clearly from your word, in Jesus' name, amen.
Now I want to start the sermon there,
beginning in verse nine where the Bible says,
for a great door and effectual is opened unto me.
Now we love that first part of the verse,
and that's something I think that's been
on a lot of people's minds lately,
those that are associated with our church
or other churches like this.
We understand that we're living in a time
where we're seeing great things that are being done,
and we could even say for ourselves
that a great door has been opened unto us.
A great door and effectual is opened unto us and our church.
And to other churches like ours,
we're seeing great things that are being done for God,
like for an example yesterday,
the soul-winning marathon that took place.
We saw thousands of people go out and go soul-winning.
We saw thousands of people get saved all across the world.
And we would say that is a great door,
and effectual, it's effectual because it's effective.
It's not just that there's a great door open
and nothing's happening.
It's effective because people are walking through that door.
We've decided, we've seen what God has allowed us
to be able to do in the times that we're living in,
and some people have decided to walk through that door
that's been opened unto them and become effectual.
That's what it means to be effectual.
It means to be effective,
to be successful in what you're doing.
And that's what we can see happening in our own church
and in this movement that we're a part of.
We're seeing a lot of people that are getting on board,
getting on fire for God.
I mean, probably the most exciting thing about it
is that we see so many young people,
so many people in their 20s and their 30s
that are just on fire for God
and wanting to do something
other than just live for the world.
They want to live for God.
They want to go out and do great things for God.
And we're very, we look at the first part of that verse
and we get very excited about it.
And I think sometimes it might be a danger
that we might get so excited about the first half
that we start to neglect the second half of that verse
where it says, and there are many adversaries.
And we might say, yeah, we understand
that there's gonna be some opposition.
We understand that there's gonna be some difficulties
and trials along the way.
So what Paul's saying here
that he's gonna tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.
He's gonna stay in Ephesus
because there was a great and effectual door open to him.
And there was a lot of fruit that he had there
with the Ephesians.
But he also says that there are many adversaries.
He didn't say there are a few adversaries.
He didn't say there's some trouble
that we have to deal with.
He said there are many adversaries.
I think Paul's trying to get across to people
and help us to understand here
that if we're going to be effectual,
if we're gonna walk through that door
that God has opened unto us
in the times that we're living in,
that we're gonna have to understand
that there are going to be many adversaries.
Not just a few,
not things that just happen every once in a while,
but there's probably going to be a consistent attack
against the movement of God.
And I think this last year alone
has just been a perfect example of that.
It just seems like one thing after another
keeps rearing up its head.
One thing keeps resurfacing,
having to deal with this heretic
or deal with that heretic
or deal with some group of people
that are opposing the man of God here
or opposing the man of God there.
Getting a pastor banned from this country
or banned from that country.
People sneaking into the church
and trying to teach damnable heresies.
That's just our own example.
I'm sure if we were to go to other churches
that are trying to walk through that effectual door
as we are and we start to talk to them
and the people in the pews there,
they could start to relate to us
to show us how there are many adversaries in the world today.
How they could, from their own personal experience,
they could say, look, we're experiencing opposition here.
We're experiencing the adversary coming against us.
So we have to understand that,
yeah, we're gonna go through that door.
We're gonna walk through this door.
We're going to be effectual.
But let's be vigilant.
Let's be sober.
Let's walk circumspectly and understand
that there is going to be many adversaries.
And of course, we think,
when we think of the many adversaries,
there's a lot of things that might come to mind,
just generally speaking,
the heretics or just the sodomites,
just these kind of general things.
But there's also, I think, some things
that we have to deal with on a daily basis in our own lives,
even as individuals.
That would be, we could classify as an adversary.
And that would make many adversaries.
And if you would, turn over to 1 John chapter two.
But keep a bookmark there in 1 Corinthians 16.
And turn over to 1 John chapter two.
You see, you have to understand
that there's many adversaries.
And I wanna just talk about
a few of those adversaries real quick.
One of those adversaries,
one of those people that are,
those things that are gonna oppose us is the world.
One of the first adversaries we have to understand
is the opposition of the world.
The world is going to come against us every single day.
The world wants to draw us away.
The world wants to pull us away from the things of God
and wants us to pull us out of the will of God.
The world is constantly trying
to get us away from serving God.
The Bible says there in 1 John chapter two,
love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world.
Verse 15, if any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, the lust thereof,
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
So we see that even within the world,
there are those many adversaries.
There's the flesh, there's the eyes,
there's the pride of life.
There's all these things that come from the world
and that are not of the Father.
These are adversaries that we have to face every day.
We are gonna have to face our own flesh.
We're gonna have to face our own lust.
We're gonna have to face our own pride.
That's one of the many adversaries.
And if each individual is having to deal
with these same sins or these same adversaries,
that's how you can say there are many adversaries
because we're all facing some of these similar adversaries.
Turn over to 1 John 3.
There's the opposition of the world,
even within the allure that the world has to our own flesh.
That's an opposition to the effectual work of God.
But another one of those adversaries of the world
would be the fact that just the world,
and generally speaking, the people that are in it
and that hate the things of God, that hate the work of God,
that hate the man of God, that hate the word of God.
You're there in 1 John 3,
but I'll read for you from 1 John, or from John 15,
where Jesus said, if the world hate you,
you know that it hated me, therefore it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own.
But because ye are not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you.
So of course, this is the Gospel of John,
and John's hearing these words with his own ears,
and he's hearing Jesus say
that the world is going to hate you,
that if we're going to do a work for God,
if we're gonna live for God,
if we're gonna preach the word of God,
if we're gonna go out and do the work of God,
we have to understand that the world's gonna hate that.
