House Rule #19 Fight the Good Fight God's Way (1 Timothy 6:11-16) | Adult Sunday School

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory,

Lord of love. Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, Opening to the sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, Drive the dark of doubt away.

Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day.

All works and joys surround Thee, Earth and heaven reflect

Thy rays. Stars and angels sing their own peace,

And with all the world embrace. Field and forest, vale and mountain,

Flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain,

Call us to rejoice in Thee. So the piano's a little hot up here, and I can't hear our vocals in the monitors at all.

But that's for our two monitors. Redeemed by the blood of the

Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever

I am. Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy,

His child and forever I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No language my rapture can tell.

I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell.

Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the

Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy,

His child and forever I am. Rethink of my blessed

Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long. I sing for,

I cannot be silent, His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy,

His child and forever I am. Redeemed through His infinite mercy.

Redeemed through His infinite mercy. I don't have him in monitor up here, I don't think. His child and forever.

There he is. That was good, okay. Cornell, you're up.

How are you? Good to see you guys. Oh, listen here, oh, take cover, do not fear, do not, cause it'll break your will, it'll change your mind, loose all the chains of the ties that bind, and if you're lucky, you'll never make it out alive, and that's a good thing, love is a good thing.

It can hurt like a blast from a hand grenade, when all that used to matter is blown away, there in the middle of the mess it made, you'll find a good thing, yes, it's worth every penny of the price you pay, it's a good thing, love is a good thing.

Take cover, love is a good thing. Testing one, two, testing one, two, three, testing blah, blah, blah.

That's about how loud I'll be. Okay, are we good? The world is fallen, the world will be redeemed.

The world was good, the world is fallen, the world will be redeemed.

To the promise, the stories are true, that Jesus makes all things.

How you doing, brother? Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all.

We're thankful that you're here today. As we continue in our study of 1

Timothy, there are some outlines available. If you didn't get an outline when you came in, just raise your hand.

The outline monitors are here to pass them out. We're going to continue in our study of chapter six this morning, looking at verses 11 through 16.

The title in my Bible says, Fight the good fight of faith, which is a great title. And I've just simply modified it a little bit and said house rule number 19, fight the good fight

God's way. Because we're going to be talking about fighting and warfare this morning.

So I hope you have your combat boots on or something, but you won't need them. Let's begin our study this morning by committing our time to our

Lord and asking his blessing on our study. Our Father, we know that we are here by your grace and that we are able to open your word and study by your grace.

And we are dependent on your spirit to be our teacher this morning. So we pray that what is in your word for us today, you would impress it to our hearts and our minds.

We pray that we would be quick to hear, but also quick to obey what we hear this morning from your word.

We thank you for this opportunity. And we just thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, again, we're in chapter six, verses 11 through 16 this morning.

And last time, which was two weeks ago, we saw in verses two through 10 that Paul once again, and it's the third time he's done this in this letter, addresses the issue of false teachers in the

Ephesian fellowship. And he opens the letter in chapter one by just really urging

Timothy to deal with what's going on in the city of Ephesus, to charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

Nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. And then again, we saw him deal with it in verses one through five of chapter four.

And he really gives us an understanding of the underlying forces involved in false teachers. The faith.

There we go. Something departed there. By devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, or some of your translations probably say the doctrines of demons.

And it really is. It's not the doctrines or teachings about demons, per se.

It's the doctrines that originate in demons. In other words, demonic teachings, demonic doctrines.

And we also saw that along with the exhortations for Timothy to confront the false teachers and to teach and preach the word of God, Timothy must also watch his own life.

This is a kind of a cyclical thing with Paul in this letter. He's got to take care of his own spiritual well -being.

And so last time we saw how false teaching is like a potent communicable disease.

And we use that metaphor of medicine or communicable diseases because Paul talks about teaching sound or healthy doctrine.

It's like a virus that false teachers spread all around. And we saw that the disease then has a result in the people who do it.

They become puffed up, swollen with conceit and pride, he says. And also how that false teaching manifests itself in the people who listen to it.

It generates envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction.

