How to Stand Against the Enemy

Bibles turn to Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6, we've spent several weeks studying

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

the enemy and struggle with that some because it's not an attempt to glamorize the evil

one, to focus us on the evil one, but instead to educate us on the evil one because he's

dark and he's diabolical and he's deadly and he's dirty. Jesus told us in John 10, 10 that

he comes for the only reason, to steal and to kill and to destroy. I'm going to tell you

something, he don't want to give you a headache, he wants to ruin your life. He wants to set

your kids off course, he wants to ruin your marriage, he wants to upset your family, he

wants to weaken your church, he wants to blow your mind. He's not playing, he's dangerous

and dirty and he's not straightforward in how he does it. He's diabolical, he is not hurtful,

he's deadly. It's guerrilla warfare and it's filled with sabotage, filled with subversion.

He'll lie to you. He'll lie to you about you, even in ways that he'll quote scripture to you and

he'll twist and turn that scripture into mistruth or he'll misquote it to you. He'll fill you with

filth and then let you feel justified by it. He prowls around for an opportunity and then roars

as if he's unable to be defeated. And I want to be clear, he hates the gospel.

He hates the gospel and encourages false parodies of the real message of the gospel.

He blinds minds by the loud voices of public opinion, hot trends, current fads. His effort

is the same as it's always been and he fights to make your life worthless. He fights to make

your life baseless. He is at war and his time is limited and he knows it and he's like a wounded

animal. He only comes, it often comes when the devil continues to, it's a hellish battle and we get

weary in it, quite honestly. And that weariness comes sometimes when the devil does those body blows

throughout the normal day. And then there are those days, our scripture today calls it the evil day.

In those days, that's kind of the focus of our passage today. You don't have those days every day, but

somebody is having one today. There's a pain on every pew in this place. I don't know what that is,

but the reality is there's people hurting all around us. And it would help if we knew when those days

were coming because if we did, we'd get ready. Therefore, we have to prepare ourselves for whenever it is.

And when you do that, when you prepare for the bad day, the evil day, the life-changing day, when you

prepare for those rough days, you'll also prepare for the every day. I want you to see this this morning.

Ephesians chapter 6, beginning in verse 13, just verse 13, says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. The Lord wants us

to stand. Trials are going to come. Battles are going to come. Some of them are going to be nasty.

And we're responsible for this. We didn't talk about exposing the enemy for the last few weeks

to not prepare for the battle. And so we are to resist. Or as the scripture puts it here, we are to

stand. I want to tell you how to stand. We are to stand firmly, firmly. I want to be clear. The battle's

bigger than us. Let us not think that we have the stamina or the spiritual strength to stand in the

valley by ourself against the enemy on our own power. It's not going to happen. It's not in our

strength. Our feet are not going to stay planted. We will slip. We'll fall. We need help. And thank

God the Lord will provide you with all that you need. He'll provide me with all that I need. He'll

provide us with all that we need. We can rely on him because he knows the battle plan. He understands

the enemy. He's stronger and better than the enemy. And it's our responsibility to follow

the Lord's instructions and to come out with victory. However, it is not a light manner.

I'm not speaking of stepping deeper into your Christian faith so you can be with the Christian

elite. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about warfare, folks. I'm simply talking about winning.

And sometimes winning is pretty and sometimes it's not. But folks, we got to win this.

We got to stand firm. When I, Gideon was challenged by God to take on the Midianites. And I try to say

that carefully because I preached on that one morning and we had a group of builders from the

Mennonite church that attended our congregation that morning. And I kept talking about how we need to

defeat the Midianites. And they got offended by me because I thought I was talking about the Mennonites.

But anyway, he had an army of 32,000. And he told them, if you're scared, on the Lord's instruction,

he said, if you're scared, go home. And 10,000 were left.

I spoke to football teams on Friday afternoon for about 30 years. And when I gave to this story,

I'd always say, men, if you're scared, go home. Tell the coach because you won't amount to anything

on a ball field if you're scared. You won't hold on to the ball. You won't catch the ball.

You won't make the impact. Go home. You're not going to help us. And church, let me tell you

something. If we flinch in the battle, we are not standing firmly and we are susceptible to fall.

