Spiritual Warfare - The Infallible Posture

Our study has led us now to the third and last admonition of Paul, which is the aim and thrust of this entire It is given to us in only one word, but a word which is repeated four different times in these, few verses.

Everything aims at our ability to stand. What does it mean? I have often been impressed in watching a football game to see the defending team's response to an especially hard push by their opponents. If they have an advantage in score, the defenders will sometimes simply line up on the scrimmage line against the rush of the opposing team and refuse to budge. That is exactly what this word pictures to us. We are to refuse to move from the ground of faith we have taken, refuse to yield ground--stand. In the words of a modem advertisement, "Join the unswitchables!" Having done all (and only then), we are to stand, unswitchable.

Now why did the Apostle put it this way? Why doesn't he say, having done all, fight? Why does he not use some military term that speaks of moving out-advance or charge? We must take these word seriously, for after all, these are not just words that might be used in a children's game. They are commands given in a very serious fight. The Apostle uses the word "stand" because it is the only proper word to use. It is the only word which describes the final attitude we must have to insure absolute victory.

As we look at this word more carefully, we can see that it touches on three aspects of the struggle of life. First, the use of this word "stand" reveals to us the intensity of the struggle in which we are involved. We are told stand because there are times when that is all we can do. The most we can possibly hope to achieve at times is to simply stand, unmoved. There are times in battle when a soldier can do no more than try to protect himself arid stay where he is. The intensity of the conflict becomes so furious, so fierce, there is nothing else be can do but simply hold his ground. That is what this word implies to us.

Paul has already spoken in this passage about evil days which come. Thank God, all of life does not consist of evil days, but evil days do come. These are days when circumstances simply stagger us, when we face some combination of events, some disheartening tragedy or circumstance that almost knock us off our feet, and we can do nothing else but hope to stand where we are.

There are times when doubts plague us. We are exposed to intellectual attacks, and we have all we can do to assert any degree of faith at all. We find ourselves in situations and circumstances when we are overwhelmed with fears and anxieties and can scarcely keep our heads because of the pressure. There are times when indifference seems to sap our spiritual strength so much that we lose all our vitality. It drains, away our will to act, and we seem unable to make ourselves to dothe simplest things to maintain faith.

This is all part of the struggle. We get disturbed when there seems to be no growth in our Christian faith. Our ministry or our witness appears to be impossible or ineffective. All the challenge and the keenness of our spiritual life is gone. What are we to do then? Paul says we are to gird up our loins, put on the whole armor of God, pray--and having done all, stand! Putting on the armor and praying will not necessarily change the circumstance. Then what? Then stand! Stay right where you are. Refuse to move, refuse to think any more. Stand right where you are until the attack lessens. This is the final word.

Everywhere the Word of God warns us that as We draw nearer the time of our Lord's return, evil days will come more frequently. The Bible has always told us that there will be evil days, but sometimes we read certain predictions wrongly. There is a passage in Timothy, for instance, that refers to the latter times. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons!" (1 Timothy 4:1). We read that as though it were a prediction of the closing moments of the age. But "latter times" means the whole of the age from our Lord's first coming until his second. Paul is not talking about one particular time of trouble reserved for the last moment; be is talking about repetitive cycles of trouble that come again an again about the whole course of these latter days.

But the Word also suggests that these cycles become fiercer in intensity and more widespread in their impact as the age draws to its close. There is a growing awareness in out day that we live in a one-world community. We are no longer separated from other peoples by t distances of thought or time. What happens on the other side of the world today affects us tomorrow. We are very much aware of this. Evil days were once limited geographically. In the past, persecution grew intense in various places and economic pressures became severe in certain areas, while in other parts of the world, things were fine. But now, as the age goes on, these areas of trouble become more widespread. Now they are worldwide in their impact.

Surely we do not have to press this point. In America we must realize we are living on an island of relative and security in the midst o an enormous sea of and distress. That sea is constantly eroding away our relative security. It is an irresistible rising tide, the lappings. of whose waters we can already hear. Conditions are not getting better in our world; they are worsening. Any honest person, facing world conditions, must admit this. The vaunted solutions of sincere men, such as education, scientific discoveries, economic improvements, better legislation, are not working. Of course such solutions have their place, and I am not suggesting that they be discarded. But they an not solving the problem. It is getting worse, for as we have seen all along, the issue never lies in these superficial surface things. It lies much deeper in the hearts and souls of men under the control of a cruel and resistless power that dominates the world, which Paul refers to as "the world rulers of this present darkness." Only the delivering strength of Jesus Christ is adequate to deal with them. This is being confirmed to us from rather unexpected sources these days. Listen to these words from a contemporary non-Christian writer.

That is the world we are facing now and because of it there are many who are faltering in their faith. All too often we read in the newspapers of outstanding Christian leaders who have suffered moral collapse and have been laid on the. shelf, their ministry and their testimony brought to an end. This is happening everywhere.

