Would you turn back to Ephesians
chapter 6? Last week we considered this
whole passage regarding the armor of God and next week we're going
to look at each piece of armor individually, one sermon at a
time. But tonight I want us to consider
why we are to put on this armor. And four times In this passage
of scripture I just read, we read the word stand. Verse 11, put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. Verse 13, wherefore we're taken
to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand,
not get knocked down to stay standing. On the evil day and
having done all to stand, stand therefore. I've entitled this
message, Here I Stand. Now, I generally hesitate to
use historical figures Religious figures even believers from the
past that are not in the Bible To make a point, but I'm going
to this morning or this evening to introduce this message 1521
500 years ago next year 1521 a German monk named Martin Luther
was put on trial in the Diet of Worms. It was
in Worms, Germany, and he was standing before King Charles
V, and he'd written many things that were contrary to what the
Catholic Church believed. And he was given the opportunity
to recant of all he had said. Take it back, and you'll be okay. Don't, and you are in trouble. It could have cost him his life.
And when he was called upon to recant and deny what he'd said,
he made this statement. My conscience is bound by the
word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other. Here I stand. Now, in the passage before us,
where we're told to put on the whole armor of God, it is to
stand, to not be knocked down, but to stand, having done all
to stand. Now, I love some of the pictures
of people standing in the scripture. I love to read of that woman
that was a sinner standing behind his feet. I love to think of that. Standing
behind his feet, weeping. And she evidently bowed down
because she washed his feet with her tears and wiped his feet
off with the hairs of her head. But the scripture says she was
standing. I love to think of that publican in the temple. The scripture said this was his
stance. He stood afar off, beating his breast, crying, God, be merciful
to me, thee, sinner. You know, I don't ever want to
be moved an inch from that standing, do you? I want to stand right
there with him. They're stood by the cross of
Jesus. All the disciples have fled.
All of them, the scripture says, forsook him and fled. These courageous disciples were
not very courageous then, but they're stood at the cross of
Jesus, Mary. the mother of Jesus, and her
sister, Mary, wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. I love to
think of those women standing at the cross. They wouldn't be
moved. Everybody else ran, but not these
women. We read in Acts chapter 17, Then
Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things you're too superstitious. You're
too religious is what that means. Oh, he stood and cried. I can see that on Mars Hill right
now. Paul standing. Now, the only
way we will stand is if we're enabled by God to stand. Amen? You know that's so. Acts chapter 26, verse 22, Paul
says, having obtained help of God, I continue. And that's the
same word translated stand. I stand. Having obtained help
by God, I stand unto this day, witnessing to the small and the
great, saying none other things than that which the prophets
and Moses did say should come, that Christ, listen to his message
to these people, that Christ should suffer. Not merely that
Christ suffered, but that he should suffer. Why should he
suffer? Because it's God's purpose. Because
he was guilty. The sins of his people became
his, so he became liable to the suffering for their sin. And
he should be the first to rise from the dead. Not merely that
he rose from the dead, but that he should be the first to rise
from the dead. Well, why should he be? Because
he put away sin. Because he completely satisfied
God. He should be the first to rise. from the dead. When Festus heard
him say this, he said, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much
learning hath made thee mad. And I'd love to have heard the
way Paul said this. I'm not mad, most noble Festus. I'm not the one who's mad. And the Lord will cause us to
stand and he's given us this armor. We considered each piece
last week, the belt of truth. Oh, there's no standing with
that, which is in the truth. He gave us the breastplate of
righteousness, his righteousness. What a breastplate that is to
have his actual righteousness as your personal righteousness
before God. He gave us the shoes that are
so comfortable, the preparation or the readiness of the gospel
of peace. Now, in order to stand or do battling, you have to have
shoes on. And the only shoes that make you ready are the gospel
of peace, the peace that he accomplished. And then we're given that shield
of faith. That's a body shield that quenches
all the fiery darts of the wicked. We're given for a helmet, salvation. You know what's going to protect
your head from every error? Salvation is of the Lord. Anything
that doesn't line up exactly with that is deceit and error
and sin. And then we're given the last
piece, the sword of the spirit, the
Bible, the word of God. Now, stand. Let's think of this
thing of standing. I don't know why I thought about
this, but when I was a kid, I lived in a neighborhood where there
were new houses going up all the time, and we'd always talk
about going to the dirt pile. That's what we called it, dirt
pile. They'd excavate for the basements, and there was a dirt
pile. And us boys in the neighborhood,
we'd play what's called king of the hill. And you'd stand
up there, and everybody'd be trying to knock you down, and
you'd try to be standing. I mean, always the strongest
guy could knock you down, but the end of that thing is to stand
and not be knocked down. Stand, therefore. Put on this
armor of God that you may stand. Now, in Philippians chapter 4,
verse 1, we read, and you can look this up, I'm just going
to read it. Philippians chapter 4 verse 1, stand fast in the
Lord. Now you want to find a place
to stand? Stand fast in the Lord. And that's the exact same thing
that John meant when he said abide in him. Stay in him. Don't be, don't go, don't leave,
stay in him. Never leave this. I reckon I
quote this two out of three servants and I don't apologize for it.