Period. There's no excuses. We have to stand firmly. We also have to stand completely,

completely. Take up the whole armor of God. And we'll talk about the pieces of this armor

in the next few weeks, about how the truth holds everything together and how righteousness protects

us, how we need to be ready with the gospel and letting our faith lead and trusting in our salvation.

And we'll talk about the fact that the only offensive weapon that we have is the Word of God.

That's it. The sword of the Word of God. However, I want you to know from the get-go that we don't

need to, we don't cherry pick through the spiritual attributes that we'd like to have. We don't

cherry pick through our strengths. We don't cherry pick through our resources that we're hoping to

lean on. The reality is the army that we represent establishes the battle gear. We strap on what the

commander tells us to strap on and we need to be able to stand in the evil day. Now, when it speaks of

the evil day, it's not talking about the last spiritual battle on earth, it's not talking about

the last day of some apocalyptic battle. It talks about any day regardless. And we don't know when

that day's coming. Remember the strategy of the evil one. If you understand his strategy,

you'll know that he hits when you least expect it.

You got to gird up every day, not just for certain days. And when you do that, you'll be prepared for

when those certain days come along. And he can hit at any time. When I was in seminary, I lived in South

Mississippi and met my wife and we married. And shortly after that, we moved to South Carolina.

And I don't remember, I'm sure they had them, but I don't remember a tornado siren in South Mississippi.

Maybe I was just too busy doing Greek and Hebrew and commuting to New Orleans. I don't know, but I

don't remember that. But when I moved to North Mississippi, they had tornado sirens. And I'd never

heard that before. And so what I was familiar with was a nuclear siren, for instance, you know.

And so when we were in our first storm like that, that siren went off and we had a yard full of trees

and so we got in the car, got the dog in the car, got some sorry weather radio that we bought on sale

and put it in the car, found out how sorry it was during that storm. And we went to the church because

outside of my study was a closet that was made of cinder block and there was no trees around. So we

we hunkered down right in the middle of that facility to watch and see what was going on.

But when we were on our way there, the siren was getting louder and louder and louder. And that was

new to me. I didn't quite understand that. And I thought this tornado is chasing us.

And what I didn't realize is the siren's not hooked to the tornado. It's hooked to the pole that we were

driving near. And as we got closer to the pole, the louder it got. That's how freaked out we were.

My family will freak me out like that. I'm supposed to be the calm one. They panic and get me fired up.

And in the midst of that, in 2011, we had catastrophic storms in our county. Two tornadoes,

12 hours apart, crossed paths with each other, killing people, destroying homes. It was horrible.

And FEMA came in, or as the old boy in the church called her, FEMA, came in. But when he broke his

leg, he said he broke his FEMA. So I think he got mixed up. But anyway, but FEMA came in and said,

if you can buy a storm shelter and we'll pay you back, it was either 75 or 80 percent of the money.

So we went into prayerful discussion of whether the government ever pays you back

and bought a storm shelter, big concrete block made by a septic tank company. Basically,

two septic tanks put on top of each other with a big door inside of it. Basically what it was.

And we put it behind a building in the backyard. And I told my family, I said, I bought that building

so y'all can go out there when the storm comes. Leave me in the house to die. I'd rather die in the house

and be in that box with y'all. So that's...

But in 1936, Tupelo, Mississippi was wiped away. They didn't have sirens.

An F-5 tornado came through and leveled 48 city blocks. Up to a thousand homes were destroyed

and at least 216 people died. Among the survivors was a one-year-old boy named Elvis. Elvis Presley.

Now, what was the difference? An F-5 and no warning. Even when we bought that big old concrete block

and put it in the backyard, they told us, we don't guarantee this against an F-5. They're different.

Two-by-four will go through solid concrete and an F-5. I don't understand that. I'm just

telling you what the salesman told me. I'm sure he was telling the truth.

You can't even completely prepare for that tornado. But if you don't know it's coming,

there's little you can do to prepare yourself and be saved.

And I want you to understand something. I prepared this message two weeks ago in preparation

for last Sunday. Seven o'clock Sunday morning. God changed my tune last Sunday morning and I preached

a different message. I had no idea when I put this image in this slideshow of what we would experience

over the last few days. What North Carolina, looks a lot like that in some cases, would experience.

