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The River ChurchSermons

Justin Dean · 9 Jun 2026

Justin Dean · Tuesday, 9 June 2026 · 30:48 · 4,265 words

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Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare and God has given them armor to stand firm against the enemy. The sermon emphasizes that believers must refuse to compromise on core truths, remain immovable, and continually rely on the Lord's strength rather than their own. It calls listeners to recognize that attacks will not cease, to hold fast to God's provisions, and to turn to Him in prayer for endurance. Those who have not yet trusted Christ are urged to consider the reality of their spiritual condition and accept His salvation.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

firm 34 withstand 27 stand 43 compromise 19 reality 34 armor 20 fight 23 spiritual 21 warfare 9 immovable 6 strength 14 accord 16

Topics

Prayer 5 Hope 3 Sin 2 Salvation 1 Obedience 1

Scripture referenced 7

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Ephesians 6:13 2:42 Ephesians 6 3:21 Ephesians 6:13 3:21 Ephesians 6:13 5:15 Ephesians 6:13 5:23 1 Corinthians 15:58 12:50 1 Corinthians 15:58 13:23

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

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We hope you're blessed by today's message.

He's using very imagery language, right, to talk about the reality of what it means to live armed in this spiritual warfare,

in the reality of this spiritual warfare.

And one of the things I think is so key for us to understand is that God has provided for us in this spiritual warfare.

In this reality of this spiritual opposition that we face,

God is not surprised, right?

And we shouldn't be surprised either.

The reality is, as we follow the Lord, there will be opposition.

And so Paul looks and he says, God is not surprised and he has made a plan for us.

He has provided for us so that we are not overtaken in this spiritual battle.

And so last week, we talked about that beginning part of that spiritual,

the reality of that spiritual warfare, and how God is the only way in which we can be strengthened

and have hope to fight in this spiritual warfare.

And so tonight, we're going to take a look at the purpose for which we use this armor of God that God has provided us with.

When we take a look at the strength of the Lord, how should we fight?

How should we fight?

How should we fight?

How should we fight in this spiritual battle?

And so we're going to take a look at what that means tonight,

specifically in Ephesians 6, verse 13, and in a couple of different places.

But let's pray before we dive into God's word together.

Lord, we come to you.

Lord, we pray that you would remove all distraction from our mind, from our lives.

Lord, that as we jump into your word together, we would be uniformly transformed by you.

Lord, that we would understand our purpose.

And the call, the mission that we have as believers.

Lord, and that tonight, your Holy Spirit would teach us and guide us to live differently.

In your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen.

So when we, to Ephesians chapter 6, starting in, we're going to be in verse 13.

There is this larger section, right, where Paul, he's going to begin to talk about this armor,

this spiritual armor that we've been given.

The armor.

The armor of God.

And he breaks it down piece by piece.

But before he jumps into that, he lays out the reality of how we're given and why we're given this armor.

And so Paul, he's laying this out to this church in Ephesus.

That's why they're called the Ephesians.

The book is called the Ephesians after the people that it's written to.

And he's trying to help them to understand what it means to live according to their new identity as a follower of Jesus.

You.

You have started this relationship with Jesus Christ.

And so here is what that means for how you live, what you do, and the new reality of your life.

And so as he talks them through that, he comes to the end and he says,

there is going to be this reality of this spiritual warfare.

As you live in this new identity, this new reality, there are these spiritual forces that do not like that.

And they are not going to like that.

They are not going to simply be like, well, he's living for the Lord.

Guess we, we're not going to do anything.

Guess we give up.

No, they're not going to go quietly in the night.

And instead they are going to, they're going to claw and fight and do everything they can to make your life as difficult to live out that reality as possible.

And so that's really where we talk.

We looked at last week, that reality of there is a spiritual warfare that we have to understand is going.

And the reality is we don't fight according to our own strength.

We fight according to the Lord's strength.

And then here's where we pick up in Ephesians 6, 13.

We're told, what does that look like when it plays out in our lives?

He says this, Ephesians 6, verse 13, therefore.

So whenever you see that, therefore, it's a application.

It's an explanation out of what he just says.

He says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand.

In the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

And so he looks and he says, here's the reality.

Because of that spiritual warfare, because the only hope that you have is to live according to the strength of the Lord.

Therefore, take up this armor of God that you may be able to withstand in this evil day and having done all to stand firm.

And so the reality is this fight.

The fight starts as we become believers.

And so tonight, if you've never confessed Jesus Christ is Lord, if you've never placed your faith in him, gone to him and repented of your sin and asked for him to be your personal savior,

then the reality is there really is no fight in your life.

