Part 2: Standing Firm | Sermon Series 01/05/2025

All right. Happy Lord's Day.

It's good to see you all. We come back to the temporary topic of spiritual warfare this week, okay?

We're equipping you with what every Christian must face in this walk of faithfulness, okay?

We'll be getting back to the first letter to the Corinthians in a couple weeks. Last week, if you remember,

I exposited the texts of 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 -5.

I'll read that again. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

We established how we fight. It's not a physical war, but a spiritual war.

We can't use gimmicks or worldly church programs. We can't simply address our physical health.

We don't fight using talismans. We don't fight using icons, idols, gimmicks.

Even crosses won't fight for us. Holy water, whatever relic that we have access to.

The fight is not physical. It's spiritual. Spiritual warfare. So then, what are we fighting in this war?

He said it here. He said, fortresses built. Fortresses built by mankind with the building materials that are supplied by the world and the flesh and the devil.

Paul uses the words, speculations, lofty things, knowledge, thoughts.

Therefore, the Apostle showed us these fortresses are not evil territories. They're not demonic strongholds.

They are proud, lofty, God -defying speculations of the human heart that come from the flesh or demonic influence, and they're raised up against the true knowledge of God.

And Christians are to fight against all forms of spiritual and mental thoughts.

Reasonings that can be anti -Christ, anti -God, and anti -truth.

So if you weren't here last week, I would definitely go back and listen to that sermon. All this will make even more sense.

That is the what we fight and the how we fight. So then, what do we fight with?

I told you the Greek word here is theodunata. It's God power.

Divine power. Divine, destroying ability by the Spirit of God in each one of us.

And that manifests itself in truth. It's in truth. That power from God is from His revelation.

He's the source of all truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And so we fight with that revelatory power of the truth.

This is a truth war, not a territory war.

And so Jesus came as the way, the truth, and the life, and He destroyed the works of who?

The Father of lies. The devil. The Word of God is the truth, and therefore

Scripture calls itself a sword. Scripture calls itself a sword, a sword of the

Spirit. The sharp and piercing truth of the Bible, along with the charging cavalry of the

Gospel of Christ, they are the weapons of our warfare that are divinely powerful to destroy these lofty things, these false fortresses that have been made in the hearts of men and demons.

And we take every thought captive. We wrestle and wrangle thoughts and reasonings that are false, and we wrangle them and put them into subjection to Christ by the truth of Christ.

And that's where we got our why. Why we fight. We fight to bring everything, every human, every fallen angel, every institution, every thought, ism, and ology to the obedience of Christ.

Everything needs to come into obedience to Christ. Now to supplement that theology of spiritual warfare, because that's what

I would call last week, last week was a theology of spiritual warfare, but today

I'd like to give you some practical applications on how this battle may take place in your life.

A common theme in all of the letters of the New Testament, whether it be from Paul or Peter or John or James, we see a continued call to stand firm.

Stand firm. And there's often another Greek word that goes with that word in the same context, and that word is the same root even in the

Greek as stand firm. And that word is to resist. Stand firm and resist.

They go together. 1 Peter 5 8 -9 Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert.

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist him.

Firm in your faith. James 4 7 Submit therefore to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist.

Resist. Stand firm. And Paul combines resisting and standing firm, especially in his admonishment in Ephesians 6, the full armor of God passage.

Standing, resisting, being on the alert.

The language we see in the Bible for spiritual warfare is that we go out with the Gospel, we use the truth to destroy mental and spiritual false ideological fortresses.

That's our offense. But when the world, the flesh, or the devil and his demons come to attack us, we need a good defensive posture.

We use the truth and the Gospel as our offense, that's our offensive posture, but then we need to resist or stand firm in a defensive posture when we're attacked.

And that defensive posture is to stand firm. It is to stand firm.

So do you see how this is how we spiritually wage war? If you remember,

I talked about in my seminary days how I went to this Roman Catholic 25 -acre property.

There was this spiral labyrinth. I told you about this room with all these idols, and I was assaulted with all these things there in my mind.

