Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord's Appearing -3

Message Title: Keeping the Faith

I. In the New Testament, faith is both objective and subjective

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

the faith in Ephesians 4:13 is not faith as a believing action but the objective faith. the objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, that is, to the things in which we believe; this objective faith includes the contents of God's New Testament economy.

subjective faith has to do with our action of beliving. 

these two aspects of faith involve one another. Our beliving (subjective faith) is out of the things we believe and in the things we believe (objective faith).

1 Thessalonians 3:2 And we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and encourage you for the sake of your faith,

when we attend the church meetings, listen to the ministry, we can receive more the obejective faith, the contents of God's economy. therefore, regardless what we are going through in our situations, our faith will not be shaken. 

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith.

to keep the faith is to keep the entire New Testament economy of God - the faith concerning Christ as the embodiment of God and the mystery of God and the church as the Body of Christ and the mystery of Christ.  

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

to keep the faith is not just passive to not lose the faith. but we need to actively use our faith as the building material. the healthy teaching is to infuse the truth as faith into us. when we listen to the truth, the Spirit will operate to coodinate with the word of truth, the result of which is that the subjective faith will be produced within us. 

when we receive the obejective faith through our hearing of the word of Christ, which produces within us the appreciation of Christ, this objective faith must also proceed to become subjective faith. at times we may feel that we have so little faith within us that we cannot believe anymore. this is the indication that we have not been receiving enough objective truth. this should cause us to hunger for the word of the truth, to come more to church meetings, for the hearing of faith. 

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called and have confessed the good confession before many witnesses.

to fight for the faith means to fight for God's New Testamony economy. to fight the good fight of the faith is to fight for the contents of the complete gospel according to God's New Testament economy. today at this corrupted age, many heresies, or evil teachings have become very popular, while the word of truth has become super rare. therefore, we need to rise up to proclaim the word of the truth to fight the good fight of the faith. 

to fight the good fight of the faith in the Christian life, we need to lay hold on the eternal life, the divine life, not trusting in our human life. 

II. A proper Chrsitian life involves keeping te faith for participation in the divine riches in God's economy. 

God's economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, is not a matter in the natural realm nor in the work of the law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regneration by faith in Christ. when faith comes, we have been delivered from the realm of law, but into this spiritual sphere to become the new creation. 

by faith, we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him. by faith we are put into Christ to become members of the Body, sharing all that He is for His expression. to be regenerate is a once-for-all matter, but to partake of the divine life and nature is a day by day matter. 

1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

the mystery of faith is mainly Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ. 

do we have a pure consience? are we holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience? 

Jude 3 Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

the faith here in Jude 3 refers to the objective faith which has been delivered to us once for all, denoting the contents of the New Testament as our faith, in which we believe for our common salvation. today, many argue over certain doctrines. we are not fighint for mere doctrines, but we need to contend for the faith, which matters our common salvation. 

Ephesians 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

after we have received the objective faith, we still need to grow in life, until we arrive at the oneness of the faith. the oneness of the faith depends on our full knowledge of the Son of God.