They're gonna come against it.
That's one of the many adversaries
that we're gonna have to face, is the world.
That's why John repeats it there
in 1 John 3, verse 13, where he said,
marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
It should never come as a shock to us
when we see the protesters,
when we see a man of God on the nightly news
being ridiculed by the world,
when we see all the wicked and evil comments
that people leave on social media,
just to go out of their way,
to just try and be hurtful with their words
and with their actions, to opposing the man of God.
Of course, that's a light affliction.
Those are easy things.
I'm telling you, people that can't even,
that are marvel at something as simple as that,
as a protest, as some people with some signs
standing on your front line.
I'm sure it's easy to say that
when you're not the one going through it,
but when a man of God has to go through that,
I'm sure it seems a little bit more intense,
but I'm telling you something,
a real man of God wouldn't marvel at that.
He would say, this is what Jesus said would happen.
But we have to understand that
it's gonna get far worse than that
if we're gonna live for God.
As we draw closer and closer to the second coming of Christ,
when we come closer and closer to the day
when the man of sin is revealed,
the world is going to hate us more and more and more.
I can't remember who,
I was just speaking with someone,
I think it was Pastor Anderson,
he was saying how even it seems lately
in these last few months,
like the city of Tempe or the people
that live in these apartment complexes
are just ramping up their hatred for so many.
It seems like he said in his sermon last week,
you know that they would get run out
or have the cops called like once a year, twice a year,
but now it's just every single week it seems like.
I'm telling you, we're gonna see more and more of that.
As we walk through this effectual door
that God has opened to us,
there's gonna be many adversaries
and we're gonna see people just come out of the woodwork
or trying to oppose the work of God.
It's important that we understand that
because we are not to marvel at such a thing.
It should not surprise us.
That's one of the first adversaries,
of the many adversaries that we have to look at
is the opposition of the world.
And then of course there'd be the opposition
of our own flesh,
which we kind of touched on there from 1 John 2.
I'll read from 1 Peter, go over to Galatians 5,
1 Peter 4, the Bible says,
For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind,
for you have suffered and the flesh hath seized from sin.
You know, we're gonna suffer in the flesh.
If we're gonna live for God,
if we're going to live a godly life in Christ Jesus,
our own flesh is going to come against us.
That's gonna be one of the many adversaries
that we're going to have to face
if we're gonna live for God.
It's our own flesh trying to do its own thing.
We're gonna have to bring our body under
and bring it into subjection.
We're gonna have to be as Christ was
and suffer in the flesh.
We have to arm ourselves with that mind
if we're going to withstand that adversary.
You're over there in Galatians 5,
I'll read from Romans 13 where the Bible says,
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light.
Let us walk honestly as in the day,
not in rioting and drunkenness,
not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envy,
but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ
and make not provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lust thereof.
So we have to, you know, Paul here in the Romans
is liking this unto a battle.
He's saying, look, we need to put on the armor of light.
We need to be able to do battle with these adversaries,
spiritually speaking, of course.
And he's saying here you need to not make provision
for the flesh.
If you think of a soldier who's going out to warfare,
if he's going to let the flesh get in the way,
he's not going to be effective.
He's going to get taken out of the battle.
He's going to be, you know,
he's the one who's going to start lagging behind
and allow his flesh to pull him away
from the rest of the troops.
He's going to get picked off.
You know, or if he's the one that just decides to sit down
and eat all of his rations immediately
at the first meal, right?
Because he's so hungry.
He doesn't have enough discipline and character
to spread it out over the length of the battle.
These are just, you know, some real world applications
that we can apply spiritually.
We're the ones that are going to have to make it
the long haul.
We need to make sure that we're getting the proper rations
out of the word of God, that we're putting on the armor,
and that we're keeping pace with the other soldiers
in Christ that are about us.
And you're there in Galatians chapter five.
In verse 16, the Bible says,
"'This I say then, walk in the spirit,
"'and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
"'For the lust of the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
"'and the spirit against the flesh,
"'and these are contrary one to another,
"'so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.'"
Jump down to verse 24.
"'And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh
"'with the affections and lusts.
"'If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.'"
So again, we have the opposition of the flesh
that we have to deal with if we're going to make it
in the long haul for Christ,
if we're going to walk through that effectual door
and face these adversaries,
we're going to have to walk in the spirit
and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
So we've seen the adversary of the world,
we've seen the adversary of the flesh.
What's another adversary?
That would be the adversary of the devil.
Go over and turn over to 1 Peter chapter five.
Now this is one that I think people,
a lot of Christians would say,
"'Yeah, I can see where the flesh gets involved,
"'and I can see how the world hates us.'"
But I think the devil, they don't,
people generally speaking don't understand
how powerful the devil is and how he really is working.
They just want to attribute kind of like
the bigger things that the devil does.
He's just kind of off in the distance.
That's how subtle the devil is.
He doesn't want, if we knew the truth about it,
we'd probably understand that he's probably more involved
in opposing the work of God than anything else.
That he's the mastermind behind many things
that go on to oppose the work of God.
That he has many minions, many little servants
that he wants to use to send in
and to disrupt the work of God.
Look there at 1 Peter chapter five verse eight
where the Bible reads,
be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil,
as a roaring lion walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour.
And I think people want to, I fall into this danger,
every time I read this verse I think about
somebody I know who got up in a Sunday school
and say, you know, the devil's a defeated foe.
It says he's as a roaring lion there,
but let me tell you something,
the devil, he's a toothless old lion.
