PP0715 DATE
STANDING STRONG FOR THE LORD!!
Ephesians 6:10-13.
Eph 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (KJV)
INTRODUCTION: One of the hardest jobs of any pastor is to keep the congregation on a steady growth, a steady place of inhabitation, a steady walk with the Lord. It is hard to stand strong today – there are temptations from everywhere to change our stand.
The Pastor’s responsibility is to lead the flock. To protect them from evil beasts and sicknesses. Looking at your own responsibility, how does our responsibilities differ? Each of you are responsible for your own growth, your own protection and your own spiritual health. Eph 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (KJV)
Therefore, in a true sense of speaking, your job and my job has very little difference in job description.
Ga 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.(KJV)
Ga 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (KJV)
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (KJV)
Each of us are to look out for the other in all manners of spiritual and personal matters.
If you are going to stand for the Lord, and stand against the devil there will be some things that you must possess:
The challenge I want to give you tonight is to “Stand Strong For The Lord”! If you are going to do that you must follow a very certain recipe. The recipe must be biblical in content, and expectant of results in your individual life.
I. A HEART FOR THE SAVIOR
Where are those who have a heart for God, and the things of God? When I was a boy there were many that had a heart for the Saviour - now there are but few. You can sense it when people have a heart for God. It is a kindred spirit. We need those who have a longing for the heart for the Savior. You must love Jesus before you will live for Him.
“I will serve Thee, because I love thee.”
A heart for the Savior is a:
A. Result Of A Personal Salvation.
You will never develop a heart for the Savior until you have had a salvation experience. You must be born again.
It is not turning over a new leaf. It is not cleaning up your life. It is a change that takes place in your life. When Jesus Christ comes into your heart, you will develop a heart for the Saviour.
B. Result From A Total Surrender. Saying yes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in a position to allow Him to mandate what He wants me to do with my life. I have been bought with a price. I have no right to say, “This is what I will do with my life.” I have but one responsibility, and that is to surrender my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is impossible to say you have a heart for the Savior if you are not surrendered.
C. Result Of Dying To Self.
Some say, “That is no big deal.” You haven’t done much dying lately. You must die daily. Crucify this flesh daily. “Not my will, but thine be done.”
(Illustration) You can’t insult a dead person. You can say anything you wish about the corpse and he will not respond. The family might be offended, but not the dead person.
People say the strangest things at the casket:
“He looks so natural”.
“He looks so good.”
“She looks as though she could talk to us.”
You could say, “He looks terrible”, and the corpse would not respond.
“That’s the ugliest suit I have ever seen.”
“What an obnoxious dress.”
“I wouldn’t be caught in that dead.”
You can say all matter of stuff, and you will not offend the corpse.
A dead person has no opinion.
You will never be successful in standing for the Lord until you have a heart for the Savior, which means death to self.
D. A Result Of Self-Denial.
Lu 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (KJV) A person who is given to an appetite for things of the world will not deny self. When our love for the Lord supersedes all other emotions then we will be on our way to “Standing Strong For The Lord”.
II. HAND ON THE SWORD Vs. 17.
Eph 6:17 "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"
How dreadful to have the very Word of God in your hands and not let the Word of God get hold of your heart. You must have the Word of God tucked into your heart if you intend to stand for the Lord. The KJV. This church is settled on the KJV issue. The KJV is not just another Bible of choice, rather a Bible of purpose and preservation. I believe the KJV is the only Word of God for the English-speaking people.
In some meetings the preachers get offended if you mention the KJV being the Word of God. If the mention of the KJV offends anyone, then they need to determine what the Word of God is.
So many Christians never open their Bible after leaving church on Sunday. If you are going to stand for the Lord you must have a steady diet of the Word of God. The Word of God will make a difference in your life. Let ask you this: Are you reading the Bible through this year? You could still start and read part of it through. Ps 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. (KJV)
There is always something fresh when you read the Bible, something that will strengthen your stand for the Lord.
A. Believe It. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. As you read it just believe it no matter how difficult if may seem. I have had some Christians tell me that certain portions of the Word of God were hard for them to believe. I have never had that problem. I believe it. Back there where God parted the Red Sea and the Israelites walked over to the other side on dry ground – when the fine tuned the vocal chords of Balaam’s donkey and the donkey spoke to him is as real to me as is my phone number. When God stopped the movement of the Sun in the Book of Joshua, it is as real to me as is the existence of this building we are occupying right now. I believe the Word of God. You must believe it if you intend to stand for God.