It's not going to be spiral labyrinths. It's not going to be formulaic prayers.

It's not going to be bindings or incantations or mantras to manipulate demons.

That's not how we fight. We've been told for a long time that's how we fight.

That's how we wage war in the spiritual realm. It's not. It's not true. These are the commandments for spiritual warfare, not those.

Use truth, take thoughts captive, stand, and resist.

Stecho is the word we will consider today. Its root, istemi, is to stand.

But stecho is something different. It's not merely standing, it's to stand firm, stand fast.

It means to endure attack. Establish a footing and don't go backwards.

No matter what comes at you. Don't be pushed back. Remain fighting. Stand firm.

In the Greco -Roman world, the concept of standing firm was often associated with military imagery where soldiers were expected to stand their ground.

Stand firm. Don't shrink back. The idea is no matter who or what comes at you, you stay planted in God's truth and power.

You stay planted. Again, this is a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons, with spiritual enemy forces.

Therefore, our standing firm isn't physical. It's not necessarily physical, it's spiritual as well.

It's a spiritual battle. So with all that said, I'm going to give you ten Bible verses with ten lessons, ten exhortations to stand in this battle that we're a part of.

So if you want, grab a pen and paper or take notes, whatever you'd like to do. You can follow along in your

Bible. I also have all of these ten things in your Scripture printout in your bulletin.

So grab those if you need to. There's going to be ten of these today. But let's go ahead and pray as I get through the rest of the sermon.

Dear God, we come before You. We ask Your blessing upon this time. Lord, please speak through me today.

Lord, use Your Word to cut, to break down, but then to mold and to bring back up and build up,

Lord. Please help us to take these things and not just have them be theory floating out there or just thoughts in our mind, but Lord, let us use these things in a practical way in our lives that we may glorify and honor

You and be able to stand firm as the spiritual war continues to wage around us.

So God, please be with us. Keep our focus ever on You and Your Word, Lord Jesus. I pray in Your name,

Amen. So, you must know this. Number one, this is key.

Number one, we stand only by His grace. That's number one.

We stand only by His grace. Romans 5, one through two. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

We stand in this grace. You see, Psalm 1 .5 says, Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

That means you and I can only stand firm because God has made us stand by His grace.

You can't stand firm if you don't first stand by His grace.

Otherwise, we'd be crippled at the judgment. And this standing that He initially gives us is a discharge of guilt.

All guilt has been taken away from you. You see, a charged criminal can lay at the foot of a judge and say, please, don't.

Don't. Don't let me die. Don't do this. Don't take me away. But that's not enough.

We need someone who doesn't just beg, but someone who pays for the crimes that we've committed.

We're like the paralytics who could not use their legs laying upon the cots, begging for alms.

We could do nothing. We could beg all that we want, but it would not amount to being able to stand.

Jesus is the One that has caused us to stand. And so this also demonstrates that no one can hope at all to resist evil persistently without the grace of God.

You've got to have God's grace. You've got to be saved. You've got to experience the grace of God.

Jesus says those who commit sin are slaves to it only by God's freeing power and transformation can we stand over our previous master and resist it.

If anyone is ever going to hope that they can fight, they first need Jesus to fight for them and secure the victory.

That's by standing in His grace. Trusting in no one's works, or you will fall.

Number two. Number one, we stand only by His grace. Number two, we stand with caution due to our own sin trying to make us fall.

We stand with caution due to our sin trying to make us fall.

1 Corinthians 10 -12 Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

You see, Psalm 5 -5 says, the boastful cannot stand before your eyes,

O God. The proud person who thinks they don't sin will not stand before God.

You see, what's going to happen is when you get to stand in God's grace when

He saves you, you get a confidence. That's a good thing.

It can turn into a bad thing, but it's good that God gives you confidence. One who cowers is one who is ashamed, but one who stands is assured.

And yet, our confidence is not in ourselves. If once God has made you stand, and then you begin to lax, or you begin to get arrogant, or you begin to be prideful, you will fall.

If you think you stand because of what you've done, you will fall.