All he can do is gum you.
And I remember thinking, that's not a very intelligent way
to look at this verse, because let me tell you something,
the devil has a mouthful of things.
And he can shred people up, and he can tear people up.
And that's why we're gonna be sober, we're gonna be vigilant.
If the devil was just some harmless roaring lion
that we didn't, you know, just some old fuddy daddy
that we have to worry about,
then why would there be a need to be sober?
Why would there be a need to be vigilant?
And that kind of says something to the effect
that the devil's a defeated foe.
That's true, but he's not defeated yet.
And he's still very much alive and active in the world.
And I think that a lot of Christians
underestimate his ability,
and what he's able to do in this world,
even against them personally.
So it says, because your adversary, the devil,
has a roaring lion walking about,
seeking whom he may devour.
So he has the ability to devour,
and he's looking for those whom he may devour.
And it's the people that are weak,
the people that don't see him coming, that he's gonna get.
You ever watch a lion on these nature shows,
you know, they don't just stand out
in the middle of the field,
and just walk up to the gazellers,
walk up to the zebra, whatever prey they're hunting,
and just tap them on the shoulder,
and say, hey, do you mind if I just, you know,
go for the jugular here?
No, what they do is they crouch, they crawl, they ambush.
That's how they attack.
You don't even know they're there.
And if you think about the prey that they're hunting,
you know, those animals that developed,
you know, the eyes on the side of their head
so that they can look all around.
They're sober, they're vigilant,
they're able to keep an eye out,
even while they're grazing and going about their life,
they're always on the lookout for that adversary,
that devil, that lion that's trying to devour them.
And that's what we need Christians to do today.
We need Christians today to wake up
and understand that they have many adversaries.
They have their own flesh to deal with.
They have the world to deal with.
But most of all, they have the devil, the adversary,
the accuser of the brethren who is after them.
Look at verse nine where it says,
whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world.
So we have to resist the devil.
And how do we do it?
We do it in the faith.
We need to be in the word of God.
We need to be with the people of God.
We need to be with that herd
and to use that protection effectively.
Ephesians chapter six, I'll read for you the Bible says,
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.
My friend, we have many adversaries
and many of those adversaries
are very powerful people in this world.
They have a lot of ability to do a lot of harm.
I mean, they could do a lot of things
to try and go against the work of God.
You know, and just think of a recent example.
You know, it's not, of course,
the worst thing that could ever happen to us.
But we've been able, in the times that we're living in,
we've been able to see Pastor Anderson, a man of God,
leverage technology in such a way
as to spread the gospel message,
is to reach out to the world and do a great work for God.
How has he done that?
Through the means of the internet,
through the means of YouTube and Facebook and social media.
He's been able to use that.
And I think that's a very wise thing to do.
And it boggles the mind of how many pastors don't get that.
They're just so proud of the fact
that they don't even know how to turn a computer on.
You know, they're just like,
they just, they gloriate the fact that they're illiterate
when it comes to how to use social media.
But now we see somebody, a man of God,
who understands the times that we're living in,
and as he's even said,
has likened social media onto the printing press of our day.
It's revolutionary.
It's changed the way we've done things.
How else have we been able to go out
and reach into all these different countries internationally
and all these other states and get all those numbers?
I mean, think about what happened yesterday.
Thousands of people went out all across this world
that were organized months in advance,
and it wasn't done by handwritten letter.
It was done over email.
It was done over social media.
And then at the same day that people go out
and do these things, within a 24-hour period,
we can count and report every single person that was saved,
every single person that went out and was soul winning.
That's the times we're living in.
And we would say, you know, what a great tool.
What an effectual door we could use.
Well, there are many adversaries, aren't there?
And now we've got, what's YouTube doing?
You know, they're putting strikes on the channels.
They're kicking anybody conservative off their platform,
trying to limit the message of God,
trying to only have one viewpoint be expressed
on their medium.
So that is a simple example,
but it just goes to show us
that we're wrestling against principalities in high places,
that the people that we're doing battle with,
they're very high in authority.
They have a lot of power.
Those are one of the many adversaries
that we have to deal with.
And what's another one that we've dealt with recently,
even within our own church, would be false brethren.
That would be another adversary that we have to deal with.
Bible says in Galatians chapter two,
and that because of false brethren,
unawares brought in who came in privily
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they may bring us into bondage.
Now, so even in Paul's day, he's telling you,
look, there was false brethren that crept in unawares.
Even in Paul's day, at the very beginning of the church,
we see these people creeping in
and trying to spy out our liberty
and bring people into bondage.
That's, so nothing new, there's nothing new under the sun.
Nothing has changed.
Go ahead and turn over to Acts chapter two.
What did Paul do?
He said in verse five,
to whom he gave place by subjection,
know not for an hour that the truth of the gospel
might continue with you.
When false brethren are found out,
when false brethren are exposed for what they are,
they're not to be dealt with for an hour.
They're not to be tolerated at all.
They're to be cast out and they're to be done with.
That's what Paul did here.
He said that they didn't give place to them for one hour
once it came out what they were.
And that's the attitude we have to have
because we have many adversaries in the world.
We have our own flesh.
We have the world.
We have principalities in high places.
We have the devil.
Why should we give place to some false brother
that's trying to come in and teach damnable heresies?
Why would we give place that we've got enough on our plate,
we've got enough adversaries to deal with,
we shouldn't have to deal with those people
even for an hour.
Look at Acts chapter 20 verse 28.
What did Paul say to the pastors that he had called together?
He said, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the holy growth
have made you overseers to feed the church of God
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this.