We had some warning. Not quite three feet of water coming into a valley. That didn't prepare us for

that. I remember seeing 12 to 15 inches. But we had some warning. But Tupelo had no warning.

Didn't know it was coming. And it so devastated that area and they became so familiar with it that it got

their attention. Because tornadoes often go in the same places often. And it's went through tornado.

We lived 15 years in North Mississippi and Tupelo got hit hard at least twice in that amount of time.

Interesting to see how that happens. Let me tell you something. The devil comes rolling through like a tornado

and we don't know when. There's not a siren that goes off.

But we can prepare for it. And the key is to always be ready. He's a prowler and he's a lurker and so he

knows when to hit. He knows when you're on your game. He knows when you're not. He can come at you as a

roaring lion, clawing as he knocks you off your feet. Or he can come as an angel of light,

camouflaged as something good and seductively and luringly lead you away but with a venomous bite.

He'll come after you when you're tired.

He'll come after you when you're depressed.

He'll come after you when you're discouraged. He'll come after you when you're disgruntled.

He'll come after you when you're not feeling good.

We don't have power yet.

We live right here in the city. We don't have power.

We've been picked out about five people that don't have power.

Right there in our little area.

And I am thankful.

I am thankful that I'm not experiencing what so many other people

are experiencing. I am very thankful for that.

But I'm just going to tell you, I heard that generator one too many times.

Yesterday morning. And it just got me.

It just got me. And I began to feel myself

just kind of sinking.

This is getting old.

And I realized

the evil one just

just wants to mess me up

so I can mess other people up

and not be on my game.

It's what he does.

He'll hit you.

When things aren't right.

When it ain't fair.

He'll hit you.

He carefully strategizes.

He customizes his plan of action against us.

He aims at us

at the right time

and the right place

and the right method.

If you don't think you're being watched

you don't need to worry about big brother.

You need to worry about the evil one.

He keeps up with

our weaknesses

and our strengths.

Sees us when we feel like we're too confident.

Knows when we're on guard.

How do you combat that?

How do you combat that?

Well, you stay ready.

You stay ready with a sense of urgency.

You don't just put pieces of the armor on.

You put the whole armor on.

Not just the helmet.

Not just the mouthpiece.

Not just the padded pants.

You play a ball game

you got to put it all on.

When I was in high school

we had a running back.

Man, that guy could outrun anybody.

If we could just get him to the corner

nobody could beat him down the sidelines.

We were braggadocious.

We were 5-0.

We were ruling the roost

because that boy could run.

Nobody could catch him.

He's a track star.

He was little as he could be.

You couldn't even see him.

But man, he could move the ball.

You could see the ball.

As the season went on

he got popped a few times

and stopped running

and we started losing.

So it kind of changed everything.

But I remember one time he ran

and he got tackled

and his helmet broke.

And the coach said,

Renga!

That's what they called me.

Renga!

So I said,

Well, I'm not a running back

but I'm ready to serve.

I said,

Yes sir.

He said,

Give me your helmet.

The boy can't go out there

with half an outfit.

He's got to have the whole thing.

I won that ball game that night.

Put the whole armor on.

We've got to stand completely, folks.

We've got to stand victoriously.

The scripture says,

Having done all to stand.

That means fully equipped.

That means ready and carrying through.

When the fourth quarter comes

people raise up the four.

You know why?

Because games are won or lost

in the fourth quarter.

You can blow it

or you can win it

in the fourth quarter.

You've got to keep playing.

And if you're in battle,

you've got to keep fighting.

John F. Kennedy,

our 35th president,

was a commissioned naval officer

in World War II.

And in August 1943,

the patrol torpedo boat

that he was in charge of,

PT boat 109,

that he commanded,

was rammed and sunk

by an enemy destroyer

near the Japanese-held

Solomon Islands.

And he and another officer

swam from one enemy-occupied island

to another

looking for friendly islanders.

They finally found some.

They got a message back

to the U.S. forces.

And those in that ship were saved.

It was a heroic act.

And Kennedy was known

as a war hero because of it.