You will fall. The humble, standing soldier of Christ recognizes he or she only stands by God's grace and does not fall by that same grace.

God, You have made me stand by Your grace, and I need Your grace so that I won't fall today and tomorrow and the next day and the next.

Therefore, the humble, standing soldier of Christ does not get sleepy while standing.

They're not distracted while standing. They're not prideful while standing. And you become aware of your ability to fall.

I can fall. And you guard against falling at all costs in the power of the

Spirit. Consider the fact that David never thought he was going to fall. Samson believed nothing could topple him over.

Peter stood ready. In fact, in that garden, he grabbed a sword. He was ready to go.

Standing against the guards who were seeking to take Jesus into custody.

But in the end, even Peter stumbled and fell. If some of you have mastered some addictions, if some of you have mastered some sins, don't start letting your guard down.

Don't start letting your guard down. Be as alert as the day you first started to resist.

Well, it's been a while. I could probably take this away. I could move the trip wire away.

I could put the booby traps away now. I don't need all those traps for this thing. I'm good now.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Keep in place what first helped you to get out of it, okay?

Be alert as the day you decide to stand up again. Keep all of those things in place just in case the lone fiery dart soars after you again.

We're talking alcohol, pornography, anger outbursts, gossip, whatever you name it.

The day that you stood against those things and you put certain things in place so that you wouldn't fall again, keep them.

Don't get lax. Take heed that you do not fall. And if you do, just get right back up.

Get right back up as a soldier of Christ. Number three. Number three, we stand firm and alert due to the sins of those seeking to make the church fall, okay?

We stand firm and alert due to the sins of those seeking to make the church fall.

1 Corinthians 16, verse 13. Paul says, be on the alert.

Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong. So previously,

Paul called us to be alert and to stand due to our own ability to fall.

Our own sin. Now he charges the Corinthians and all of us to stand firm against all other forms of attack that come against the church, okay?

Whether it be from outside or from within. He says to the Corinthians to stand fast in the faith.

Keep the ground. Adhere to the revelation of God that's been given you. Don't give it up for the wisdom of the world.

Now we've seen people come here and try to tear down this church plant.

If we were to put up with sin and attack, it would have already destroyed us.

We've had Mormons. We have evidence of Mormons who have met physically or virtually online, who have literally thought out game plans to take down our church.

I'll never forget that we were given word and shown screenshots that before we were about to have our open house, all these

LDS missionaries came together. I'm telling you, we have the evidence, and they said, let's go picket their open house.

Let's go stand and protest out front of it that no one will go to this new damned church, they would call us, okay?

We've had things where they've decided on these forums to come together and said, let's all go to their

Google profile, the church. And we received,

I think, almost three dozen one -star reviews in a few short hours from these guys.

And it was just amazing what they intended for evil, God intended for good. Such a small form of attack, by the way.

It really doesn't do anything to us. But it's just interesting. We had this almost negative review, essentially.

And so then God's people mobilized, and you guys just communicated with friends and family. And all these people started to give us five -star reviews.

And it was wonderful to see everyone's support. And then all of a sudden,

Google came forward, an administrator, and said, hey, we think we're seeing a virtual attack on your

Google profile. It looks like discrimination, we're removing all of it. So all of a sudden, we have all these positive reviews now, and all the negative ones were taken.

So it was just, glory to God. But those are small things. I've seen bigger things come our way.

But we keep our cool, okay? But we're not to be fooled.

None of this is simply because of our presence. It's not because of you, it's not because of me, it's not because of any of us.

All these attacks come against this church because we proclaim the truth.

We proclaim the truth, and we follow the truth giver. We follow no one else, amen?

And so we must discern when meekness and humility are necessary, and they're always necessary in the church and in evangelism.

But we also have to understand that having resolve, having strength, being alert, acting like men, firmness, those things are necessary too.

They're not at odds with each other when wielded rightly. We cannot faint in the day of adversity.

We watch it coming our way. It's on the horizon. We know our king already defeated our greatest adversary.

And so we look on the horizon and we smile. The war is won. I won't be moved.