He didn't say I suspect this.
Well, this is my, I got a hunch.
He said, no, I know this.
This is what's gonna happen.
He said, I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you.
He didn't say they might.
He said it could happen.
He didn't say potentially.
He said, no, they shall come in.
Shall, they shall grievous wolves enter in among you
not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
Have we not seen that?
Have we not seen men creep in and speak perverse things
contrary to the plain teaching of scripture
and draw away disciples after them?
We have seen that.
Physically, firsthand in our own church.
That shouldn't come as a shock to us.
I mean, Paul's warning us, and these are the many
adversaries that we have to deal with.
He said in 2 Peter chapter two,
but there were false prophets among the people
even as there shall be false teachers among you
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies
even denying the Lord that bought them
and bring upon them swift destruction.
You say, what's the point of the sermon this morning?
Is it just to remind us of all the difficulty
and all the trials that we're gonna have?
Well, yes, in part it is.
I want us to wake up and understand
that we're gonna have many adversaries,
that we have a great and effectual door
that we're walking through,
and we're saying great things done for Christ,
and I believe it's just the beginning
of the great things that we can see done for God.
I think we're gonna see more and more churches start.
We're gonna see more and more people get fired for God.
We're gonna see more people wanna go out
and go sowing in a regular basis,
not just on one big day, but they're gonna get inspired
by what they saw yesterday and say,
I wanna go out more and more.
I know I took a guy out yesterday.
He'd probably never been out before, or very little.
He was my silent partner,
and I remember we went door-knocking and door-knocking,
person after person didn't wanna listen or whatever it was,
but we got to that one door.
That woman just listened, and I'm telling you,
she was just ready to receive everything I said.
No opposition, just yes, I believe that,
yes, I believe that, understood, paid attention,
and I remember walking away from the door,
and my silent partner just amazed.
That was so easy, he said.
I can't believe she was just ready.
She listened to everything.
She agreed with all of it.
That's soul winning.
That's how easy it is.
That's inspiring.
I remember when we went to the Portland Soul Winning Marathon
I had a guy with me, and it was kind of the same scenario.
They went all day, and we didn't really see
a lot of people saved, but at the end of the day,
I'm standing there in a living room with a whole family,
a mom, a dad, and a couple teenagers,
and the whole family got saved,
and we walked out on cloud nine,
and that young man today is a faithful
and dedicated soul winner in a local church.
So we want people to wake up and understand
that there's an effectual door to walk through,
and we're gonna see more and more of it,
but as we walk through that door,
we have to understand that there are many adversaries,
and they're gonna increase more and more
as we progress here.
So what's the point?
Not just to wake us up with that, but to encourage us,
and to help us to understand that we need to stand.
If you're there in 1 Corinthians chapter 16,
look at verse,
see if I can hear it.
Look at verse 13.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,
quick ye like man,
and that's the title of the sermon this morning, stand.
That's what we need to do.
If we're going to make it,
if we're gonna make it to the end,
if we're gonna live our lives for Christ,
if we're gonna see a contingency,
a great and effectual work done for God,
we have to understand that there's some things
we have to do in order to stand.
We're going to have to stand.
We're gonna have to stand tall, stand on our ground,
not budge, not give an inch,
because even though we have many adversaries
coming to us, we're gonna have to stand tall,
but many adversaries coming against us,
we need to be able to stand.
They're trying to knock us down.
They want us to back up.
They want us to go back where we were,
to go back through that door, close the door,
forget about that effectual door,
don't look at it, go do something else,
go back to the world, go live for the flesh,
let the devil have his way with you.
But I'm telling you, if we're gonna make it,
we have to be willing to stand.
And how are we gonna stand?
The first thing we're gonna do
is it says there in 1 Corinthians 16 verse 13,
it says, watch ye, stand fast in the faith.
He didn't just say stand fast.
He said stand fast in the faith.
Quit you like men and be strong.
So if we're gonna stand,
we're gonna have to stand in the faith.
We're gonna have to stand in the faith,
meaning with God's people, in God's house,
listening to the preaching of God's word.
You're not gonna stand on your own.
You're not gonna stand.
As much as you love God and love the Bible
and wanna see great things done for God,
if you're out there just floating around,
just wandering about, not in a local church,
just doing your own thing, you're not gonna stand.
You need to stand in the faith.
You need to get with God's people and God's house
under the preaching of God's word from God's man
and be with the people of God.
And if you're going to stand,
you need to stand in the faith.
Look there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
1 Corinthians chapter 15, the Bible reads,
moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which ye also received,
wherein ye stand.
You're gonna stand, you know, you need to be saved.
You need to stand in the gospel that was preached unto you.
Of course, that's the first thing, right?
People need to be saved and understand
that they need to stand in that gospel
and not be moved from the fact that they've been saved,
that they've been born again through the blood of Christ.
Colossians chapter, go ahead and turn over to John chapter 15.
I'll read it for you.
Go to John 15, I'll read Colossians chapter one.
The Bible says in Colossians one,
now he who established with you in Christ
and hath anointed us is God,
who hath sealed us and given us the earnest
of the Spirit in our hearts.
Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul
that despair you I cannot ask unto Corinth,
not for that we have dominion over your faith,
but are helpers of your joy, for by faith ye stand.
But Paul's saying here, look, we're not coming,
you know, a lot of people, they don't wanna stand in faith
because they don't like the Pauls.
They don't like the men of God.
They don't like the people that are gonna
straighten them out from the word of God.
They don't like to be preached at.