And we even mentioned from Galatians chapter 5, one of what is called a vice list, the works of the flesh,

Paul said. He talks about what that looks like. And of course, in that passage, it's compared with the fruits of the spirit, a virtue list, okay?

So we also saw that the ever -present issue is that these people who teach false doctrine seem to think that being involved in Christianity or the things of God will be a means of gain, a means of gain from verse 5.

And Paul really then develops that more. So that's a real issue in the people of Ephesus and obviously in our generation as well.

People using Christianity or using religion to try to make a lot of money.

And we saw last time that Paul warns Timothy about that very feature of the false teachers.

And the result of the false teaching and their unchecked propagation of their false doctrines was spiritual death.

Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

And then in verse 10, why, Paul, why does that happen? For or because the love of money, and here again, this very commonly mistaught, misquoted verse, it's not the money that is the root of all evil, it's the love of money that is the root of all evil or all kinds of evils.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Again, people departing from the faith. We've seen this too several times throughout our study in 1

Timothy. False teachers, apostates departing from the faith. And so this is

Paul's pattern to exhort Timothy to deal with false teachers and their false teachings, but also to deal with his own personal spiritual life.

And that's exactly what he does in this section that we're going to look at this morning. He shifts gears from the false teachers in verse 11 and says, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things.

This is a pretty easy passage to outline because of the five commands that Paul gives in this passage to Timothy, five imperative verbs that we're going to see.

And so it's really pretty simple just to transfer that outline right to your notes here. And so Roman numerals one through five, we're just going to carry these command verbs right over into our outline and create what's called an applicational outline or maybe a hortatory outline rather than one that's more exegetical.

The exegesis is there. It's really been done by Paul. And now he's making application, application to Timothy.

And of course, by extension, application to us. Pretty easy to outline. Five command force verbs.

We're going to walk right through them in our passage this morning. The first one, we must flee.

We must flee in light of these false teachers spreading their false doctrines, spreading their false teaching and all of this, the destructive results of that.

We must flee. The word means to escape danger, to find safety by fleeing.

And it might seem a little bit strange since we're going to be talking about fighting the good fight or engaging in spiritual warfare that right out of the starting blocks, the first thing

Paul says is run. You know, that's not something a commanding officer would usually prep his soldiers with.

You know, you got to run the first thing you do. But this is spiritual warfare. And so that's important for us to remember.

There are times where we need to run or flee. And remember, we're talking about spiritual warfare here.

And sometimes these metaphors may be a little more applicable to like an athletic event than warfare.

For example, if you're in a boxing match, you might need to know when to duck, right? Especially if you're boxing with somebody, you know, who's a really good fighter.

Or maybe you're sitting behind him in an airplane harassing him. Did you see that this week? Mike Tyson was being pestered by some guy.

And he was real proud of himself that Mike had hit him.

Well, he was still conscious and smiling. So I don't think Mike really hit him. But you got to know when to duck a professional or any kind of a football running back.

They make their living by running away from people, right? There are many alternative church philosophies out there, alternative from Scripture.

Most of them are an appeal to the flesh in some way, shape or form. But remember,

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the church. He gives us our marching orders, not man.

We have to get them from Scripture. And remember, like what Paul said last time, the sound words of our

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness, that is supposed to be our focus.

Our message is the gospel and the word of God. Our method is preaching and teaching.

And what the Bible even says and acknowledges that the world thinks is the foolishness of preaching. But that's what we do.

And if we get drawn into the methodology of the world or begin to chase after the teachings of false teachers, some of which are very attractive.

And why are they attractive? They're attractive because they're an appeal to the flesh. And so they can get big crowds.

But when we begin to alter the methodology, then we alter the theology.

It almost always falls after that. So we must flee. We must run.

But run from what? Well, Paul tells us flee these things. These are the things that he's just talked about.

Okay, it could be everything negative that he's talked about in this letter so far, but very specifically what we have just seen.

Timothy, and he says, oh man of God, right? He's reminding him of who he is, who he is in Christ, what his mission is.

He is a man of God that has to be doing things God's way. And these things, it's everything we saw in the previous passage, everything the false teachers were doing wrong and teaching wrong, all of their diseased, infectious doctrines.

