Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
THE FIGHT (“Fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim.6:12)
I. Introduction:
It is a curious fact that there is no subject about which most people feel such deep interest as FIGHTING. Young men and maidens, old men and little children, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, all feel a deep interest in wars, battles and fighting: The battle of Midway, Guadalcanal , the Battle of Thermopylae, The Battle of Tirad Pass etc. are battles that eternally remind us of lives offered sacrificially in the altar of freedom.
This is a simple fact, whatever way we may try to explain it. We should call that Filipino a dull fellow who cared nothing about the “Battle of Mactan”, the “Dagohoy Rebellion”, The “Ilocano Revolt”, the heroic defense of the joint Filipino and USAFE forces in the historic battle of Coregidor and the death-defying stand in Bata-an against the cruel and ferocious Japanese invaders. We should think that heart cold and stupid which was not move an thrilled by the struggles and the indomitable courage of Filipino against the atrocities of the Spanish colonizers.
But there is warfare of far greater importance than any war that was ever waged by man. It is a warfare which concerns not two or three nations only but every Christian man and woman born into the world. The warfare I Speak of is the SPIRITUAL WARFARE. IT IS THE FIGHT WHICH EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST FIGHT.
This warfare, I am aware, is a thing of which many know nothing. Talk to them about it, and they are ready to set you down as a madman, an enthusiast or a fool. And it is as real and true as any war the world has ever seen. It has its hand-to-hand conflicts and its wounds. It has its watchings and fatigues. It has its sieges and assaults. It has its victorious and defeats. Above all, it has consequences which are awful, tremendous and most peculiar. In earthly warfare the consequences to nations are often temporary and remediable. In spiritual warfare it is very different. Of that warfare, the consequences, when the fight is over, are UNCHANGEABLE AND ETERNAL.
It is of this warfare that St. Paul spoke to Timothy, when he wrote those burning words ‘Fight the good fight of faith’, “lay hold on eternal life.” It is of this warfare that I propose to speak tonight. I hold the subject to be closely connected with that of sanctification and holiness. He that would understand the nature of true holiness must know that the Christian is “a man of war’. If we desire to live holy lives WE MUST FIGHT.
II. THREE FACTS ABOUT THE FIGHT
A. TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS A FIGHT
The first thing I have to say is this: TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS A FIGHT.
TRUE CHISTIANITY! Let us mind that word: “TRUE”. There is a vast quantity of Christian groups current in the world which is not true, GNUINE CHRISTIANITY. This group passes muster, it satisfies sleepy experiences but it not good money. It is not the real thing which was called CHRISTIANITY TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO—It has departed very far from genuine BIBLICAL CHISIANITY. There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday, and call themselves Christians.
Their names are in the baptismal register.
They are reckoned Christians while they live.
They are married with a Christian marriage service.
They mean to be buried as Christian when they die.
But you never see any “Fight” about their faith!
Of spiritual strife and exertion and conflict and self-denial and watching and warring they know literally nothing at all.
Such Christianity may satisfy man, and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the Christianity which the Lord Jesus founded, and His apostles preached. It is not the faith which produces real holiness. TRUE CHRISTIANITY IS A FIGHT!
THE TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER: HE MUST FIGHT
The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the DAY OF CONVERSION to the day of his Death. He is not meant to live a life of religious call, indolence, and reckless security. He must never imagine for a moment/ that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage. If he takes his standard of Christianity/ from the children if this world, he may be content with such notions, but he will find no countenance for them/ in the Word of God. If the BIBLE IS THE RULE of his faith/ and practice, he will find his course laid down very plainly in their matter. HE MUST FIGHT!
WITH WHOM IS THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER MEANT TO FIGHT? Not with other Christians. Wretched indeed is the man’s idea of religion who fancies that it consists in perpetual controversy. He who is never satisfied unless he is engaged in some strife between CHURCH and CHURCH, CHAPEL and CHAPEL SECT and SECT, FACTION and FACTION, PARTY and PARTY, knows nothing yet as he ought to know. No doubt it may be absolutely needful sometimes to appeal to LAW COURTS, in order to ascertain the right interpretation of a Church’s articles and rubrics and formularies. But, as a general rule, the cause of sin, is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarrelling with one another and spend their time in petty squabbles.