I will not be moved, right? Even the Proverbs 31 woman smiles at the future.

It says, tomorrow and its attacks should not scare us. Okay, we stand firm.

Number four, number four. We stand firm against legalism.

We stand firm against legalism. Galatians chapter five, verse one.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

You see, legalism is one of the oldest heresies we see in the early church, especially with the

Judaizers, and it continues to be a formidable foe to the church today, legalism.

In fact, some would say that every other religion in this world opposed to biblical Christianity are those of the same cloth of legalism.

Every other religion is works -based legalism, okay? And for the church in Galatia, they were under the spell that adding circumcision to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was necessary for salvation.

It's what Jesus did, and you have to get circumcised. You've gotta do both.

And St. Paul says, don't go back to that yoke of slavery. Don't go back to that bondage, okay?

Don't go back to Egypt when you've already been set free. The fact is, he says, do you wanna be judged based off of your performance of circumcision and what

Jesus did combined, or do you wanna be judged based off of only what Jesus did and what Jesus did was perfect?

So what would you rather be judged by? Combination of what you did and what Jesus did, or just what

Jesus? I wanna be judged just by what Jesus did alone, okay?

Jesus adhered to the law perfectly. So one of the biggest ways we stumble as believers is when we try to take convictions, good, godly convictions that we have liberty to hold to.

The Bible allows us to have liberty in these convictions, and we can take these good things, they're packaged as good things, and we take them and say, if you don't do these things, you're not saved.

And sometimes it's said outrightly. Sometimes it's simply implied, right?

You could take something like head coverings, which for multiple millennia were such a wonderful thing in the church.

I have a video explanation on that today, you can check out. That's a wonderful conviction.

I think they're wonderful. You here, if you feel convicted to, you could wear a head covering.

You could be part of a specific denomination and say, you could take that though, and you could say that this is the only denomination.

This is the only one, everyone outside of it is not saved, and some people say that. You could take psalms, and I love psalms.

We recite a psalm every Lord's Day service, but you could say that the songs that we just sung as a church are wicked.

And some say that. They're wicked, they're evil, the way that we sing those, the lyrics, everything, the guitar, when we have piano, it's wicked.

And there are brothers that we love who would say, you can only sing acapella with psalms, the psalms one through 150.

And if you do otherwise, and hopefully they don't do this, some hold to this, and they don't legislate on it, but if they legislate and say, if you don't do this way, you're not saved, it's necessary for salvation, then that's legalism.

They can sing psalms only, that's fine. You can wear a head covering, you can enjoy

Christmas, or you can be a Covenanter and hate Christmas. But what you can't do is legislate it and say, if you don't do it my way, you're not saved, right?

And so legalism is something we need to stand firm against. Legalism is like a terrible windstorm that will not relent, but we are to be like a mature tree, firmly rooted in the ground, planted by streams of water, unmovable, unyielding.

You think about images of the one tree that did not fall when a tornado came by.

We're supposed to be that. We're supposed to experience the wave of legalism and not be moved, okay?

Because when you inevitably fail, when you fail in legalism, your hope then is in your performance.

Oh God, I failed again today. It was me, and so the only way to fix this is me.

But we stand by the grace of God. And so then to be able to stand firm, you have to stand by His grace.

Grace must be the motivator. Grace is always the motivator, and that will cause you to stand firm against legalism, okay?

Number five, number five. Stand firm against demonic forces with truth, righteousness, the

Gospel, faith, salvation, the Word of God, and prayer. Okay, I'm paraphrasing

Ephesians 6, the full armor of God passage, okay? Let me read a portion of it.

Stand firm against demonic forces with the truth, righteousness, the Gospel, faith, salvation, the

Word, and prayer. Ephesians 6, 11 through 13. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm, there it is, against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything, stand firm.

Now, this passage and the rest of the armor of God passages are something that I wanted to exposit today because so many people have taken the armor of God passages and said, this is what you have to pray to get the breastplate.

This is what you need to pray and how you gotta say it to get the helmet of salvation. This is how you gotta pray to get the

Gospel shoes that are shot on your feet, right? And it's so bizarre.

