“THE MAN WHO STANDS”
Ephesians 6.14
As the sun set on the day he had expected to die, Shammah was surrounded by the living and the dead. Wounded and bleeding but still standing in the small lentil patch, all around him lay the Philistines he had fought all the day long and slain with the sword and the knife. Gathering nearby were the villagers he had seen for the first time only yesterday, excited that their enemies were dead or put to flight and that their life-giving crop of lentils had not been plundered.
As Shammah stood there, alone in his thoughts despite the dozens of excited voices and the laughter, he closed his eyes and prayed silently: “Thank you, O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Thank you for your mercy and your strength this day I had planned to die fighting your enemies. Thank you for giving me at least one more day of life. Thank you for giving to me the victory.”
Then, with his head bowed, Shammah’s mind quickly rehearsed the events of the previous day and this very morning. Walking along a footpath that would eventually take him to the village of his birth, he was approached by frightened villagers who told him of the marauding Philistines who were even then marching on their small settlement.
Leaving them to hide in fear, Shammah climbed to an observation hill overlooking a small field planted with lentils now ready to harvest. There, he waited. About dusk, he first heard and then saw the enemy. They had come foraging for food and would leave the villagers starving if Shammah did nothing. He lay there, watching those Philistine dogs, pondering his options.
What could he do? True, he was a soldier. True, he fought with David. But David’s troop was too far away to come and help in so short a time. It was then, on that hilltop, overlooking the enemy, that Shammah made his decision. “I am sworn to fight the enemies of God. I am sworn to defend my people. Well, defend them, I will. Tomorrow at dawn, I will stand in the middle of that field of lentils and fight the Philistines until I die.” Those were Shammah’s words of promise to God as he drifted off to sleep.
Rising early in the morning before dawn, Shammah crept down the hill with his tools of war in his hands. Then, as he positioned himself at the center of the ground he would fight and die for, he took his whole armor and prepared to stand. “Here I will stand,” Shammah thought to himself. “Here I will stand and, if need be, here I will die. But I shall not move from this place.”
Shammah was one of David’s mighty men, a man of valor, a man of courage.[1] But more than courage is required to be a man who stands. Do you realize, Christian, that God wants you to be like Shammah, that God wants you to be a man, a woman, who, having done all, stands? Shammah fought against flesh and blood. You and I, who are God’s children, do not fight against flesh and blood.[2] In many ways, however, our struggles and Shammah’s struggles are very similar.
In Ephesians 6.14, we see the exhortation to be the man, the soldier of the cross, who, having done all to stand, stands. Shall we stand and read that verse together? Ephesians 6.14:
“Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.”
Though all who will stand for God amid battle are different in many ways, there are some things all soldiers of the cross have in common. Let me describe for you four things all soldiers of the cross have in common.
First, the Christian soldiers who stand are motivated by a common reason. We are motivated by what we know. Shammah knew God, and he knew his enemies. Because he knew God, he fought for God against God’s enemies and the enemies of his people. Because he knew the Philistines, he fought against them, recognizing fully the damage and the havoc they would bring if not vigorously opposed.
In like manner, the soldier of the cross fights because of what he knows. Through faith in Jesus Christ, his Savior, he knows God. And because he has grown spiritually, he knows God better now than he ever dreamed possible before he was converted. But he also knows the enemy. What destruction is left in the wake of Satanic influence, demonic doctrine, and spiritual seduction has been experienced in his own life and seen by him in others’ lives.
What a great privilege it is to fight, then, on the side of right, to be a soldier of the cross, to lay siege to the enemy in service to God, to resist his advances as he seeks to drag down the deceived and the naive, to know that God has enlisted you into His cause, to fight the battles that He wants to be waged. This is your motivation: to serve the Savior, Who died and shed His precious blood for you, by serving God.
Second, the Christian soldier who stands is moved to a common response. What did Shammah do? He walked to the middle of the field and took up the whole armor he had. This is what Paul says you are to do, you who will stand. The phrase “take unto you” in our text translates into a military word that describes the last act of buckling and cinching into place that a fighting man does before he settles down to face the foe in a life-and-death struggle for supremacy.[3] Only we are to do this with the whole armor of God.