Get away from that. Stay away from it. Paul knows he's sending Timothy into a situation in Ephesus where he will be exposed to false teachers and their false doctrines and their phony arguments.

And he must be ready to confront them, but he can't get involved in them.

He needs to understand what's going on with these people when they respond the way they have. The response of the carnal mind to scripture is what

Timothy is going to be dealing with here. And this is exactly what Paul is talking about here.

He's talking about even clear back in chapter one, different doctrine, different doctrine.

He says in verse four of chapter one, these people are devoted to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, okay?

In verse six, vain discussions, empty discussions. In chapter four, verse seven, have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths, rather train yourself for godliness.

And then in chapter six, we're going to see that in a couple of weeks. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.

These are the things he is supposed to get away from and stay away from. And you notice some similarities here with the false teachings.

Well, the same thing is going on now. Where does that come from? A very insightful comment by a commentator named

Linsky. He is a very, very well -known grammarian, Greek grammarian. He says this, when it meets the truth, the corrupted mind sees and seeks only objections.

When it meets what differs from this truth, it sees and seeks reasons for accepting this difference.

That is an excellent statement. He has a lot of insight into the argumentation against Scripture.

You've probably experienced this. If you've ever talked to a cultist, they don't argue from the text of Scripture per se.

They argue arguments that are described by what we just saw here in 1

Timothy. Irreverent babbling. They get all tangled up in all kinds of things that aren't legitimate arguments.

When it meets the truth, the corrupted mind sees and seeks only objections.

When you try to share your faith with someone and all they're doing is objecting to it because of this, because of that, because, well,

I knew some Christians that were hypocritical. All of that is a response of the carnal mind.

They're finding objections. Another commentator said this, it is little wonder then that missionaries of the cults, okay, now cultic missionaries he's talking about there, might be somebody on a bicycle, couple of young men, you know, with very conservative haircuts and short -sleeved white shirts, ties, but they're really narrow ties, you know, squeaky clean.

I mean, these guys and they're elders, right? They got a badge and they're elders. And how does a 19 -year -old guy get?

Well, anyway, in their group, they're elders. It is little wonder then that missionaries of the cults are so resistant to the gospel and so easily angered in theological discussions.

Corrupt minds and argumentative dispositions go hand in hand with opposition to the gospel, okay?

You've probably experienced that. When somebody gets angry because you're sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, more often than not, that is the response of the carnal mind.

It's offensive to them. Why? Because every other system other than biblical Christianity is a works righteousness system.

And if you start talking about the grace of God, it offends the carnal mind which has to see itself as a part of the system, okay?

That's really what it boils down to. God has his people out there that do deal with these false teachers and their heresies, but he also equips and strengthens them to deal with the false teachers.

And you can think of ministries that do that, right? We probably, some of you folks probably do that here or are involved in it or know people that are.

But God especially equips them and he strengthens them to do those ministries.

Joseph was a godly man, was he not? Extremely godly man. But when Potiphar's sleazy wife tried to engage him in a sexual relationship, he resisted her.

And then when she actually physically tried to grab a hold of him, what did he do? He ran.

He bugged out. He didn't hang around to the point that he left his coat there. Now, did he still get put in prison because she lied about him?

Yes. But he knew what to do. He had predetermined that in that situation, he was going to run.

He was going to get out of the picture. Genesis 39 .6 and following. So, application for us could be if you're way over involved in studying some aberration, maybe that it'd be better for you to spend more time studying the

Word of God to build a foundation of truth by which you can compare with these things.

But it's not just that. In our generation, you don't have to go looking for this type of thing. It'll come to you. It'll come through your computer into your house or even on a handheld device, right?

Know when to shut it off. Know when to turn it off. Know when to run. Know when to flee.

We must flee or run from these things. And sort of the flip side of the coin, this is

Roman numeral two, we must pursue. We must know what to flee. We must know what to pursue.

And you can see my outline here doesn't so much go with the versification here, but that's okay. I'm just using these command force verbs.

The second one is pursue. We must pursue. He says to Timothy, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

These are the things that we are supposed to pursue to make them parts of our lives. To pursue, to chase after a person or a thing and grab ahold of it, okay?