NO, indeed! The principal fight of the Christian is with the WORLD, the FLESH, and DEVIL. These are his never-dying foes. These are the three chief enemies against whom/ he must wage war. Unless he gets the victory over these three, all other victories are useless and vain. If he had a nature like an angel, and were not a fallen creature, the warfare would not be no essential. But with a fleshly nature, a busy devil and an ensnaring world, HE MUST EITHER “FIGHT’ or BE LOST.
1. HE MUST FIGHT THE FLESH.
Even after conversion he carries within him a nature prone to evil, a heart, although renewed, still weak and unstable as water. / The heart will never be free from imperfection in this world, and it is a miserable delusion/ to expect it. To keep that heart/ from going astray, the LORD JESUS bids us, “Watch and Pray” Mark 14:38. The spirit may be ready, but the flesh is weak. THERE IS A NEED of daily struggle and a daily wrestling in prayer. A moment by moment decision/ to flee and to say NO to all kinds of ungodliness ( I cor. 6:18, II Tim. 2:22). “ I keep under by body cries St.Paul and bring it into subjection. “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind (the renewed mind), and bringing me into captivity. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Mortify…your members which are upon the earth.” (I cor. 9:27; Rom. 7:24; Gal. 5:24, Col.
Remember! This enemy is from within!
2. HE MUST FIGHT THE WORLD
The subtle influence of that mighty enemy must be daily resisted, and without a daily battle it can never be overcome. The love of the world’s good things, the fear of the world’s laughter or blame, the secret desire to keep in with the world, the clandestine wish to do as others in the world do, and not to run into extremes – all these are spiritual foes which beset the Christian continually on his way to heaven and must be conquered. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. If any man loves the world, the love, the love of the Father is not in him. Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. “Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world”. “Be not conformed to this world” (James 4:4; John 2:15; Gal.5:4; Rom.
3. HE MUST FIGHT THE DEVIL
The old enemy of mankind I not dead. Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve he has been “going to and fro” in the earth, and walking up and down in it, and striving to compass one great end - the RUIN OF MAN’S SOUL. Never slumbering and never sleeping, he is always going about as a lion seeking whom he may devour. And unseen enemy, he is always near us, about our path and about our bed, and spying all our ways. A murderer and a liar from the beginning, he labors night and day to cost us down to hell. Sometimes by leading into SUPERSTITION, sometimes by suggesting infidelity, sometimes by one kind of tactics and sometimes by another, he is always carrying on a campaign against OUR SOULS. “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” This mighty adversary must be daily resisted if we wish to be victorious. But this kind goeth not out’ but by watching and praying and fighting and putting on the whole armor of God. The strong man armed will never be kept out of our hearts without daily battle (Job. 1:7, I Pet.5:8; John 8:44, Luke 22:31; Eph.6:11).
Some man may think these statements too strong. You fancy that I am going too far, and laying on the colours too thickly. You are secretly saying to yourself, that men and women in the Philippines England
What says the baptismal service of the Church of England? The following words are used;
“ I baptize then in the name of the father the Son and Holy Ghost! I sign this child with sign of the cross, in taken that here after he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to FIGHT under his banner against SIN, the WORLD and the Devil, and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end!
Of course we all know that in my roads of cases baptism is a mere form and that parents bring their children to the font without faith or prayer or thought, and consequently receive no blessing.
However whatever the case may be- the fact is the believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight:
1. it is a fight of ABSOLUTE NECESSITY
In this fight we cannot remain neutral and sit still. Neutrality may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict w/c concerns the soul. The boasted international policy of non-interference, the masterly inactivity which pleases so many statesman, the plan of keeping quite and letting things alone – all these will never do in the Christian warfare. Here of any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is a ‘man of peace’; TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD, the FLESH and the DEVIL, is to be at ENMITY WITH GOD. We have NO CHOICE or OPTION. We must either FIGHT or be LOST!