We see a little more precisely just what it is to take up the whole armor of God in subsequent verses in Ephesians chapter 6, but there is a parallel found in First John 2.14, where John writes
“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”
So, taking up the whole armor of God is something more than knowing what the Bible says to do. It is closer to actually doing what the Word of God directs you to do, that is taking up the whole armor of God. Sadly, there are so many who know what to do but do not actually do what they know.
Common motivation, common response. The third common characteristic of the Christian soldier who stands is the common responsibility. Notice the English pronouns in verse 13, reflecting third-person singular and then third-person plural verbs:
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Only the individual child of God can know God. Only the individual child of God can take up to himself the whole armor of God. But having done that, only the children of God can together withstand the enemy and can, having done all, stand.
In this respect we are somewhat different than Shammah. You see, his battle was for one day. His fight was for numerable hours and minutes. But our fight spans decades. Our fight is far more dependent upon encouragement and corporate effort than Shammah’s. And our adversaries are far more numerous than Shammah’s foes. Our foes, the enemies of God, must, and can only, be fought corporately and congregationally.
Listen to what Scripture declares:
Hebrews 10.25:
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
First Corinthians 4.1-2:
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
First Corinthians 15.57-58:
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
The exhortations in the Word of God to stand and be strong for the Lord, to be faithful and not give up, are exhortations and directives not given so much to individuals. Why is this so? Because it is usually with groups of soldiers that a soldier who stands can stand. With groups of soldiers, soldiers stand successfully and resist the onslaught of the enemy. Your responsibility is to stand with others, not usually alone, and having done all, to stand.
The reason that motivates you; what you know and Who you know. The response that moves you; take up the armor of God and let the Word of God abide in you. The responsibility that makes you stand with others who are standing. Fourth, the last common characteristic of those soldiers who stand is the common region, the common real estate, if you will, that marks you.
Shammah stood in a bean patch. There was nothing special about that bean patch, except that it was what the enemy wanted and what Shammah was not about to let them have. He stood and fought until the enemy expired or fled.
What would have happened if Shammah, during the battle, had said to himself, “I think I’ll defend that bean patch over there, instead. No, perhaps that one. I don’t like this one anymore, the people aren’t friendly. I’ve decided to defend that one closer to my house. My wife wants me to fight there instead of here.”
He could easily have justified not standing on that evil day by deceiving himself into “defending against attack at some other location.” But would that not just be wordplay to hide that he did not stand? Sure.
The same is true for you and me, friend, with one exception. God has not given us the choice of which bean patch to defend. Our bean patch is assigned to us. It is Calvary Road Baptist Church. This is our real estate. This is our spiritual region in which to fight the enemy. This congregation is our field of lentils.
Consider some passages with me.
Ephesians 1.1:
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.”
Unless God is calling you to go start or serve in a Church elsewhere, is it possible to be faithful when you leave your place of service? No, it is not.
First Corinthians 3.9:
“For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”
And First Corinthians 4.2 once again:
“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
In chapter three of First Corinthians, Paul established that the Corinthian Church was the bean patch, the lentil patch, for the Corinthian Christians. In chapter four, verse 2, the requirement for faithfulness is established. Are these two verses unconnected? Is there not a tie-in?
Let me conclude by saying that the word “stand” refers to prevailing and resisting the onslaught of the enemy.[4] In other words, it is a special circumstance of faithfulness. It is faithfulness when you are under fire, but it is faithfulness still. If you are unfaithful, you cannot stand. If you are unfaithful, you will not stand. If you are unfaithful, you do not stand.
Let us faithfully stand because of Who and what we know, our reason. We prepare by taking up the whole armor of God, which is our response. Withstanding and standing against the enemy is our responsibility. We do so at this bean patch, in this Church, this body of Christ, our region, our real estate. May God bless you as you are faithful.
