Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2024 7:24:58 GMT -5
Fighting The Good Fight
Those who cherish the idea of a pure church on Earth frequently urge a special incentive. The imminent return of Christ, since he at the very is at the very door, they say, we must break away from this earthly life and go to meet him. We must indeed live in the consciousness that Jesus may come tomorrow, or may even appear upon the clouds tonight. The disciples themselves were ever aware of the nearness of his coming. For them, eternity did not lie at the end of time, but is now eternity is the very ground, the foundation upon which time rests. But we must not err it in striving to meet the Lord instead of patiently awaiting his coming. If the Lord is to come as a thief in the night, the church should go about its daily duties and quiet devotion until he suddenly appears. We are not to keep looking out the window or climbing to the house tops to gaze eagerly into the distance, while neglecting all work and giving our household duties, but scant attention. Indeed, we must watch.
We must so live that we are ready to welcome him at any moment, like a Christian family that having commended children to God's care for the night quietly goes to bed and goes to sleep and awakens in the morning to resume the daily task.
So the Church of Christ upon Earth must go quietly, prayerfully, with its common daily tasks until he comes in his own time to break off this round of daily duties. A deep and living faith in God's covenant and is the foundation of our quiet watch patient Waiting and working .
For included in God's covenant are also all the chosen who are yet to be brought into default, though they may be drunkards or thieves or self righteous rejectors of the truth.
They are destined to be saved, and it is through the ministration of the church that they must be brought to the light and taught in the truth .
This one confession that God is God ,and that He will bring his in His own makes us patient to bear with the imperfections of weaknesses of the church.
Since he has seen fit to place the cross upon us or place that cross upon us and also keeps us humble before him as we must confess our own guilt, the sin of the church is also my sin. Ah yay, even especially I am at fault.
Not one of us will then Blame the world or the indifference of fellow Christians for the evils of the church, saying I am a zealous laborer in the Lords Vineyard. I am not guilty of this coldness and indifference. I shall lead the way to perfection. That holier than thou attitude is sinful and abhorrent but keenly aware of his own sins and knowing full well that he has fanned the flames of sin, perhaps more than others. The true Christian fights against sin and more earnestly and zealously than before.
First, we must constantly without rest Every child of God is a soldier of Jesus Christ, called, as were the Levites of old, to war, the warfare of the Lord, and every office bearer must know that as he takes office, he enters into that warfare.
It is a warfare for God, against Satan. It is a participation in the war which God himself wages against Satan, and which God's holy Angels wage against Satan's Angelic hosts. The War of the world against the King of Glory, the War of the Spirit against the flesh. War within us and without war, which emanates from God and is directed against the might of Satan, the world. death, sin, deceit and the lust of the flesh there. it is a war of everyone who is anointed with the Holy Spirit.
We must fight with Christ ,for Christ, and under the leadership of Christ.
It is a war of which Paul testifies. I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me. A crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me in that day.
It is evident then that there can be no true zeal for the church without spiritual warfare against sin.
Zeal for the church, however pious it may appear to be, is an abominable hypocrisy if it goes hand in hand with neglect of spiritual warfare.
Against such enemies of God ,as lying uncleanness, self righteousness and cold heartedness, some. there who are pro pretend to be faithful watchmen upon Zion's walls, but harbor such sins in their own hearts or overlook them in their children, of fellow church members.
They are unfaithful for they allow the enemy free play within. They cry out against the danger of the wolf howling outside of the walls, while a pack of wolves is busily devouring the sheep within ,
That is not real devotion to the cause of Christ, nor does it reveal true faith.
The battle for the Lord must begin within ourselves. Only then it can kindle outward and sincerely wage with equal fervor against enemies all around.
Our impassioned battle cry must ever be friend or enemy.
All that is from the evil one is your enemy everywhere and in all forms in your flesh, in your thoughts, in your very virtues, in a disrupted social conditions in the schools lower as well as higher in your homes and your church of the Lord of your Lord .
Are you zealous for the church with great enthusiasm while neglecting the evils which creep into your home, your friendships, your social life? And worst of all, neglecting to fight your own personal spiritual battles? Then you are living a lie.
To war the warfare of the Lord and to keep the watch of the House of the Lord is to battle in every sphere, in every manner and all relationships, every moment, always in every way standing against Satan, always and everywhere and in everything on the side of God.
Many will be ashamed upon reading this, even as our own soul bows and shame at the writing for whom of us will dare say that with his own hands are clean and ready for battle.
But let us not dishearten, for we must feel ashamed. God's word brings upon us again and again a conviction of sin that burns as a fire into a very inmost being. Only let us take care that our principles remain founded upon the true foundation.
If we fight for the Church of God and neglect the evil within our own heart, however men may attempt to justify such an action we incur the judgment of God.
When we acknowledge that our own guilt acknowledge the justice of an accusation against our false seal, then pardon is assured us. And the Lord of our God will lead us on.
Each must ask himself, does my zeal for the church flow from my inner battle against sin and Satan?
He who truly takes up the fight against sin and Satan in his own heart and in his personal life must necessarily fight sin and Satan in the church also.
He who looks on unconcernedly on. untruth and sin grow rampant within the Church of the Lord is also weak, half -hearted and sickly in his own spiritual struggle.
The good fight must be fought in every sphere in the church and without wherever. the shadow of Satan falls, the soldier of the Lord is called to prompt action.
