The Strength of the Lord

The threat of sin within and among those who make up the Bride of Christ has existed since the beginning, and the danger of wolves is something we are warned about throughout the Bible.  In fact, after three years of strengthening the Ephesian Church through the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word, Paul warned: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.  I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:28-30).  Years after Paul had left Ephesus, Timothy served as their pastor and in his final letter before Paul was executed by Rome, he warned Timothy of difficult days ahead—days I believe we find ourselves in today:

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these. For among them are those who slip into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Tim. 3:1–7)

      

The threat we face is also individual and internal!  The desires of your own sinful flesh are the most immediate and present threat you face!  We are warned: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (1 John 2:15–16). This is why Paul pleaded with the Ephesian Christians to be diligent is how they lived and walked: “Be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16).

 

Although there are wolves who sneak in from the outside and there are real dangers from within, Paul wants us to understand the nature of those threats in Ephesians 6:10-13,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (Eph. 6:10–13)

 

The very real dangers we face as followers of Jesus includes wolves from the outside and our flesh and sin from within; however, our struggle is cosmic, and it is with the realm of the demonic!  My hope and plan for the weeks to come is to not only help you appreciate just how real our struggle is, but to offer you practical ways you can remain strong, stand against the schemes of the devil, and resist the spiritual forces of darkness by standing firm in your faith as a Christian. 

 

We are at War!

Today, I want to turn our attention to Ephesians 6:10, but before I do, you need to understand that if you are a Christian, you are engaged in a cosmic war!  It is a war that Paul categorizes as a “struggle.”  The Greek word Paul uses for “struggle” is palē (πάλη) which is a word used to describe what is involved in close hand-to-hand combat.  In close hand-to-hand combat, you have no choice, for you must chose to fight against the one who wants to harm you, or you must surrender to slavery or even death.  Before you were a Christian, you were, “dead in your offenses and sins...” (Eph. 2:1); according to Ephesians 2:2-3, you behaved and acted as one in agreement with the one who commands and orders the demonic realm against God and His creation: “Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath” (v. 3).

 

Jesus said, “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matt. 16:18).  Out of God’s rich mercy, great love, and all-sufficient grace, you were rescued, ransomed, and redeemed through the cross of Christ.  If you are a Christian, it is because God made you alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5).  Through Jesus, God rescued you from your sin and Satan and according to Ephesians 2:6-7, He “raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  What we learn from the first three chapters in Ephesians is that the battle over our souls has been decisively and categorically won by Jesus!  However, the prince of the power of the air, the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness want to do whatever they can to take you out by any means necessary! 

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones rightly said, “There is no grosser or greater misrepresentation of the Christian message than that which depicts it as offering us a life of ease with no battle and no struggle at all.... The first thing we must realize is that the Christian life is a warfare, that we are strangers in an alien land, that we are in the enemy’s territory.”[1]  According to Paul, this is a warfare that we are in, it is a warfare we have to engage, it is a warfare that is ongoing, and it is a warfare with demonic cosmic forces that are determined to fight until the very end.  However, our strength to fight comes from a power that is not our own!

 

 

Our War Requires Us to Be on High Alert

In order to fight and to engage the spiritual war we find ourselves in, we must be alert, and we must be strong!  The very first word is, “Finally.” After all that he has written about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ that have been filled with doctrinal exhortations, firm warnings, and great encouragements, the apostle saved what we read in Ephesians 6:10-18 for last not because it is least important but because of the great threat that faces Christ’s Church!  The word “finally” is Paul’s bugle call for the Christians to assemble for action!  As Sam Storms observed in his book on spiritual warfare: “There is never a truce or ceasefire.  Satan takes no holidays.  He observes no Sabbath rest. There may be times of greater or lesser intensity, but never a time to relax or let down your spiritual guard.”[2]

 

Notice where Ephesians 6:10 is placed!  It is strategically and intentionally placed just after the section in Ephesians where Paul explains what a Christ-centered marriage looks like, how Christlikeness ought to be displayed in parent and child relationships, and how we can be Christ-like through our work.  It was through the institution of marriage, one of the great gifts of God, that Satan attacked for the purpose of destroying the relationship Adam and Eve were created to enjoy with God and each other and how their sin affected their children and how they managed the earth through work. 

 

When Eve was tempted by the serpent while Adam stood and watched, their struggle was not only with flesh and blood, but with the demonic cosmic forces of evil! When Cain murdered Abel, his struggle was not only with flesh and blood, but with the demonic cosmic forces of evil, and it has been that way ever since!  Do not miss how it was that the demonic cosmic forces of evil attacked Adam and his family.  Satan did not tempt Adam and Eve while they were on high alert and actively engaged in the work of God, he tempted them while they were both idol and their spiritual senses were dull.  When Cain decided to murder Abel, he increasingly became insensitive to the things that pleased God until he finally caved to the sin that God warned was lurking at the door of his heart, and instead of mastering it, he gave into his sin and murdered his younger brother (see Gen. 4:1-8). 

