Enemies to our Faith

1
Enemies to our Faith

• 1Ti 612 Be fighting the good fight of the
  faith take for yourself the life eternal, for
  which you were marked out, and of which you gave
  witness in the eyes of all. 1Ti 612 Stry die
  goeie stryd van die geloof, gryp na die ewige
  lewe, waartoe jy ook geroep is en die goeie
  belydenis voor baie getuies afgelê het.
• I want you to notice that the Bible says we have
  to 'fight the good fight of the faith'. This is
  the only fight we are called to fight. You never
  fight circumstances sickness sin or even the
  devil.
• Our sin deserve the righteous anger of God but
  when Christ died on the cross, He became our
  substitute. He took upon Himself the anger of God
  that we deserved. In this we see the depth of
  God's love for us by the extremity of His actions
  for us The holy Son of God became a man and died
  a horrible death in our place.
• Ref Isa 534-9 GNB
• Providing His only begotten Son as the substitute
  for our sin was the greatest possible
  demonstration of God's love for mankind.

2

• He is absolutely holy and perfect and can not
  overlook sin, nor can He compromise by accepting
  sinful behavior. In His holiness, God condemns
  sin, but in the most awesome example of love the
  world has ever seen, He ordained that His Son
  would die to pay for our sins.
• Who can measure the fathomless depth of love that
  sent Christ to the cross? While we were the
  enemies of God, Jesus averted the anger we
  deserved so that we might become the sons of God.
  (Rom 57-10)?
• Only Jesus could avert God's righteous anger
  against sin, so in love the Father kept silent as
  Jesus hung from the cross. All of His anger, all
  of the wrath we would ever deserve, was poured
  out on Christ, and Jesus became sin for us (2Cor
  521) He defeated Satan, death, hell and the
  grave in His redemptive work on the cross.
• So no more fighting sin for Jesus put away sin by
  the sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary
  (Heb 926)?
• No, the only fight the believer is called upon to
  fight is the good fight of faith and brother
  there is a fight to faith ... Understanding there
  is a fight is also understanding that there are
  enemies to faith.
• Principle A Lack of Faith Comes From a Lack of
  Knowledge of God's Word. (Rom 1017)?

3

• Most people confess their lack of faith when
  actually they don't lack faith at all. They are
  only failing to release their faith. We have
  faith if we have the Word we just aren't
  exercising or releasing our faith.
• If you say I don't know much about the Word, but
  I need faith then there is no quick fix except
  through hard work. You can't get faith any other
  way except through the Word.
• We do not pray for faith. You will have to take
  time to feed upon the Word of God, and listen and
  learn from the teachers and pastors God gave you,
  then faith and life will come to your spirit
  because Jesus said, '...the words that I speak
  unto you, they are spirit, and they are life'
  (John 663)?
• A lack of knowledge will be an enemy that will
  hold us in bondage because we cannot act upon
  God's Word beyond our actual understanding of
  God's Word.
• Principle If your faith is not growing, then
  your understanding of the Word is not growing.
• ENEMY ONE A Lack of Understanding the New
  Creation
• Ref 2 Cor 517

4

• Many believers do not know that they are new
  creatures. They think God just forgave them of
  their sins. We are not poor, staggering, sinners
  barely-getting-along church members saved by
  grace.
• We are new creatures, created by God in Christ
  Jesus, with the very life and nature of God (2Pet
  14)(2Cor 517) We are children of God, sons of
  God and heirs of God joint-heirs with Jesus
  Christ (Rom 817)?
• When you know what you have and who you are in
  Christ, it makes all the difference in the world.
• ENEMY TWO A Lack of Understanding our Position
  in Christ
• You will find expressions in the epistles such as
  'in Christ', 'in Him' and 'in whom'. Expressions
  such as these occur /- 134 times in the New
  Testament. Some instances the text only infer it
  like the one we find in 1Joh 44 'greater is he
  that is in you, than he that is in the world'
• Understanding our position 'in Christ' begins
  with the confession of these scriptures in our
  day-to-day life. It is beginning to walk in the
  light of what we had possessed as believers all
  along. It is walking in the fullness of our
  rights and privileges in Christ.