And of course, when it's applied to these spiritual virtues, same thing, chase after these, grab ahold of them and make them your own.

Righteousness, all the attitudes and actions that result from being saved or justified and that are in harmony with what

God calls right. He's not telling Timothy per se that he needs to get saved or anything like that.

He knows he's a believer, but the righteousness that has been imputed to him needs to be lived out.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, Sermon on the Mount, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

So there's the righteousness that is imputed by God to the believer and all these things will be added to you.

So we need to pursue the righteousness, all of the good things and right things that are part of our faith.

And then godliness, God -like character and conduct, including life and doctrine.

Here's that word we've seen before that always is composed of two elements, the life we live and what we believe.

The church is built on these two doctrinal, foundational pillars, okay?

Pure doctrine and love or moral and truth.

You can name it in the Bible, describes it in multiple terms. Jesus was full of grace and truth, right?

Peter told his readers that they were to grow in the grace and knowledge of their

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. These are always together in scripture. They're different and you can identify them as different things, but they're always linked in the

Bible and that makes up godliness. God -like character and conduct, which includes life and doctrine.

Again, this is what Paul was exhorting Timothy clear back in chapter four, an extended section on his own personal spiritual life.

And he ends the whole thing by saying, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching.

Both are critical. A person can have, you or I can have sound doctrine.

We can check all the boxes doctrinally, right? But if our moral life is not what it should be, there's a problem there.

And flip side of that coin is, you can emphasize morality, you know? This is classical liberalism.

Love, love, we need to love one another. Love, that's all that counts. But without pure doctrine, they miss define love.

They don't know what love is, biblically defined. Godliness, character and conduct, both are together.

And then we are to pursue faith, okay? Now here, not the objective content of the gospel called the faith, which we've seen before.

This would be page six in your notes. That list of times where Paul talks about the faith, the faith that can be taught, the faith that can be preached, the faith that can be abandoned.

We've seen this two or three times in this study. Some will depart from the faith.

Well, what do they do? They've abandoned the objective truth of the word of God, essentially. But here, Paul is talking about the subjective faith, our faith in Jesus Christ, our trust, the subjective trust that we have in Jesus Christ.

And this always produces the next one, that is love, self -sacrificial service to others.

Again, without the truth, that's going to be horribly mangled and misdefined by the world as it is now.

What people call love now, compared to the Bible, is not love. Love is not two men or two women on a wedding cake, okay?

If they really loved each other, they would not engage in that behavior that is destructive, degrading, depraved, and that God has roundly judged and condemned all through scripture.

If you look at chapter one, verse five, we see Paul speaking of these two things, faith and love, in relationship to each other.

He says in verse five of chapter one, the aim of our charge is love, that's what

I want to see, that's the end product that I want to see. But what kind of love, Paul? Love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

That's the biblical definition of love. You parents need to teach that to your children so when they grow up and grow older and somebody somewhere at some point in time out under the moonlight is saying,

I love you, I love you, I love you, they will understand what the real definition of love is and be able to interpret it accordingly.

Paul wants to see love, but the love that he's talking about comes out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

True faith in Jesus Christ produces true love, right? So that's what Paul wants us to pursue.

Pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, produce faith, which produces love, but also pursue steadfastness, perseverance, faithful continuance through adverse or discouraging circumstances.

Here's where sort of the rubber meets the road, right? The characteristics of a man or woman who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

This is what the reformers called perseverance. True believers will persevere and they don't do it in their own strength, they do it in the power of the

Holy Spirit through the word of God, okay? We need to pursue that steadfastness. This same group of people, the

Ephesian Christians, received a letter from the Apostle Paul which in Ephesians chapter four,

Paul says this, talking about the people that he gave to the church. He says, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

If you don't pursue these things, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, then you're like a leaf in the wind, the

Bible says. You know, any doctrinal wind that blows down and they come all the time, you know, doctrinal fads.

You just get blown along by them. You pick up on the next thing and the next one and you abandon that one and you go after the next one.

That's not steadfastness. Pursue steadfastness, the perseverance that God works through his spirit and his word.

