Three Words That Demonstrate Life is a Struggle
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6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Introduction:
1. We are in a spiritual battle struggling for our soul.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
A. Today we are going to look at three words that show we are at war.
1. Contend
2. Fight
3. Wrestle
B. We are in a battle with the devil for our spiritual life.
11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
1. He is going to throw everything that he has against us.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
2. If we don’t pay attention and struggle with him he will overcome us and kill us.
7 When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
Body:
1. Contend earnestly for the faith.
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
A. Jude desired to write to them concerning their common salvation but he did not.
1. He found it necessary to write to them to contend earnestly for the faith because ungodly men crept in unnoticed.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
A. They had quit watching and had become content with the evil that was going on around them.
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.
B. This is where contending for the faith is important when ungodly people are in the church.
1. Paul would exhort Timothy to contend for the faith or struggle with people that teach false doctrine.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, 4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
2. Fight the good fight of faith.
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.
1. Christianity is a spiritual fight.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
2. Christianity is a war.
4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” 5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. 7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
3. At the end of this life will we have fought?
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
1. Paul struggled with preaching.
16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!
2. Paul struggled with his salvation.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
3. Paul struggled with pressing forward in his life.
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
4. Paul struggled with his sin.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
3. We wrestle with the rulers of the darkness of this age.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
A. This suggest a struggle or a fight with the devil.
1. Such as making a whip and running out the money changers.
15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
2. Such as Jesus’s harsh words for the Pharisees and Sadducee.
A. Hypocrites
7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
B. Blind leaders of the blind.
14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”
C. Whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
D. Serpents and vipers.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
E. You are of your father the devil.
44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
A. The arrows that the devil fires at us are from his followers.
16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
Conclusion:
1. We are conquerors through Christ.
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
A. But in order to be a conqueror we must have fought in the war.
1. By contending earnestly for the faith.
2. By fighting the good fight of faith.
3. By wrestling with the devil.
B. By humbling ourselves and fighting in this Spiritual war we cast all care upon the Lord.
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.