They don't like somebody to get out
and maybe get the word, open to the word of God
and maybe deal with some of the sin in their life
or show them where they need to work
on this area in their life.
And they think, well, you know, you're just picking on me.
He's saying, look, they're not there
to have dominion over your faith,
but they're there to be helpers of your joy.
You need to stand in the faith
because the man of God wants to help you.
That's what's gonna help you.
That's what's gonna establish you
and understand that by faith ye stand.
When you have faith, when you can see
that you need to be there, when you can see that,
maybe I don't like the way the preaching's going,
but if I stand, by faith, I know things will get better.
I'll be made better for it.
I remember my pastor back in Michigan used to say,
if he's rubbing the fur the wrong way,
you ever pet a cat and you pet him
from the tail to the head?
They hate that.
You ever do that?
You have a cat try it when he started a tail
and you rub him in the back all the way to the head.
They just hate it.
I had a cat and he couldn't stand it.
So my pastor would say, you know,
if I'm rubbing the fur the wrong way,
the cat can turn around.
That's what needs to happen.
That's what a lot of people in churches need to do.
People get into church and at first they like it
and then they feel like, man,
the pastor's kind of rubbing me the wrong way.
He's taking the word of God out
and he's stroking the fur the wrong way.
Well, don't expect the man of God to change.
You need to just understand by faith.
You need to stand in the faith with God's people
and understand that maybe you need to change.
Maybe you need to turn around
and then that fur will get pet the right way.
So we need to stand in the faith.
And not only that, we need to stand in the faith by faith.
That's the point I'm trying to make here.
It's not enough to say I'm gonna be with God's people.
You know, I'm gonna get in,
and a lot of people, they mean well.
They've got good intentions.
They get in the house of God, they get with God's people,
they start out, but then they forget
that it's not just gonna,
it's not like the pastor's gonna get up
and pull out a magic wand
and just make your life just a bed of roses.
That's not how it works.
You're gonna have to put forth some effort
if you're gonna stand in the faith.
You're the one who's gonna have to understand
that maybe things aren't the way they are today,
but down the road, they'll get better.
If you're gonna stand in the faith,
you have to stand by faith.
You have to stand by faith in order to stand in the faith.
Now what do I mean by that?
Well, look at John chapter 15, verse five.
Jesus said, I am the vine, ye are the branches.
Ye that abideth in me and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me ye can do nothing.
You know, we need Jesus Christ.
We need to abide in Christ
if we're going to accomplish something.
You understand, maybe you don't fully understand
what God's got for you
or why God lays things out in the Bible the way he does,
why God has the standards that he does,
why God has the commandments and the rules that he does,
but you have to understand by faith
that God has put those things there for a reason.
You need to abide in those things
if you're gonna be fruitful.
We might not like it at first.
We might understand it at first,
but if we abide in it by faith,
if we stand in the faith, by faith,
then we can be fruitful, then we can stand,
then we can walk through that door,
then we can resist the many adversaries
that are gonna come at us.
So we see first of all that we need to stand in the faith.
If we're going to stand, if we're going to resist the devil,
if we're gonna resist the flesh,
if we're gonna resist the world and we're gonna make it
and we're gonna be effectual and walk through that door,
we have to understand
that we're gonna have to stand in the faith.
And not only that, but one of the other stands
we're gonna have to take is to stand against sin.
We're going to have to take a stand against sin.
The Bible says in Galatians chapter five verse one,
stand fast therefore and the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free.
You know, we want that victorious Christian life.
We want to be able to say, you know,
there's these sins in my life.
I remember I was talking to a brother just yesterday
who was telling me, man,
since I started listening to Pastor Anderson,
I don't do this anymore.
I quit doing this.
I haven't done this in so long.
He listed off just like all these things.
I mean, not terrible, horrible, wicked things,
but things that a Christian ought not be doing.
He's able to say, I didn't do those.
Once I found the preaching and the word of God,
once I heard a man of God get up and rip face
and tell him like it is from the Bible
and say, thus saith the Lord, he said, I got right.
I got the things straightened out.
You know, that was a guy who stood in the faith by faith
and saw it play out in his life and is becoming fruitful.
He took a stand against sin.
And he said, you know what?
He was given some liberty that Christ gave him.
Christ has made him free and has given him liberty.
But I'm telling you, if we're not careful,
if we don't take a stand against sin in our life,
we will be entangled again with the yoke of bondage,
as it says there.
People who aren't willing to stand with Christ
and the liberty where they have been made free,
they don't take a stand against the sin.
When the flesh rises up and wants them to sin again
with that old temptation, pokes its head back up.
When the old friends come around,
when you get around that certain crowd,
when you're back in that certain place,
when nobody else is looking,
when you think you can get away with it,
you say, you know what?
It's been so long, let me try it again.
Let me see if I can just get away with this one more time.
And you miss your old sin.
You start to long for the things of the world again.
And what you do is you're not standing.
You're starting to sit down.
You're starting to get comfortable with that sin again.
You're not taking a stand against sin.
And what's gonna happen?
You're gonna be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
But we don't wanna be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Think about being entangled, being all bound up.
And you know, I envision that when I read this
about somebody basically falling into a net.
Someone who's just wrapped up in a net,
and you ever seen anybody get wrapped up in a net,
that's really hard to get out of.
I mean, it's a mess.
How hard it would be.
Why would we want that for our lives spiritually,
to get wrapped up in some net of sin
and be entangled with the yoke of bondage?
So we need to be able to take a stand against sin.
You know, and those of us that would be preachers one day,
those of us that would get up
and preach the word of God from the pulpit,
we need to be willing to take a stand
to get sin from the pulpit.