And then you say, okay, I'm pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness.

I'm ready to go to battle, okay? You're ready to pick up the baseball bat or the, you know, pitchfork or torches or staves and ready to go to war.

Hang on just a minute, Rambo. We got one more, gentleness, okay? Gentleness, all of these things need to be looked at through gentleness, tender kindness towards others.

Once again, we need to do God's work, God's way and we need to carry out spiritual warfare,

God's way as well. These are the things we must pursue. So, we must flee certain things, we must pursue certain things and then we must fight.

This is verse 12, fight the good fight of the faith.

Fight the good fight of the faith. And again, this is probably as much of an athletic metaphor as it is a warfare one.

The word is agonizomai. You can hear our word agony in there or struggle and this is exactly the same meaning that Paul is using.

Spiritual warfare is an agonizing struggle to flee from certain things.

Flee or deal with our three great enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.

And this, of course, you recognize from Ephesians 2. We need to flee from these things and it's an agonizing struggle.

Ephesians 2, again, to this same group of people, Paul said, speaking about before they were saved, he said, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now in work in the sense of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

This is what we fight against. This is our enemy. We've seen this, talked about this a little bit in the past.

The world system, the world value system, the flesh, of course, that unredeemed aspect of our nature that we still struggle with and, of course, the devil,

Satan. Satan rules the world system and he also hates people because they're created in the image of God, okay?

Very simple theological principle for what you see on the news all the time. Satan hates people.

He hates people because they're created in the image of God. It's that simple. He hates young people. He hates children because they're created in the image of God.

He hates babies for the same reason. He hates unborn babies because they are created in the image of God.

Very simple explanation. But we must fight against these things and Paul wants

Timothy to know it's a good fight. This is a good fight. Fight the good fight of the faith.

Paul uses this word good 21 times in this letter. Five times he uses it as an adverb modifying a verb and it's often translated well, do something well.

And 16 times modifying a noun, good, like right here. Fight the good fight of the faith.

It's used to describe something that is good, not just internally or in its nature, but manifestly good.

In other words, it appears good. In its appearance and in its function, it's good, it's beautiful.

It's a good fight. So when applied to the spiritual struggle we are involved in, it means that what is good is not just how we fight or agonize, but the struggle is by its very nature a manifestly, obviously good struggle.

It's a noble cause we are involved in because it's God's cause and it's God's struggle.

And it's a fight of the faith. And here, Paul uses the article with the word faith.

So we're back again talking about the objective truth that we argue from, argue about, and argue with, right?

It's a noble struggle and it is involved in a, it's a pursuit of the faith and a defense of the faith and a proclamation of our faith.

Again, page six in your notes has a list of all the ways that is used. It's the content of the gospel.

And in its more comprehensive sense, of course, it's the entire word of God, often used by Paul.

And this is what he wants Timothy to fight for here.

So we are to agonize, we are to fight, we are to struggle, but it's a good fight. It's God's program and it's a fight of the faith.

And it's not only do we fight with the word of God because it's the sword of the spirit, right?

Back again to Ephesians chapter six, we fight for it. And that brings us to Roman numeral four.

We must take hold, we must take hold. Two words here in English, but it's actually just a single word.

Some English translations say lay hold, but take hold. We must take hold.

We'll take hold of what? 12B, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

This idea means to just grab a hold of something and grab a hold of it, of course.

We're talking about truth. We're talking about, he's using this not physically, but metaphorically.

Get your mind wrapped around who you are in Jesus Christ. This is so critical.

One commentator says it this way, possessing eternal life is one thing, but taking hold of it is another.

The former is static. The latter is dynamic. The former depends upon God.

The latter depends upon us. And of course, the spirit of God is involved as well. The former comes through faith alone.

Taking hold requires faith plus obedience. So you can tell he's talking about not being saved, but sanctification after we're saved, okay?

Paul is not telling Timothy he needs to come into possession of eternal life. He's not saying, you need to be saved,

Timothy. We already know that. We know that Timothy is a believer. Paul acknowledges that in the opening statement of his letter to him.

