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To uphold the Protestant Reformed Faith upon which our
National Constitution was established.

Fight The Good Fight of Faith Part 1

(I Timothy 6:12)

By: J. C. Ryle
Extract from ‘A Call to Holiness’, chapter 4 ‘The Fight’

True Christianity is a fight!
True Christianity! Let us mind that word ‘true.’ There is a vast quantity of religion current in the world which is not true, genuine Christianity. It passes must; it satisfies sleepy consciences; but it is not good money. It is not the real thing which was called Christianity eighteen hundred years ago. There are thousands of men and women who go to churches and chapels every Sunday and call themselves Christians. Their names are in the baptismal register. They are reckoned Christians while they live. They are married with a Christian marriage service. They mean to be buried as Christians when they die; but you never see any ‘fight’ about their religion! Of spiritual strife, and exertion, and conflict and self-denial, and watching, and warring, they know literally nothing at all. Such Christianity may satisfy man and those who say anything against it may be thought very hard and uncharitable; but it certainly is not the Christianity of the Bible. It is not the religion which the Lord Jesus founded and His Apostles preached. It is not the religion which produces real holiness. True Christianity is a ‘fight.’

The true Christian is called to be a soldier and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death. He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to Heaven, like one travelling in an easy carriage. If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children of this world, he may be content with such notions; but he will find no countenance for them in the Word of God. If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his course laid down very plainly in this matter. He must ‘fight.’

With whom is the Christian soldier meant to fight? Not with other Christians. Wretched indeed is that man’s idea of religion who fancies that it consists in perpetual controversy! No doubt it may be absolutely needful sometimes to appeal to law courts, in order to ascertain the right interpretation of a Church’s Articles and rubrics and formularies; but, as a general rule, the cause of sin is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarrelling with one another and spend their time in petty squabbles.

No, indeed! The principal fight for the Christian is with the world, the flesh and the Devil. These are his never-dying foes. These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. Unless he gets the victory over these three, all other victories are useless and vain. If he had a nature like an angel and were not a fallen creature, the warfare would not be so essential; but with a corrupt heart, a busy Devil and an ensnaring world, he must either “fight” or be lost.

He must fight the flesh. Even after conversion he carries within him a nature prone to evil and a heart weak and unstable as water. That heart will never be free from imperfection in this world and it is a miserable delusion to expect it. To keep that heart from going astray, the Lord Jesus bids us “Watch and pray.” The spirit may be ready, but the flesh is weak. There is need of a daily struggle and a daily wrestling in prayer. “I keep under my body,” cried Paul, “and bring it into subjection.” – “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity.” – “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” – “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” – “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.” (Mark 14:38; I Cor. 9:27; Rom. 7:23, 24; Gal. 5:24; Col. 3:5.)

He must fight the world. The subtle influence of that mighty enemy must be daily resisted and, without a daily battle, can never be overcome. The love of the world’s good things – the fear of the world’s laughter or blame – the secret desire to keep in with the world – the secret wish to do as others in the world do and not to run to extremes – all these are spiritual foes which beset the Christian continually on his way to Heaven and must be conquered. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God: whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” – “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” – “The world is crucified unto Me, and I unto the world.” – “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” – “Be not conformed to this world.” (James 4:4; I John 2:15; Gal. 6:14; I John 5:4; Rom. 12:2.)

He must fight the Devil. That old enemy of mankind is not dead. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve he has been “going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it,” and striving to compass one great end – the ruin of man’s soul. Never slumbering and never sleeping, he is always “going about as a lion seeking whom he may devour.” An unseen enemy, he is always near us, about our path and about our bed and spying out all our ways. A “murderer and a liar” from the beginning, he labours night and day to cast us down to Hell. Sometimes by leading into superstition, sometimes by suggesting infidelity, sometimes by one kind of tactics and sometimes by another, he is always carrying on a campaign against our souls. “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” This mighty adversary must be daily resisted. But “this kind goeth not out” but by watching and praying and fighting and putting on the whole armour of God. The strong man armed will never be kept out of our hearts without a daily battle. (Job 1:7; I Peter 5:8; John 8:44; Luke 22:31; Eph. 6:11.)

