There has always been a battle between light and darkness.

Satan hates God and fights against his work.

It is vital that God's people recognize their place in this conflict

and are equipped for spiritual warfare in our day. Let's join Scott Pauli

now as we open God's Word and prepare for the front lines.

Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Today we began a brand new series of Bible studies and we're taking this verse,

2 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 3 as our theme for this study.

Let me give it to you again.

2 Timothy 2, verse 3,

thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

The terminology implies that we're in a fight. We're in a war zone. There is a spiritual

battle going on at this moment, and if ever there was a day, for the Lord's people to be

good soldiers of Jesus Christ, it is the day and hour in which we live. You know, the spiritual

conflict between God and his arch enemy, the devil, has waged from the Garden of Eden forward. In

fact, prior to the Garden of Eden, when Satan rebelled

against God and led one third of the angelic host in rebe and against the Lord, this conflict has

raged. We're just living in the middle of it, and I might say to you, I think we're living near the

end of it. Remember that the battle is always hottest just before it's over. I believe that there is

such intense spiritual conflict today because the devil knows his time is short. He's stirring up

something everywhere, isn't he? Watch the news. Look around you. You can sense it. Why such

intensity of spiritual warfare? Well, I believe that our great

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