And when they asked him afterwards,

how did you do it?

He said it was involuntary.

They sank my boat.

He had to.

And I'm telling you folks,

listen, child of God,

this ain't an option.

To fail at this

is spiritual treason.

And there are no

participation trophies.

I'm sorry.

1 Corinthians 16, 13, 14

says this.

Be watchful.

Stand firm in your faith.

Act like men.

Be strong.

Let all that you do

be done in love.

Listen, the thief comes

when you least expect it.

So you need to stand firm

in your faith.

You have to trust God.

You have to follow his lead.

The Apostle Paul warned us,

and I've read this passage before,

and I'll read it again.

I think you ought to

hang your hat on it.

1 Corinthians 10, 13,

no temptation has overtaken you

except what's common to man.

You are not an exception

to the rule.

The devil plays the same games

with all of us,

quite honestly.

God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability,

but thank God.

But with the temptation,

he'll provide the way of escape

that you may be able

to endure it.

God will step in

if we'll turn to the Lord.

This passage in 1 Corinthians

16, 13, 14 says,

stand firm in your faith.

And then it says,

act like men.

And sadly,

we live in a day

when I need to explain

what that means.

The feminization of America

requires me to be clear,

and I'll probably upset someone.

I'm sorry,

but I'm going to tell the truth.

When Scripture says,

act like men,

it means act like someone

who will protect

what's precious to him.

When it says act like men,

it means act like somebody

who will be courageous

when the enemy comes,

somebody who will be valiant,

somebody who will stand their ground.

And then it goes on

in the next phrase

to say,

be strong.

Don't quit.

We have a lot of males today

that quit.

They quit on their family.

They quit standing

for what is right.

They quit living morally.

They quit having a zeal

for the Lord.

And it's a sad sight to see,

to see somebody

who walked with the Lord faithfully

and just tapered off over time

and now is distant from the Lord

and don't even recognize it.

I meet with men

on Tuesday mornings,

every Tuesday morning

at 6 a.m.

and at 9 a.m.

to basically say,

don't quit.

Men, don't quit.

Don't quit.

You get tired,

I'm tired too,

but don't quit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

says this,

the hero is no braver

than an ordinary man.

He's just brave

five minutes longer.

You stand until the fight's done.

You don't back up.

Faithful to the end

from this day forward.

Because I want you to remember,

ladies and gentlemen,

you're not fighting for victory.

You're fighting from victory.

Christ has already won.

And because he's won,

we can claim that.

He has,

1 John 4,

1 John 4:4

verse 4 says,

he who is in you

is greater

than he who's in the world.

And because he's won,

thank God,

your faith in him

will lead us

to victory.

We're to stand victoriously.

Lastly,

we're to stand gloriously.

How do you stand?

You put the whole armor on.

What a powerful statement

that armor is.

It's like a military man

dressed in dress blues,

but yet still ready for battle.

The armor reeks of power.

The Apostle Paul

is who penned these words,

and he's intimately aware

of the Roman army.

He was chained

to a Roman guard in prison.

He knows what they wear.

He knows that they represent,

at the time,

the greatest army of the world.

He knows that they dominated

the known world for a time.

Their reputation

went before them.

Roman soldiers

had the respect

not only of their own citizens,

they had the respect

of the rest of the world.

Their military army

was not wasteful.

It was not inconsistent.

It didn't waver.

The authority

of all the empire

was represented

by the armor

of the Roman soldier.

But folks,

we're not talking

about the power

of the Roman army

in our situation.

We're not talking

about the prestige

of the Roman army

in our situation.

We're not talking

about the reputation

of the Roman army

in our situation.

We are,

I am telling us

to stand

in the strength

of the strongest army

in the known world

for a season.

We're talking about

putting on

the full armor of God.

You want to stand

in the might of God?

You want to stand

victorious for the Lord?

You want the power

of God working

through your lives

to win the daily battles,

to deal with

the daily struggle,

to fight all hell

when temptation hits,

when difficulty comes,

when worldliness seeps in?

If we do that,

then we're to put on

not the mighty armor

of Rome,

but the glorious,

almighty,

ever victorious armor

of a living Lord

who came and lived

and died on a cruel cross

and rose again

so that we could stand

gloriously in the midst

of spiritual battles

we face.