Paul said, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. Now that's all I want. That's
where my standing is in him so that all God sees when he sees
me. is his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I'm in him. John, when you read that passage
in Ephesians chapter two, I thought, we've had three resurrections.
Every believer's gonna experience three resurrections. The first
one was when he was raised from the dead. I was too. That's what
it said, quicken together with him. When he was raised from
the dead, everybody in him was raised. And we also experience
the spiritual resurrection when we're given life from the dead
and made to believe. And then that great in bodily
resurrection that's coming at the last day. But all that comes
because we were in him. Quickened together with him.
I want to stand and not be moved. All my salvation is in Christ
and I don't want to be found anywhere else. Now, on the night
that the Lord went through Israel to destroy the firstborn. Would you want to be outside
of that house? No. You'd want to be in the house
with the blood over the door. When God said, when I see the
blood, what was he looking for? The blood. Not your faith. When I see the blood, I will. Pass over you. I want to be in
that house, don't you? And I don't want to stick a finger
out a window. I want to simply have my standing in that house. My acceptance is holy in the
beloved, Ephesians 1, 6. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Now, here's my standing. I mean,
this is my standing. I want to stand by the grace
of God. I want to stand right here where
all God sees is Christ. I don't want anything else to
be seen. and I'm standing right there. Somebody says, what's
wrong with you, Pliny? That's why. That's why. I want to be
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nowhere else. That's my standing.
And then we read in Romans chapter 5, verse 2, this grace. I love the way he calls it, this
grace. This grace wherein you stand. Peter said in 1 Peter
5.12, true grace of God wherein you
stand. Stand fast, Paul said, in the
liberty. Now, what's liberty? Don't just
go on. What is liberty? You're liberated
when all your debts are paid and you don't owe anything. If there's anything you have
to come up with, there's no true liberty. There's no true freedom. And you're only at liberty when
you're doing what you want to do. You know what I want to do?
I want to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me
free. I want to stay in the house with the blood over the door.
I want to stand fast in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does
the Bible mean by grace? That's a good question. You know,
everybody uses the term the grace of God. I was listening to a
rock star being interviewed about his substance abuse problems.
And the man used the Lord's name in vain. The man obviously was
not a believer. The things he said contrary to
the gospel of the grace of God. But he said with regard to his
recovery from substance abuse, it's the grace of God. It's by
the grace of God I've recovered. Well, I hope the man has recovered.
But what is meant by the grace of God? Turn with me to Genesis
chapter six, first time the word's used. This is so important. Verse five. Now this is a verse, before I
read it, that everybody in this room ought to commit this one
to memory. And remember that this is God's description of
me, and this is God's description of you. And it's what God says. That's what's important. What
does God say? This is what God says. This is what God sees. And what God sees is what really
is. Amen? Meaning you can't see things. You can't see me, I can't see
you, or we put up a facade. But what God sees. Verse 5, and
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart Now, let
me stop for a moment. He's not even talking about the
works now. He's not talking about the actions. He's talking about
the thoughts of his heart, the thoughts of your heart, the thoughts
of my heart. The thoughts of your heart are
what you really are. Now, what did God see when he
looked into the heart of man? And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil, nonstop, continually. And when God looks at this sinner's
heart, every imagination that goes through it is only evil,
continually. That's God's testimony. Now,
I want to ask you a question. Is this talking about every man
or some men? Talking about every man. Somebody
says, was Noah included in that? Absolutely. Was Enoch included
in that? Absolutely. What about Abraham? Oh, yes. What about David? Ask
him. He'd say, yep, that describes
me. Verse 8. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. That's grace. You just read it.
