Take your Bibles with me and turn to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6. We are going to continue our message tonight on spiritual warfare. Let's go ahead and read our text.

[!bible] Ephesians 6:10-19 - KJV 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. 14. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; 19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Let's pray.

This morning was kind of a somber message. I talked about the Spiritual Warfare that all of us are in. I gave you two points:

• We are on a battlefield.
• We have an extremely powerful enemy.

Essentially, whether you like it or not, as a Christian, you have entered a spiritual war zone, and you are up against the devil and all his legions, and they control this world.

And that is where I left it this morning. What kind of general just says "uh, guys, we are in a battle, and this is what the enemy looks like" and nothing more? I tell you, a really bad one.

In a battle you need orders, and in a battle you need equipment. You need to know what to do and how you are going to do it and that is what we are going to look at tonight. So I have two more points to give you this evening:

• We have been commanded to stand.
• We have been well equipped for the battle.

So let's talk about the third point tonight:

3. We have been commanded to stand

This morning I told you that we have an enemy. Our enemy is Satan, Satan has help: principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.

The text is meant to shock us. It's meant to wake us up to the crazy difficulty of the mission.

It's like the scene in almost every war movie, where the commander gathers his troops and says "there are 300 of us, there are 30,000 of them. It doesn't look good for us, but we will fight to the last man."

That's our command. We are to stand.

Look at these verses in more detail with me:

• Verse 10 tells us to be strong.
• Verse 11 tells us to put on the armor so we are able to stand.
• Verse 12 tells us we are wrestling.
• Verse 13 tells us to withstand to the evil day (so this is an ongoing stand) and then "to stand."
• Verse 14 tells us "Stand therefore"

So over and over again, this passage tells us we have to take a stand. We have to make a stand.

What does that mean? It means the enemy is coming, and we have to fight. We cannot just give in. We have to dig in our boots and keep fighting until the last man.

I'm not a fighter. Not in real life. I'm proud of this though, the last serious wrestling match I got in lasted almost 30 minutes. I didn't win it, but he didn't either. We just both kept fighting until we collapsed in exhaustion.

That's what we are talking about here spiritually. Never give up. Never give in. Fight until the end. Take a stand.

Notice, this isn't a given. There is a reason we are told to be strong and told to stand, because many people aren't being strong and many people aren't making a stand. They are giving in. They are giving up. They are being weak and passive in the face of the enemy. But God tells us we have to stand.

What does that look like? Typically, you stand for something, you stand on something, and you stand against something. I think all of those things are appropriate here.

What are we standing for?

Typically, soldiers know what they are standing for. They know what they are fighting for. They have a flag on their uniform and they follow a banner.

We should know what we are standing for. Let me suggest somethings:

We are standing for the light.

We are on the force of light, and fighting against the force of darkness.

• We are, by God's grace, the good guys. We are Frodo and Sam and Aragon and Legolas going up against the hords of Mordor.
• We are Lucy, Edmund, Suzy and Peter going to war against the White Witch, and we are following Aslan.
• We are Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance going up against the empire.
• We are the resistance in World War 2, hopelessly outnumbered but standing strong against the Nazi regime.

We are the good guys. One of the tactics of the enemy is to get us to doubt that. But do not forget who you are standing for.

We are standing for the truth.

We believe in truth and we are fighting against those who say like Herod "What is truth?" We believe in the way, the Truth and the Life.

The devil is a liar and the father of liars. He was a liar from the beginning. He fills the minds of our young people with lies. But we stand for the truth.

We are standing for God's word.

We believe that God's word is true. We believe that God has given us a lamp for our feet and a light for our path, and that the key to happiness ins't radical self-actualization as the devil whispers in our ears, but living according to this great book.

We are standing for Biblical values.

