Stand Firm Series

INTRODUCTION

Praise the Lord. God has brought us by His grace to a new year. The theme that God has given me for the church is to Stand Firm.

Ephesians 6:10-13 10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

The year 2020 saw a lot of unexpected challenges in the world due to Covid-19.

A child of God faces challenges from the world outside, the circumstances around us, and also the spiritual war the enemy, the devil wages against us.

The only way a God’s child can go forward in life is by standing firm in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul gives three commands for us within verses 10-13: stand firm, be strong, and put on the whole armour of God.

Paul gives three commands for us within verses 10-13:

Stand Firm

Be Strong

Put On The Whole Armor Of God

As Paul closes the letter to the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, he speaks of a great struggle that lies before every believer. The world is a battleground. There is a war between God and Satan. We see it in many places in Scripture, perhaps no more clearly than in the book of Job, where Satan and God are in conflict verbally. The whole thing, since the fall of man, since the curse entered into the earth is warfare.

Our opponent is not a fellow human but rather a host of demonic forces of evil belonging to the realm of the spirit. Schemes of the devil are death and destruction through temptation and accusation of sin.

Christian life is a struggle, a battle, a wrestling match, as Paul calls it in Ephesians 6:12, and so we literally exist as believers in a life-and-death struggle.

We get so wrapped up in our little things that we forget what warfare is going on.

Paul had battles:

1 Corinthians 16:8-9 8But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.

In the midst of warfare, how we do have victory?

1. We Have Strength In The Lord to Stand Firm

Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Strength means physical power, and toughness. We have God’s strength. His strength is the issue. God is our strength. No matter how strong our enemy is, God’s strength is superior.

The church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3 is a good church. In fact, it’s only the church at Smyrna and the church at Philadelphia to which no condemnation was given. This was a righteous community of faith and our Lord says to them Revelation 3:8 See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.

This was a church that was reaching out, a church that was blessed by God and the angel says in

Revelation 3:8 I know that you have little strength.

You know what’s beautiful about that is the fact that even a little strength preserves the church. God is so much more powerful than Satan that a little of his strength is enough to overcome all of the enemy’s schemes against us in 2021.

1 John 4:4 Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And so the smallest amount of divine power can overcome the greatest amount of the power of hell and the enemy and so the strength is ours in the Lord.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Again the resource is ours.

I believe at the cross Jesus Christ gave a death blow to Satan as recorded in

Hebrews 2:14-15 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

He destroyed him who had the power of death and I believe all we need to do is enter into that victory. Listen, if Christ defeated Satan at the cross and if I am in Christ, then I have the power to defeat Satan. Satan is going to be forever defeated under our feet. Romans 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.