And he's basically saying, get a grip on who you are, on the fact that you have eternal life.

You were called to this. This is the effectual calling to salvation by God.

We are to take hold of what God has already given to us and basically take hold of it mentally.

Get our minds wrapped around it. Get convicted deep down in our hearts and minds of who we are in Christ.

We have eternal life. We were called to eternal life. And we made the good confession, just like Timothy did here, in the presence of many witnesses.

So Paul is reminding Timothy that part of fighting the good fight of the faith is remembering who you are in Christ.

That you have eternal life. In other words, Timothy, the life you have is eternal.

It's not temporary. And the same is true for us. We have eternal life in Jesus Christ.

He says this again down in verse 19. We're going to see this next week.

Speaking of wealthy people, he wants them to focus on spiritual issues.

And at the end of 19, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Very important biblical principle. We need to know who we are in Christ. We need to know that this is a calling.

This is not something that goes in and out. When God calls you, he calls you to eternal life.

You can think of many verses, I'm sure, like Romans 8, that famous golden chain of salvation.

Whom he foreknew, these he also. And it mentions called. And then it goes right straight down through to glorification.

Okay? If he foreknew you, you're going to be glorified. If he foreknew you, you're going to be called and respond to that call.

Because it's not a calling that can be denied. It is the effectual calling of God to salvation.

In other words, to the presence of Christ and the glory of Christ. You need to take hold of that,

Timothy, because you're going to be doing spiritual warfare and you need to know who you are in Christ.

Very, very important. This word here, to take, occurs 19 times in the

New Testament. Very interestingly, it's always in the middle voice. Middle voice tends to be reflexive.

In other words, the subject is somehow, in some way, the recipient or the participant of the action.

Basically saying, Timothy, take hold for yourself these great truths of who you are in Christ.

You have eternal life. You've been called to it by God. And that's an effectual calling.

And you made the good confession. So, there's Roman numeral four.

We must take hold of these things. If we're going to do God's work God's way and fight spiritual battles the way

God wants us to fight them. And then, number five, Roman numeral five. We must keep the commandment.

We must flee certain things. We must pursue certain things. We must fight the good fight.

We must take hold of certain things, mentally, experientially. But we also must keep the commandment.

Paul says this. And it's, once again, he puts it in the form of a command, a charge.

I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

And here's the command. To keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

We must keep the commandments. Paul uses this little phrase,

I charge, or I charge you, five times in 1 Timothy. Chapter one, verse three.

Chapter four, verse 11. Chapter five, verse seven. Six, 13, and again in 17.

Charge these people. I charge you. What's the commandment he's talking about?

Well, the whole body of moral precepts of Christianity. Everything that's commanded in Scripture.

We could say, well, is he just talking about what he wants him to do here in Ephesus as part of his ministry?

Well, of course, that has to be there. But it's also everything that we are commanded to do in Scripture. In Matthew 28, 19, the very familiar, we commonly call it the

Great Commission, right? The end of Matthew's gospel there. The resurrected Christ says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe, that's the

ESV, all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

Teaching them to observe, that's exactly the same word that Paul uses right here. Keep the commandments. It's a statement of obedience.

We have to obey all that he has commanded. The King James Observe, the

New American Standard Follow, right? Legacy Standard Bible, keep these things.

He's talking about obedience here. Obey all that I have commanded you. And it's based upon his authority and that's all authority.

He's the supreme authority. So the church is commanded by Christ to teach obedience in the

Great Commission Statement. And this is what we are supposed to do. And how do we do it?

How do we keep the commandment? Well, we need to keep it unstained. This is what he says here is part of, again, a reference to his life, right?

The commandments and you keep them unstained by living a pure life. In 1 Peter 119,

Peter refers to Jesus as a lamb unblemished and spotless.

Unblemished and spotless. And of course, in 1 Peter, Peter's really big on teaching these

Christians who are undergoing persecution to live godly lives.

And you can read through 1 Peter and see the emphasis on living holy and godly lives, even when you're being unjustly persecuted.

That's how we keep the commandment unstained. Or without blemish. James 1 27 says, keep yourselves unstained from the world.