There are things in the Bible
that we need to preach on a regular basis
and make sure people understand
that God is not pleased with certain sins in their lives.
And there's no sin that he's pleased with.
There's certain sins,
you know, that didn't even get you kicked out of church.
The drunkenness, the fornication, you know,
the covetousness, there's all these things,
these sins that are so prevalent in our society today.
So many sins today that are just tolerated
in so many other churches.
And the temptation for the man of God when he gets up there
and say, you know what, I like the crowd that I'm seeing.
I got a good group showing up,
you know, the tie, the offerings coming in,
you know, maybe I could just take it easy,
maybe pull back on the word of God a little bit.
Maybe not take such a hard stand on some of these issues.
Maybe I could bring in the contemporary music.
Maybe I could change the version of the Bible.
Maybe I could do all these different things
to try and tweak my church service,
to try and tweak the way we do things here at this church.
But we have to understand
that we need to take a stand against sin.
We need to take a stand and preach, thus saith the Lord,
and let the chips fall where they may
and let people just like it or lump it.
That's a stand against sin
that people are gonna have to take.
A man of God is gonna take a stand against sin
from the pulpit.
Not only that, we're gonna have to take, as individuals,
we're gonna have to take a stand against sin
in our personal lives.
Bible says in Galatians chapter two,
go ahead and turn over to Galatians chapter five.
We turn to Galatians five, it says in Galatians two,
I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ live with me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Now, that's a real famous verse,
you'll hear people quote that.
And you know, it's those latter half
that we really like, right?
Nevertheless I live, not I.
Christ liveth in me, you know,
and the life which I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
But how does it start out, that verse?
It says I am crucified with Christ.
That's a stand against sin.
That's something that Paul was able to say,
it says look, I'm a dead man walking.
The flesh, the life that I'm living in this body,
I'm living like a dead man.
Somebody who's already, someone who's dead to sin.
Somebody whose life is not his own.
Someone who's been bought with a price.
Someone who's going to glorify God in his body
and let God have his way with him.
He's saying it's not my will, but thine be done.
That's what he means when he says
I am crucified with Christ.
That's the attitude that we have to have.
That's why it says there in Galatians chapter five,
look at verse 24.
And they that are Christ, now who is that?
Well that's you this morning, that's us.
If we're sitting here in church,
if we're saved, we've been born again,
if we've been bought by the blood of Christ,
we understand that we are Christ's.
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts.
So we need to have that attitude.
We understand that we are crucified with Christ.
Why would we want to live life like a dead man?
Why would we want to live life in the flesh
with the affections and lusts?
That's a dead body that we're trying to resurrect.
That's somebody, that's an old way of living
that we're trying to still walk in.
The affections and lusts that have been crucified in Christ.
We got, that's not a good way to live, it stinks.
We need to make sure that we're going to take a stand
against sin in our own personal life.
So we need to take a stand from the pulpit as men of God.
We need to take a stand in our personal lives against sin,
but we need to take a stand in the world around you.
Look over at Galatians chapter six.
Galatians chapter six.
If we're going to stand, we have to understand
that we're going to have to stand
against the world around you.
Galatians chapter six, verse 14.
But God forbid that I should glory,
save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world is crucified unto me,
and I unto the world.
That needs to be your stand.
That's where you need to stand.
That's the ground you need to stand on and say,
look, I'm crucified in the world.
The world has a plan for you.
They have this big long,
everyone's just got their lives laid out.
So you do this, then you graduate,
then you go to college, and you get married,
and you have the kids, and you work a successful job,
you save a bunch of money, you buy the house,
you get retired, and that's how people
go about their lives.
There's nothing inherently sinful about that necessarily,
but when it becomes that's the only thing
that's going on in your life,
that's just a vain, empty life.
That's just something that's not going to
bear any fruit for Christ.
At the end of your day, you're just going to,
what will you have accomplished?
I started a business.
I saved a bunch of money.
I took a lot of vacations.
I acquired a lot of stuff.
That's all vanity.
If we're going to stand for Christ,
if we're going to stand against the adversary,
if we're going to walk through an effectual door,
we have to understand that we are crucified in the world,
and the world unto us.
It's fine to have the house.
It's good to get married.
It's good to have the job and do what we need to do
in order to provide for our own in this world.
We have to understand that's not the end all be all of life.
What we're trying to accomplish here is something for God.
We want to get to the end of our lives and say,
hey, what did you do with your life?
I lived for God.
I served God all the days of my life.
I raised Godly children who are living for God today.
I went out and I saved souls.
I went out and I preached the gospel.
I went out and I started a church.
I went out and I saw people come to Christ.
I saw people come and get their lives changed,
and now they're effectual soul winners.
I did whatever it is, something for God.
That's what we want to get to the end of our lives.
That's not gonna happen if we don't take a stand,
but we're not willing to be crucified of the world
and the world unto us.
So it's easy to get pumped up and say,
yeah, I'm gonna stand.
I'm gonna stand.
I'm gonna stand for Christ.
I'm gonna stand against the world.
I'm gonna stand against my own flesh.
I'm gonna stand against sin and the world around me,
but I have to understand something.
It takes effort and purpose to stand.
It's not just gonna happen.
It's something you have to determine
and purpose in your own heart that you're going to do.
Look at Ephesians chapter six.
Read a little bit of scripture here.
In Ephesians chapter six, the Bible says,
beginning in verse 10,
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and the powers of might.
Put on the whole armor of God
that you may able to stand against the wilds of the devil.
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.
