“And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord to deliver thee.”
The Lord called Jeremiah to prophesy to the people of Judah just before they were went into captivity in Babylon. There are some things that we need to remember when the Lord calls us to serve Him in some capacity. The first thing that I noticed is the Jeremiah was warned that “they shall fight against thee.” If you have read the book of Jeremiah, you know that the Lord did not overstate. I recall that the same sort of promise was given to Paul when he was called to minister to the Gentiles. Here is what the Lord told Ananias: “But the Lord said unto (Ananias) Go your way for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15-16) I do not mean to discourage you, but if you haven’t found it out already, serving the Lord can get difficult at times. As with Jeremiah and Paul, the Lord would not call us to serve Him if He did not know that we could handle it. The second thing I noticed was that the Lord gave Jeremiah a word of encouragement that we can apply to our own calls to service: “but they shall not prevail against thee.” Jeremiah went about doing God’s will and saying to the people what the Lord gave him to say, and they did fight against him, but they did not stop him. We may not win every battle, but if we are doing God’s will in God’s way, we will prevail and negative people will not be able to stop us, or “prevail against” us. We can say the same about Paul. He did suffer in serving the Lord, but they did not stop him from doing what God called him to do. If you know that you are doing God’s will, keep on keeping on. The third thing that I noticed was a promise that the Lord gave Jeremiah: “For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.” The Lord has promised to be with us in every encounter in our service. When we do the Lord’s will, we will never be alone because He will always be with us. He was with Jeremiah, he was with Paul, indeed, with all of His servants and there is no reason for us not to take this promise as our own. It was always a comfort to me that the Lord was with me when I was doing His will. I did not always win, but I never stopped. This is what we need to do. The going will not always be easy, and sometimes we might want to get discouraged, but the Lord has promised to be with us and we will not be stopped in what He has called us to do. Bro. Joe
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“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to be only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”
In a sense, this text is Paul’s epitaph, especially verse 7. Paul knew that he was about to be martyred and he left this message as a comfort and charge for Timothy, and ultimately for all of us. I want to focus on verse 7 as a reminder, and charge to us. Paul wrote that he had “fought a good fight.” Indeed, he fought a good fight in establishing the Christian faith. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, he wrote about his weapons for warfare: “For though we walk in the flesh, we war after the flesh: 4/ for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” His weapons were prayer, scripture and the Holy Spirit’s power. He wrote about weapons of warfare in Ephesians 6:10-18. (Look it up and read it.) We are in a spiritual battle and we need to use everything that God has put at our disposal to fight the battles that we will face. Maintain faith in Christ on a daily basis, and fight in the love of Christ. Paul wrote that he had “finished the course.” He fought the spiritual battle until he could fight no more. He did not say that what he fought for and taught from his conversion until his final imprisonment was finished. But consider this: As it turned out Paul wrote at least a third of the New Testament. The words that he wrote are preached from pulpits around the world. He finished his course, but he did not lose his influence. He did not lose his witness. What an example he leaves for us in these trying days. We should “keep on keeping on” until we cannot fight no more. Do not let Satan keep you from finishing your course. Fight on! Finally, Paul wrote, “I have kept the faith.” What did Paul mean by “the faith”? Basically, it was faith in Jesus Christ. Paul always kept faith in Christ as the centerpiece of all that he taught and wrote. Jesus Christ is the reason that we can be saved, and he is the reason that we witness to the world. False teachers were always attempting to replace Christ with religion. This is still true today. We should not relinquish our faith in Christ to those who have replaced Christ as the centerpiece of their faith. Let it be said of you that you “fought a good fight,” that you “finished the course” and that you “kept the faith.” Bro. Joe "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
This is a theme that I have written about before, but it needs reiteration. We are in a never-ending war with Satan and the forces of evil. As the generals would say, “We are on a war footing.” In fact, we must stay on a war footing. I want to share what this does not mean and what it means. It does not mean that we are to hate the people who are in the kingdom of darkness. Throughout the gospels, Jesus called His followers to love people. Our war is not really against people, but against, “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Satan declared war on God’s people, beginning in Genesis one and continuing into today. If we hate the people to whom we are called to witness and minister, then we are joining Satan in his desires for us. There are certainly people we should be wary of, but we are still called to pray for them and witness and minister to them as best we can. It does not mean that Satan is so powerful that we cannot overcome him. When Jesus died on the cross, He ultimately defeated Satan; therefore, Satan is a defeated enemy. It is because of this that he continues his spiritual warfare against the people of God, and why he continues to blind the world to salvation in Jesus Christ. It means that we are not in this battle alone. Jesus is with us, as He promised before He ascended. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus promised: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world – of the ages.” Also, before He ascended, Jesus gave His followers, which includes us, the Holy Spirit to live in them/us in order to, among other things, empower us to witness. He gave us this power to enable us to fight Satan as he dabbles in our lives, and as he endeavors to deceive the world. Jesus is present with us on good and bad days. Jesus is with us, even when we are downhearted and feel alone. We are never alone in this spiritual war. It means that God has not left us without weapons with which to fight Satan. In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us about some defensive weapons that we have. It is called the “armor of God.” It is a spiritual armor, but that does not mean that it is not real armor. We have: “the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness; …the gospel of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.” God has given us each of the pieces of armor to protect us in the battle. Satan knows when we have the armor on and when we do not. Each piece of armor is a gift from God to help us live victorious lives. Look back over these defensive weapons and ask God to clothe you with them as you meet Satan in battle. It means that God has left us with offensive weapons with which to fight Satan. In Ephesians 6:17b Paul shared an offensive weapon that we must use if we are to fight effectively: “and (take) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God has given us His written word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, with which we can fight Satan. Jesus illustrated the importance of this in His temptation experience in Matthew 4. With each temptation, Jesus quoted a scripture verse from Deuteronomy to combat Satan. (Read about it in Matthew 4:1-11.) This doesn’t mean that we are to just throw scripture at Satan in times of great temptation. It means that we need to read and study the scriptures daily in order to know how to fight our spiritual foe. There is no substitute for the word of God in this battle. Another offensive weapon that we have to fight Satan, and that is prayer. Satan trembles when God’s people pray. There is no substitute for the power of prayer in our lives. We are in a war. The good news is that we are on the winning side, but we need to continue the fight daily for ourselves and for the lost world. Bro. Joe |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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