SERMON:
In Ephesians 6.13, we see the Church member being directed to take up the whole armor of God. Let us now consider the reason for taking up the whole armor of God to fight our unseen foes. It is so you will be able to stand in the evil day and so that having done all, you will stand.
Understand that this verse does not suggest that the child of God does not commit sins. Christians do commit sins. Neither does it imply that believers do not stumble and fall. Believers most certainly do stumble and fall. But we get up, dust ourselves off, and continue serving God.
What about that person or that couple who seems to be running the race, and they have run for what seems to be such a long time, and they fall absolutely flat on their faces and just lay there? They seem to make no progress and display no growth.
I once had a friend who served God faithfully for years as a Church member, as a pastor, and as an evangelist. The last I heard of him, scores of years ago, he had left his wife and was living with a Playboy Playmate. He ran the good race for years and then fell and stayed down. The last I heard, perhaps forty years ago, he was still living in sin with that woman he was not married to.
Another example is a guy who served God faithfully for a long time and never fell into what you and I would call serious sin. He just moved away and settled into a life of remembering what he had once done “for God,” as it goes. Then there are the innumerable stories of the college kids who move away and no longer involve themselves in their Church or the old people who fade into retirement oblivion. They do not go all at once. They drift along with the current, allowing themselves to be overcome by the various tugs of life, entropy just increasing. Whatever the so-called justification, the net effect concerning this verse is exactly the same. Such are those who do not withstand, do not do all, and are not standing.
Understand that it is possible to be saved and not stand. It is possible to be saved and then be lured, enticed, deceived, outmaneuvered, drawn offside, or tricked into abandoning your place and posture of service. But it is impossible to stand unless you are genuinely, Biblically, Scripturally, powerfully saved.
So, suppose you are not faithfully, conscientiously, persistently standing with us here at Calvary Road Baptist Church. In that case, you fall into that gray area of spiritual concern occupied by those who may be saved or not.
Allow me to tell you that unless you are saved, you will not stand; you cannot stand in the evil day and, having done all, stand. Unless you are saved, you will not prevail against the assault the enemy levels against you. This is because the man who stands, the woman who stands, is the soldier who truly has been saved.
WHAT HAS THE MAN WHO STANDS BEEN SAVED FROM? HE, SHE, HAS BEEN SAVED FROM SIN
As to the concept. It is sin that separates the sinner from God. It is the sin in you that God abhors. The sin in you stains every thought and deed so that even your righteousnesses are counted by God as filthy rags.[5] And since all have sinned, sin is a problem you must face or perish with. It should come as no surprise to you, then, that God intends to see sinners saved from their sins, not saved in their sins. Tragically, this is a concept to which only lip service is paid by those
What else is a holy God to do? God can no more act contrary to His nature than rocks can fall up instead of down. To deny that Jesus Christ saves people from their sins is to deny the most fundamental truth related to sin and salvation in God’s holy Word. No, the angel Gabriel spoke rightly to Joseph when he said, “He shall save his people from their sins.”
As to the complaint. Despite what should only seem evident to the earnest student of God’s Word, there are some who, for all practical purposes, deny that the Lord Jesus saves people from their sins. This is all the evangelical crowd and almost all of the so-called fundamentalist crowd. Consider: I know a man who has committed adultery on some dozen occasions, yet he vehemently denies that he is a lost man and angrily insists that he is as saved as anyone is.
This is even though several passages in Scripture point out that sexual sins are sins that are characteristic of unsaved people, are sins that mark them, and are sins that God’s people are to use as an indicator of who to deny fellowship to.[6] By the way, is the act of fornication less sinful if it is repeated again and again with the same person? Is familiarity with your partner in sin any less wicked? Some think so.
Consider: I know people who have lived out their so-called Christian lives for years without any evidence that they have been born again beyond their personal say-so. No fruit. No joy. No obedience. Sporadic Church attendance. Yet they suggest that you and I take their word that they know Jesus Christ as their Savior. I am sorry. I find no Biblical evidence to suggest that I am commanded to, or allowed to, simply take someone’s word that he is saved, not when the Bible demands the testimony of two or three witnesses to establish fact, and not when the Bible declares that man’s heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, therefore completely unreliable in matters of truth and morality.