I'm telling you

we ought to gloriously

stand for the Lord.

1 Peter 5,

9 through 11,

I've leaned on a lot

the last few weeks.

I've shared it a lot

and I don't apologize

for that.

Resist Him.

Firm in your faith

and after you've suffered

a little while

the God of all grace

who's called you

to His eternal glory

in Christ,

listen to what He'll do

for you.

with Himself restore,

will Himself restore,

confirm,

strengthen,

and establish you.

To Him

be dominion

forever and ever.

Amen.

How do we stand

victorious?

Only in Christ.

And when we turn

that over to the Lord,

whatever it is, folks,

I'm not making light

of it.

I know in your life

it may be very serious,

it may be very weighty,

it may be very difficult

to deal with.

There are beat down,

shackled people

in this room.

I don't know who you are,

but I know how

the evil one is.

And I'm telling you,

whatever that is,

turn that over

to the Lord

and we win.

Revelation 12, 11

says that we'll conquer

Satan by the blood

of the Lamb

and by the word

of the testimony.

Stand firm

in the Lord.

Not just in the major battles,

not just when

all is on the line,

not just when you feel

an added weight.

Stand firm

in the Lord daily.

Stand firm

in the Lord

right now.

Stand firm

when you leave

this place.

Stand firm

when you feel

like you're alone.

Stand firm

when Monday

hits you right

in the face.

Stand firm

when your pet sin

that you've been

nursing creeps back in.

Stand

for the Lord.

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 2:15–17

2 verse 15

through 17

says this.

So then brothers,

stand firm

and hold

to the traditions

that you were

taught by us

either by our

spoken word

or by our letter.

In other words,

the word of God.

Now may our Lord

Jesus himself

and God our Father

who loved us

and gave us

eternal comfort

and good hope

through grace

comfort your hearts

and establish

in every good

work

and word.

May God

lead us

and may we

stand with Christ

and be victorious

gloriously

not for our honor

but for

his honor.

With every head bowed

and every eye closed,

I want to ask you today,

has there ever been

a time in your life

when you've surrendered

your life

to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's asking

to forgive you

of your sins

and to come into

your life

and to change you

and you've committed

your life to Christ.

Seven people

we baptized this morning

have all committed

their life to Christ.

Surrender to the Lord.

That's the only way

you're going to have

strength to fight

the battles

in which you do.

The devil will try

his best to deceive you

to keep you

from making a commitment

to Christ.

You can't live up to it.

Well,

he's right.

You can't live up to it

but thank God

by the blood of the Lamb

he gives us the strength to.

You surrender your life

to the Lord today

and he'll give you

victory in your life.

Maybe you're here

and you have done that

and you never acknowledge

the Lord through baptism.

Every time we baptize people

it leads somebody else

to do the same.

Jesus by his commission

and by his example

told us

that we're to proclaim

our faith

through baptism.

It's a first step

of obedience

for a believer.

If you've never been baptized

you come.

I'll talk to you about that

we'll line that up.

Maybe God's leading you

to First Baptist Church.

God's doing a wonderful work

in our church

and I thank God for that.

God's drawing you

I encourage you

to just respond.

I'll guide you

in that process.

Maybe you're here

and you're just shackled

you're just burdened.

You just got stuff going on.

You're having trouble standing.

I want you to know

we're here today

to encourage you

to call upon the Lord

and let him hold you up.

We can be victorious.

We can get through this

and I encourage you

to follow the Lord Jesus.

Do exactly what

he's told you to do.

I don't know

what God's speaking to you about

but I encourage you

to simply be obedient

and do exactly

what he tells you to do.

Nothing more

or nothing less

and he'll be honored

and he'll be pleased

and he'll give you

the strength to do

exactly what he's told you to do.

Lord Jesus I love you

and I thank you

for these dear people.

I ask that you'll move

and you'll work right now

and help us to follow

your lead

in everything that you tell us to.

Give us a courage

that's beyond ourselves dear God.

Be clear to us

in what you'd have us to do

and give us the strength

to do it Father I pray

in Jesus precious name.

Amen.

Stand together.