Finishing The Fight

Introduction

If you were to open your supplemental song books to the 71st hymn that you would find in there, you would read the following. In heavenly armor will enter the land. The battle belongs to the Lord. No weapon that’s fashioned against us will stand. The battle belongs to the Lord. When the power of darkness comes in like a flood, the battle belongs to the Lord. He’s raised up a standard. The power of his blood. The battle belongs to the Lord. When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear. The battle belongs to the Lord. Take courage, my friend. Your redemption is near. The battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory, honor, power, and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, power, and strength to the Lord.

The question that I have for you this morning is a very simple one. Does your battle belong to the Lord? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It’s good to be here with you. Thank you so much for being here. We’ve got a lot to cover this morning. I hope that will suffice for a good morning and a pleasant wish for you. Because we must be about the Lord’s business. And we have something important to talk about. Are we finishing the fight? Are we winning the war against the flesh? Years ago, I remember there was a particular, I think it was a video game that came out with a tagline. Finish the fight. Which was synonymous with come and spend another $60 for a video game because we’ve made two others that are just like it.

Come by the third. But when I say to you, finish the fight this morning, I’m not talking about some kind of trite expression. I’m not, I’m not just trying to give you bolstering words of encouragement. I want you to answer the question, and I am going to answer the question. We’re going to answer it together. Are we finishing the fight? Because you see, the answer to that question very well might be no. It very well could be the case that there are some here this morning that remain spiritually undone even as they think themselves followers of the shepherd, as we discussed this morning in Bible class. Open your Bibles, if you will, to Judges the second chapter. We’re going to go a little bit further, and then I’m going to give you kind of the genesis for this lesson.

The beginnings of how I kind of lighted on this idea and couldn’t shake it. Because I’ve been working on this actually for several months just in the back of my head. But in Genesis, the second chapter, after in the first chapter, we’re told about the conquering of Jerusalem. And then we’re told about Joshua’s death. We’re told that the people didn’t finish the work that they had been appointed to, that they began to leave the Amorites and some of the Canaanites, and that particularly in the areas of different tribes, Dan and Manasseh come to mind. But in the second chapter, beginning in verse 1, it says, Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, I brought you up out of Egypt, and I led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers, and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And as for you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land. You shall tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed me. What is this you have done? Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out before you, but they will become as thorns in your side, and their gods will be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept. So they named the place Bochim. And there they sacrificed to the Lord. From there we kind of take a step back, and we’re back to a living Joshua. Probably hearkening to the mind of the reader, those passages in Joshua 23 and 24, where he challenged the people to remain faithful to the Lord.

We’re told here in verse 6 of Judges 2, when Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110. And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance. In Timnath Heras, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gash. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel.

The sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, and they forsook the Lord the God of their father, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them, and thus they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Asteroid. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them, for evil as the Lord had spoken, and the Lord had sworn to them that so they were severely distressed.

Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from which from the way in which their fathers had walked, obeying the commandments of the Lord, they did not do as their fathers. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groanings because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. But it came about when the judge died that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.

They did not they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. In order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it, as their fathers did or not. So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.

You know what the saddest commentary about this whole passage is?

You can go back and you can look at the certain, and we’re going to a little bit later, the certain and sure promises that God had made to them. I’m going to take you in. I’m going to deliver you. I’m going to drive them out before you. That they’re going to fall. I’m going to turn the plagues of Egypt against them, he even promised. And the people still neglected to finish the fight. They left behind the inhabitants of the land. They left behind the wicked ways and the customs. 400 years Israel, we’re told had languished in Egypt because the wickedness of the Amorites had not yet been filled. That they still were not as wicked as they possibly could be. So God allowed them to continue.

And when he brought Israel into the land to possess the land, it was rife with wickedness. It was a place that God was not just giving into their hands.

1. What Fights for the Lord Must First Belong to Him

They made treaties. They left inhabitants alone. Some of them they even took for slaves. They were supposed to utterly destroy them. Some of them they brought in as slaves. They leave the work of driving out perhaps to God. But they had other things to be concerned about. And I would say to you this morning that one of the things that we need to understand, if we understand nothing else about this passage is that what fights for the Lord must first ultimately belong to him. First spiritual failing of the people. Right there in Judges 2.

The sons of Israel did evil, verse 11, in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord. The God, their fathers who had brought them out of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were around them and bowed themselves down to them. Thus they provoked the Lord to the anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Astaroth. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of the plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

But the generation that came up behind them knew not the Lord nor his ways.