As to the correction. Here is where I counter the wrong notion that believers can commit great and horrendous sin for an extended period of time or that a “Christian” can live for years without anything resembling a testimony by resorting to the Word of God.
Hebrews 12.8:
“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
Hebrews 12.11:
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
First John 5.16:
“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
In Hebrews, we are told that God chastises His children; that if someone sins and is not chastised, it is because he is not really God’s child, and that God’s chastisement results in holy living. In First John 5.16 we are told that sometimes a Christian who insists on sinning will be taken by God in premature death. So, you tell me that a person is saved who is never chastised, is never corrected, never exhibits holy living? No sir! I say, “No sir.” Why not? Because sinners are saved from their sins. He served God when he was younger. But the Lord Jesus Christ declared,
“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.”[7]
WHAT HAS THE MAN WHO STANDS BEEN SAVED BY? HE HAS BEEN SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF THE CRUCIFIED ONE
From Hebrews 9.22, we see that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. In Ephesians 2.13, Paul wrote that saved people have been brought nigh, or brought close to God, by the blood of Christ. So, we know blood is required, and we know the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was provided. But to what end was the blood of Christ provided for the benefit of sinners? To wash away your sins. First John 1.7b shows that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, washes away sins. But not just sins of the past. The present and future sins are also washed in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb if that verse be rightly understood.
Imagine what would happen to a sinner whose sins were washed away, who was now clean in the sight of God, who would not be cast into outer darkness to suffer torment forever, but who would have a home prepared in heaven now that the obstacle of sin was removed.
THE MAN THAT STANDS IS THE MAN, IS THE WOMAN, WHO IS SAVED FROM SIN, NOT IN SIN, IS THE MAN OR WOMAN WHO IS SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST, AND WHO IS SAVED THROUGH FAITH
There are some things you need to know about faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith in Christ is not gradual. A person is either saved or unsaved, headed for heaven or headed for Hell. The Bible does not mention gradually coming to faith in Christ. You either trust Him or you do not. Trust Him, and He will save you. Continue as you are, and you are condemned already.
Faith in Christ is not effort, work, or deeds. Titus 3.5 declares, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done ....” Romans 4.5 indicates faith is counted for righteousness, and that salvation comes to that person who believes, who exercises faith, on Him Who justifies ungodly people. So, saving faith has nothing to do with your effort to believe, your deeds to save yourself somehow, but it has to do with relying on Him, who does for you what you cannot do for yourself.
Finally, faith in Christ results in salvation. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” That is what a frantic man asked Paul and Silas one night long ago. Their answer cannot be improved on. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
We live in evil days. But there is an evil day that Paul wrote about in Ephesians 6.13, which has not yet come. I want to be the kind of Christian soldier who is still standing at the end of that evil day. And I want you to stand, as well. I do not want you to go on for twenty years, building a life and raising a family, only to see it all crumble in the end. I want you to stand.
The only way you can stand is if you are first saved. Not all saved people stand, understand. The enemy fools some into leaving their spouses, tricking them into leaving their Churches and into doing foolish things that they erroneously imagined were their ideas entirely.
But no lost man or woman will certainly stand, either in battle against the enemy or before the Lord on Judgment Day. So, make sure you are saved. Make sure you are saved from sin, not in sin. Make sure you are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, which washes away sins. Make sure you are saved through faith, faith in Jesus Christ, and trusting Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
Begin to make sure you are saved today.
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[1] 2 Samuel 23.8-11
[2] 2 Corinthians 10.3-5
[3] Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. and Rogers III, Cleon L., The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key To The Greek New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998), page 446.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Isaiah 64.6
[6] 1 Corinthians 6.9; Galatians 5.21; Ephesians 5.5; Hebrews 13.4; Revelation 22.15
[7] Matthew 10.22
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