I wanted to address that and I will sometime in the future. But for now, let me just say a quick overview of these verses, okay?

It's been completely abused. We don't have that time to examine every piece, but think about it this way.

If you're going to stand firm against the onslaught of the enemy on the battlefield, you don't just stand there, you have armor.

You wear armor, you have weapons. And so it says to gird your loins with truth.

You see that phrase in the Bible, gird your loins. I think of when Elijah the prophet was going to outrun

Ahab to Jezreel. And it says that Elijah took his tunic and he girded his loins.

And what that is, is that's taking the long tunic of a man and it's grabbing the ends of it that hang at your ankles and it's tying the rest of it around your waist so that you can run.

And so Elijah girded his loins, brought up his tunic, tied it tight, and he ran and he outran

King Ahab to Jezreel. A man who was on a chariot, he outran him.

Of course, it was a miraculous thing as well, but you're to gird your loins. You are to gird your loins and that means to be prepared for action.

Girding your loins with truth means to be prepared with the truth.

So the truth isn't just a concept. The truth acts. The truth moves.

Gird your loins with the truth, the breastplate of righteousness.

That means your holy character can keep you impervious to attack.

Righteousness. Following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ helps one to defeat the enemy like the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says, shod your feet with the gospel of peace. Like an

Old Testament runner, an Old Testament messenger who had good news, you are to stand firm and run with the gospel shod on your feet, which is to say you have every motivation to stand.

You have every motivation to stand. The runners of the Old Testament to bring good news to the king from the battlefield, they would run.

The battle is won. The battle is won. We have victory. And everyone back at the fort or the village or the city would rejoice.

And so you stand firm with the fact that something marvelous has happened in this world.

Something marvelous has happened with the coming of Jesus Christ. Something marvelous has happened to you.

Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected is your fuel. It keeps you standing. You have the shield of faith.

The shield of faith that keeps the fiery darts back. And that is a hope in God that is unbreakable.

You have the helmet of salvation. Your salvation means that no headshots can make you perish.

No headshot can destroy you. If you wear the helmet of salvation, someone can even take your life.

No one can take away your eternal life. You have salvation. You'll never perish in Jesus.

You use the sword of the Spirit, which is called the Word of God. Our poor habits of not reading the

Bible and not storing it in our hearts is like being a soldier without a weapon. Would you go to war without a weapon?

Well, we go to war spiritually without our weapon, without the Word of God, the sword of the

Spirit. How will you fight, right? And finally, Paul ends the armor of God passages saying pray at all times.

You know what that looks like on the battlefield? If you're a soldier on the battlefield and you see the enemy coming from this side or they're gonna go around and flank you, you report it to the commander.

You see the attack, you report it. If you're a soldier on the battlefield and you're starting to fall and you're hungry and you need food and you need sustenance, if you're a soldier and you need backup, you need more strength, you talk to the commander, more people are sent.

But we don't do that, we don't pray, do we? We don't pray enough. We go on the battlefield and we go,

I'll be just fine by myself, right? But we've gotta report to the commander the attacks that we see, the things that we need.

We've gotta communicate with God. That's what he says, pray at all times, okay? He will supply you with what you need.

We need to put on the full armor of God to stand firm. Again, I can't wait to preach that one. Number six, number six, stand firm in unity.

You're only able to stand firm if you stand firm in unity. Philippians 1, verse 27, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the

Gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent,

I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the

Gospel. You stand firm together. You're only able to stand firm if you have unity with the brethren.

No lone soldier can fend off a full army attack.

If the soldiers begin to quarrel with one another on the same side, then they will not be ready to fight the real enemy that's in front of them.

And so that means for us, overlooking offenses. In fact,

Proverbs 19, verse 11 says, it is to your glory that you overlook an offense.

It is heavenly to overlook an offense because God overlooks offenses all day long.