Survey those around you. Multiple generations of Christians. Fathers passing truth to their sons, mothers to their daughters. And hopefully that continues for a very long time. But one of the things that we can become guilty of if we’re not careful is forgetting to instruct the generation that’s coming up behind us. Just because we are spiritually strong, just because we know the covenant that God has made with us, just because we believe that we are going to finish this fight, that we are going to overcome the world, that we’re going to drive out the wicked one from our heart, and we are going to remain faithful to him all our days. Doesn’t mean if we don’t instill that value in those that come up behind us, that our children will belong to the Lord.

What fights for the Lord must first belong to him. It says they no longer knew the Lord. And they no longer knew his ways. They had failed in the responsibility fully to know and embrace what it meant to be his people. It’s significant that these failings occurred after those who had been faithful to the Lord had died. Perhaps our failure in faith, like that of Israel, is because it’s built solely upon those who remember what the Lord has done for them. What we remember being taught, what we remember being taught in Bible class, and we come up with those great those great stories. We remember those injunctions and admonitions, and we grow up with that little seed of faith, but we never nurture it. We never give ourselves fully, oh, we may put him on in baptism because it appeases someone that’s kind of pressuring us.

We might put him on in baptism because we kind of know in our heart that it’s the right thing to do. But we never fully commit to it. That’s the problem with this generation. They didn’t commit to him. They weren’t willing to be his people.

We need to be careful, brothers and sisters, that we do not practice a limited faith. In a limited repentance. Something that says, I’ll be as godly as is convenient for me, but I still must hang on to the world. I must needs be like the people around me. I don’t want to be different. We’re going to talk about that in a moment when we go over to 1 Samuel the 8th chapter. But I want to be like those around me. I want to imbibe on the things that they imbibe on. I don’t want to be a light in a world. I just want to be anonymous. You ever felt like that? I have. I have. Particularly when I’m when I was younger, as I’ve grown older, I get a little more brash and a little more.

I don’t really care what people think of me. Sometimes that’s not always a good thing. Sometimes it’s a great thing. But we don’t want to be fully possessed by the Lord. We don’t want to fully belong to him. We want some self will. We want some freedom of expression. We want to choose how much we’re willing to repent, how much we’re willing to put down. We often fail to realize that our spiritual struggles are not just against what’s outside. You know, think about that. I think about Ephesians 6, where Paul talks about, you know, the struggles that we have with powers and principalities and rulers of this world.

Those are spiritual struggles to be true, to be certain. But we aren’t merely waging war against external forces, and we’re not merely waging spiritual warfare to take the gospel to the lost. John’s going to talk about that this evening. I’m really excited about what he’s got. He’s going to talk about reaching the lost.

Waging a war with the inner man. With a part of ourself that’s not inclined to be as inclined to be godly as it should be. That part of ourself that we’re holding back and refusing to, as the song says, surrender all. Do we fully belong to the Lord this morning? Or is there something that you’re holding back that I’m holding back? Some little piece, some little thing that I know I should do this, and I know I should, I should acquiesce on this. I know that I should turn this over to him, but I just can’t bring myself to. You know, they left behind. The people in Kitron and Giza and Beth Shemesh.

They weren’t overcome by those armies, at least not at first. They were overcome by the spiritual failing to complete the task that God set before them. I think about this, and I think about the lesson that Jesse brought a few weeks ago. When he talked about the prophets of Baal there in the great contest on Mount Carmel with Elijah, and how it was that these people, how did they come to the conclusion that they could do these things, that they could serve this Baal? And looking back at the history of all that God had done for this people and all that God had delivered them through, all that God had done to assure that they would be in this place and that this kingdom would be secure.

How could they, how could they fail?

They didn’t do what was necessary to keep the covenant. Deuteronomy the seventh chapter, beginning in verse 15, it says, The Lord will remove from you all sickness, and he will not put on you any of your harmful diseases of Egypt, which you have known, but he will lay them on all who hate you. You shall consume all the peoples whom the Lord your God will deliver to you. Your eyes shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you. If you should say in your heart, these nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them? How can I dispose depose them? How can I move them off? That they’re greater than I. That was the failing the first time they tried to go into the land.