But God, here's grace, but God, you were this, you were that,
but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together. with Christ. By grace ye are
saved. Now, grace, this grace wherein
I stand, grace is saving grace. It's not grace offered. It's
not grace made available. God didn't offer Noah grace.
God didn't say, here's grace, it's available to you if you
want it. Noah found grace. That's not talking about Noah
listening to it and finding it, looking for it and finding it.
That means God looked at Noah and gave him grace. He found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Every aspect of salvation is
by grace. And that's the only standing
that I have. We stand by grace. I don't stand
in my works. I don't stand in my preaching.
I don't stand in anything that has anything to do with me. I
stand in Christ. I stand in grace. The grace wherein you stand. And God's grace is independent. What's that mean? It means it's
not dependent upon you doing anything. Is that good news to you? There's
not something you need to do to make it work. God's grace
is saving grace. Every aspect of our salvation
is by grace. That is our standing. And then
in Romans 11 20, you can write this down, look it up later.
In Romans 11 20, it says thou standest by faith. You stand in Christ, You stand
in grace, you stand by faith. And then in 2 Corinthians 1,
24, we read, by faith you stand. Now what that means is you stand
by faith and not by works. It really is that simple. You
stand by faith and not by works. Here's what that means. Would
you turn with me to Romans chapter 3? Verse 19, now we know. Romans 3, 19, now we know. Now
there's some things we know. This is one of them. We know. Paul is speaking as the spokesman
for every believer when he says we. We know that whatsoever things
the law saith, It saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Now what happens when your mouth
is stopped? I got no excuses. All my sin
is all my fault. My mouth is stopped. I can't
argue against God, argue against my circumstances. My mouth is
stopped and you become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Now understand this about God's
holy law. I love God's holy law. I love the 10 commandments. But
let me tell you what the law does. All it lets you know is
you're a sinner. It didn't give you any power
to obey it. It just lets you know what you are. Somebody says,
shouldn't we try to keep the law? Well, I've kept it. In Christ, I've kept it. Why
would you try to keep it when you kept it? I've kept it, I
stand without guilt before the holy law of God, and the only
way you show true respect for the law of God is by looking
to Christ, and we're gonna see that in this passage of scripture.
Let's go on reading. But now, verse 21, the righteousness
of God. Without the law, without me doing
anything in and of myself, without my obedience to the law and my
person is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
the faith of Jesus Christ. You know, somebody had to believe
God perfectly. He kept God's law perfectly.
He believed him perfectly. He never doubted him. He said,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. How's your faith measure
up to that? What's no good, is it? He's the
one who believed God completely. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You know, when you, if
you have a translation that says by faith in Jesus Christ, you
ought to get rid of it. That's not what it says. by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all and upon all them that
believe. There's no difference. I love
to get to this passage because I love to say this. What's the
difference between the most moral man alive and the most immoral
man alive in God's sight? No difference. No difference. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom
God has set forth or foreordained to be a propitiation. What's
a propitiation? It's a sin removing sacrifice. The only propitiation is the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ because he actually removed the
sin to where it is no more. When he said it is finished,
it was gone. To declare his righteousness,
the propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness. that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. That's that standing
by faith. Now, Paul asks this question,
where is boasting then? In light of that passage of scripture,
what can you take credit for? What can you say, well, at least
I did this and this made me different. Where is boasting? It is excluded. It's completely shut out. By what law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. I love that term, the law of
faith. You know, this is a law that works in every believer's
heart. It's not something they decide to do. There's a law within
them. They have to believe the gospel.
They cannot not believe the gospel. Their old man never believes,
their new man always believes. It obeys the law of its nature,
the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it's one God which shall justify
the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith.
Do we make void the law through faith? Do we just throw the law
out through faith? God forbid. We establish. Now that word establish is the
same word translated stand. By faith, we make the law to
stand. It's a status. The only way you
can honor God's holy law is by believing the gospel. Anything
else is dishonoring to God's law. By faith you stand. Now let me remind you. You're always going to be tempted
to look in here for a standing. You're always going to be tempted
to look to how you're doing. How you're progressing. how you're not doing fill in
the blank anymore. That is anti-faith. That is looking to yourself.