You wanna be like God? You'd be someone who's willing to forgive all the time, even though people rebel against you constantly and God goes,

I'll overlook that, I'll overlook that. It is a glory to overlook an offense, the

Bible says. Not be easily offended. Don't elevate what

I call nothing burgers. Don't supersize a nothing burger, right? Peter says, let love cover a multitude of sins.

It means that they're legitimate sins. And instead of fanning the flames, demanding justice, you cover the sin fire with a wet blanket.

You get the fire out and you just forgive. Doesn't mean that sometimes you need restitution.

I'm not saying that. It doesn't mean that you don't need reconciliation or you need to work through a conflict.

I'm not saying that. But I'm saying our default and what helps maintain unity is to forgive someone.

Forgive the brethren, be in unity. Do you truly want to be an unmovable soldier in Christ?

You truly wanna be a person who stands firm against attack? Change how easily you are offended, okay?

See yourself as less important. See the relationship as more important.

And as Paul says in Philippians chapter two, the next chapter after this one, regard one another as more important than yourself.

Is this person more important than you? He says, think that way. Think that way.

You wanna be unmovable as a soldier in Christ? Be able to forgive a lot, just as God in Christ forgave you.

Don't be caught on the same side as the accuser of the brethren. Stand under that one banner of one

Lord, one God, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one church. We're one.

So find the biblical balance. Avoid extremes where Scripture isn't explicit.

And truly, I see this going on on the internet right now. If we were just more in the trenches together, we wouldn't even have time to fight.

Stand firm in unity. Number seven, number seven. Stand firm since others rely on you to stand firm.

Stand firm because others rely on you to stand firm. This comes from 1

Thessalonians chapter three, verses seven through eight. Listen to this. For this reason, brethren, in all our distress and affliction, we were comforted about you through your faith.

Here it is. For now, we really live if you stand firm in the

Lord. We really live if you stand firm in the

Lord. That's how we live. Brothers and sisters, go ahead, look around you. Look at some of these people.

Be a weirdo and look right at the guy behind you, right? Look around you.

The people in this room, the people in your family, they're relying on you to stand firm yourself so that they can stand firm, okay?

If all your fellow soldiers around you started going AWOL or deserting their post or falling from attack and not standing firm, then it will be harder for you.

That means we're like a team. If everyone starts falling in attack, spiritual attack around you, but you're not and you're like, well, whatever,

I'm the only guy not falling. Doesn't matter. Them falling around you will affect you too.

People rely on you. Your strength is their strength and their strength is your strength.

One person's sin here can impact the whole body of believers. The Bible shows us that.

Husbands, your wife is relying on you to stand firm.

She's relying on you to stand firm against sexual temptation, against compromise with the world, against that inherent desire to be lazy, to maintain boyhood.

She's relying on you to stand firm against dominating headship, the anger, the outbursts, giving her the mental scraps at the end of the day when you gave your work far more attention than her.

Wives, your husbands are relying on you to stand firm against lusting yourself, against fantasies you might create, from gossiping to other people about your husband, right?

You need to stand firm against eating the bread of idleness, Proverbs 31 says, from a desire to not respect him.

You need to stand firm against these things. Parents, your children are relying on you to stand firm in protecting them from the things of this world.

You need to stand firm from being impatient with them and causing them to be exasperated to the point of anger.

Stand firm against those things. Stand firm from not giving them boundaries, consequences in this life.

It's hard for anyone to stand firm against discouragement or discontentment, but single people, all of us need to stand firm against those.

But with single people too, you've got to resist those things, discontentment, discouragement, loneliness.

It's hard, but you've got to find your joy in the Lord. Because the brethren need you more than you think they do.

We all need each other. Don't ever pull away from each other. We cannot fall.

We all stand. And if someone's falling around you, you pick them up. Amen? That's what you do.

Because the war will end soon for all of us. And so we must stand firm so that everyone else can too.

Your family's relying on you to stand firm. Will you do it? Number eight, stand firm in the apostolic teachings and traditions in the

Bible, not straying into error. Remember, stand firm in the apostolic teachings and traditions of the

Bible, not straying into error. This comes from 2 Thessalonians 2 .15.

Here it is. So then brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth, there's oral tradition, or by letter from us.