B. Behave It. All this means is to be obedient.
1. It feeds your soul.
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”
2. It will fence you with safety from the world around you.
Ps 91:10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (KJV)
These scriptures won’t work for just anyone. A worldly or carnal Christian is not in the promise. David is writing this and he was a man after God’s own heart; therefore there must be something different about one who will attempt to live by these verses.
Psa 121:3 "He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber."
Prov 3:21 "My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:"
Prov 3:22 "So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck."
Prov 3:23 "Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble."
The same temptation comes to all to sin and do wrong, but I want you to know that not everybody in this room has succumbed to that temptation. There are those who stand against sin and evil. You don’t have to do wrong.
We are talking about the Word of God.
3. It will fortify you for strength.
Stand, and say, “I want to live for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
4. It will help you to focus your sight on things that are right. Right is right, and it is high time that we stand for right.
In the last days, perilous times will come. We must be in the last days because we are certainly in perilous times. We are near the end.
When you have your hand on the sword, and it penetrates your heart, it not only feeds you, fences you, fortifies you, and focuses you, but it also:
5. It frees you to be able to serve God.
What do I mean by this?
C. Belong To It.
Let the Word of God control you.
Psa 119:9 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."
Psa 119:11 "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."
John 15:3 "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
If you want to be used of God, you must let the Word of God free you from the things of this world.
The only thing that will solve the sin and slaughter in our schools, streets, and homes is a double dose of the KJV.
III. A HATRED FOR SIN
A. God Hates Sin.
We don’t hate sin like God hates sin. We will be weak on the subject until we feel the same about sin that God feels. We are not disturbed enough about what is going on in this world. There is an apathy that is permeating our land that is filling the airwaves and it is infiltrating the living church of God. The average person sitting on the pew today is sympathetic with the world and the wicked. Instead of saying, “Let God be true and every man a liar”, many are coddling sin on every hand.
We are living in an age when we want to bring the standard down to men. We must bring men up to the standard. We will not hurt people by preaching on their sin. If a person is doing wrong they need to be told about it. No other generation would have allowed a “Howard Stern” mentality, or a Da Vinci Code Movie to co-exist with that generation. The Christian public would have risen up and squashed them before they could have become an issue. Not so today.
There is no such thing as hard preaching to a Christian that is right with God. There is a difference between hard preaching and hateful preaching. I’m not talking about hateful preaching. Hard preaching should not offend a Child of God who is right in his walk with God. (1 John 5:3 KJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
We must preach against sin with the fervency and hatred that God has for sin. He hates sin. Sin cost Him His Son’s life. Sin destroys everything it touches. God hates sin.
Now hear me: God does not tolerate sin. To most people, sin is like a practical joke that we laugh at and then it goes away. Sin festers, then infects, and will burst into full infection that will kill all that involve themselves.
IV. A HOLINESS THAT SEPARATES
“Be ye holy for I am holy.” There is a reason for holiness. God has mandated that there be holiness in your life. Holiness never leads to haughtiness. Holiness doesn’t lead you to sit around and think that you are better than everybody else. The holier you become, the less you are impressed with yourself. You can be as holy as you want to be. You can be as separated as you want to be. I find that many of those who are not separated, are so because they just don’t want to be, rather than not knowing what separation really is.
A. Sanctification Precedes Holiness. This is not a doctrine of perfection. No one is perfect. When a man says he is perfect, you had better grab hold of your wife and your wallet because he may be ready to steal one or the other, or even both.
B. Sanctification Is To Be Set Aside That We Might Become More Like Christ In Our Daily Life. Rom 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
No one is sanctified in this body. You have never met a sanctified person. We are all being sanctified. Sanctification is a process. Salvation is instantaneous. Sanctification is a lifetime process.
To be set apart means that we do not belong to ourselves. We have been set apart from self to another, and that is Christ.
I have no right to decide how I want to live.
I have no right to decide how I want to dress.
I have no right to decide how I want to talk.
I have no right to decide where I want to go.
I really have no right how I want to spend my money. It is really God’s money.
These have all been decided for me when I was saved. God set me aside to be conformed to the image of His Son. Sanctification is that conforming process.
The O.T. teaches a doctrine of holiness of anything that has been set apart and placed on the altar. When you have been set apart in sanctification, you have been placed on the altar, and in God’s sight you have become holy. HAVE EVERYONE TURN: (Exo 29:37 KJV) Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy: whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy. The altar is not a padded bench setting at the front of the auditorium. It is a place where you make decisions to God. The altar could be your auto as you drive to work or your bedroom. Where ever you come to God making a decision is an altar. Whatever you put on that altar is holy before God.
