We are about to see the
book of Ephesians come to an end. In verse 10 Paul says,
Finally,
be strong (2PPPM)
in
the
Lord
and in the
strength of
His
might
The word "Finally" means that he is drawing
everything to a close. In other words, everything that has been said he is
now summing up as he closes the book of Ephesians. I want you to know that
a lot has been said. The Apostle Paul is writing from prison. Remember he
has been in prison for almost five years. He is a political hostage. The
Jews want to get rid of him, and the Romans don’t know what to do with
him. There is not a single charge that will hold up in any court. He was
falsely accused way back in Jerusalem. Here he is several years later
writing the book of Ephesians. Yet in Ephesians 3:1 and Eph 4:1 he calls himself not a
prisoner
of the Jews, not a prisoner of the Romans,
but a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is writing to Ephesian believers. He wants them to understand what they
have in Jesus Christ. Here is a man who has not lost the wonder of his
salvation. He is trying to get it across to these Ephesian believers. He
wants them to realize what they have in Christ and how to appropriate what
they have in Jesus Christ.
Look back with me Eph 3:16. There is no way to go to Ephesians 6:10 without
first of all finding the context and the flow of everything that has been
said. That word "Finally"
is wrapping it all up. What is the "all" that we are talking about. What
has been said in Ephesians? Well, his prayer in 3:16 tells us everything:
"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man."
The word "power"
(dunamis)
(note)
means ability, ability to do what you could not do before Jesus came into
your life.
The Holy Spirit now is in our lives. He lives in the inner man in order to
strengthen us, to cause us to be able to do what we could not do without
Him. The degree of the strengthening, he says, is
"according to the riches of His glory".
Ephesians
1, 2 and 3 sum that up.
Ephesians
1 (click for messages)
talks about the RICHES of His glory. Verse 3 sums it all up: We have been
given
"every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ"
Then
Ephesians
2 (click for messages) shows us the REASONS of our salvation. We
"were dead in your trespasses and sins".
We couldn’t save ourselves. It was God who came to save us, to pay a debt
on the cross that He did not owe.
In Ephesians 3 there is the REVELATION of our salvation (click
for messages). Now according to all that we have in Jesus
Christ, He has made us saints; He has chosen us; He has sealed us. All the
things that He has done, according to all of that, we are to be
strengthened in the inner man with power by the Spirit of God.
Now
Ephesians
3:17 (click
message) tells us how we are strengthened. It says we are to let Jesus
dwell in our hearts by our faith. The word "dwell"
does not mean to come
in. It means He is already in and should be made to feel at home while He
is there.
"Do you mean all I’ve got to do is submit my life to Jesus and
be willing to obey Him in every area of my life? I’ve got a problem today.
What do I do?"
Well, you go to
the Word of God and say,
"God, what do You want me to do?"
Do what God tells
you to do. The words faith and obedience are synonymous. By my faith I
accommodate His presence. That means I am going to be strengthened in the
inner man by the Spirit of God.
(Ed note on "FAITH":
"When John
Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he
discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who
had been running hard came into the missionary’s house, flopped himself in
a large chair and said, “It’s good to rest my whole weight on this chair.”
“That’s it,” said Paton. “I’ll translate faith as ‘resting one’s whole
weight on God.’”
MacArthur, J: Ephesians. Chicago: Moody Press)
Our hearts are like a house. There are different rooms—a room of our
thoughts, a room of our attitudes, a room of our emotions and so on. In
each of the areas where our problems fall as we come to God, as we come to
His Word, we do what He tells us to do. As we are willing to obey Him, He
strengthens us with the ability to do what He has assigned in our life.
Now this thread, being strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of God,
runs all the way through the book of Ephesians. As a matter of fact, in
Ephesians 4:1, 2, 3, 4, 5ff (click for
messages) the first thing you notice is how it changes the body
life of the church. Just think of the potential if each and every person
would be abandoned to Christ saying,
"Lord, I want to do whatever you tell me to do. I just want to be filled
with Your Spirit,
controlled
by Your Spirit."
Do you realize the impact we could have on our world? We would be seen
differently in the way we behave. We would have humility and gentleness
and patience and forbearance. We would be seen handling our differences,
loving one another and seeing each other all the way through. We would be
seen and identified by the way we believe. You wouldn’t have a doctrine
here and a doctrine there and a doctrine over there. There are seven
doctrines we would not depart from, Eph 4:4 (note),
Ep 4:5, 6. We
would be seen in the way that we are being built up into the body of
Christ. You see a body is to bring visibility to an entity. A church would
not be known for its programs, for its preacher, for anything else. It
would be known for the Lord Jesus living in the people who make up that
church. We would be built up. We would obtain the stature of the fulness
of the measure of Christ. It is the design of God that we begin to be
fulfilled when each and every person is strengthened in the inner man by
the Spirit of God.