You see that? That's the canon of the New Testament. Word of mouth, or from letter from us.

Do not go beyond these truths. Hold to these things. He says stand firm in the

Bible. You see, in 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul had just spoken about the day of judgment and how

Jesus will return in flaming fire. Then he moves on to chapter two and he speaks that a man of lawlessness is coming.

A man of lawlessness will arrive and the man of lawlessness will try to deceive the church and seek to exalt himself even above God.

This man of lawlessness. Paul says his accord, this man of lawlessness, is with the activity of Satan.

And he'll even act with power and signs and false wonders and false revelation.

And so right after that is when Paul says, be ready, stand firm in what we've already taught you.

Stand firm, these things are coming. The man of lawlessness will come. Stand firm in the truth.

Don't go into error. Don't go into heresy. Remember what we taught you. Remember the

Word of God. It means to have biblical orthodoxy, not like Greek orthodoxy or Eastern orthodoxy or those religions.

Orthodoxy in the Greek, orthos and doxa. Orthos means, you know, you think of orthodontist.

It literally means straight. But in other contexts, orthos means correct.

Correct or true or straight. Doxa means worship related to belief.

If you have biblical orthodoxy, you have correct belief that goes to worship of God.

Correct belief. Have biblical orthodoxy. Stand firm in correct belief in the

Scriptures. Now the problem is, every false religion and every cult out there says we adhere to the

Scriptures. We love the Bible, right? So how do you figure that out?

How do we know who to believe? Well, you examine their fruit.

Jesus says you'll know them by their fruits. Are they greedy? Are they shunning people? Are they using cultic -like practices?

Are they doing ascetism, self -abasement, hurting themselves, mass suicides?

You look at the fruit. That's an easy way. But another thing that you do is you examine their doctrine.

Do they require a pope to forgive sins? Do they require a specific entity to tell you what to believe?

Do they require a prophet to where only He can give you qualified teachings to believe from the

Scripture, right? Will it be them or will it be

God Himself? It says in Jeremiah 31, it says in Jesus' words in John 6, it says you will be taught by God.

You will be taught by God. God will do it by His Spirit. Do these false religions say the

Bible isn't sufficient? Do they say that more revelation is needed? That's one way to figure it out.

Do they do what's called eisegesis? Eisegesis means to take their own meaning, what they want, and do they insert it into the text?

Okay, there's where my belief will fit into the Bible.

Oh, look, it says it. See, that's what I believe. That's eisegesis. Or do they exegesis, which goes,

I'm empty -handed, I have nothing. Let me go to the Scriptures with nothing and find in the text what it says and take truth from it and deposit it and keep it.

That's eisegesis. Finding out, pulling out from the Scripture what it means. Or do they eisegesis, okay?

And so we are to stand firm in the apostolic teachings, in the teachings from Jesus, as Paul says, the traditions of the

Bible. That's how you keep fighting the good fight. If you even need to give up good and godly entertainment to read the

Word more, you should. If you listen to good and godly podcasts, but you don't read the

Word, then turn off the good and godly podcast and put on an audio

Bible. There was a season in my life where for a time, for a couple years, all

I was able to do in my maturity at that time and in my walk and in my circumstance was

I was audio Bible all the time. It's going to serve you far better than the good and godly podcast.

If you need to put down that godly book, because I see it all the time. Oh, this book feeds me.

This book is about Bible stuff. It's a good author, female author, male author. This book, it feeds me well.

It's about the Bible. But if you're not in the Bible, put that book down and get in the book.

Get in the Bible. You see, those things, the good and godly podcast, the good and godly entertainment, the good and godly book, they're meant to be supplements, not substitutes.

Does that make sense? Supplements, addition to, not substitutes for the

Word of God. So in 2025, be in the Word of God to stand firm, okay? Number nine.

We're almost done. Number nine, stand firm in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Stand firm in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This comes from 1 Peter 5, verse 12.

Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, for so I regard him, I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it, he says. Then you go, Pastor Wade, what's the context here? Well, Peter had just finished writing his first epistle when he wrote this sentence.