• We believe that God is the creator and that He created this earth with an order we don't get to mess with.
• We believe in reality.
• We believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. We believe that leadership, though it can be abused, is a gift of God.
• We believe that crime should be punished.
• We believe that parents, not bureaucrats, are children's most important teachers and know what is best for them.
• We believe that babies shouldn't be killed in their mother's wombs, and that the sexual sins that create most of those babies shouldn't be encouraged and laughed off by our culture.

We are standing for Christ.

We believe the gospel can save anyone. Even Charlie Kirk's murderer, if he trusts Christ, can have his sins forgiven. Because Christ died for his sins too.

We believe that Christ is the theme of the scripture and the thing that makes the scripture make sense.

We have so much to stand for. This probably just scratches the surface. So...

What are we standing on?

We are standing on the finished work of Christ.

Christ came and did what He came to do, then rose again. Our victory is secure through Him. We serve a risen savior who will come again as a conqueror.

We are standing on the sure word of the scriptures.

We have God's word, God's infallible word, that will not return void. We are standing on the unchanging word. The same word of God the disciples stood on against the lions of the Roman empire. The same word of God the puritans stood on as they stood up to tyranny in England and came to our land. The same word of God countless missionary martyrs have stood on and the same word of God our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world are standing on.

What are we standing against?

We are standing against lies.

• The lies of the devil that tells people there is no truth and there is no God.
• The lies that we would truly be happy if we abandoned our families and lived for pleasure.
• The lies that life is about money, or fame, or power.
• The lies that the Bible is full of contradictions and that it isn't the word of God.
• The lies that somehow, our modern world has moved beyond needing God.
• The lies that our boys are oppressors, just because they were born with white skin.
• The lies that there is something wrong with wanting to have a strong country and defend it from invaders.
• The lies that you must have 15 partners and live with someone for five years before you can get married.
• The lies that children are a nuisance, and should be avoided so we can have a "career."

The devil is lying from the beginning, and he keeps making up lies, and we need to continue to stand against them.

Church, we have been called to stand. Are you taking a stand?

• Do your family members know where you stand?
• Do your coworkers know where you stand?
• Do your kids?

We are in a battlefield. We have a formidable enemy. We have been called to stand.

One more point and I'll be brief with this one:

4. We have been equipped with everything we need for the battle.

Look at verse 11 again:

[!bible] Ephesians 6:11 - KJV 11. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

We may be outnumbered. We may be up against a terrible battle. But we have the best armoror in the universe, and He has given us just what we need to win this fight.

He has given us the whole armor of God.

Now, entire books have been written about the whole armor of God. William Gurnell wrote "The Christian in Complete Armor" and that book is about 1,300 pages long.

Obviously, we don't have time for that tonight. But let's take a very brief survey:

We have been given the girdle of truth

We have this belt, this thing that ties it all together - the thing that holds it all up - the Truth.

We are standing on the truth, held together by the truth. When we come into a conflict with the devil - we can always go to the truth. The truth can set captives free.

We have been given the breastplate of righteousness

We have the righteousness of Christ. We have been given His perfect record. So nothing can touch us. No accusation can touch us. No blows can fully stun us, because we have righteousness.

We have been given the boots of the gospel

Never underestimate the value of good footwear. A solider has to do a lot of marching and sometimes has to fight in slippery terrain. We can move quickly, we can be prepared, because we have good boots.

We have the gospel. The gospel of peace. It prepares us for these slippery conflicts and helps us stand firm.

We have been given the shield of faith

When Satan hurls his darts at us we can hold up this shield and hide behind this shield. We believe. We believe God is good. We believe God is in control. What a shield to hide behind!

We have been given the helmet of salvation

We can wrap our head with the knowledge that we are saved. Saved by grace.

Finally,

We have been given the sword of the spirit - the word of God.

This is our only offensive weapon. But it is also the most powerful one. It is the hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. It is a sword that can divide men's souls. It is alive and powerful.

The word of God.

People can tell us what men say, but we can tell them what God says. And it's true, all of it.