WANTED -- MORE FIGHTING CHRISTIANS
03/28/2014 19:55
"Fight the good fight of faith." 1 Timothy 6:12.
"Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Timothy 2:3.
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Christian life is a warfare, not a picnic. There are battles to be fought, enemies to be conquered, victories to be won. Of course, there are wonderful feasts to be enjoyed all along the way, but fighting and not feasting is our special business..
Three things to know if we are to obey our text.
First -- Who our enemies are.
Second -- How to fight them.
Third -- The conditions of success in our warfare.
I. Our Enemies.
Who are our enemies? Who and what is it that we are to fight?
1. The devil. Ephesians 6:11-12.
2. The world. 1_John 5:4. The world has its ideas, its ambitions, its usages, its disposition, its aims; and the ideas of the world, the ambitions of the
world, the usages of the world, the aims of the world are contrary to the mind of "God".
The world seeks to bring us all under its sway, under the dominion of its ideas, etc. It is our business to fight the world, to resist its attempt to bring us into bondage to itself.
3. The flesh. Our third enemy is the flesh, our own flesh.
4. Sin. Sin will attack us. We should fight it back. We need not yield to it or be overcome by it for one single moment. If we are knocked down by it we should jump up at once and renew the fight and conquer. But it is not enough to fight sin in your own life. Fight it in the lives of others.
5. False doctrine. We must resist error of doctrine in ourselves; we must not argue it with others.
Some think that false doctrine is not worth fighting against. It is more worth fighting against than political tyranny in its worst forms. True doctrine is salvation and life. False doctrine is damnation and death.
II. How to Fight.
1. First of all we must fight to win. No Christian has a right to expect defeat or to be defeated.
2. We must fight energetically.
3. We must fight wisely. The way to get wisdom for our holy war is by prayer and reading the Bible. James 1:5. Much of our fighting must be done upon our knees.
4. We must fight persistently. This warfare is never done until Jesus comes or God calls us home. The trouble with many a Christian Warrior is that he or she fights intermittently.
III. Conditions of Victory.
1. First, faith in Jesus Christ. 1 John 5:4-5.
2. We must be strong. Ephesians 6:10; Ephesians 3:16; 1 John 2:14.
3. We must be ready to "endure hardness" or "suffer hardship." 2 Timothy 2:3.
4. A knowledge of weapons.
(a) We must know what the best weapons are. The great weapon of our warfare is the Word of God.
(b) But we must not only know what the best weapons are; we must actually have these weapons.
(c) We must know how to use our weapons.
Rev Ann M Hampton, P.S.