It is like putting on a brand new garment. Eph 4:22 (click
for message) says to
take off the old. In
Eph 4:24 (note)
it says to put on the new. A garment is
something people see. What is happening on the inside must be seen on the
outside. Now this garment is a special garment. It is a way of life. It is
Jesus being Jesus in me. "You mean to tell me that when I say ‘yes’ to
Jesus, He takes over and begins to manifest who He is in my life?" That is
exactly right. This garment, in
Eph 4:25 (note), does not lie nor deceive. It
always tells the truth and is affected by the truth.
Eph 4:26
says it does
not become angry at people but only at sin. In
Eph 4:28 (note)
it does not take
nor deplete, but gives and replenishes.
Eph 4:29
(note) tells us it does not
destroy relationships but builds them up. In
Eph 4:30 (note)
it does not grieve
the Holy Spirit of God.
Eph 4:31 (note), it is not bitter, it is not angry, it is
not explosive with temper. It is not obnoxiously loud when provoked. It is
not motivated by malice.
Eph 4:32
(note) says, however, it is kind,
tender-hearted and forgiving.
Eph 5:1 (note),
Ep 5:2 (note)
say that this new garment, this
new way of living, imitates God Himself. It walks in love. The word "imitators"
there is the word "mime." (Greek =
Mimetes)
How many times have we said it?
It doesn’t matter what you say...
it is how you live.
It does not in any way participate in immorality,
according to Eph 5:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (See notes
Ephesians 5:3;
5:4;
5:5;
5:6;
5:7;
5:8;
5:9;
5:10). It is light that
radically effects the darkness.
In Eph 5:15 (note), it causes us to walk wisely in a dark, perverse generation.
How do you walk wisely? Well,
Eph 5:16
it says to redeem the time, make
wise decisions and understand that what you choose, you live by. In
Eph 5:17 (note)
we must understand what the will of the Lord is. Generically, that
means to be submitted and strengthened in the inner man. Specifically that
wisdom comes as I am willing to submit to it. In
Eph 5:18 (note)
we are being
filled with the Spirit of God. Now that is in the
present tense. In other
words, the word "filled" means constantly being controlled by the Holy
Spirit of God. It causes us to fulfill God’s design in the area that we
live, in our homes.
In Ephesians
5:22-6:4 wives are told to submit to
their husbands, husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the
church, children are to obey their parents and fathers are not to provoke
their children to anger. It even effects the work place. That is in Eph
6:5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (see notes
Ephesians 6:5;
6:6;
6:7;
6:8;
6:9)
Now you say,
"I’ve been following you. You have gone through the whole
book. You left out a verse and I saw it. I am strengthened in the inner
man and I put on the new garment. There is something that happens and you
didn’t say it. I guarantee you that you forgot it."
"What did I forget?"
Eph 4:27 (note) You said earlier that when you put on the garment, the garment does "not
give the devil an opportunity."
Did you forget that?"
No, I didn’t forget that. I left it out
on purpose in order to bring it up last.
Folks, I want you to see something and I want you to hear it loud and
clear.
OUR GREATEST
WEAPON
The greatest weapon we have in the spiritual war that we are cast
into the moment we are saved is not what we say to the devil. It is
how we live the Christ-life before him. My obedience, my surrender,
my submission is my greatest weapon in defeating the one who is the
prince of darkness that lives around me.
We have seen this strengthening in the inner man,
this brand new garment, all of this. Now Paul says:
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might"
The whole book
has been leading up to this.
We live in a world that is hostile. I do not need to worry about what I
have to say to the devil. But when I bow and I say "yes" to Jesus and
commit to doing what His Word has to say, at that very moment, I become a
fortress against him. That is my weapon in the warfare I am forced into
when I become a Christian. My weapon is my submission to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I want you to see something back in chapter 2. We used to be in his world.
We lived in his world. If I could give you a picture this morning of the
world totally being enveloped in darkness, that is kind of the way the
world is right now. As a matter of fact, the devil has so infected the
minds of lost people. They think in such a perverse way. We saw that back
in chapter 4. They have depraved minds, depraved morality. They don’t have
a clue about God. We must understand the hostile world that we live in and
came out of. Ephesians 2:1, 2 says,
"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you
formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience." (see notes
Ephesians 2:1;
2:2)
The devil has power in the lower heavens. He has access to the third
heaven
(Click note
on "Third Heaven") to accuse the brethren, but his power is in the
lower heavens. He walks to and fro on the earth as we find in the book of
Job. We do know that there is going to come a day when he is finally and
ultimately kicked out of the lower heavens and cannot leave this earth.