He penned all these magnificent words of Jesus Christ, what Christ did for us, who

Jesus is, who we are now to Him. And Peter said, though you suffer right now and you have not seen

Jesus face to face, he says we have a living hope through Christ, obtaining an imperishable inheritance, undefiled, unfading, reserved for you in heaven.

Peter said, you won't believe it. Christ was like an unblemished lamb who gave

His blood. He was raised from the dead. He was given glory unimaginable.

Peter writes all these magnificent things of who you are, who Christ is. He writes all these things and he says, now stand firm in them.

Stand firm in those Gospel truths. Don't forsake them. This is everything to you, soldier.

This is how you keep standing. It's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When the battle keeps wearing you down and you down and you down and you want to fall and you want to collapse, he says, stand firm in this.

Come back to this truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what you need to preach to yourself every day.

Do you remind yourself of the Gospel? Do you remind yourself of the Gospel just for yourself or even when you're treating other people a certain way?

Do you remind yourself of the Gospel and how imperative it is to share it, to continue to give it, to continue to live it?

The Gospel of Christ is enough. The Gospel needs to run through your veins, okay?

Because in the end, our 10th and final exhortation on spiritual warfare speaks to the result of that.

It sums up all these commands to stand firm. Here it is, number 10. Again, when

Christ saves you by His grace, causes you to stand, then

He'll make you to stand firm in these things to the end, and then you'll stand again.

Okay, there's three standings. First, you stand by His grace,

He saves you. Then you stand firm in these things that I just told you, one through nine, and then

He'll make you stand once again on the final day. Here it is, Jude 24.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless, with great joy.

There you have it, church. When you and I were falling, when we were stumbling and landing flat on our backs due to our sin,

Christ made us stand. When you and I have sinned in this Christian walk,

Christ made us stand up again. When the attacks of Satan seem unrelenting,

Christ makes us stand. When you and I have suffered to the point that we've thought we cannot get back up,

Christ makes you stand, and on the final day, when the battle is over, when it's all done, when you enter the presence of God, you will not cower, you will not fall down, you will not shrink back, for because of Christ, you will stand.

You will stand. That's how you keep standing firm. That's true spiritual warfare, okay?

Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for these glorious truths.

Thank You, God, for showing us how to stand firm in the evil day.

God, help us to not be prideful. We can't do these things by ourselves. We can't white -knuckle these things, dear

God. We can't just resolve today, okay, I'm going to stand firm. We've got to seek

You. We've got to seek You in Your Word. We've got to seek You in prayer. We've gotta take up the full armor that You've given us, dear

God. Remember these things, to live in the Gospel day in and day out, and so, Lord, please, please help us today.

Help us to be good soldiers. Help us to stand firm against the onslaught.

And Lord, we know, we can feel it. When we're being susceptible to attack, when we keep falling, we know,

Lord, it's because we are ignoring these things. We're not putting these things to attention. And so,

God, we know, we recognize, we need You to help us here.

Holy Spirit, cause us to live out these things in our walks in Christ.

Help us to be faithful. We need You to keep us persevering,

Lord. We recognize it's the preservation of the saints, not just the perseverance of the saints.

So preserve us, God. Help us with these things. Help us to fight the good fight, and to never lay down, to never fall, and not get back up again.

So, Lord, please give us Your strength. Give us Your power. Give us Your humility, and Your love, and Your ability to forgive.

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, brothers and sisters, we are coming to the

Lord's table at this point in time. It's a celebration.

This is a spiritual meal for the household of God. Scripture, as I always read, commands us to examine ourselves before coming to this table, and before eating this bread and drinking this cup.

You will receive great benefit in this meal as a believer in Christ, eating this bread and drinking this cup.

And so, consider this as spiritual nourishment. Consider this as a moment of visual grace.

As we see in the wine, His blood given for us. We see in the bread, His body that was hanging on a cross for us, that was put into the grave for us, rose again for us.

But I must remind you that this meal is only for the household of God. It's only for those who have turned to Jesus Christ.