Let’s read it from I Peter 5:8-9,

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil,

prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

Now listen:

“…knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being

Paul said the same thing to the Philippians, in Philippians 1:29-30,

“For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe

in Him, but also to suffer for his sake,”

“experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear

Jesus said in his teachings that this is exactly what they should do, as we remember his words in Matthew 10:23,

  THE MEANING OF VANGUARD

-The first has to do with A KIND OF PERSON.

-The second has to do with A POSITION.

-The third has to do with A PROGRESSION. 

And here’s the one that has to do with the PEOPLE. Say this with me…

The second has to do with a POSITION. Say this one with me…

“THE FOREMOST POSITION IN AN ARMY OR FLEET.”

In other words, a “Vanguard Position.”

The third one has to do with PROGRESSION. Say with me…

  ''OCCUPYING THE FOREFRONT OF AN ACTION OR MOVEMENT

(THE FOREMOST LEADING POSITION IN A TREND.)"

So the “Vanguard” has to do with a people, a position, and a progression.

They are the advance guard of Jesus who say within themselves, “I am willing to be on the cutting edge of what Jesus wants to do in my time."

Now I want to say this morning, I really want to be that kind of person, and I want it more than ever. How many of you feel that way? Isn’t there something in you that says, “I want to be on the cutting edge, and not just for the sake of the novelty of it, or the idea that that we’ve got something that distinguishes us from others, kind of an exclusive notion.”

I have just so wearied of cheap froth and surface novelty in religion. May we be willing to answer the heart cry of the Lord who asks,

“Can I find a people, a people who love Me enough to put Me first?"

“AS PEOPLE WITH LONG TERM, ENDURING FRUIT, AND GODLY

CHARACTERISTICS THAT LAST AND ENDURE THE TEST OF

TIME AND TEMPTATION, NOT BECAUSE OF THE EXCEL-

ENCE OF THEIR OWN ATTAINMENT BUT BECAUSE OF

THE EXCELLENCE OF JESUS CHRIST BEING REFINED

IN THEM FROM YEAR TO YEAR.”

[As Brother Benson stated, the “Vanguard” is one who is "Steeped In the Truth of God’s Word.” They are the  ones who are on the “Cutting Edge,” the cutting edge of “Truth.” If you will, they are:

As such:

Huge difference! And again:

Being on the passionate cutting edge of truth, they will be the #1 target of the enemies of truth. The “Cutting-Edge Vanguard of Truth” will be cut deeply by rejection. They will even be cut off from their family and friends. Jesus said of his disciples, His early and infant “Vanguard” in the making, in Matthew 10:36,

‘…be not to be carried about by every wind of doctrine….”

Quoting from Modern Christianity Corrupted we read on page 3, “Winds of doctrine! Not breezes, winds! Every wind – in other words winds! Not just a wind! We never know where they will be coming from. They are blowing all over the place, and we are warned not to be carried away by them. Strong winds indeed, because you don’t get blown away or carried away by balmy breezes. They are gale force false-doctrine winds.”

For example, “The Christian Vanguard Church,” the outfront church, the alert and watchful church, will face as never before the “Heresy Hurricanes” of the false church’s promotion of alternative-homosexual lifestyles, the ordination of homosexual clergy, and same-sex marriages.

I well recall preaching against all of this, and stating that same-sex marriage is from Hell, and that a child caught in it is as an orphan being cast into a dungeon of darkness. All that the child lives with is a wicked natural father/mother living with another wicked homosexual. Oh the front-line attacks against me that followed from church people were very real, as I experienced first hand what it means to be “A Vanguard Of Truth For Christ.”

Who will be “The Vanguard of Christ” in these last days of the great apostasy? If not you, then who? If not me, then who? Yes, strong “Vanguard Voices” have been lost in the last critical years? When it comes to righteousness and truth, strong front-line offensive and defensive powerhouses were lost with the passing of Jerry Falwell, Bill Bright and James Kennedy. More than that, Billy Graham’s strong Gospel Voice has been silenced. In their places we have a pandemic infestation of wine and roses, bangles and beads, and fluff and stuff cotton-candy preachers who have rotted the army-church of Christ into an "Vanguardless Amusement Park-Souvenir and Snack Shop."

