Resist and Surrender
Text: Ephesians 6:10-18
OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING
Before we get into our sermon this morning, I want to ask you all a question: Do you think that in 1945, when our soldiers and sailors were coming home after fighting Hitler’s Nazi Germany, that they thought, or even hoped that the world would be like it is today? I mean, how many of those men and women who gave so much storming the beaches of Normandy, or fighting in the Pacific, or in Northern Africa against Rommel… how many of them would’ve ever imagined that we would be as we are today? I’m going to go out on a limb and say – NONE OF THEM.
What about veterans returning from the Korean War? Or Vietnam? I can tell you this – my dad was a Vietnam vet, and I remember as a kid asking him, “Dad, why did you join the Marines and go fight in Vietnam?” And he said to me, and I’ll never forget it as long as I lived, “Because it was better to go fight Communism over there, and hopefully stop it over there, than let it come here and have to fight it here.” How many of you ever thought that when the Berlin Wall came down, and for all intents and purposes, it looked like Communism had taken a fatal head wound as the former Soviet Union collapsed, that Democracy, and Capitalism, and Freedom had finally won the war? And if you remember that time – President Reagan saying, “Mr. Gorbachev – Tear Down That Wall.” And the wall coming down, and Communism collapsing upon itself… how many of you thought or could’ve even imagined that we would be where we are today?
I think the problem was… and still is… that we often times forget, or fail to understand that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Eph. 6:12) And so the physical forces and nations, that were trying to implement certain ideas, and philosophies, and beliefs, were defeated, but the actual ideas, and philosophies, and beliefs still remained.
So let me back up, and give you all a little bit of history, and then we’ll get into our text.
In 1848 Karl Marx published his Communist Manifesto. At that time, it was primarily an economic theory, but Marxism spread to every aspect of life. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his book, “On the Origin of Species”. Now understand that both of these books were published before the American Civil War… Both of those books attacked foundational principles that we find in the Book of Genesis. They attacked the ideas that God is Creator, that man is a special creation of God, that God even exists, that man is supposed to make his living from the seat of his brow, and that the fruits of his labor are his own, not someone elses. They attacked the dignity and value of work and vocation.
In 1884, a group known as the Fabian Society was created by a collection of Socialists and Communists, it included notable people like H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and Eleanor Marx (the daughter of Karl Marx), and they began making plans for a New World Order – A Communist Utopia so to speak… and in order to bring this about, they had to get control of the world’s finances, so in 1895 they founded the London School of Economics, which began pumping out world leaders – Bankers, Politicians, Educators, and others. They called this the “Open Conspiracy” and Wells even wrote a book about it in 1928, and it wasn’t about these nations and states… it was about these ideas and beliefs and they knew that it would evolve out of Socialism and Communism.
They began to push ideas of peace… not real peace, false ideas and notions of peace.
In 1931 Russian students at the Lenin School of Political Warfare in Moscow were told, and I quote, “One day we shall start to spread the most theatrical peace movement the world has ever seen. The Capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will fall into the trap offered by the possibility of making new friends. Our day will come in 30 years or so…” That was the 1960’s counter-cultural movement. Peace and Love man….
And then finally; in 1933 we see the First Humanist Manifesto published… Co-Authored by John Dewey (The Father of American Education) and C.F. Potter. I want to read you a quote from Potter. He said, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American public school is a school of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday schools, meeting for an hour once a week, teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?”
Now I’ve said all of that, and we’ve gone through all of that… albeit very briefly, because I want you to see and understand, that everything we see happening in our world today, Critical Race Theory, riots, protests, insane economic policies like the Green New Deal - that are in-affect destroying western nations, homosexuality, transgenderism, Relativism, Communism, Marxism, – all of those things… they didn’t just happen or come about overnight. What we’re seeing in our world today is a long, thought out, plan of attack against the values, beliefs, ideas, and culture of western society, and specifically against Christianity. Against Christian thought. Against Christian morals. Against Christian values.
What I’m saying is – there is a war happening, and I’m not talking about the one in Ukraine. Now there’s no doubt in my mind that what we see happening in Ukraine is a physical manifestation of this larger, spiritual war. But this war is also here. It’s right here in Oklahoma. It’s a war for you, for your family, for your kids. It’s a war for your finances, a war for your mind, a war for your devotion. Anything and everything that you could and should give to God, this enemy wants it. He wants your spouse, he wants your kids, he wants your finances, he wants your love and adoration and devotion. He wants your obedience – YOU MUST COMPLY – or else! He wants your time and your talent. Isn’t it amazing how many people there are out there, and God has given them an amazing gift, like the ability to sing, or amazing athletic ability, or a brilliant mind, and they use those gifts for selfish, sinful, reasons… they use those God given gifts to become famous, or to get wealth, or to gratify their own sinful desires. Parents will exploit their children’s gifts in order to make money. I’m thinking of people like Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus… and it’s horrible the damage that does to a young person.
But that’s what the devil does – he wants anything and everything you could give to God.
So there’s a war… it’s not a conspiracy theory – it’s a fact. And this war has been raging since the Garden of Eden, when Satan said to Eve, “Did God really say…?”
What can we do? Let’s open our Bibles. We’re going to be reading Ephesians 6:10-18.