Those who cherish the idea of a pure church on Earth frequently urge a special incentive. The imminent return of Christ, since he at the very is at the very door, they say, we must break away from this earthly life and go to meet him. We must indeed live in the consciousness that Jesus may come tomorrow, or may even appear upon the clouds tonight. The disciples themselves were ever aware of the nearness of his coming. For them, eternity did not lie at the end of time, but is now eternity is the very ground, the foundation upon which time rests. But we must not err it in striving to meet the Lord instead of patiently awaiting his coming. If the Lord is to come as a thief in the night, the church should go about its daily duties and quiet devotion until he suddenly appears. We are not to keep looking out the window or climbing to the house tops to gaze eagerly into the distance, while neglecting all work and giving our household duties, but scant attention. Indeed, we must watch.
We must so live that we are ready to welcome him at any moment, like a Christian family that having commended children to God's care for the night quietly goes to bed and goes to sleep and awakens in the morning to resume the daily task.
So the Church of Christ upon Earth must go quietly, prayerfully, with its common daily tasks until he comes in his own time to break off this round of daily duties. A deep and living faith in God's covenant and is the foundation of our quiet watch patient Waiting and working .
For included in God's covenant are also all the chosen who are yet to be brought into default, though they may be drunkards or thieves or self righteous rejectors of the truth.
They are destined to be saved, and it is through the ministration of the church that they must be brought to the light and taught in the truth .
This one confession that God is God ,and that He will bring his in His own makes us patient to bear with the imperfections of weaknesses of the church.
Since he has seen fit to place the cross upon us or place that cross upon us and also keeps us humble before him as we must confess our own guilt, the sin of the church is also my sin. Ah yay, even especially I am at fault.
Not one of us will then Blame the world or the indifference of fellow Christians for the evils of the church, saying I am a zealous laborer in the Lords Vineyard. I am not guilty of this coldness and indifference. I shall lead the way to perfection. That holier than thou attitude is sinful and abhorrent but keenly aware of his own sins and knowing full well that he has fanned the flames of sin, perhaps more than others. The true Christian fights against sin and more earnestly and zealously than before.
First, we must constantly without rest Every child of God is a soldier of Jesus Christ, called, as were the Levites of old, to war, the warfare of the Lord, and every office bearer must know that as he takes office, he enters into that warfare.
It is a warfare for God, against Satan. It is a participation in the war which God himself wages against Satan, and which God's holy Angels wage against Satan's Angelic hosts. The War of the world against the King of Glory, the War of the Spirit against the flesh. War within us and without war, which emanates from God and is directed against the might of Satan, the world. death, sin, deceit and the lust of the flesh there. it is a war of everyone who is anointed with the Holy Spirit.
We must fight with Christ ,for Christ, and under the leadership of Christ.
It is a war of which Paul testifies. I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me. A crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me in that day.
It is evident then that there can be no true zeal for the church without spiritual warfare against sin.
Zeal for the church, however pious it may appear to be, is an abominable hypocrisy if it goes hand in hand with neglect of spiritual warfare.
Against such enemies of God ,as lying uncleanness, self righteousness and cold heartedness, some. there who are pro pretend to be faithful watchmen upon Zion's walls, but harbor such sins in their own hearts or overlook them in their children, of fellow church members.
They are unfaithful for they allow the enemy free play within. They cry out against the danger of the wolf howling outside of the walls, while a pack of wolves is busily devouring the sheep within ,
That is not real devotion to the cause of Christ, nor does it reveal true faith.
The battle for the Lord must begin within ourselves. Only then it can kindle outward and sincerely wage with equal fervor against enemies all around.
Our impassioned battle cry must ever be friend or enemy.
All that is from the evil one is your enemy everywhere and in all forms in your flesh, in your thoughts, in your very virtues, in a disrupted social conditions in the schools lower as well as higher in your homes and your church of the Lord of your Lord .
Are you zealous for the church with great enthusiasm while neglecting the evils which creep into your home, your friendships, your social life? And worst of all, neglecting to fight your own personal spiritual battles? Then you are living a lie.
To war the warfare of the Lord and to keep the watch of the House of the Lord is to battle in every sphere, in every manner and all relationships, every moment, always in every way standing against Satan, always and everywhere and in everything on the side of God.
Many will be ashamed upon reading this, even as our own soul bows and shame at the writing for whom of us will dare say that with his own hands are clean and ready for battle.
But let us not dishearten, for we must feel ashamed. God's word brings upon us again and again a conviction of sin that burns as a fire into a very inmost being. Only let us take care that our principles remain founded upon the true foundation.
If we fight for the Church of God and neglect the evil within our own heart, however men may attempt to justify such an action we incur the judgment of God.
When we acknowledge that our own guilt acknowledge the justice of an accusation against our false seal, then pardon is assured us. And the Lord of our God will lead us on.
Each must ask himself, does my zeal for the church flow from my inner battle against sin and Satan?
He who truly takes up the fight against sin and Satan in his own heart and in his personal life must necessarily fight sin and Satan in the church also.
He who looks on unconcernedly on. untruth and sin grow rampant within the Church of the Lord is also weak, half -hearted and sickly in his own spiritual struggle.
The good fight must be fought in every sphere in the church and without wherever. the shadow of Satan falls, the soldier of the Lord is called to prompt action.