Class Outline:

Wednesday March 9,2022

I came across this wonderful statement today.

 

“God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.” [Jeremy Taylor]

 

PSA 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord;

And He will give you the desires of your heart.

 

God is so very patient and He has forgiven us of all things, yet still, if we will not enter into His joy by keeping His commands, eventually our lives will become quite terrible. Satan knows this and so, through his schemes, he will attempt to keep us away from the life of obedience and faithfulness, and get us to agree to a life that is far, far less.

 

C.S. Lewis said that the Lord “finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”

 

John Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

 

In our passage, Paul tells us that the shield of faith will extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. Peter calls them fiery ordeals and Peter tells us that we are aware of where they come from and why they come from there, and that in them we are to keep on rejoicing in the midst of them.

 

1PE 4:12-16

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal [one word, purosis = a firing or fiery trial] among you, which comes upon you for your testing [test for purity and truth], as though some strange thing were happening to you [you know where it comes from and why]; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.

 

Basically, Peter is saying, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fire that you all find among you.” Peter adds that it has come upon you for your testing. God uses the evil of the devil to His own purposes. The devil wants nothing else but to crush our lives. God allows it knowing that the trial will test our faith. If our faith is good, we will remain faithful to the word of God, the promises and commands of God, and not seek out sinful avenues of relief or emotional reaction. As Peter says, let us in the name of Christ glorify God.

 

NEH 8:10

“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

 

The people were grieved because they heard for the first time as it was read to them by Ezra. They were convicted of their violation and neglect of their Lord God. Nehemiah and Ezra and the priests comforted them with this word. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” In our passage, “Be strong in the Lord, and in His mighty strength.” Certainly, God would not have wanted Israel to continue in their neglect of His word. The joy was in the midst of their conviction and their change of heart to love the Lord and His word. Anyone who neglects the Lord will not find joy. Faithfulness and obedience and faith are the path to joy in everything as we share in God’s person where true joy resides. As C.S. Lewis calls it; it is a good infection.

 

“The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks.” [Matthew Henry]

 

The joy of the Lord is your strength. When in God’s mighty strength you stand firm against the schemes of the devil, you glorify God.

 

God’s passion to be glorified and our passion to be satisfied are one experience in the life that worships and exalts Christ.

 

From this perspective must we say no to sin and yes to the ministry that God has given each one of us, and that despite the inward temptations from the flesh and the outward temptations from the schemes of the devil.

 

We get the mercy; God gets the glory. We get the happiness in Him; He gets honor from us.

 

There is a very old Christian tradition that says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” This is thoroughly correct. We must not look at our individual battles in which standing firm is the end goal without having in mind that God alone is glorified in this. If I or you were to come out of the gravest situation without a scratch and smelling like a rose, if the glory of the victory is not God’s we have failed miserably against a scheme of the devil that was designed for that purpose - self-glorification.

 

We will repeatedly state the main idea of this passage as we study it. This is so that we don’t lose sight of it.

 

Idea of EPH 6:10-20: We stand firm against the schemes of the devil when we are strong in God’s mighty power and we put on the full armor of God.

 

The joy of the Lord is your strength, and that strength to stand firm glorifies Him.

 

This passage demands that we ask the question, “How do we stand firm against the schemes of the devil?” The answers that complete the question are two-fold. God’s mighty strength in us and the full-armor of God on our soul.

 

Further, we ask, “How does God’s mighty strength come to us?” The answer is in EPH 1:19-20. The “surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe … the strength of His might” was “brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.”

 

I spoke a truth yesterday, but it was incomplete, and as such could be misleading. I said, spiritual warfare isn’t about Satan near as much as it is about us. The devil is done for. And in our passage, the devil is mentioned once and our ability is mentioned three times along with our prayers.

 

The reason that it is incomplete because spiritual warfare isn’t about us without God within us. Spiritual warfare is about God being able to strengthen us and being able to suit us up with His armor. His ability to do that depends upon our faithfulness to Him and His word and His plan.

 

So to be accurate, spiritual warfare is about God’s wisdom and power within a joyful and content person who has the skill and desire to use them.

 

So then, God is glorified in the use of His strength that He gave by grace. Grace doesn’t mean that God’s strength operates in everyone no matter what they do or choose. It is common sense that God is not going to push us along on the road to perdition or destruction, rather, in His love He disciplines us so that we lose a taste for that road and find a love for His.

 

In 1TI 1:12, Paul, admitting to be the chief of sinners, proclaimed that Christ Jesus our Lord strengthened him.

 

In this passage, Paul gives us some clues to how we use the surpassing strength that God has given us.

 

We’ll examine endunamoo used in 1TI 1:12; 2TI 4:17; 2:1.

 

We will also briefly see it in ROM 4:20; PHI 4:13. It is Paul’s use in his epistles to Timothy that I want to use to show us how to make use of God’s strength that He gave to us when Christ’s victory was complete.

 

1TI 1:12-13

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened (endunamoo) me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service; 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.

 

Paul was faithful to serving the Lord, therefore Christ strengthened him. Christ will only give strength to follow His way.

 

Faithfulness to obedience to the plan of God for your life makes the divine power flow.

 

Paul’s last written (doctrinal) words:

 

2TI 4:17-18

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. 18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.