5

• Rom 837 'Maar in al hierdie dinge is ons meer
  as oorwinnaars deur Hom wat ons liefgehad het.'
  in all these things we are more than conquerors
• ENEMY THREE A Lack of Understanding
  Righteousness
• 2Co 521 'For he hath made him to be sin for us,
  who knew no sin that we might be made the
  righteousness of God in him.' The blood of Jesus
  cleanses us from sin and by the new birth we
  become a righteous new creation.
• God did not make any unrighteous new creatures.
  We are sons and daughters of God and live in
  right standing with God. We can enter in His
  presence without any sense of embarrassment,
  guilt or condemnation. We can come into His
  presence because we belong there.
• When we were born again, our sins were remitted
  because our past life stopped existing. God said
  that He would not remember our transgressions no
  more (Isa 4325)?
• Ref Ps 10310-12
• Since God doesn't remember them, why should we?

6

• Someone may say he has sinned since he was born
  again, but I have good news for him. 1Joh 19
  says 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
  just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
  from all unrighteousness'
• God does two things for the believer who may have
  sinned.
• First when the believer confesses his sins, the
  Lord forgives him
• Second the Bible says that God also cleanses us
  from all unrighteousness.
• God is not angry at you. All of His anger, all of
  the wrath we would ever deserve, was poured out
  on Christ, and Jesus became sin for us. He became
  our substitute so that we might be made the
  righteousness of God in Him. (2Cor 521)?
• When we know that we are the righteouness of God
  in Christ, then we step out of the narrow place
  of failure and weakness in which we have lived
  and we step into the boundless fullness of God.
• ENEMY FOUR We do not Understand the right Use of
  the Name of Jesus. When we know what the Name of
  Jesus will do, we can take our rightful position
  of authority over Satan and enjoy victory.

7

• Ref Joh 1623-24
• Ref Mark 1615-18
• These signs follow those who believe the gospel.
  These signs are not just for preachers, but they
  are for believers. Every believer has authority
  over demons in the Name of Jesus.
• In His Name (vers 18) believers will speak in new
  tongues. In His Name believers shall lay hands on
  the sick, and they shall recover.
• I believe we should learn to use the Name of
  Jesus. We should know that His Name has authority
  and power on the earth today and that His Name
  legally belongs to us. By the new birth we are
  legally connected with that name and everything
  it stand for.
• ENEMY FIVE A Lack of Understanding about Acting
  on the Word
• We should stop trying to make God's Word work and
  start acting on the Word. Pro 35 'Trust in the
  LORD with all thine heart and lean not unto
  thine own understanding.'
• All that is necessary for you to do in any
  situation is ask 'what does God's Word have to
  say about this?'

8

• If we know that the Word is true and if we act as
  though it is true, it becomes a reality in our
  lives.
• P C Nelson a assistent chaplain during the Korean
  war made the following observation about acting
  on faith. He explained how he saw the United
  States took one mountain fourteen different times
  in one battle and each time losing it. They lost
  it thirteen times and the fourteenth time they
  held onto it. It's the same way with faith he
  said. You need to fight to hold on to your faith.
  
• It is a battle to act in a certain way
  (accourding to the Word) and feeling diverently,
  seeing diverent results and having diverent
  circumstances. Still we need to fight it through.
  This we can only do if we act on the Word as if
  we believed that the Word is true.
• ENEMY SIX We Need to Hold Fast to Our Confession
  of Faith
• Principle Believing Plus Confessing Equals
  Activated Faith.
• Heb 1023 'Let us hold fast the profession of our
  faith without wavering (for he is faithful that
  promised)' (Rom 1010) (Mark 1123)?
• Faith is measured by our confession. Our
  usefulness in the Lord is measured by our
  confession. Mark 1123 'We become what we
  confess'

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• There is a confession of our hearts and a
  confession of our lips and when these two
  harmonize, we become mighty in our prayer life.
• The reason so many are defeated is that they have
  a negative confession. They talk of their
  weaknesses and failures and invariably they go
  down to the level of their confession.
• Mar 528 'For she said, If I may touch but his
  clothes, I shall be whole.' Mar 534 'And he said
  unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee
  whole go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.'
• What she said (Mar 528) was her faith speaking.
  Her faith moved her beyond her comfort into her
  possesing of the promise of healing.
• We spend time on six enemies to our faith and by
  recognizing these enemies to our faith and by the
  renewing of our minds with the word we will cause
  our faith to grow and increase.
• Every believer can see the promises of God come
  to pass in his life if he will take time to feed
  upon the Word of God, to get understanding on who
  he is in Christ and what he has in Christ and act
  like God's Word is true!