Wherefore take on you the whole armor of God,
that you may able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all to stand.
There's some things that you're gonna have to do
in order to stand.
It's not just gonna happen.
You're gonna have to do all in order to stand.
You're gonna have to stand therefore,
it goes on in verse 14,
having your loins girt about with the truth
and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
There's some things that you're gonna have to
put on in your life.
You're gonna have to gird up your own loins.
You're gonna have to put the truth.
You're gonna have to get in the word of God
and allow the truth to gird up the loins of your mind.
You're gonna have to put on the breastplate
of righteousness.
You're gonna have to do all these things.
You have to shod your feet with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
These aren't things that you do on the way to the battle.
This armor, you don't put it while you're on your way there.
These are things that you have to sit down and put on.
That's why in the army they have barracks.
They have a headquarters.
They have a base of operations
where the soldiers can come back and get prepared.
They can do the things that they need to do
in order to go out and win the battle
and go out and defeat the enemy.
So the point I'm trying to make is here
that if we're going to stand,
if we're gonna take a stand against the devil,
if we're gonna take a stand against the world
or the sin in our life
or any of these things that we've talked about this morning,
we're gonna have to understand that it's gonna take purpose
and effort in order to do it.
We're gonna have to put these things on in our lives.
We're gonna have to get with the people of God,
get in the word of God,
get into the preaching of the word of God
and begin to learn about what God has for us to do
and what it's going to take in order to stand.
He says in verse 16,
above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench
the fiery darts of the wicked.
Look, there's a shield of faith out there that we can take
that can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
all the darts that the devil's gonna throw our way.
As we walk through that door, that effectual door,
as we walk through it
and we start to see great works were done
and we understand that the devil's gonna start firing
all of his fiery darts at us, it's going to happen.
It's not a maybe, it will happen.
It's real easy to get discouraged.
It's really to get down and say, you know what?
There's just too much opposition.
I don't see how we can do it.
The world's too far gone.
It just seems like everybody's against us.
My own family's got problems with us
and the world hates us.
Sometimes you might even think you're a little crazy,
but I'm telling you something.
There's a shield there, the shield of faith.
And if you'll take the time,
if you'll take the purpose and the effort
to go and pick up the shield and put it on,
you can quench every single fiery dart that comes your way.
That's encouragement, that we can have a shield
that God has provided the armor that we need.
God hasn't just left us wandering around in the wilderness,
not understanding what it is we need to do.
God has given us everything we need
to live the successful life.
God has given us everything we need
in order to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Verse 17, he says to take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
We have all these things here in the armor.
We have the sword and the helmet
and we can get shot at our feet with the gospel of peace
and we can put on the breastplate of righteousness.
All these defensive pieces of armor, right?
All these things that are meant to protect us.
We have to understand that God doesn't want us
to just hunker down in some bunker somewhere
with the stores and with the rations
and just wait this thing out.
God has given us an offensive weapon where it says there,
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
God has given us a sword.
What's a sword for?
A sword is to go out there and to slay.
A sword is to go out there and to hack them up.
A sword is to go out there and to fight.
It's to go out there and to swing.
It's in order to go out there and engage the enemy.
That's what a sword is used for.
So God wants us to go out with the sword,
the word of God, and engage the enemy.
Well, how are we gonna do that?
We're gonna do that through what we saw yesterday.
By continuing to do what we saw yesterday
by going out and preaching the gospel,
not just on the big days, not just on the marathons,
but the day in, the day out, the week in, the week out,
year after year after year,
fighting that battle all the way to the end,
standing for God until we get to the end
and we're able to say that we've accomplished something
for God, that we've stood, that we've fought the fight,
that we've run our course, that we've kept the faith.
That's what we need to do.
We need to take that offensive weapon
and go out and fight the armor.
See, putting on the armor is work.
It's gonna take time, it's gonna take effort.
You're gonna have to know how to put it on.
You're gonna have to know how to pick up that sword
and swing it.
You're gonna have to take time getting the word of God,
marking the Romans road, knowing the verses
that you're gonna turn to, how to swing that sword.
You don't just pick up a sword and go out there
and start blindly waving it around.
I mean, it reminds me, if you ever watch guys,
they get in, on the YouTube, sometimes you'll see
guys that get in these altercations, these fistfights,
and you can tell a guy who's never thrown a punch,
a guy who's never, it's just obvious.
And you watch an actual trained fighter
and how they stand and how they throw their punches,
I wouldn't, I'd probably be hilarious to watch me.
I've never learned how to do it correctly,
but if you watch somebody who's trained
and knows what they're doing, man,
they can be pretty effective with just one swing, right?
But then you watch these other guys,
they're just throwing from the hip.
It's everything they got and every punch and the gas out.
It's kind of amusing to watch guys go at it like that.
But the point I'm trying to make here is,
it's gonna take effort.
You're gonna take some training.
You're gonna have to put in some time.
If you're gonna be an effective soldier for Jesus Christ,
if you wanna go out there and not just throw haymakers
at the devil, but you actually wanna be effective,
take the sword of God and swing it
and not just beat at the air, as Paul said,
but to fight effectively,
you're gonna have to take the time to put on the armor.
You have the time to pick up the sword
and understand how to swing it.
And people, that's where they really get discouraged.
They say, well, that just sounds like too much.
You know, that just sounds like a lot of work
to just go out there and get in a fight.
I mean, who wants to sign up for that?
Who wants to sign up to just go out and get in a fight?
Who wants to just go out and go and engage the enemy
in this battle and put all this effort into it?