You remember the spies and that you had the twelve spies, and ten of them came back with the story that there’s no possible way. Yeah, it’s a great land flowing with elk and honey, just like the Lord said. But there’s giants in there, and we’re grasshoppers in their sight. Two people came back, Joshua and Caleb. Do you remember what they said? These people are nothing in the eyes of the Lord. We can do this. We can don’t do this wicked thing. We can go in there and we can, with God’s help, depose these people. That’s what God had promised in Deuteronomy the seventh chapter. But here we are in Judges chapter 2, and they’ve not only forgotten that the Lord would drive them out before them, they no longer care about it.

They don’t care about the covenant. The Lord wanted them to succeed. He had given them everything necessary in order to succeed, in order to drive out the wicked. Joshua in the 23rd chapter of his book says, if you’ll but cling to him. And then he enumerates all the promises that God would keep. Don’t turn towards the Baals, don’t turn towards the idols. Just cling to him. Keep the covenant. I think about that. I think about a passage like Romans the sixth chapter, where the Apostle Paul writing, makes the following statement, beginning in verse 1. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase, may it never be? How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into Jesus?

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into his death, so that Christ was raised from the dead through glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who is died is freed from sin. Have we finished that work of crucifying the flesh? Have we finished that work of crucifying evil passions and evil desires and lust that pull us away? The temptation to do those things that we know that we ought not do, the things that pull us away from God that call us to break, that call us and beckon us to break faith and covenant with him.

Have we put those things to death? Have we finished the fight? Say to you this morning that true repentance must include the knowledge that all that we have and all that we are belongs first and foremost to God. See, repentance isn’t just a cessation of sin. Repentance is a change of heart. We talked this morning about the good shepherd and how the sheep follow him. They respond to his invitations because they know that he is faithful. He’s proven himself faithful over and over and over again. I think about that, and I think about you could go, you could read the entire 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah, but we don’t have time. But Isaiah 40 and 21, where Isaiah writes, Do you not know? Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they planted, scarcely have they sown, scarcely has the rock, the stock taken root in the earth, but he merely blows on them and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble. To whom then will you liken me? That I would be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created the stars, the one who leads forth the host by number.

Sounds like a shepherd, doesn’t it? He calls them by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and justice due me escapes the notice of God? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power through though youth grows weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

How do you forget a God like that? How do you forget a God that stretches out his hand and behind his hands trails the stars of heaven? How do you forget a God that stretches sky to sky and paints the heavens? How do you forget a God that brings to nothing the judgments and command and commandments of men and establishes his own? How do you forget the God?

You do it by forgetting that the God that spoke heaven and earth into existence beckons you out of your sin to put on the yoke offered by his son and learn from him. Second one. I promise the other points go a lot faster than the first one.

2. No Room for the Spiritually Undisciplined

There’s no room in the ranks of the Gava for the spiritually undisciplined. I wonder how much apathy came to bear on that story that we read in Judges 2 about the failure of the people. How much did apathy come to bear? Perhaps they just grew tired of conquest. Perhaps they yearned for the simple life and a place to call home. Chance to tend their flocks and grow their crops. They had fought many battles and decimated the inhabitants of the land, but they did not have a mind to continue and finish the works. Perhaps it was just spiritual rebellion. You know, it’s a sad passage in 1 Samuel the eighth chapter. Where the text says, beginning in verse 7. The Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you.

For they’ve not rejected you, but have rejected me from being king over them. Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them from Egypt, even to this day, and that they have forsaken me and served other gods. So they are doing to you also. Now then, listen to their voice. However, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them the procedure of the king who will reign over them. You can skip down through his warnings until you get to verse 19. He warns them of all that a king would take from them, and all that a king would require of them, and the text says in verse 19, nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. And they said, No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

Stop right there. God had promised he was going to fight their battles for them. Remember that? God was going to be their deliverer. Do you see what they said there? We don’t want you to raise up a judge to deliver us the way that God has been doing this. We want a king. Someone that will go and fight our battles for us. Now, after Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the Lord’s hearing. And the Lord said to Samuel, listen to their voice and appoint them a king. So Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go every man to his city. One of the great dangers today for the people of God is how easy it is to become spiritually unmoored in our society and forsake his chastening.

To no longer be disciplined, to no longer be contained within the truth that we find here. And maybe it’s apathy, maybe it’s that leads to that we just get spiritually lazy. Maybe it’s rebellion. But one of the things that’s interesting to me is that all that Israel suffered the remainder of their days, even unto the divided kingdoms. All that Israel suffered during those days goes back to the failing of this generation. To fully drive out the inhabitants of the land. And that’s not just because, oh, well, the Amalekites remained, and the Philistines came in, and soon the Medes and the Persians and the Babylonians. I did those backwards, sorry about that. That’s not just to say that, oh, if they had driven out the inhabitants of the land, then there would have been no one there to conquer.