Some men may think these statements too strong. You fancy that I am going too far and laying on the colours too thickly. You are secretly saying to yourself that men and women in England may surely get to Heaven without all this trouble and warfare and fighting. Listen to me for a few minutes and I will show you that I have something to say on God’s behalf. Remember the maxim of the wisest General that ever lived in England – “In time of war it is the worst mistake to under-rate your enemy and try to make a little war.” This Christian warfare is no light matter. Give me your attention and consider what I say. What saith the Scripture – “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” – “Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” – “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” – “Labour for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” – “Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.” – “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” – “War a good warfare, holding faith, and a good conscience.” (I Tim. 6:12; II Tim. 2:3; Eph. 6: 11-13; Luke 13:24; John 6:27; Matt. 10:34; Luke 22:36; I Cor. 16:13; I Tim. 1:18,19.) Words such as these appear to me clear, plain and unmistakable. They all teach one and the same great lesson, if we are willing to receive it. That lesson is – that true Christianity is a struggle, a fight and a warfare. He that pretends to condemn “fighting” appears to me to misunderstand his Bible and to make a great mistake.

One thing is certain – this Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance. It is not a matter like Church government and ceremonial, about which men may differ and yet reach Heaven at last. Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ’s Epistles to the Seven Churches, except to those who “overcome.” Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict which concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non-interference – the ‘masterly inactivity” which pleases so many Statesmen – the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone – all this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here at any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is a ‘man of peace.’ To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leadeth to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost.

It is a fight of universal necessity. No rank, or class, or age can plead exemption or escape the battle. Ministers and people, preachers and hearers, old and young, high and low, rich and poor, gentle and simple, Kings and subjects, landlords and tenants, learned and unlearned – all alike must carry arms and go to war. All have by nature a heart full of pride, unbelief, sloth, worldliness and sin. All are living in a world beset with snares, traps and pitfalls for the soul. All have near them a busy, restless malicious Devil. All from the Queen in her palace down to the pauper in the workhouse, all must fight.

It is a fight of perpetual necessity. It admits of no breathing time, no armistice, no truce. On week-days as well as on Sundays – in private as well as in public – at home by the family fireside as well as abroad – in little things like management of tongue and temper, as well as in great ones like the government of the Kingdoms – the Christian’s warfare must unceasingly go on. The foe we have to do with keeps no holidays, never slumbers and never sleeps. So long as we have breath in our bodies we must keep on our armour and remember we are on an enemy’s ground. “Even on the brink of Jordan,” said a dying saint, “I find Satan nibbling at my heels.” We must fight till we die.

Let us consider well these propositions. Let us take care that our own personal religion is real, genuine and true. The saddest symptom about many so-called Christians is the utter absence of anything like conflict and fight in their Christianity. They eat, they drink, they dress, they work, they amuse themselves, they get money, they spend money, they go through a scanty round of formal religious services once or twice every week; but the great spiritual warfare – its watchings and strugglings, its agonies and anxieties, its battles and contests – of all of this they appear to know nothing at all. Let us take care that this case is not our own. The worst state of soul is “when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace” – when he leads men and women captive at his will,” and they make no resistance. The worst chains are those which are neither felt nor seen by the prisoner. (Luke 11:21; II Tim. 2:26.)

We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Gal. 5:17). Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the master? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. All true saints are soldiers. Anything is better than apathy, stagnation, deadness and indifference. We are in a better state than many. The most part of the so-called Christians have no feeling at all. We are evidently no friends of Satan. Like the Kings of this world, he wars not against his own subjects. The very fact that he assaults us should fill our minds with hope. I say again, let us take comfort. The child of God has two great marks about him and of these two we have one. He may be known by his inward warfare, as well as by his inward peace.

Slightly Abbreviated

Test

But one thing is needful

Luke 10 v 42

Mr Samuel Kingham

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