Take all this ridicule on the chin
and to have the world come against you
and have all these, the devil and all these many adversaries.
Who wants to walk through that door?
It's so much work.
But we have to understand that there is a purpose
behind the preparation.
There's a reason why we take the time to put the armor on.
There's a reason why we take the time
to learn how to stand.
There's a reason to stand today.
We need to stand for those who have stood before us
because there are those that have come for us
since the beginning of time that have taken the same stand
and they've held their ground
and they preserved it for us.
I mean, we're standing on the shoulders of giants,
in a way, by holding up this book.
I mean, the things that people went through
for us to have the word of God in our own language.
I mean, ultimately, God's the one that provided it.
We know that.
But God used men as instruments in order to do that.
And men stood their ground.
There were men that were burned and alive at the stake
for us to have the Bible today.
There was men that took a great stand.
We need to stand today.
Why put the effort to walk through that door?
Why put the effort to stand today?
Because of those that have stood before us.
I'll read for you from 2 Thessalonians 2.
We are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth,
where until you are called by our gospel
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast,
hold to traditions which ye have been taught,
whether by word or by epistoli,
saying, look, stand fast
and hold the traditions that ye have been taught.
And that's what we need to do.
As Baptists, we have a heritage behind us.
I've mentioned it before,
but whenever I go up so many and you run into these Catholics
I want to get all proud about the fact that
they think that, well, everybody else came out from us.
The Catholics were the original true church.
And so we could trace ourselves
all the way back to the apostles.
And it's just like this proud, puffed up attitude.
But I just say, well, we as Baptists,
we've got the trump card.
We've got the ace of our slaves.
We say, oh yeah, who was that that baptized Jesus?
It was John the, who?
The Baptist, that's right.
So we can always play that one, right?
But I'm saying we've got that lineage.
We've got traditions as Baptists
that have been handed down to us
according to the word of God.
We've been taught things from the word of God
that are precious, that are dear,
that people have stood on.
Those are the things that we need to stand on today.
We need to stand for those that have stood before us.
Not only that, but we need to stand for those
that are with us now.
Bible says in the Philippians, I'll read for you,
the Bible says in Philippians chapter one, verse 27,
only let your conversation be as we come
at the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you
or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs,
that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind
striving together for the faith of the gospel.
We need to stand together for the faith of the gospel.
We need people that are going to come together
and stand fast in one spirit.
One faith, one Lord, one Baptism.
We need to have one purpose.
We need to have one motive in mind.
The glory of God, to see souls saved.
That's what we need to stand fast in.
We need to stand fast together and accomplish much.
Many hands make light work.
If we're gonna go out and face many adversaries,
we need many people to stand with us.
We need a great army.
We need people to stand fast in one spirit,
in one accord, in one mind, and striving together.
Not against each other, not individually,
not here, some there, everyone kinda doing their own thing.
People need to understand that we all
have the same battle plan, that we have the same sword,
we have the same armor on, we have the same purpose,
the same mission, and the same goal,
to strive together for the faith of the gospel.
We need to stand for those that are with us now.
We need to stand for those who have stood before us.
And lastly, we need to stand our ground today.
We need to stand and go through the door
against the adversary, against the many adversaries
for the sake of where we're going to stand one day.
And I wanna close on this thought
if you turn over to Romans chapter 14.
You know, maybe everything else,
the rest of what I've preached this morning isn't enough
to convince people to stand.
I think it has been, and it oughta be.
You know, we oughta stand for those that have stood before us.
We oughta stand for those that are with us now.
We oughta stand for our children.
We oughta stand that we too can hand down the traditions
we've been taught according to the word of God.
But we need to stand one day
because it's one day where we're all going to stand.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 14, verse 10,
But why dost thou judge thy brother,
or why dost thou set it not thy brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
But we need to stand today
because one day we're gonna stand before God.
One day we're gonna look God in the face
and we're gonna give account
for everything that we've done in this life.
We're gonna account for how we stood here on earth.
We're gonna stand before God
and we're gonna have to give an account
at the judgment seat of Christ for how we stood here.
What was your stand like here?
That's what's gonna count when you stand there.
We need to stand today
because we're gonna stand there one day.
And that should be enough to motivate us.
That should put a little bit of fear in our hearts.
That should cause us to wanna get in the word of God.
That should cause us to wanna get down on our knees
and pray.
That should want us to get in the word of God
and do God's will and say, you know what?
Maybe the preaching the word of God's a little rough
here and there, but it's important.
We need to take it.
We need to take the rebukes.
We need to take the rebuffs.
We need to get things right.
We need to get the sin of our lives.
We need to stand against the adversaries today
and walk through that effectual door
because one day we're going to stand before God
and give an account.
So that's the message this morning,
to stand.
Stand now because of one day where you will stand.
Let's go ahead and pray.
Heavenly Father, again, thank you for the Bible.
Thank you for the preaching of it.
Thank you for your Holy Spirit.
Thank you for the fellowship that we have in you.
Father, thank you for, Lord, those that have gone before us
and have stood their ground.
Father, help us to stand.
Help us to be a generation that generations from now
speak of that, Lord, even a message like this
might be preached, Lord, should you tarry years from now
that a man would stand up and say
that they should stand for those that stood before them,
that we would be those that stood down,
that we would stand for those that are to come,
and, Lord, that we would stand
for where we're going to stand one day.
Father, help us to see the importance of it.
Help us to walk through that effectual door.
Help us to not be ignorant of the wiles of the devil.
Help us to withstand him, Lord, in your power,
in your might, and for your glory.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
All right, we'll go ahead.