That is salvation by works. That is what every one of us
are constantly tempted to do, to look in here. Faith is not what you think about
yourself. Faith is believing that he is
all in salvation. You stand by faith, not by works. You stand by faith. And then in Colossians chapter
four, verse 12, Paul talked about the pastor at Colossae praying
for the church that they would stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God. I love that. Stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God. Now, what's that mean? I beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And
be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
perfect and acceptable will of God. You want to know where to
begin there? He said in verse three, I say
to every man among you, don't think of yourself more highly
than you ought to think. Here's where to begin. There's
where to begin. You get there, everything's gonna
be fine. Don't think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. I'd
like you to look at this one with me. Verse one, moreover brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
you have also received. Don't miss that which I preached
to you. I'm declaring to you now what I've already declared
to you, what I've preached to you. There's been no modifying of the message. It's
the same message. I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein
you stand. And there's the word wherein
you stand. Now my only standing before God
is in the gospel, but that's not really what he's talking
about here. It's true. My standing is in the gospel. God's acceptance of me is because
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm in him. My sins put
away. I have his righteousness. He
died for our sins according to the scripture. That means he
put them all away. And my standing is in him. But this could just
as easily be and should be wherein you've made your stand. Wherein you've made your stand. Now it's true, I stand in the
gospel. I stand before God, perfect and
complete. But that's really not what this
passage of scripture is talking about. This is where our standing is. This is what we stand for. The
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Same thing as Paul saying, I've
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. I'm taking my stand publicly
before all men. I want to be identified with
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where in I stand.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of
God unto salvation. And this is where we take our
stand. By his grace, we're not backing
up here. There's one gospel, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going to allow it to
be watered down. We're not going to allow it to be modified, changed.
The gospel wherein we have taken our stand. I think of Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 23, where he exhorts us to hold fast the profession
of our faith And I'm not real sure why the translators called
it faith. It's hope. Let us hold fast the
confession, the profession of our hope without wavering. Now
what's my hope? I can say that so simply and
I will not back down from this. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ the died. That's all my hope. that Christ
lived for me, that he died for me, that he was raised for me.
That is my hope. And if you present the death
of Christ that takes that hope from me, I'm not standing for
it. Here's what I'm standing for,
my hope, the hope of the gospel, the place wherein we take our
stand. Turn with me to Jude chapter
1. There's only one chapter in Jude,
so just turn to the book of Jude, right before Revelation, second
to last book in the Bible. Verse 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling or now unto him that's able to keep
you standing. Same thing, isn't it? Let's go on reading. Now
unto him that's able to keep you from falling and to present
you. And here that word present is
the same word in the original translated stand. Now unto him
that's able to keep you standing, keep you from falling, keep you
standing, and to cause you to stand, get this imagery in your
mind, to cause you to stand faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. What a standing that is. to stand
before God erect, upright, not cringing in fear, but accepted
in the beloved, standing faultless before the presence of his glory. What a standing. One last scripture, Revelation
7. Verse nine, after this I beheld and lo a
great multitude which no man could number of all nations and
kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before
the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands and
cried with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God, which sitteth
upon the throne, and to the Lamb. I want to be singing that song,
don't you? I want to be standing in that great multitude that
no one can number, singing this great song. Now, if he's able to keep me
from falling and to make me stand faultless before the presence
of his glory. If he's able, that's the point.
Now unto him that's able, not unto you that are able, but unto
him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his throne. If he's able to do that, he's
able to cause me and you to be in this great heavenly choir. Now, God has given us this armor to cause us to stand. And here is the saying of every
believer with Martin Luther, my conscience is held captive
to the word of God. It's what I believe scripture
says. Here I stand. I don't think he was saying it
in defiance and boldness. I really don't think he was.
I think he was probably somewhat broken when he was saying this,
knowing what was going to happen. Here I stand. I can do no other. So help me God. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that our
standing is in Christ, enable us to stand fast in him. How
we thank you for the grace, thy grace, wherein we stand. And Lord, we know we stand by
faith only. And Lord, how thankful we are
that you're able to keep us from falling and cause us to remain
standing and to stand faultless before the presence of your glory
with exceeding joy. And Lord, how we look forward
to when time is no more and we're no longer dealing with
sin and sense, but we're in eternity standing before thy throne in
that great heavenly throng crying salvation unto our God and unto
the Lamb which sitteth upon the throne. Bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.