Now God is permitting this in order to separate the phony from the true. He says be will do this; the Word makes it very clear. There is a passage in Hebrews where we are told definitely that the things which can be shaken will be shaken. God is allowing these testings to reveal the genuine and to remove what can be shaken in order that what cannot be shaken might remain (Hebrews 12:26-27). Therefore, evil days come. When they come into your own personal experience, you will need to remember that the Word of God to you is to put on the whole armor of God, to pray, and then stand. Perhaps you will realize that there is nothing else you can do, but you can win if you will stand.

Not long ago I ran across a letter from a missionary out in the jungles of New Guinea writing to his friends at home. He was caught the very spirit of our Christian faith in these words:

Now there is a second thing indicated by this word "stand." It indicates to us the character of the baffle the Christian faces. The act of standing implies a defensive action, primarily. The proper defense will win the day. I know that is often misunderstood., for we frequently bear the saying, 'The best defense is a good offense." But if a castle is under attack from an army, the battle is not won by those in the castle venturing forth to overwhelm the army outside. The battle is won by repelling all invasion. This is a picture of our Christian life. This is a defend battle. We are not out to take new ground, we are to defend that which is already ours.

In the Christian battle the offensive work was done nearly 2000 years ago at the Cross and the Resurrection. The Lord Jesus is the only one who has the power and strength to take the offense in this great battle with the prince of darkness. But he has done that. All that we possess as believers is already given to us. We do not fight for it. We do not battle to be saved or fight to be justified or forgiven or accepted into the family of God. All these things are given to us. They were won by Another who, in the words of Paul in Colossians, "disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him" (Colossians 2:15).

But we are to fight to use all this, to enjoy it, to fully experience it. The enemy is trying to keep us from realizing what we have and from using it to the full. There is where the battle lines are. We do not need to take new ground as Christians. We cannot do this. AD that has been accomplished and given to us. As Jude says, in almost the last word of the New Testament, "contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). We are to hold on to that which God gives us and not let any of it be lost or taken from us. That is what "contend for the faith" means. It does not mean to attack everyone who does not agree with you. It means to hold on to what God has given you and utilize it to the full. As Paul writes Corinthians, "stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong" (1 Corinthians 16:13). Do not surrender an inch of ground even though others do.

Well, someone says, this is so negative, so defensive. I don't like to hear such talk. It sounds as though Christians are to cover their heads and avoid all contact with the world while trying somehow to get through life and on to heaven without becoming contaminated. That, of course, is exactly the interpretation which the Devil wants us to have of this word "stand." It is defensive action, but the amazing thing is that this kind of defensive action becomes the greatest offense the Christian can mount.

The fact is, the Christian who learns to stand, to give up no segment of his faith, but to put on the armor of God and to pray and thus be unmovable, is the only one who in any way will or can touch the world around him. He is the only one who will reflect the love of Christ in the midst of unlovely situations. He is the only one who will be able to manifest peace and certainty and poise and assurance in the midst of a very troubled and unhappy world.

Christians who learn to stand make possible some degree of rest and enjoyment for the world. We are the salt of the earth, Jesus said, "Ah, but if the salt has lost its savor, what good is it? It is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men!" That is, by and large, what the world is doing with the church these clays--treading it under foot as worthless, useless. That is because we have not learned to stand.

But when a Christian learns this, it is the very fact that he can stand when everyone else is falling that draws the attention of others and makes them seek his secret. People will stop, look, and listen and say, 'What is it that these people have? They don't live way like we do; they don't go along with the rest of the crowd, They, sewn to be able to resist these compelling pressures that we so easily give in to."

That is what manhood is. That is what God is after. That is what he wants to make us in Christ. But the purpose of the battle is not to become that kind of a man, for that is precisely the kind of man Christ makes us when we follow him. The battle is to show it, to reveal it, to manifest what we are, and thus to refuse to believe the lies that keep us weak and make us act like an animal rather than a man. Put on the whole armor of God--all that Christ is, pray, and having done all, stand!

Now, there is a third thing suggested by the word "stand," and that is the certainty of victory. If putting on the armor of God and prayer makes it possible to stand unmoved and unmovable, then there is nothing more required to win. After all, if a castle cannot be taken, the attacking army has nothing left to do but to withdraw. There is nothing else they can do. They are defeated, beaten.

I have discussed at considerable length the cleverness of Satan, his subtlety of attack--the wiles of the Devil and the impossibility of defeating him by human wisdom. Every saint in the record of Scripture, every believer throughout history, has been, at one time or another, defeated by the Devil when he tried to match wit's with the Devil in his own strength. This is true.But it is also true that when any saint, any believer--even the newest and the weakest--stands in the strength of Christ, puts on the whole armor of God and in dependence upon Se presence of God in prayer, stands, the Devil is always defeated.

