Fight The Good Fight Of Faith

Submitted Sunday, March 12, 2006

Mark Baker (347)

The Olive Branch

1 Timothy 6:12. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

God’s Word tells us to fight the good fight of faith. We are called to be spiritual warriors in God’s kingdom. We are soldiers in the Army of God.

The purpose of an army is to insure freedom and liberty. Without these things we would live under another’s domination. In the spiritual world, the battle over world domination has already been fought and won by our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Satan’s lease on this world has not run out. We still have to contend with him for a little bit longer. We can however take solace in the fact that we don’t have to fight him. We do however have to fight the good fight of faith in order to walk in the victory that has already been won.

We as Christians can sometimes get tired of the constant battle that comes with our faith walk. I know from time to time I feel this way. However, we have been equipped to do battle and walk in victory. I also know that how I feel is irrelevant. I know that Jesus promised us He would never leave us or forsake us. He is always there whether we feel like it or not. Always!

We have been called into this army for a purpose, God’s purpose. His purpose is for us to walk as children of the light, and declare the good news of the Gospel wherever we go.

We have been called to fulfill the great commission as ambassadors for Christ.

We can't do this without a fight. The enemy will try to stop us any way he can. He doesn’t have the authority to stop us, although he will sometimes hinder us through various means, but he can not stop us. We can not go through this kind of spiritual battle without experiencing what it is like to stand when all seems lost. This is when we must not get weary in your good fight of faith. This is why the Apostle Paul admonished Timothy. Fight the good fight of faith. A good fight is a fight that you win. That is why we must never give up. The stakes are too high. Quitting is not an option. To quit is to admit defeat.

We are not defeated regardless of what the circumstances may look like.

The Apostle Paul said my God always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus.

We also must understand that soldiers must go into battle with the proper training and equipment. God will Equip us to do what he has called us to do. We are not be sent into battle as unprepared soldiers.

All soldiers have to go through a course of training before they receive an assignment. During this time they go through a very rigorous physical and mental time of training.

The sole purpose of this training is to get them ready and prepared to do their job, and be properly equipped to do whatever it takes to get the job done even under the harshest environments. Their very lives and the lives of their fellow soldiers can and will depend on them doing their jobs and doing them well. When you are in the service you don’t get to sleep whenever you want to, or do what ever you want to do whenever you want to do it. You belong to the military. You exercise when you are told and you sleep when you are told. Should not we as Christians take our Christian service just as serious? I'm not talking about some legalistic thing, but a serious attitude that we are in a fight to the finish and we are in this to win.

The Apostle Paul compared us to soldiers for a reason. We must be prepared to learn to do battle as a fully trained and equipped soldier of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The purpose of all this discipline and training is not to wear us down but to make us ready for the battle that will surely come. Trained soldiers stand strong and know their place. Fear will not dominate them. Anxiety will not detour them. They will have learned how to stand strong and do battle. This training is necessary in order to be victorious. However we are not doing physical battle such as military soldiers do, we are doing spiritual battle and the training we do is in the spiritual realm. The weapons we use are God's weapons and armor. The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians to equip themselves with the whole armor of God.

Ephesians 6:13-18. “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. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

We have been given God's armor to do battle, to defend ourselves from the onslaught of the enemy, and to take back what has been rightfully purchased for us. Satan doesn’t want us to know we are already victorious. He would try to bully us into submission. But he doesn’t have the right or the ability to do that. For the Christian who knows who he or she is in Christ Jesus, no weapon or trickery of the enemy can prevent the will of God from coming to pass.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be a fight. It means we keep on fighting with God's weapons and armor until our time here on Earth is over, or until the Lord comes which ever comes first. Those are our choices. I would encourage you to put on your spiritual armor, and begin to fight those battles that would try to defeat you and your family and loved ones. Keep on saying victory is near. Victory is near! I won’t give up and I won't be defeated.

You must keep your faith built up so that you will have endurance when the fight comes. A soldier without endurance is a soldier who will give up in a time of battle.

2 Timothy 2:3-5. “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

God's Word is telling us we have the ability to endure so therefore we can. We not only can, but we can have full assurance that we will come out victorious when we keep ourselves built up in God’s Word. Say to yourself I will not fail, I will walk in the victory that was purchased for me. I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, my God always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus.

We must keep a victorious attitude and not give in to a defeatist attitude. That’s the way to live. Satan will try and discourage you and to tempt you with doubt. This is one of his weapons. This would be one way we could be defeated, to allow discouragement to overtake us, and begin to doubt God’s promises. We would give up the confidence we have worked so hard to get. Don’t allow this to happen. It may not be easy but don’t give up and don’t give in. Remember, victory is near.

Allow patience to have her perfect work in you, developing you into the perfect man or woman of God until you come to the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Ephesians 4:13-16.”… till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

You can see by this Scripture that we are not just a single soldier out there by ourself.

We are all together in this together. We are collectively the body of Christ. This should encourage us to build one another up and to be mindful not to do anything that would tear one another down. The one you tear down may be the one that was supposed to supply to you what you needed to work effectively. This is how we grow, and this is how we stay strong, not only singly but also collectively. We are much stronger together than we are alone. Build up one another in the faith and help others wherever you can. If we all took this attitude think of how much we would accomplish. Much more than we are accomplishing now.

I would like to encourage you to keep the faith, and stay strong in the Lord. Stay in fellowship with other like minded believers, and to build up one another. This is the type of teamwork that will cause you and others to walk in the victory that has already been won.

We put in all this time in training and preparation so that our faith will not fail but will stay strong even in the time of trial and adversity. We must take the attitude of victory. Say I will not quit and I can not be defeated. I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.:

Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Do you want to be a joint heir with Christ?

If so, I urge you to take the first step and earnestly pray the following prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Your word says, “…and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." (Jn.6:37),

So I know You won’t cast me out, but You take me in, And I thank you for it. You said in your Word, "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.'' (Ro. 10:13).

I am calling on Your name, So I know You have saved me now, You also said, “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation." (Ro.10:9,10).

I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe He was raised from the dead for my justification. And I confess Him now as my Lord, Because Your Word says, “… with the heart one believes to righteousness…" and I do believe with my heart, I have now become the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:21),

And I am saved! Thank You, Lord!

I can now truthfully say, I see myself as a born again child of God!

Glory to God!!!! Amen.