That’s not even what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is their spiritual failure began by leaving other gods there to be worshipped. Did you catch when we were in Judges too that the instruction that they didn’t keep was that they were supposed to go in and drive out the people of the land? There was something else they were supposed to do. Did you catch it? They were supposed to tear down the altars of the Baal. They were supposed to blot out every memory of false God. They were supposed to completely blot out the memory that the Baals and the Asteroids were worshipped. The battle was supposed to belong to the Lord because the Lord had ordained it and the Lord had commanded it, but the people would not see it through.

Brothers and sisters, there is no room in the ranks of the godly for the spiritually undisciplined. And I’m not saying that we need to be going through and weeding out our brothers and sisters. Oh, you’re not spiritually disciplined. We need to be looking at ourselves. Am I spiritually disciplined? Am I willing to see where I’m afoul of what I need to be? Where I am skewing towards the broad way and venturing to lead the narrow way and take that yoke and wrench it down a little tighter and pull myself back in the path that I know I ought to be on. This isn’t about holding your brethren to some standard. This is about holding ourselves to accountability. I think about that. And I think about 2 Timothy, the second chapter.

Where the Apostle Paul, writing to the young preacher, says, beginning in verse 1, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, and trust these to faithful men also. Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. Jesus, no soldier in active service entangles himself in the war in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes again according to the rules. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Remember that Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to the gospel for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal. But the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. And with it eternal glory and a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we also live with him. If we endure, we also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Are we disciplined? You know, you keep going a little further and you get down to verse 19.

That says, Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his. And everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.

There’s no room for the spiritually undisciplined. All of Israel endured suffering for the remainder of their days. And all of that suffering goes back to this time. Oh, there was repentance, and there were times of great spiritual success. There were highs. We’re in the kingdom of David, reign of Solomon. But the trouble that always came, always came from the false gods that they left behind. Their undisciplined behavior was their undoing. I often wonder if we ourselves aren’t setting up the roots of spiritual calamity that will be reaped years, maybe generations down the road by the false gods that we allow to remain today. Perhaps we’re too, we’re not cautious enough with our entertainment. Perhaps we’re not cautious enough with our language. Perhaps we become too lax in accepting of the world’s standards.

Perhaps we’re just not willing enough to go out there and boldly proclaim the gospel.

But I have to wonder if we’re not setting up the roots of our own spiritual failing for years to come, maybe generations after we’re gone. Because we’re not emboldened to go out and meet wickedness where we find it, and we’re not emboldened first to heal or bring to heal, like you would heal a dog. And restrain the inner man, reserving him only for godliness and spiritual discipline. Had it with the time, we’d go look at Hebrews 3 and 4, Hebrews 6.

3. The Disciplined Soldier Does Not Seek Compromise

Passages in Exodus, Judges 21 and 25, where it says there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. We’d go over and we take a look at Corinthians the 10th chapter, verses 1 through 13. That talks about the necessity of spiritual discipline. But you see, they had other problems. They sought compromise. They made covenants with the people of the land, they made agreements. The disciplined soldier does not seek compromise when battle is called for.

Who says, in heavenly armor you enter the land? The battle belongs to the Lord. You don’t make compromise. Compromise is dangerous. Compromise is dangerous because it starts with putting yourself in the spiritual position of not being fully what you know you need to be. We cannot first compromise, we cannot compromise about first opening ourselves up to attack. And when the struggle is for our heart, associations make us vulnerable. Remember, we’re not talking about external spiritual struggles this morning. We’re really talking about internal spiritual struggles. Associations, when the struggle is for our heart. Associations make us vulnerable, desires make us sluggish. A love of the world makes us slow to gird ourselves and go into battle. Our obligation, brothers and sisters, is not to eke out comfortable existence here.

I wish it were because we’ve become very good at that. We’re very adept at that. Our obligation here is to first conquer the inner man and then go unto all the world and teach all nations. Remember that final invitation we looked at this morning in Matthew the 28th chapter? Go and seek.