You have been overcome by those evil spiritual forces.

You are in incredible danger, even though it may not feel like it.

The reality is this war is being waged.

And in your life, you have been conquered by evil.

At some point in all of our lives, we were living conquered by evil.

But this salvation comes from Christ, where Christ frees us from the captivity of evil and makes us more than conquerors.

He does that through his death and his resurrection, that Christ came and lived a perfect life.

Where?

We are sinners and we gave ourselves over to evil.

Christ did not.

He lived the perfect life.

He went to the cross and he died the way in which we deserve.

And he descended into hell and three days later rose, conquering that which had claimed us.

And he offers us forgiveness and salvation.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that he's risen from the dead, you will be saved.

And so if you've done those things, then there is.

There is this reality that you are now a target of evil.

You are an enemy of evil.

Why?

Because you've been united with God.

So tonight, my encouragement to you is if you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

I want you to stop and to think about the reality of what that means eternally.

And I want you to think about the sacrifice that Jesus gave for you to be forgiven.

And you to be.

To be united with him.

But for those of us who have received, like I said, those of us who have received the gospel, we are in this battle.

We are an enemy of evil and that evil is fighting against us.

And so Paul says, so if you're going into a war zone, if there is this war that is going on and you're a target, then you need this armor of God.

And how do you utilize this armor?

In a second here, he's going to talk about the pieces of the armor and how all those.

Those pieces of the armor play out in our lives.

But how should we utilize each and every one of those pieces of armor?

And there's two words that stand out to me here.

The first one is to we stand firm.

That's what he says at the very end, to stand firm.

And the second one that stands out is that idea of withstanding or to what we may be able to withstand.

Now, the first word I'm going to talk about first, even though it comes second, this idea of.

It's the reality of being immovable, not yielding to the enemy, unwilling to give up ground.

So like I said there in order to stand firm, you first must stand against.

And so if you haven't received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you you can't hope to stand firm because you're not standing for anything.

You're on the side of evil.

But for those of us who look and say we believe in Jesus.

Christ and we are pursuing the call of Jesus Christ in our life and we're looking to be obedient to him.

The reality is we are called to be immovable to stand firm.

The enemy will crash on us like waves with the hope of pushing us back with the hope of getting us to yield with the hope of tiring us out with the hope of gaining.

Ground in our lives.

And so the reality is we must live as people who refuse to compromise.

Well, how does that look?

Are we just simply called to be the most stubborn people on earth?

And as much as a joke, really, the answer is yes.

In many ways, not in every way, but in the core ways, in the ways that are important when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.

When it comes to truth, when it comes to what is sinful and what is a matter of calling, when it comes for standing for what is right, when it comes to the character of God, when it comes to these important pieces, we look and we say, we will stand firm when sin tries to encroach in our lives and temptation is trying to breach the walls of our lives.

We look and we stubbornly stand firm.

We plant the flag.

And we said, we are immovable.

We stand for Christ.

We stand with Christ.

And when anything looks to call us to compromise in that reality, we look and we say, no way, no way, no way.

We will not compromise.

We will not yield.

We will not give up ground.

We will not retreat.

We are immovable.

And the reality of what it means to stand firm comes with that armor of God.

This reality for these Roman soldiers that really Paul is painting a picture of because he's writing in the time is the Roman soldiers, that everything they had was built to be this immovable wall from their massive shield towers, right?

Their towers are literally built or their shields are literally built like walls, like small towers that link together so they can't be moved from their shoes that have cleats on the bottom so that as the enemies throw them.

On their shields, they will not be moved.

This picture of this armor is in this battle.

The enemy can throw themselves on the battle lines as hard as they want, but we will not give ground to them.

And really, he writes in this same way and according to the same facet to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 58.

He's trying to get them to understand because if you read Corinthians both 1 and 2, 1 and 2.

Corinthians, you'll see that the Corinthian church have a problem with this.

They constantly find themselves giving into temptation, yielding, giving ground, compromising.

And so Paul tells them here, this is our focus.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 58.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be dead fast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

That in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

There is this reality when it comes to the spiritual side of our lives that we are unmoving.

Now, I'll say this.

That doesn't mean we can't be wrong.

Doesn't mean we can't make mistakes.

That doesn't mean we can't misunderstand.

The next time you get in an argument with your spouse, don't look and say, well, Pastor Justin told me to be steadfast and unmoving and I'm not going to apologize.

That's not what...

That's not what we're meaning here.

It's these core truths of God.

It's these pieces of his life in our...

Or pieces of him in our lives.

That when culture, when people, when we're pressured to say, oh, yeah, that's not that big a deal.