There he incarnates the Anti-Christ and for three and a half years
persecutes the woman, who is Israel (cf Rev 12:13-note)
That will be in the latter days of this age. We know right now
the prince of the power of the air is Satan himself.
Ephesians 2:2
continues, "of the spirit that is now
working in the sons of
disobedience."
"Do you mean to tell me that I used to
think that way? You mean to tell me that I used to
think I was moral when I was probably
immoral and didn’t know the difference? Do you mean to tell me that I used
to do good and think it was righteous but didn’t realize that it was
unrighteousness and filthy rags in God’s eyes
(cf Is 64:6)? Do you mean to tell me that I
used to live that way?"
That is right. That is exactly right. Before Christ came into my life, I
was under the domain, the right and the might of the ruler of this world,
the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself.
Ephesians 2:3 (note) says...
"Among them we too all formerly lived
in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the
desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as the rest."
But thanks be unto God. If
you will look over in Colossians 1:13 (note), something happened when you got
saved. Did that change the world? No, it didn’t change the world but it
changed me in the midst of the world. That is what we have to see. Now I
am in the world, but I am not of the world. We’ve got to realize this. In
verse 13 of Colossians 1 it says,
"For He [Jesus] delivered [rescued]
(see
note)
us from the
domain (right and might) of
darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of
His beloved Son" (note)
Do you understand what we just read?
"Wayne,
do you mean I
live in a world that is hostile and surrounded by darkness?
Do you
mean
I live in a world that is filled with deceit and lies and does not know
the truth, yet I have been delivered from that?
Do you
mean
I have been put into another kingdom?
Do you mean that there is somebody else
now that rules and reigns over me, I
am His property, He purchased me?
Do you
mean
that He bought me with a price by shedding His blood on the cross?
Do you
mean
the devil does not have power over me anymore?"
Yes! When will we wake up and understand that? We are saints.
What does
the word "saint"
(see
note)
mean? It means that we are in a class all by ourselves, set apart. Wait a
minute!
"Do
you mean among human beings in this world,
controlled by the darkness of the
world, infested by his lies and deceit, we are
in a class all by ourselves because we have been taken out of his domain
and made light?
Do you mean God has actually saved our
minds?
Do you mean
God has given us the ability to think
the right way?
Do you
mean
God
has turned us right side up when we were upside down?"
That is exactly right! Folks, if you don’t know this, warfare is going to
be a struggle to you. You need to know who you are, whose you are, what
has happened to you, and what Jesus Christ has done in your life.
Look at
1John 5:18, 19
"We know that no one who is born of
God [transformed, delivered, made into a new creature]
sins [habitually =
present tense] but He who was born of God
keeps
him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of
God, and that the whole world lies in [the power of] the evil one."
Do you know what
"touch
him" means? It means to touch him to do him harm.
"Oh, wait a minute. Do
you mean to tell me I am God’s property?"
That is right.
"Do you mean to tell me whatever the devil does in my life, He has to give
him permission
because he can’t touch me to do me harm. Is that right?"
That is what it says.
Look at 1 John 5:19:
"We know that
we are of God, and that the whole
world lies in [the power of] the evil one."
It is like the
whole world is asleep and doesn’t have a clue that it is in the arms of
the evil one. You see, every day, as a believer, you need to remember who
you are, what God has done in your life, whose you are and be strengthened
with might with the Holy Spirit of God. Then you are able to live in a
world that is infested and infected by the devil. We are able to live in
it but never be a part of it because we have the truth that we believe
that radically transforms our life.
We must daily understand the flow of Ephesians:
Be filled with the Spirit,
be strengthened in the inner man by the Spirit of God.
That is our classic weapon against the evil one.
I want you to see in verse 10 what Paul does. We have to focus, not on the
darkness, but on the light and the power that we already have. When you
flip on a light switch and one of your lights goes out you think,
"Uh oh, I am losing
power."
No, you are not losing power. It is probably just a bad connection. The
power is usually always there. If you understood the power source, you
could better understand why being connected to it is so important. We were
out in Las Vegas several years ago. We decided to take a tour of Hoover
Dam. Standing on top of that dam, you could not begin to understand the
power that it was generating. You could stand up on top for weeks and
never understand what was going on until you went deep inside of the dam.
When you begin to realize the source, then you begin to want to be
connected to the force that comes from it.
The Apostle Paul says,
"Hey, here we are at "Hoover Dam". I want you to see Jesus. I want you to
see His power.
I want you to see who He is. Come on, let’s go deep."
He takes us deep into the recesses of Ephesians 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Then
when he is about to discuss warfare he says,
"Now I want you to understand the source so that you can understand the
force that He has in
your life."
In Ephesians 6:10 I want you to see, first of all, the command. He uses three
words. There are four words for power, authority or strength in the Greek
language. Three of them are used in verse 10. It sums up everything we
have already studied. Before Paul says, "Now put on the armor of Christ"
he wants you to know what you have in Christ Jesus. What are the four
words? Well, the one that is not used is
exousia. That is the right
and the might, the authority. But there are three words that are used.
1. BE STRONG:
ENDUNAMOO
First of all, he says,
"be strong." The word that is used there is
endunamoo.
(note) It is the word that means to be strengthened with ability.
Dunamis
(note) would fit into that class. It is the word which means to
be given ability. Greek verbs ending in double "o" ("--oo") mean not just to be
strengthened but let it be proven to be strong.
For example in
James 2:21; 22; 23 (see notes
Ja 2:21;
22;
23)
Abraham was said to be righteous ("justified") by his act of obedience
21 Was not Abraham
our father justified by works, when he offered up Isaac his son on
the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the
works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD,
AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend
of God.
The word James uses for justified (dikaioo) ends in
double "--oo" and does not mean that Abraham was made
righteous by works. What it means is that by
Abraham's act of obedience he was proven or shown to be righteous. His righteousness was
put on display by his obedience.
What Paul is saying here is,
"Yes, be made strong, but be seen to be strong. Let others look at you and
see you as
strong. Put it on display, be proven to be strong, be proven to have
ability."
The idea is not a
one-time being strong. It is an increasing type of thing. In Acts 9:22 we
read that...
"But Saul kept increasing (endunamoo)
in strength and confounding the Jews
who
lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ."
In other words Paul became stronger and stronger spiritually in the
ability to prove that Jesus was the Christ. Paul was a converted Jew who
had previously persecuted Christ but now he has been given strength to
prove that Jesus was the Christ.
In Romans 4:20, Abraham and Sarah were told that they were going to have a
child in their old age and Sarah laughed. Abraham didn’t know what he was
going to do. Paul records that
"yet with
respect to the
promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong
(endunamoo)
in faith, giving glory to God,
In other words God gave them strength to perform, specifically to have a child. If God says you are going to have a
child then you are going to have a child. It took place as God said.
Philippians 4:13 (see
note) says,
"I can do all things
through Him who
strengthens (endunamoo) me"
It is not a one-time strengthening. That automatically kills some people’s
idea of warfare. They think all they have to do is jump into it and it is
a one-time thing. No, it is an increasing, it is an ever growing type of
strength.
In 1Timothy 1:12 Paul is thankful that Christ has strengthened Timothy so
that he would effectively minister the gospel.
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has
strengthened (endunamoo)
me, because He
considered
me faithful, putting me into service"
In 2Timothy 2:1, 2
(note):1
he says,
"You therefore,
my son, be strong
(endunamoo) in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
In other words, the only way to have this kind of strength, this ability,
is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 2Timothy
4:16, 17 (note)
Paul writes that...
At my first defense no one supported
me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. 17 But the
Lord stood with me, and strengthened (endunamoo)
me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished,
and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I
was
delivered out of the lion's mouth.
Paul was strengthened when no one stood with him. He said everybody left
me but God strengthened me.
Hebrews 11:34 (note),
describing the heroes of the faith, says that they...
"quenched the power of fire, escaped
the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in
war, put foreign armies to flight."
They
were strengthened
(endunamoo)
by God in order that they would be able to carry out these various
exploits.
What we are seeing here is that if you are going to be made strong, it is
going to be seen and the greatest way for it to be seen is when you stand
face to face with the devil and you are able to continue to stand after he
has finished whatever he is bringing in your life.
So the first word (endunamoo) means to be made able, but in such a way that it is
demonstrated, proven out, shown forth and put on display.
2. STRENGTH:
KRATOS
The second word he uses, though, is just as
powerful. He says,
"in
the
strength of
His
might."
The word "strength"
is the word kratos.
Kratos is a little different from the other word. It is the word that
refers to the outward manifestation of his power. It is that which
determines His dominion.
Now look at what Paul is saying here. "Be made strong in the strength of
the Lord." In other words, you had better find out what He has done to
find out if he is able to handle it. So you go back through Scripture and
take a look at it. In Luke 1:50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 Mary goes over to see
Elizabeth. Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary is pregnant
with baby Jesus and she goes to Zacharias’ house. When she walks in the
baby inside of Elizabeth leaps. The passage says that she is filled with
the Spirit and she blesses Mary. Mary comes out and blesses God. Why?
Because of His power to place a baby inside her womb, the eternal Son of
God, with her having had no relationship with any man on this earth! What
a God!
"Do you
mean to
tell me that is the one that we are dealing with here? Do you mean to tell
me the one who caused the virgin birth, the one who caused it to
be able to happen is the God who is going to strengthen me against the
devil?"
That’s right. I want Him on my side, don’t you?
Secondly, in Acts 19:20 it talks about the word of God prevailing and
becoming strong. It was increasing and prevailing. The word used there in
the strengthening ("growing mightily") of it is this word right here.
"So the word of the Lord was growing
mightily (Kratos) and prevailing (ischuo)"
The Word of God says, preach the Word and God will take this Word
and cause it to increase and cause it to prevail. You don’t become
like the world to reach the world. God uses His Word to increase and to
prevail. This God is the one we are looking at.
In Colossians 1:11 (see
note) Paul prays that
the saints at Colossae might be
"strengthened
with all
power, according to His glorious might (Kratos), for
the attaining
of all steadfastness and patience; joyously"
The idea here is in the
ability of two things, one to bear up under whatever circumstance comes my
way (hupomone)
(note). The other is to put up with whoever is in my way, whatever person I
have to put up with (makrothumia)
(note). You mean to tell me that God is powerful? Yes, sir.
He is the God who caused the virgin birth, the God who causes the Word to
prevail, the God who gives me the ability to bear up under and to put up
with whoever I have got to put up with.
In 1 Timothy 6:13, 14, 15, 16 Paul writes to Timothy...
"I charge you in the presence of God,
who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good
confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without
* stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which
He will bring about at the proper time --He who is the blessed and only
Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone possesses
immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or
can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion
(Kratos)
!
Amen"
That is the one we are talking about right here. Wow! Is that the God who
is going to strengthen me?
Hebrews 2:14
(note)
says God has the dominion, the might, to render the devil
powerless!
"Since then the
children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook
of the
same,
that through death He might render powerless him who had the power
(Kratos) of death, that is, the devil"
God
has the might to shut him up and to shut him down. God is the
One that we are to be strong in.
In 1 Peter 4:11 (note) God empowers ministry in
our lives, Peter writing...
"Whoever speaks,
let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever
serves,
let him do so as by the strength
which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through
Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion (kratos)
forever and ever. Amen."
In Jude 1:24, 25, He is able to keep you and me from
stumbling.
"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, to the only God our Savior, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion (Kratos) and
authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."
In Revelation 1:6 (note), He alone made us what we are in Him.
"He has made us to be a
kingdom,
priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the
dominion (Kratos) forever and ever. Amen."
I want you to see Revelation 5:13 (note). One day, folks, all the evil,
unrighteousness, meanness of this world is going to be shut down, put away
forever. I want you to see who is going to do it. Chapter 5 is the talking
of the sealed book. John has been weeping. Somebody told him that there is
no one worthy to open the sealed book. The sealed book contains the events
of the end of the age. Finally an elder nudges John and says, " Look over
there." He looks and sees the Lamb of God standing as if slain, the Lion
of Judah, the root of David. He walks forward and takes that sealed book
because He is the only one who is worthy to do what He is going to do. The
whole host of heaven breaks out in praise.
Look at Revelation 5:13 (note):
"And every created
thing which is in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth
and
on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on
the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion (Kratos) forever and ever."
Do you mean to tell me the God who is going to throw Satan into a pit, the
God who is going to end all unrighteousness, the God who is going to take
the sealed book and bring it all to a conclusion is the God who lives in
me and is going to strengthen me? Yes, yes and amen yes. Now quit running
scared of the devil! Look who lives in you. Look at who you are. Look at
whose you are. Look at who He is.
3. MIGHT:
ISCHUS
The last word is
ischus [word study]. It means His preeminence. He doesn’t have
to do anything if He doesn’t want to. It is just who He is.
Paul says,
"You want to talk about warfare? Let’s talk about the victor. Let’s talk
about the warrior. Let’s
talk about the winner. He lives in you and your greatest weapon is when
you are strengthened by Himself in the inner man by the Spirit of God."
Listen to what I am saying and put it in the light of Ephesians. He has
built it for six chapters. Now he says "Finally." If it was so important,
why didn’t he put it in chapter 1? Because the important thing is not who
our opposition is. The important thing is Who our ally is and that He is
in fact the Lord Jesus.
Friend, do you want to defeat the enemy?
Then get filled with the Spirit of God. Get in the Word of God and obey
Him