 

We will talk about this more when we look at verse 11 and how it is we can stand against the devil’s schemes, but for now I will say that you cannot expect to walk with wisdom or in a manor worthy of your calling as a born again follower of Jesus if you are not on high alert and ready for the kind of hand-to-hand combat that is always before you Christian! You may not be able to see the devil or his demonic hoards with your physical eyes, but as John Stott once wrote: “Beneath the surface, an unseen spiritual battle is raging”^[3]

 

Our War-Time Strength is From God’s Might

Now, notice the urgency in the apostle’s language! First a command: “Be strong” (v. 10), then “stand firm” (v. 11), “resist” (v. 13a), “stand firm” (v. 13b), and then another command: “Stand firm” (v. 14).  But how are we to be strong, how are we to stand firm, how are we to resist?  We are to do it in the power of the God who raised Jesus from the grave! The Greek word Paul uses for “strong” is the same word he uses in Ephesians 1:19.[4]  The point is that the source of our power does not come from within, but from an infinitely greater power source!  Remember Paul’s prayer for the Christian at the beginning of his epistle: “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will 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 boundless greatness of His power toward us who believe.” Then Paul uses the same language in Ephesians 1:19-20 that he uses in 6:10, consider the apostle’s carefully chosen words in 1:19-20 again: “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places...” Our power comes from His might and nowhere else!  It doesn’t come from our talents, it doesn’t come from our skills, it doesn’t come from our education, and it doesn’t come from how many verses of the Bible we fill our brains with; all those things are good, but they are not the place from where we draw our power! 

 

We have got to get this straight in our churches and especially at Meadowbrooke!  We have seen several pastors fall recently, three of the men that come to mind have had such a profound impact upon my life such as Ravi Zacharias, Tony Evens, and just this week... Steven Lawson! I have the books these men have written on my bookshelves, I have listened to scores of their sermons, and their ministries have ended due to sexual sin!  For five years Steven Lawson preached in his church and at huge conferences while maintaining an affair with a woman a third of his age. 

 

There have been many Christian song writers and worship leaders who have either renounced their faith in the name of deconstruction and we have sung their songs with the impression that they were motivated by God.  It is possible to have a demonized or even a wolf in sheep’s clothing lead in our worship services and assume his motivations are pure when instead they are predatory.  Oh how easy it is to trust in skill, and charm, and beauty, through what we see and feel and assume the power is from God when it is not from Him.  How easy it is to become idol while our spiritual senses dull to the onslaught of the demonic! 

 

In Ephesians we are told repeatedly where it is that our source of power must come from if we are going to, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (4:1).  Notice where it is that Christ is seated in Ephesians 1:21-23; He is seated, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:21-23).  Do you know what that means?  What it means is that He has conquered the rulers, powers, the world forces of this darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places!  They are all under the heel of His omnipotent foot!  All the might you will ever need to be strong, to stand firm, and to resist in the evil day is in Jesus. 

 

However, if you are not abiding in Jesus, if you are not pursuing Jesus, if He is not to your life and breath, then you will grow dull in your spiritual senses!  If God’s word is not the truth you are putting into your spiritual veins, if you are feeding your mind and soul more of what this world wants you to consume, if you are more interested in playing than you are in preparing to stand before Jesus... then you are easy prey for the enemy to devour! 

 

If you are a Christian, you have been chosen by God to be holy and blameless in Jesus (1:4-6). If you are a Christian, you have been redeemed through the blood of the Lamb of God for another city God has for you (1:7-12).  If you are a Christian, you have been sealed by God’s Holy Spirit and have all of the Holy Spirit you will ever need to live in the kind of divine power to stand firm against the devil and his schemes (1:13-14).  How much of your heart does the Father have?  How much of your allegiance does the Son have?  How much of your life does the Holy Spirit have? 

 

What changes can you make to be more alert and to stand in the strength of almighty God?  Permit me to make some recommendations:

• Cut back on the time you spend on social media or what have on your watch list, and read your Bible more...

 

• Instead of being consumed by secular music, listen more to praise music during the week. Music is in our DNA, and it is something we will enjoy throughout eternity, so start filling your mind and heart with praise now.

 

• Pray! If you are not used to praying, start by praying the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4).  If you only pray a few minutes out of day, add another five minutes to your prayer time.  If you do not have a time scheduled to pray, find a time in the day and spend 5,10,15, 30 minutes, or more in prayerful conversation with God.

 

• Finally, remember that your strength is not in your ability, skills, or talents when it comes to what God wants to do in your world. Our strength must come from God’s might!  Maybe instead of rushing for a solution to fix whatever is the biggest problem you are facing in your life, you should do what we read in Psalm 46:10-11,

“Stop striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth.” The Lord of armies is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold.”

 

[1] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13, (Grand Rapids, MI: BakerBooks; 1976), p. 21.

[2] Sam Storms, Understanding Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective; 2021), p. 290.

^[3] Tony Merida, Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 175.

[4] In Ephesians 1:19, Paul uses dynamis (power); in 6:10, he uses endynamoō (strong).  Both words are from the same root.