This is because of a basic weakness, a fatal flaw in the Devil's approach. When the believer stands on the ground of Faith, the Devil always overreaches himself. He goes too far. That is because he commits himself to extremes, and in that lies his defeat. Sooner or later the reality which is truth must become apparent. The Devil can never take the ground of truth because that, of course, would defeat his own aims. He cannot defend and support God, for he is out to attack and outwit him. Because God is truth, all that the Devil can do is take the ground of untruth, Of extremes, distortions, wrongness. Ultimately, because God is truth (and truth is always the reflection of God) and God never changes, en must finally prevail. That has been true throughout the entire history of the world, and it will be the continuing record from now on.

Abraham Lincoln expressed it well in that famous quotation, "It is possible to fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but it is impossible to fool all of the people all of the time." Truth comes out. God is truth. If we live with it long enough, stand on it long enough, it will prevail and reveal itself.

This explains what we have referred to at times as "the phenomenon of fashions in evil." Anyone who has been a Christian for a considerable period of time learns that error comes in cycles, like clothing styles. You may be out of style for awhile, but if you stay with the same one long enough it will come back in. If you are standing on the truth of God, there will be times when it is regarded with utter scorn by the world. The truth will be laughed at and you will be mocked. But if you follow those foolish people who think they must adjust to every sweeping trend of the times and try to maintain what they call "intellectual respectability" at all times, you will find that as fast as you adjust, styles change and you are out of style again.

But if you continue to stand fast on what God has declared unchangeable, you will find a strange phenomenon happening: The very truths that ten years ago were looked own upon and laughed at and scorned by the world will come into fashion again and be held up as the newest discovery of the brilliant intellect of men. Then you, who have believed it right along, are right back in style again. Truth never changes.

The Devil must ultimately be defeated if you will simply stand on what God has said. We might even feel a little sorry for the Devil, for it is his cruel fate to be continually defeated by the very weapons which he tries to use against God and his people. That is why it is so foolish to believe the lies of the Devil.

I often think the Devil is like the villain in the old Western melodramas. Remember how the plot always develops? The heroine appears to be downed, and the villain always appears to have the upper hand as he twirls his mustache and rubs his hands together. But at the critical moment the hero arrives and the plot changes. The villain is beat by his own devices, and he slinks off the stage muttering, "Curses! Foiled again!" Now that is the Devil's fate when he attacks any Christian who is willing to stand.

The cross is the great example of this. The cross looked like the supreme achievement of the Devil, the, supreme moment of victory when all the powers of darkness were howling with glee as they saw the Son of God beaten and wounded, rejected and despised, hanging upon a cross, naked, before all the world. It looked like the triumph of darkness. Jesus said it was. "This is your hour," he said, "and the power of darkness."

But it was at that very moment when the Devil lost. In the cross all that he had risked was defeated, beaten down, and the Devil and all his angels were disarmed and openly displayed as defeated by the power of Jesus Christ. This is what God does all through life. The Devil sends sickness, defeat, death, darkness, pain, suffering, and tragedy. It is all the work of Satan. But that is not the whole of the story. God takes those very things and uses them to strengthen us and bless us, to teach us and enlarge us and fulfills us--if we stand. This is the whole of the story.

Here is a statement from a Christian man who has been an invalid all his life. He is one of those lonely, obscure people who live in constant pain who does not know what it means to be able to use his physical body in any way except in pain and suffering. But he writes this:

Loneliness is not a thing of itself, not an evil sent to rob us of the joys of life. Loneliness, loss, pain, sorrow, these are disciplines, God's gifts to drive us to his very heart, to increase our capacity for him, to sharpen our, sensitivities and understanding, to temper our spiritual lives so that they may become channels of his mercy to others and so bear fruit for his kingdom. But these disciplines must be seized upon and used, not thwarted; It must not be seen as excuses for living in the shadow of half-lives, but as messengers, however painful, to bring our souls into vital contact with the Living God, that our lives may be filled to overflowing with himself in ways that may, perhaps, be impossible to those who know less of life's darkness.

Now that is what it means to stand. One of these days, the Bible says, the struggle will end. It will end for all of us at the end of our lives, but it may end before that in the coming of the Lord. Some day it will be over; there is no doubt of that. And some day it will be written of some, as it is recorded in the Book of Revelation, "They have conquered him [the great dragon, the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death" (Revelation 12:11). The great issue of life is not how much money we make or how much favor we gather or how much of a name we make for ourselves. The great issue, above all, is whether it can be written of us as we come to the end that we overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, for we loved not our lives unto death.

Copyright © 2010 by Ray Stedman Ministries — This material is the sole property of Ray Stedman Ministries. It may be copied for personal non-commercial use only in its entirety free of charge. All copies must contain this copyright notice and a hyperlink to www.RayStedman.org if the copy is posted on the Internet. Please direct any questions you may have to webmaster@RayStedman.org.

Chapter 10

The Infallible Posture