Fight the Good Fight

On Memorial Day, the flag is first raised to full-staff and then slowly lowered to half-staff where it remains until noon.  At noon, it is raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day.  When the flag is at half-staff, we commemorate the sacrifice of the over one million soldiers who died in service to our country.  And at full-staff, we resolve to continue to fight so that their sacrifice was not in vain.

We owe a debt of gratitude to all who have faithfully served our country and to those who are currently serving our country in all our branches of the military.  Those of you who are among us today who have served or are serving, please rise.  Thank you for your service.

While most of us haven’t served our country in the military, we are all to serve our Lord in his war.  Moses said, “The Lord is a man of war”, Ex 15:3.  Satan began to fight against him before God ever created us.  And he’s been fighting the Lord and his people ever since.

We commemorate the great soldiers of the cross who have gone before us.  First and foremost the Lord Jesus Christ who spoiled and triumphed over principalities and powers at the cross.  And who will defeat the devil completely after his millennial reign, throwing him into the lake of fire for eternity.

Likewise, we remember Paul the apostle who suffered every imaginable hardship as a soldier of Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.  He’s the one who gave us the great verses that instruct us in our fight of faith.

He said:

• Fight the good fight of faith.  War a good warfare.
• Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
• The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
• Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
• I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Today, we have a fight to fight and a course to finish, and we must continue where these who have gone before us left off.  But how are we to fight?  We should examine how Jesus and Paul fought and follow their pattern.

When Jesus and Paul fought:

They never forgot who they were fighting under.

Jesus Christ fought under the command of his Father, the Lord God Almighty.  Once Jesus ascended, he became the captain of our salvation.  And Paul fought under his command.  He was subject to Jesus’s authority, control, guidance, and instruction.

They each fought to carry out the orders they received from their commander.  Jesus had to train the men who would succeed him and preach to the people he came to save.  He traveled throughout Galilee, Samaria, and Judea to proclaim the gospel.  And then he followed the most difficult command of all.  He went to the cross to pay for our sins and redeem us to God.

Paul first fought against the gospel until Jesus saved him.  And then he fought to get the gospel spread throughout the world.  The devil opposed him at every turn. Yet, Paul never quit.  He finished the task God gave him to do.

Their fight wasn’t personal.  Jesus made himself of no reputation.  Paul called himself the chiefest of sinners.  They were on God’s side to do what God gave them to do, not to make a name for themselves.  They were simply obeying their God-given orders.  As it turns out, their names are memorialized like heroic soldiers who distinguish themselves with acts of valor in war.  Jesus’s name is now above every name.  But he didn’t set out to do this.

And we’re not in this battle to draw attention to what we have been given to do.  If you want to make this fight about you, you will lose.  God resisteth the proud.  There’s no room for spiritual arrogance in this war.  Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

This fight is not about you.  It’s about God.  It’s his war and we are his soldiers to do his will, not ours.  Follow his commands.

They never forgot who they were fighting for.

Jesus said, “I lay down my life for the sheep”, Jn 10:15.  Paul said, “neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy”, Acts 20:24.  And, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”, Phil 1:21.

They fought for the souls of men for whom Jesus died, and the saints of God whom Jesus saved.  To the Corinthians, Paul said, “the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”.  Galatians, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you”.  Ephesians, “I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears”.  Galatians, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus”.  He did all this for them.

Today, there are still lost people to whom we must preach the gospel and saved people whom we must disciple, that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord has already given his command.  You simply need to obey and enter the fight for the sake of souls.

Are you going to faint because we have an adversary?  Or are you going to enlist because you have a commander and there is still a war to win?  Who are you fighting under and who are you fighting for?  Or are you even in the fight?

They never forgot who they were fighting against.

They were fighting against our adversary the devil because he was fighting against them.  Jesus came to bind the strong man and spoil his house.  The devil attacked him in the wilderness, and Jesus opposed him with the words of God.  The devil took the challenge when Jesus was on the cross and he lost.  Jesus triumphed over him.

The devil fought Paul continually.  Paul said, “the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”, 2 Tim 4:17.

Paul said to us, “Neither give place to the devil”.  Eph 6:11, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”.  And, “we are not ignorant of his devices”.

And not only is the devil a vicious opponent, but like Jesus and Paul we also must fight against the world.  Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”.  This is why friendship with the world is enmity with God.  We cannot get along with the world.

They never forgot who they were fighting with.

Jesus had many problems with his disciples, not the least of which is that they all deserted him right before his crucifixion.  Nevertheless, he supported them the whole way and he never fought against them.

Paul wrote, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge”.  He supported the men who were his fellow soldiers.  He never fought against them.

We can have no friendly fire in this war.  We are not in a competition to see who can do the most or be the best.  Every body has a job to do.  You do your job and make sure to not fight against a fellow soldier.

Conclusion: Take your orders from God, fight for the lost and for those who are saved, remember that your adversary is always your enemy looking to steal, kill, and destroy, don’t coddle favor with the world, and fight with your fellow soldiers, never against them.