When you have a world-renown “Signature Preacher” being asked on international TV by Larry King whether we should hate or love Satan, and the “preacher” says, “I don’t know,” then we know that the “Christian Vanguard” has been lost. Of course, Jesus crushed Satan's head because He had such great affection for him. The same preacher  told Larry King that he wasn't sure whether Hindus would go to Heaven or Hell. Those who by the tens of thousands accept that “Signature Preacher’s” falsehoods and non-theology as truth are like the buyers of stolen goods willing to accept the explanation that the items fell off a truck.

Again we hear the question, “Who will be the “Vanguard” for the Body of Christ in these last days of history?” And again we hear the answer, “If not us, then who?”]

But hear me this morning:

"THE EARLY CHURCH WAS NEVER A BODY OF PEOPLE WHO

HAD ACCOMPLISHED PERFECTION." 

We lament, "Oh, if we could just be like the early church, and never have a any problem." You're DREAMING. You're NOT READING THE WORD. The 1st century, as beautiful and as pure and innocent as it was, began to manifest its imperfections. Even though it was strong enough to  withstand incredible persecution, and strong enough to move on in faithfulness:

"THERE WAS LEAVEN IN THE LUMP."

A certain amount of weeds crept in, and it infiltrated the good-fertile soil of the ground of the church. By the time you get to the EDICT OF CONSTANTINE, in approximately 325-324 A.D., the church was faced with a massive problem. Constantine, a new convert essentially, who was a leader over Rome, decided the world ought to be Christianized. And though he was right in theory, he was wrong in principle, as he endeavored to force conversions at the cost of your life. [Like radical Islam today] 

I mean:

"EITHER YOU BECAME A CHRISTIAN, OR WE LOP OFF

YOUR HEAD." 

How many know that's a great way to increase the membership roles? The problem was that people came into the church, calling themselves Christians, but clinging to their paganism and idolatry - some to avoid the persecution of those who were not under the banner of Christianity, others were allowed in because the church of necessity, having to take a more merciful stance, ended up having to compromise and allow paganism to thread its way into the church.  Then to satisfy the pagan traditions that people were accustomed to, they allowed:

"A LOT OF COMPROMISES TO TAKE THE PLACE OF

HEARTFELT CONVICTION." 

Gibbon's estimate is that 5/8ths of the Roman Empire was Christian after the first 3 centuries. And that was by heartfelt conviction. But becasue of the Edict of Constantine, the whole Roman Empire was declared Christian. And the minority group were the heathen that were allowed to come into the church. Overnight they were declared Christian by emperial edict. And that was when the church was given the privilege of expanding in an open ecclesiastical and even political way. And we find that the church is institutionalized in much greater dimensions. And of course the sad thing was that by the end of the 6th century"

"THE CHURCH HAD ENTERED WHAT IS CALLED THE DARK AGES

WESTERN CIVILIZATION."

And there was nearly a thousand years of that. And it would seem that the flame of the church was reduced to a flickering candle. 

Btu there was always a remnant. There was always GUARDIANS of the body life of the church. All through church history, it's recorded - people who had a desire for the fullness of God, people who were on fire with the spiritual passion of God.

In terms of spiritual warfare, these are the ones who stand on the front lines, or the avant guard that goes before, or the vanguard. And the vanguard, or the avant guard, are also the ones who break through, and penetrate through pockets of resistance that have the territory that God desires for His Kingdom.

But the next significant moment in Chruch History was THE NAILING OF THE THESIS ON THE DOOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WITTENBERG, as Martin Luther declared that:

"THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

And that began a period that was called THE REFORMATION. And the church began to regain what had been lost. She sought to ascend again to what she was called to be.

THE WEAKENERS OF THE VANGUARD

1. DISTRACTIONS

Distraction is one that may see fairly obvious. The problem is that we’re not able to discern when it’s happening – the enemy distracting us from the purpose of God, enticing us into all sorts of vain or trivial pursuits, distracting us from the BATTLE AT HAND, distracting us with pleasures.

And the cloak that is so insidious is that it is not simply the obviously evil distractions of worldly pleasures, that isn’t what we always wrestle with. It is the less obvious and more subtle distractions that wear NICE LABELS – have nice, comfortable connotations, things like FAMILY or CHILDREN. There is not a person in this room that would dare to lift up his hand against family or children. I mean, these are the values that we cherish, BIBLICAL VALUES.