We look and say, no, sin is a big deal.

When we're pressured to look and say, oh, we'll be quiet about Jesus.

We just won't share about Jesus.

We look and say, no.

We're called to share about Jesus.

We say, oh, well, you know, it doesn't explicitly say that it's sin in the Bible, so therefore I can just go and do it as much as I can.

No.

We're called to be obedient.

And there is this character that is given to us in Scripture, this guide that we live according to.

When it comes to what we're called to do, when we feel a conviction from the Holy Spirit, our flesh wages war and says, you can do that later.

Is that really what God wants you to do?

And we give ground.

I guess we will do it later.

And we give more ground and it doesn't happen at all.

There is this push, this fight, this reality that Satan wants you to do anything but stand firm.

Satan, his minions, our flesh, our culture, the sinful world, all that they want you to do is compromise, compromise, compromise, compromise.

And what God calls us to be is steadfast people.

We will not compromise.

We will not compromise.

I will not compromise in the ways in which I obey God.

I will not compromise in the character of my life.

I will not compromise in what I watch.

I will not compromise in what I listen to.

I will not compromise in where I go and what I do.

Why?

Because I am called to live for God, to be obedient to God, to look as if the character of God, to demonstrate those things in my life.

And anything that calls me to do anything contrary.

I won't give ground to that in my life.

Not just in the individual circumstances, but in the constant barrage of the enemy.

And this is where I think we get to this second word, withstand.

When you think about the word withstand, stand firm and withstand, they kind of go hand in hand.

But stand firm has this idea of, okay, we stand firm in a battle.

We stand firm in this.

We stand firm as the enemy comes here.

But this idea of withstand is this continual call to hold out.

And so the reality of the spiritual fight that we fight or the spiritual warfare is it is not a one situation fight.

It's not a battle.

It's a war.

There is a continual fight going on.

The reality of our enemy is he is one.

He is unrelenting.

Satan knows he has a finite amount of time before he is sent into eternal hell.

And so he is going to do everything he can, as hard as he can, to get us to collapse.

To get us to give in.

To give us to compromise.

To get us to do all these different things.

And so with our enemy being unrelenting, we have to withstand.

After wave.

After wave.

After wave.

And I could go on of spiritual attack that is going to come against us.

And the hope for this, the only hope to withstand, is this armor which we wear.

And so the first thing that you have to recognize when we talk about this idea of withstanding is

that spiritual attacks are coming and they will not cease.

Sometimes we think that the spiritual attacks will stop.

Or they'll slow.

Or they'll slow down the longer that we follow God and the deeper that we grow.

The reality is the attacks just keep coming.

And if anything, they get more intense.

If you talk to deep believers who have been a believer for a long time, who have continued to grow,

they will tell you that Satan has not gotten tired out in their attacks against them.

That their flesh has not gotten worn down as they have pursued the Lord.

If anything, it's riled up all the more.

And so when we look at the reality of standing firm, yes, we stand firm in instance after

instance after instance after instance, but the reality of doing that over the long term

is this picture of withstanding, of holding out, of fighting the good fight, not just

for a time, not just for a season, but over the course of our lives.

How does that play out in our recovery journey?

We have to fight against relapse.

That's just the reality.

It cannot.

It can't be something that in our minds is inevitable.

And it can't be something in our minds that we are past the point of needing to worry about.

And more than just in our addiction, in our addiction to sin, our relapse into sinful

habits of old ways, of past behaviors, of things, it's a constant fight.

It's the reality of withstanding.

So we need to be armored up.

James writes in James chapter one.

Verse 12, he says this, and it's important that we recognize this because sometimes we

may get discouraged hearing that and be like, the attacks are just going to keep coming.

What's the point?

And here's what James says.

He says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial.

So the person who's experienced trial, they're actually blessed as they stand firm.

That is so weird.

That's so contrary to what we think.

We think when there's a.

There is a trial in our life.

We say that's anything but being blessed.

But James says, when we stand firm in the midst of this trial, we're blessed continuing on.

For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to

those who love him.

So he looks and he says, these trials, they're a blessing.

Why?

Because when we stand firm, when we withstand, God is pleased.

Now, some of you may be looking and saying, man.

Pastor Justin, I am just tired of the attacks of the enemy.

I don't know how much more I can hold on.

If you say there's this sense of I have to withstand and it keeps going.

If anything, it gets worse.

I don't know about this whole following Jesus thing.

I don't know that I can do that.

I'm going to say something that at first is going to sound discouraging, but it is extremely encouraging.

You can't.

You can't.

You cannot withstand our enemy on your own.

Paul says that we stand firm and we withstand not on our own strength.