So easy to get involved, even just mentally, in what we see happening out in the world, right? I mean, it's disgusting.

It's discouraging. I mean, I grew up near Disneyland in Southern California.

I remember when they built it in Orange County. They had to tear out orange orchards to make Disneyland. And I used to come home from kindergarten and watch the

Mickey Mouse Club every day when I was a little kid. And it was just something many of us just grew up with.

But boy, has it ever changed, right? I mean, goofy is not exactly what it used to mean.

It's sad and it's disgusting, but it's the way of the world, okay? We can't be naive and think that these things aren't gonna be impacted.

Of course, Satan wants to pervert everything that's good, everything that's innocent. And this is what we see around us.

But as far as we're concerned and what we're responsible for as believers, we need to keep our lives without stain, spot, or blemish.

And he says, keep it unstained, keep it free from reproach. Now, we've seen this word before.

This is a requirement for an elder, right? This word means to not lay hold of.

It's literally what it means. Don't let it grab ahold of you. It doesn't mean without reproach, but don't let there be a legitimate criticism of your behavior.

This is what it means. And how long are we supposed to do it? Do this until Christ returns.

This is what's really kind of fascinating here. Why doesn't Paul say, do this,

Timothy, until you die? He could have, right? When does our spiritual battle end?

It ends when we die. But he doesn't do that. He says, until Christ return. I think Paul is anticipating the immediate, imminent return of Jesus Christ in the rapture of the church.

That also will end our spiritual struggles, will it not? Those are the two ways that it'll end. Until the appearing of Christ, he says.

Keep the commandment unstained, free from reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

Paul's anticipating being quickly, instantaneously removed from this planet through the rapture of the church.

1 Thessalonians 4 talks about that. He talks about it. That's his doctrine, okay? And by the way, if you don't think that's a legitimate thing to discuss or talk about, remember what's going on there.

What category of theology is the rapture of the church? The dead in Christ will rise.

That's a resurrection doctrine. We need to take it very seriously. So Paul is telling

Timothy how he wants him to fight the good fight. Fight the good fight God's way.

We don't fight like the world does. We don't argue like the world does. We have the weapons of our warfare, right?

They're spiritual weapons, and we need to be aware of that. So five commands, we just transfer them right over and try to apply them to our lives to the best of our ability in the guidance of the

Holy Spirit. Flee, pursue, fight, take hold, keep.

And so I thought this would be a good place to just stop and see if you have any thoughts or questions from what we've seen.

And I exhort you to contend in front of the spiritual faith.

It is, yep. I believe that's agonizing. Yep, it is. It's agonizing.

Yeah. To exasperate yourself. Yeah, it's a struggle. It's, and again, it's probably as much of an athletic metaphor.

You know, picture that long -distance runner. They're usually not smiling when they cross the finish line.

It's agony, you know. But yeah, it is. Same concept. Jude wants his readers to do exactly what

Paul wants Timothy to do in Ephesus. Contend for the faith. And again, the faith.

The faith is the objective content of our faith. This is so thematic throughout

Paul's writings and throughout scripture, is the battle pretty much is a battle for the truth, right?

So anything else? Anybody else have any thoughts or questions? Yes. It's critical, as you say.

Now you're talking about how we would deal with that person in a personal interaction. Well, I think that last element there in number two, gentleness.

We can speak the truth in gentleness. And you can see how this is done by the Apostle Paul in his writings.

He always dealt gently with people. In Galatians, he said, I came to you. I was as gentle as a nursing mother.

Boy, you can't. There's no more gentle picture than that. But it is also to the Galatian Christians that he really hammers them in the first chapter for abandoning the faith and getting ready to chase after a different gospel.

So when it came to dealing with believers and their growth and their spiritual lives, Paul was very gentle as a nursing mother.

But when it came to dealing with false doctrine and false gospels, he was a sledgehammer and not afraid to say it.

But always in the sense of, you know, gentleness, but truthfulness as well.

They have to be together. We have to speak the truth in love. Well, I think, yeah, and I have heard those people.

Probably not that one specifically. But once again, a little tell.

Do they get angry? Why do they get angry? