Well, brethren, I am thankful for the opportunity that we have during these meetings for fellowship, for the mutual encouragement. It was just as a footnote to my joy over some of these things. It was absolutely delightful to have about 13 of us out at the abortion clinic this morning, and it's usually only about four or five. So I thank the Lord, if for nothing else, the opportunity to be with these men. The Word of God was preached.

My outdoor preaching is still a little limited. I was able to do some. I am very thankful for the other preachings of the Word of God. I am Thankful for the message that Brother Mahler began with last night. I can't think of a better way to have begun these meetings.

And I do trust that for those of you that were here, you will think seriously about what he said before us from the Word of God. Very, very important. Well, I normally like to do expositions. In a 10 or 15 minute situation, I know Pastor Clarence will. I probably wouldn't get past the first comma.

So I want to set a passage before you And then I want to share a few thoughts that arise from what I trust as exegetical thinking. And I left my Bible. Could I borrow your Bible just for a moment? Let me just – I'll give it right back to you. Ephesians, Ephesians, Chapter 6.

Back to you. Ephesians chapter 6. This is a passage I imagine most of us are familiar with. In Ephesians chapter 6, I want us simply to look at verse 13. Let us hear the word of God.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Our Father in Heaven, we dare not open thy holy and inspired word without crying out to thee for help and for guidance. Lord, every word of God is pure, and He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. We come before Thee asking for Thy great mercy, and I pray that as I address thy blessed children here today, that thou wouldst help me to give something that would be encouraging to their own souls, and may it be honoring unto thee my Savior. I pray it in thy name.

Amen. Now the Apostle Paul loved the Lord Jesus Christ and God's great saving work through him. He lived and he breathed the grace of God. You cannot read his epistles without seeing that. He understood and he taught the profound doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation of Christ, the eternal decrees of God, foreknowledge, election, and predestination.

These are not words that were put in by partisans. These are Holy Spirit-breathed words. Paul's writings make clear that he understood and he taught great themes, themes of the gospel, of the grace of God, the redemption in Christ's blood, substitution, propitiation, justification, sanctification, glorification, reconciliation, and the list goes on. He understood that there was one mediator between God and man. I read a poll result yesterday.

I don't know whether you can trust any of those or not. But they said that almost 50 percent of professing evangelicals, not professing Christians, professing evangelicals say that other religions will make it to heaven. This is clearly the demonically influenced mind of our nation. This has nothing to do with the Word of God. It has nothing to do with the truth.

It has nothing to do with the things that Paul preached. Paul preached that there was one way and one way alone to the living God, and that was through Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He understood that, and he plainly wrote about very practical applications of Christian doctrine to the Christian life such as law and gospel, sexual purity, modesty, which it's hard to find a pastor on the planet, let alone this country that has the backbone to even mention the word, telling the truth, Liberty in Christ, caring for widows, qualifications of elders, deacons, fleeing idolatry, and much, much more. Any pastor who studies the word carefully and reads good theological works as familiar with these things. However, Paul also understood spiritual warfare, which many of us today do not seem to grasp so readily.

He knew that the Christian life is a war, not a Sunday picnic. He knew that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. He knew that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We're not talking about bombs and guns and all that. We don't convert by the sword.

But our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. So here in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 11, he commands us to put on the whole armor of God, and having done all, stand. Same word in Greek, not simply English. And in verse 14, he commands again, stand therefore. Now I would like us then to consider the word stand and how that applies to us right now.

How might we stand in the day in which we live? Paul uses this particular word to mean to stand up against. The literal meaning of the word To resist, to stand firm and hold one's ground. And this is a wonderful thought, but it's not going to happen unless we know and love Jesus Christ. It's too costly.

It's much easier to flow downstream. There's never been a time—in fact, I can put it this way, there has never been in our lifetime a greater need for Spirit-filled, holy, faithful, bold of God, pastors, elders, teachers, street preachers, that know God's word, believe God's word, defend God's word, and declare God's Word with heavenly unction, with all their heart, without fear of men and whatever the cost. This can only arise out of love for Christ. Where does that love for Christ come from? It's not something we can work up.

I've tried it. It doesn't work. It comes from a knowledge of Christ's astonishing love for us. We must know it, not simply know about it. Again, coming so close to some of the things Brother Mala said last evening, we must know it and we must know it, and we must biblically experience it.

We must meditate on it. We must pray about it. We must live in it. It has to be what motivates what we do. Paul sums up the entire Christian life, in my opinion, in the one short statement, faith that worketh by love.

It is Christ's love for us that drives us to love Him and to say, I give up my life as you have given up your life for mine. Whatever you want me to do, I'm here to do it. And we must strengthen ourselves by that love. It must be our feast. So how would we stand in the evil day unless we are Spirit-empowered, saturated men of prayer.

The Apostle said we're going to give ourselves to the Word and prayer. Today many modern pastors are spending so much time in handholding and doing things that should be delegated to other people that they are accomplishing virtually nothing for their own souls with which to feed the flock of God. How will we stand in the evil day unless we know and live in the love of Christ, in holy communion with Christ? Now, do those words mean anything to us? What does it mean to commune with Christ?

Is that just something nice to hear something good to read in Octavius Winslow? Or is that something that's a real experience that regenerate people lay hold of because they've been filled with the Spirit of God, they have come to the Word of God, they have learned as – I loved this particular quote of Winslow, who quoted a converted pagan. And he said, I opened my Bible, And God talks to me. I close my Bible and I talk to God. That's as good a definition as I can think of for communion with Christ.

It is something that arises from our regenerate souls. It is something that is alive and real because we are in union with the resurrected Christ. The very power of the Holy Spirit, the very power of the world to come, dwells within us and there is that which flows back and forth. There is a holy conjunction between heaven and earth because that which fills the glory of heaven resides in us. We must be people that commune with Christ.

It's great to read Isaac Ambrose's book, Looking into Jesus. I recommend to anyone who has two or three years to spare. But I will say to you, you can read that whole book and not know that Christ. You can come away with a wonderful mind full of biblical images and doctrines of Christ. When I say image, I mean verbal pictures, and never commune with Him.

Very often, some within theological circles prove that to us. They know ten times more about various doctrines than we do, but you can't spend 15 to 20 minutes without realizing these men don't walk with Christ. This is a real thing. How will we stand unless we walk in obedience to Christ? One of the greatest griefs to come to me in a while, having had to deal with young men and the plague of pornography, was that a book was released a few years ago about how to get pastors off of porn.

That such a book would exist stands as a direct denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He saves people from their sins. Can pastors fall into great sins? Yes, of course they can, but that we have to write a book. It's a plague.

When we commune with Christ, there's a desire to honor Him in everything. How will we stand in the evil day unless we are men who breathe up our praise, our hearts' desires, our great expectations to God through Christ, and unless We are men who know how to pray down, draw down the power of Christ in our souls. You don't hear much talk about that anymore. You can't pick up the Puritans or the early Baptists without this language. These are men that were experiencing, that were knowing God in ways that people today just read books about and talk.

We're not going to change anything that way. It comes when we have a generation of men who know the living Christ and are ready to walk with Him whatever the cost. We need men who are not trying to make names for themselves, but will not and cannot be satisfied unless they make a name for Christ, for this generation and for the next. How will we stand in the evil day, brethren, unless we are men who by faith in Christ can preach life to dead souls, health to diseased souls, joy to grieving souls, liberty to enslaved souls, triumph to defeated souls, and holiness to ungodly souls, in the name of Christ, by the power of Christ, and for the glory of Christ alone. We need men like this.

I'm thankful to know some. We need an army. We desperately need pastors, elders, teachers, and street preachers who will resist the devil and the powers of darkness, who will not cave into political correctness, who will not curtsy to the feminists, who will not cower before the social justice warriors, who will not give credence to global opinion, and will not bow to the LGBT movement. Brothers, love Christ and stand. Paul commanded the Christians of his day to stand, to put on the whole armor of God, and stand, to resist, to stand against.

To stand in the evil day, we must expose sin, resist, compromise, and proclaim the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, and returning Son of God. We must feed the souls of God's people with Christ, an uncompromised Christ, the glorious Christ of the Scripture that refuses to be domesticated by human beings, especially preachers. By human beings, especially preachers. So let us preach the grace, the mercy, and the love of Christ crucified, The glory of Christ resurrected. Real conversion, not decisions.

Real conversions through repentance and faith. Full pardon of sin by the free grace of God, faith which worketh by love, holiness of life without which no man will see God, the certainty of Christ's return, the inescapable approach of the day of judgment, and the dreadful reality of eternal hell. We dare not keep any of these things back from God's people. We cannot say we're standing if we do. So in other words, in our lawless, perverse, deceitful, violent, sex-worshipping, and pornography-addicted, God-hating culture.

Let us love Christ and stand, stand, stand in the evil day. And Let us do so for the eternal glory of God, the advancement of his kingdom, and the good of immortal souls. In the name of our Savior. Amen.