That we stand firm and we withstand not according to the armor of Justin or the armor of ourselves.

He says, you're given these things.

You're equipped in this way by God.

You're strengthened by God.

You're relying on the strength of the Lord.

This is the.

The armor of God that you wear.

And each of these pieces are these provisions that God has given you in the gospel so that

you can withstand according to his word, according to his work, according to the things he has

given you, according to the salvation he has placed in your life, according to the truth

he has given you.

All these different things you are able to stand firm and withstand, not according to

you, but according to the Lord.

But you have.

To trust in that reality, you have to look and say, God, I will do these things, God.

I will stand firm and he will strengthen you to do so, God.

I will withstand.

I will hold out.

I won't compromise to sin.

I will fight back.

I will recognize this war and I will rely on you throughout it.

That is our call.

That is the call to withstand and stand.

Some of you have seen this call to withstand and stand firm.

It's a call that everyone likes to put out there, but you have looked and said, it's

got to be me.

I got to do the right programs.

I just got to be strong enough.

I got to start dieting.

I got to read the right books.

I got to replace the bad habits with good habits.

I got to, I got to, I got to, I got to.

And there is a call in our lives to work alongside what the Lord is doing.

And so my encouragement to you.

To you tonight is to go to the Lord first and to live according to the ways that the Lord calls you first.

So often we look and we say, well, we've tried everything else.

Now, what does the Bible say?

I've tried everything else and I failed.

Now I'll pray and ask God.

Now I'll turn to his strength.

When my strength has failed.

Now I will rely on the Lord.

No wonder you're so tired.

You've let your.

You've let your strength fail you.

What would it look like if before your strength fails you?

You just simply relied on the Lord through it all.

Before your life comes crashing down.

Before you find yourself once again deep in sin.

So you can say, here's what God's word calls me to do.

Here's the character of my life that God calls me to.

And I'm just going to live it out even though I'm not having a hard situation right now.

Even though it doesn't feel like I'm under attack.

I'm still going to live.

According to his strength.

I'm still going to live in the ways that he calls me to.

I'm still going to go to him in prayer.

Even when this seems like a no duh decision.

I'm still going to go to him in prayer.

When I think that I have this under control.

Why?

I love that saying the devil's in the details.

Because the devil really likes to sneak in in those moments.

Those moments where I think I got it under control.

Where it seems like a no duh question or situation.

Of course, of course I do that.

My encouragement to you is to turn to the Lord,

whether you are completely in need in this right,

right now in this moment where you're like,

my strength has failed me,

or whether you think you have it under control

to turn to the Lord all the same.

So I encourage you, we'll have table leaders down front

to turn to the Lord and come down and pray.

Ask them for prayer, look and say,

hey, will you pray with me?

I need to be strengthened.

I need to stand firm.

I need to withstand.

Will you go to the Lord with me?

Will you pray for me?

Will you encourage me?

I have these questions, I'm struggling here.

Or maybe it's not praying with anyone.

Maybe it's just coming down and praying by yourself.

Lord, I just need to get right with you.

Lord, I need to turn to you.

Lord, I need to rely on your strength.

My encouragement to you is to humble yourself

and to turn to the Lord this evening,

because he is our only hope to stand firm

and to withstand continually.

Let's pray.

Lord, it's so easy for us to feel

like we have it under control.

It's so easy for us to base things on our own strength,

on our own ability, on our own achievement,

on our own skill.

Lord, but I pray that you would help us to recognize

that our hope cannot be in us

and that our hope must be in you.

Because you alone never fail.

You alone always come through.

You alone are a solid rock unshaken.

You alone.

You alone are worthy of glory.

You alone are majestic and powerful and in control.

Lord, you alone are these things.

And so if we have any hope to stand against evil,

we have to look and we have to say,

Lord, we need you to strengthen us.

Lord, we need you to equip us.

And we need you to give us motivation,

to give us dedication,

to stand firm and to withstand the enemy

which seeks to make us compromise,

which seeks to get us to yield.

Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us.

Lord, I pray that you would strengthen each one of us in this room

to look and say, we will not compromise.

We will not give ground.

We will not retreat.

We will stand firm and we will withstand

each and every day until you call us home.

Lord, I pray for the person in this room

who maybe is on the fence about coming to know you,

who is maybe on the fence about sharing some deep sin

that they've been trying to hide.

Lord, who's maybe on the fence about coming down front

and simply praying.

Lord, I pray that you would give them courage,

that you would give them boldness,

and that you would help them to respond to the call

that you're giving them right now,

to the nudging of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we seek all these things to honor you

in your precious and holy name, Jesus' name.