God’s Word equips us for this war. It alone is sufficient and provides us all we need to not only fight this war, but to find victory. So Ephesians 6:10-18 (READ TEXT).
So this is Paul the Apostle, writing to believers in Ephesus, and he starts off here by saying, “Finally,”
Ok… finally what? Well… there’s 5 chapters before this one. Paul has been talking to the Ephesians about all kinds of wonderful things that the believer in Christ has, like the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. He’s talked to them about salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. He’s talked about how all true Christians are one in Christ, and how we should be unified in faith and truth. Not by denominational standards, but by doctrinal standards. Theological standards. Biblical standards. TRUTH is what Christians can find unity in. And remember Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And the Bible gives us the flip side of that as well… 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” You know, we use that a lot in pre-marital counseling, but it’s not just for marriage. It’s for all Christian relationships. Don’t yoke yourself with unbelievers! Don’t partner yourself with the unrighteous. Don’t fellowship with those in darkness! Period! It’s not hard to understand. Engaging in sin will lead to death! James 4:4, “… Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Paul has gone on to talk to these Ephesians about the newness of life they have in Christ (That’s chapter 4), and how we should put off the old self – our old way of living… he’s talking about repentance, stop lying, stop fornicating, stop stealing, stop gossiping, stop walking as the world walked. Instead walk in newness of life. And then in chapter 5 he tells us what that looks like. He says, “Be imitators of God, and walk in love as Christ walked…” Walk in sacrificial love. Give yourself for the cause of Christ. And then he gets into exactly what we were just saying, Ephesians 5:7-8 “Therefore do not become partners with them (the worldly); for at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” And in verse 11 he says, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, rather expose them!”
We also find in chapter five, his famous teachings on husbands and wives and children… and then FINALLY. That’s where our text begins right? FINALLY
“Finally – be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” You’re not going to win this war fighting it in your strength. We have to be strong in the Lord. We have to lean upon Him, and trust in Him, and fight these battles with His strength. Verse 11, “Put on the WHOLE armor of God, (Why?) so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
How do we do it? How do we fight against this insidious wickedness and evil that is prevalent in our nation and the world? How do we overcome these false teachings, and godless ideologies? We put on the WHOLE armor of God and we stand! We stand firm on the truth! We don’t give in to the lies and the false teachings. We don’t call evil good and good evil – even if the whole world around us is doing that – we don’t. We stand firm! We stand firm on righteousness! There are things that are clearly right and things that are clearly wrong, and we as followers of Jesus have to stand firm on righteousness. And when the world says, “Be tolerant!”, we should reply “BE RIGHTEOUS!” I’d rather be right with God than have the approval of man! You know, the world has conditioned most people to believe that tolerance means blanket acceptance, and that this blanket acceptance is the highest moral virtue one can possess. But no matter how people want to try to change the meaning and definitions of things – the truth remains. God’s Word is clear. It’s not subjective to the whims of man.
We stand on the Gospel – Paul says in Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation…” We have to stand on the Gospel. People cannot be saved without it. We have to proclaim it. We have to share it. The world wants the Church to water the Gospel down. They want the Church to adapt it to our changing culture. But we must not, and we cannot! It is the power of God unto salvation. How shall they believe unless they hear? So we proclaim the truth about God’s offer of peace to rebellious sinners. And we proclaim that salvation only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. No one comes to the Father but by Him!
We have to stand on our faith! It’s real and its unchanging. God exists! God exists in three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 3 in 1. Jesus Christ is God the Son, and He came as a man. He lived a sinless life, and then died on the cross for our sins, taking the wrath of God upon Himself in order to satsify the justice of our holy and righteous God. But three days later He rose again to show that we have been made right (justified) before God. And all who call upon the Name of Jesus, and trust in Him alone for salvation – will be saved! We have to stand on our faith that God is sovereign, and that God is good. That God is working out His plan of redemption throughout all of human history, and that Jesus is coming again! Heaven is real and Hell is real and people will spend eternity in one or the other. We have to stand firm on our faith that God is righteous, and holy, and just – but also that He is loving, and merciful, and kind. WE have to stand firm on our faith in this (The Bible – God’s Word). That it’s not just some fanciful fairy tale. It’s not just a history book. It’s not from the imagination of men. IT IS GOD’S HOLY WORD! And we are called to believe it, love it and obey it.
Jesus said it in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
That’s not works based righteousness. That’s faith showing itself through obedience to the One who loved us so much He gave Himself for us. So we take up the shield of faith and we stand. And so Paul tells us STAND, and keep alert with all perseverance. Church, a lot of what we see happening in our world, and a lot of these policies and practices we see in government, and education, and in society as a whole… a lot of them came because God’s people were not staying alert. We have not remained vigilant and have failed to be diligent in waging this war against the enemy. But Jesus has promised us, that as we go, and as we proclaim the Gospel to a lost world around us, that even the gates of hell shall not prevail, because He is with us. He has told us in His Word, that if we would submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, then the devil will flee from us. He has told us in His Word that if His people who are called by His Name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face and turn from their wicked ways, then He would hear from heaven and would forgive their sin and heal their land.
We must stand firm in every way against our enemy… but at the same time, surrender completely to Jesus Christ.
Let’s Pray
CLOSING
