmart him. You're not going to outsmart
him. You think, I can resist the temptation. Don't be fooled. Be careful here. We go back and read where believers
have fallen, slipped. You say, I can handle it. No,
you can't. No, you can't. No, you think you can, but no.
He'll have you sucked in before you know it. Be strong in the
Lord. Recognize where your strength
is. Lord, help me. Crying. Seeking. Asking, praying, casting yourself. You know, we think, I'm going
to tell you this in closing. We think that, and I know a lot
of times I'm thinking right now about we have to deal with the
world. You have to deal with people
at work. You have to deal with, you know. Let me tell you something. You often think that the battle
is being fought against somebody else. Now listen to what I'm
saying. The Scripture says we wrestle
not against flesh and blood. You say, no, you don't understand. No, it's my boss. No, it's that
person at work. They're the problem. No, they're
not. No, they're not. We wrestle not
against flesh and blood. Well, what are we wrestling against
then? principalities and powers against the rulers of darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That
person at work, your neighbor, your family, they are the means
by which principalities and powers and rulers of darkness of this
world, they're the means, they're the mouthpiece, they're the instrument. against you. We wrestle not against
flesh and blood. There is nothing within them
that resists that old carnal nature. If they don't know the
Lord, there's not a new man there. They are nothing more than the
means. The battle is against the wiles
of the devil. It's not against flesh and blood.
You know, there's where the trickery is. It's them. No, it's not.
No, no, no. Therefore, put on, sink into,
clothe yourself in the whole armor of God. Believer, write this down. When we're tempted,
to not believe God. When we're tempted and we perceive
in our minds that there's doubts concerning God's providence.
I don't know why this had to go this way. When fears concerning
whether or not we're going to be kept or there's prideful thoughts
of our own ability. Listen, when that thought enters
our minds, it's a trick. It's a trick. Satan came to Eve
and he said, have God said. You're not going to die. You're
not going to die. You'll be as God's. You'll be
like God. It is the wiles of the devil. Trickery. always a temptation to not believe
God, to not rest in Him, to not look at Him. The next problem
that comes up, it will be soon, it will be soon. The next battle
that comes up, recognize the source of it. Be strong in the Lord. Cast yourself
upon Him. Asking, Lord, help me. Lord,
I'm weak. You're strong. I'm telling you,
there's some settledness right there. When you recognize where
the problem's coming from, why does she treat me like this? Why do they do that? Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God.
that we might resist the wiles of the devil. I pray the Lord
bless these words to our heart. Give us some understanding for
Christ's sake. Amen.