C. There Are Some Things That God Sanctifies.
1. The Tithe. You will never have to pray about tithing. You may need to pray, “Lord, show me how I can tithe.” Or maybe, “Lord, show me the penalty of not tithing.” (That would be a good prayer, wouldn’t it?) You have a Bible mandate to tithe, because God sanctified the tithe. Tithing is a settled issue.
2. The offering. (Mal 3:8 KJV) Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
These are both settled issues. They are already on the altar.
3. Church attendance.
D. There Are Some Things That We Place On The Altar.
1. Surrendering our life to the Lord.
You have no right to take back what has been placed on the altar. It has been settled. It was made holy. God accepted the sacrifice from the altar now all you have to do is to follow through on your surrender.
a. Some may have surrendered to teach a class, but after a couple of years of having to dedicate yourself to that class week after week, you have taken the matter off the altar.
b. Some made a commitment to work in the nursery on a regular basis.
c. Maybe the choir.
d. The bus ministry.
All of these are areas where you placed yourself on the altar, and when you surrendered yourself and laid your commitment on the altar you have no right to pick it up again.
You may say, “I tried working for a while, and it didn’t work out.” Then find out what is right. God may change your position in the ministry, but once you have placed it on the altar, you have no right to take it back.
I’ve heard some say, “I can make more money doing this other thing.” The bottom line is that your life doesn’t belong to you anymore. It was surrendered at the altar and you nor I have a choice in the matter. It has been settled on the altar.
You had better be careful as to how you handle and touch that which has been placed on the altar. It doesn’t belong to you. You may mess your life up, you may mangle it, you may mar it, and never be used of God, but one day you will stand before a holy God, and He will say:
“I remember a day when you came and sanctified your life on the altar and said, God, I am yours. You can have me. I remember in a revival meeting when you said, ‘Here I am, Lord, send me.’ Then you picked up your life and went your own way.”
God will deal with you.
God will bust His own kids. You won’t get by with it. One day you will face Him.
“Must I go, and empty handed?”
Must I meet my Savior so?
Not one soul with which to greet Him:
Must I empty handed go?”
If you are going to have holiness that separates, you must understand sanctification. Once it is on the altar, it belongs to God.
Having standards is not Phariseeicaism. I’m tired of hearing these accusations of “Pharisees – legalism”. A lot of preachers have changed over the last decade. I have been accused of being a Pharisee or a legalist. Our church has been assaulted as being a legalistic church in years past. When someone makes such statements, they expose their ignorance. Legalism has only to do with salvation by works, and has nothing to do with holiness. The Pharisees were “legalists” because they taught that one must keep the law to be saved. Legalism is: “teaching that salvation can be attained only by keeping the law, or by the workings of man”. It has nothing to do with holiness.
V. A HABIT OF SUPPLICATION
This is the area that each of us fails in. This is the area that we must increase in. This is the area that we intentionally shun. Failure in this matter is the one main reason we are not growing:
(1 John 5:14 KJV) And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
Or prayer life must become a habit. A time in which we automatically go to God in prayer because of a habit that we have formed in our mind. Until that happens not many will pray very effective. Most Christians pray only when a certain need arises – then they pray for God to meet that need. Probably you are wasting your time by praying in that manner.
VI. A HOPE IN THE SECOND COMING
This is not a hope that everything will work out. This is the assurance that Jesus is coming again.
(1 John 3:2 KJV) Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
(1 John 3:3 KJV) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Few Christians really look for the coming of Christ. We should base everything on the fact that Jesus Christ may come today.
I’ve had people ask me why I don’t slack off some. They will say, “This is the 21st Century. You don’t have to be so fundamentally straight.”
I can only reply, “Jesus is coming.”
How many of you were ever home alone? Mom had gone to the grocery store, and she left you at home by yourself. While she was gone you messed something up that she would kill you for when she found it out, and you were dreading her appearance. You knew she was going to set things straight when she got home. That’s why we cannot let up in this matter of living for Christ. That’s why we must keep everything in order day by day.
When I realized that it was almost time for mom to get home from the store, I tried as hard as I could to make everything look ok. I knew that she would be home any minute, and I would panic. I later learned that if I would just keep things straight at home that Mom would not have any correcting to do when she got home.
The same is true with the Lord. He is due any minute. The trumpet is about to sound. Will He find you and I watching for His return?
I have that hope (assurance) that Jesus Christ is on the first step of His earthward dissension.
When we have that constant realization in our heart that the Lord could come at any time, it will cause us to keep on standing.
INVITATION
BETH HAVEN BAPTIST CHURCH CHURCH
PO BOX 891523
OKLAHOMA CITY OKLAHOMA 73189-1523
405-691-8701
email icasteel1@cox.net