Yet I have watched as family becomes the excuse for shoddy church attendance and poor worship habits, and family becomes the excuse for irresponsible discipleship. Or we become fixated on whatever the family decides it wants, even if what it wants doesn’t line up with the Word of God and the clear commands of Christ. And the same kids, whose needs we sought to meet with carnal substitutes rather than sound spiritual leadership and Godly example, will grow up to reject the God that we made second place in our lives.

We serve a jealous God, and He will have no other God before Him. Not pleasures, not money, not fame, not homes and striving for security, not your job, not your boyfriend, not your girlfriend, no, not even your family. He will have no other God before Him:

[Allow me to quote Glenn Beck at this point in his book Common Sense as he writes on page 96, “Even as our families  became smaller, our homes got bigger with the average home size growing from 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,512 feet today. Naturally those bigger homes came with a bigger price tag. The median home price went from $65,078 (adjusted for inflation) to $165,400 over the same fifty-eight year period. It is a sad contradiction, but our homes now seem to have plenty of room for everything – except God.”

Right here is where the weakening of “The Vanguard” in the Body of Christ begins – in the home. This is no time for gutless mincing of words! Unless our children are steeped in the Word of God in the home and in the church, there will very soon be no “Vanguard” left in Christianity, as children go to schools where they are taught that we are all budding apemen, and godless parents are giving them an upbringing no better than the female ape that  adopted Tarzan. The entire United States Department of Education today is conspiring to make our children believe the “Lie of Evolution.”

If the “Vanguard of Truth” crumbles here in Genesis 1, it crumbles everywhere. If today’s parents were as concerned with “Van-Guarding” their children with the truth of the Word of God  from Genesis through Revelation as they are about guarding their glittering treasures of houses, cars, boats and fifth-wheels, the future of the "Vanguard Church" and "America" would be bright. Oh God, if parents today had the same passion for children’s “Bible Clubs” as they do for “Little League.”]

2. APATHY

The most insidious cloaked adversary is “Apathy.” Apathy, spiritual apathy, is the characteristic of the last days as it’s prophesied to us from the Scriptures. Jesus in Matthew 24:12 said about men in the last days,

Apathy is a “Form of Self-Centeredness.” Paul said in II Timothy 3:1-4 that men would be,

“Proud boasters, lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure more

THE PASSION OF THE MASTER-VANGUARD

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for

Thee, O God.”

I want you to get glimpse of the PASSION that motivated Jesus, that ZEAL that seemed to consume His life:

“JESUS NEVER LACKED FOR DETERMINATION, HE WAS NEVER

WISHY-WASHY OR FLY-BY-NIGHT, EVERYTHING THAT

HE DID COUNTED FOR SOMETHING.”

“But He said, ‘I have found food to eat that you do not know about.’”

“The disciples therefore were saying to one another, ‘No one

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me,

and to accomplish His work.’”

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet 4 months and then comes the harvest?’

Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that

And then He makes this statement in verse 4:

The "Passionate Must" of our Lord. Those are the passionate words of a man who was gripped by the purpose of God.

Finally, set in that backdrop, in that portrait of Jesus, I want you to hear the words of the Apostle Peter in his second epistle, II Peter 3:10-13, and then we'll read vs. 14 and 18. But I think, to get the idea of the context, we need to go back to verse 3. And if these words are not spokenin passion, if they are  not motivating words, then something is desperately wrong.

II Peter 3:3-4,

"Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with

mocking, following after their own lusts,"

"and saying, 'Where is the promiise of His coming? For ever since

the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was

from the beginning of creation." 

Verse 8-9,

"But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that

with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a

thousand years as one day."

"The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness,

but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but

for all to come to repentance."

And now verses 10-13,

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens

will  pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed

with an intense heat, and the earth and it works

will be burned up."

"Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of

people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,"

"looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account

of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the

elements will melt with intense heat!"

"But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and

a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."

Now look at verse 14,

"Therefore, beloved, since you look for those things, be diligent to

be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless." 

And finally, verse 18,

"...but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the

day of eternity."

And just before we pray and ask God's special anointing  upon us, I want to you to quote verse 11 with me and the first part of verse 12, from whatever version of the Scripture that you happen to be reading. Let's quote this aloud:

"Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of

people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,"

"looking for and hastening the coming of

the day of the Lord."