We’re supposed to get control of the inner man. We’re supposed to bring him to heal, and then we’re supposed to go and suit up in the armor of God, as the Apostle Paul talks about in Ephesians the sixth chapter, and we’re supposed to go and to teach. We’re supposed to go out in the world and stand against the fiery darts of the wicked one. We’re supposed to go out into the world and allow the slings and the arrows to come our way, knowing fully that God is behind us. And the battle belongs to him.

You know, it’s always, it’s always interested to me. Or been interesting to me. What James says in the fourth chapter of his book.

Beginning in the fourth verse, or just the fourth verse, it says, You adulteresses. Do you not know? That friendship with the world is hostility to God. The King James renders that verse enmity. Friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. Compromise is not a place for a soldier. We’re told to gird our loins, we’re told to prepare for battle. 1 Corinthians the 15th chapter in the 33rd verse tells us that evil companions destroy morality. That evil companions corrupt good morals. We’ve got no place for those that worship idols. We don’t make compromises with them. We don’t make compromises on doctrine, and we certainly don’t keep silence. Think about the passage in 2 Corinthians the 6th chapter where the Apostle Paul asks, is there any compromise between light and darkness or between the house of God and the house of idols?

Of course there’s not. Of course there’s no compromise between those things. Now that doesn’t mean that we shun people that are out in the world and we create some little enclave for ourselves. More on that tonight. We don’t pull ourselves back from the world, but we don’t make them our closest allies. And would I that I had the ability to communicate that effectively? Because I think that may be the spiritual undoing of many people today. In 2 Corinthians, the sixth chapter, we’ll go ahead and read it. Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership with righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness, or what harmony has Christ with Bila, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols, for we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God.

They shall be my people.

If we’re making compromises in the inner man that keep us from being fully possessed. That allow worldliness and evil and frivolity to take a root inside of us that keeps some part of us from belonging to the Lord. He died and was risen from the grave so that we might be able to put to death the old man of sin we read in Romans. And resurrect the new man to walk according to the new life. A man to walk in righteousness. How dare we make a compromise?

4. Never Prepared to Do the Work

Finally. I think very often the reason why we’re not ready to finish the fight or that we don’t finish the fight. We’re never prepared to do the work to begin with. You ever notice how easy it is to wear the name Christian? But how difficult it is to walk the path some days.

And when we do that, we all do the same thing, right? We go home, we open our Bibles, we study, and we pray, and we pray, and we pray, and we confess our failings to our brothers and sisters, and we ask them not to look down on us, but to help us and encourage us and lift us up and to find where we fall short spiritually and point it out to us in a loving manner. We do that, right? No. Most of the time we don’t. Most of the time we look at it. We see our failings and we shake our heads and we say, I wish I could do better. But we never get past the wishing. Finally, Ephesians 6 and 10, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you’ll be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm. You know what he just said there? Finish your fight. Stand firm. He then goes and he lifts the armor and he talks about all of the pieces, and that’s a whole other study. I wish we had time for it this morning. But he tells him, you’re doing this so that you can stand firm.

Are we prepared to be a soldier? Do we believe, as is stated in 1 John the 5th chapter, verses 4 and 5, that faith is ultimately the victory that overcomes the world? Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that when we depend on him more, that he will supply, and when we lean on him more, then he will ease the burden. He’ll place a spiritual burden on us, but he’s going to take away the things that make us weary and tired. Do we really believe that? Do we really believe that the God that we serve and the God that has promised to us an inheritance undefiled and incorruptible?

Has already said that the battle belongs to him.

And they didn’t keep the covenant.

Says the following. I ask that when I am present, I need to be bold with confidence, with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful. For the destruction of fortresses, we are destroying speculation and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. Brothers and sisters, are we girded for battle? Are we ready to overcome the foe? Not just the foe that we see outside, but more importantly, the foe that lives within us and tries to tempt us and pull us away.

Conclusion

Are we ready to drive the devil continually from us and push him further and further away? Because we will boldly and more boldly each day take the armor of God and all that he supplies. Are we ready to finish the fight? If your spiritual battle does not belong to the Lord this morning, if you’ve not been crucified with him, or if you’ve allowed the old man of sin to come back from the grave, resurrected to walk again. Put him down one more time. Put on the armor of God and say, proudly, confidently, in the name of his son, I will finish the fight. I will go in and conquer. I’ll crucify the damn flesh. There’s anyone here this morning that owes some duty to God if your soul is not right.

There will never be a better opportunity to change that than right now. Why don’t you come forward, confessing your sins? Be standards.