2. It is a fight of UNNIVERSAL NECESSITY
No rank or class or age can plead exemption, or escape the battle. Ministers and people, preachers and hearer, old and young, high or low, rich and poor, gentle and simple. Kings and subjects, landlords and tenants, learned and unlearned – all alike must carry arms and go to war. All have by nature a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin. All are living in a world beset with snares, fraps, and pit falls for the soul. All have near them a busy, restless, malicious devil.
All, from the queen her place down to the paper in the workhouse all must FIGHT, if they are Christians.
3. It is a fight of PEPETUAL NECESSITY
I admits of no breathing time, no armistice, and no truce. On weekdays as well as on Sundays, in private as well as in public, at home by the family as well as abroad, in little things, like management at tongue and temper, as well as in great ones, like the government of kingdom, the Christian’s warfare must unceasingly go on. The foe we have to do with keeps no holidays never slumbers and never sleeps. So long as we have breath in our bodies we must keep on our armor and remember we are on an enemy’s ground. “Even on the brink or Jordan
Let us consider well these propositions. Let us take care that our own personal religion is real, genuine and true. The SADDEST SYMPTON about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, the dress, they work, the amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go to scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week. BUT OF THE GREAT SPIRITUAL WARFARE – its watching, and struggling, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contest – of all these they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own.
We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of a ward and conflict. It is the variable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not every thing. I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirits and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Gal. 5:17). Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. ALL TRUE CHRISTIANS ARE SOLDIERS. Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness and indifference. We are in a better state these many. He most part o so-called Christians have no feeling at all. We are evidently no friends of Satan. Like the kings of this world, he wars not against his own subjects. The very fact that he assaults us should fill our minds with hope. I say again, let us take constant. The child of God has too great marks about him, and of these two we have one. He may be known by his INWARD WARFARE, as well as by his INWARD PEACE.
B. TRUE CHRISIANITY IS THE FIGHT OF FAITH
I pass on to the second thing which I have to say in handling my subject: TRUE CHISTIANITY IS THE FIGHT OF FAITH in this respect. The Christian warfare is utterly unlike the conflicts of this world. It does not depend on the strong arm, the quick eye or the swift foot. It is not waged with carnal weapons, but with spiritual. FAITH is the hinge on while victory turns. Success depends entirely on believing.
What is the object of this faith?
1. Faith in the truth of Gods written Word is the primary foundation of the Christian of the Christian soldier character.
He is what he is, does what he does, thinks what he thinks, and acts as he acts, hopes as he hopes, behaves as he behaves, for one simple reason - he believe in the truths revealed and laid down in HOLY SCRIPTURES. (Heb.11:6; John 6:28-29).
A religion without DOCTRINE or DOGMA is a thing which many are fond of talking in the present day. It sounds very fine at first. It looks very pretty at a distance. But the moment we sit down to examine and consider it, we shall find it a simple impossibility. We might as well talk of a body without bones and sneers. No man will ever be anything or DO anything in religion, unless he believes something.Even those who profess to hold the miserable and uncomfortable views of the deists are obliged to confess that they believe something. With all their bitter sinners against dogmatic theology and Christian credulity as they call it, they themselves have a kind of faith.
As for true Christians, faith is the very BACKBONE of their spiritual existence. No one ever fights earnestly against the world, the flesh and the devil; unless he has engraver on his heart certain great principles which believes. What they are he may hardly know, and may certainly not be able to define or write down. But there they are and, consciously and unconsciously, they form the roots of his religion. Wherever you see a man, whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, wrestling manfully with sin and trying to overcome it, you may be sure there are certain great principles which that man believes.
The poet who wrote the famous lines:
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
He can’t be wrong whose life is in the right was a clever man, but a poor divine. There is no such thing as RIGHT LIVING WITHOUT FAITH AND BELIEVING.
A genuine faith in our LORD JESUS CHRIST‘s person and work is the life, heart, and mainspring of the Christian soldier’s character.
He sees by faith an unseen Savior, who loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bones his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in heaven for him as his Advocates at the right and of God. He sees Jesus and clings to Him. Seeing this Savior and trusting in Him, he feels peace and hope and willingly does battle against the foes of his soul.
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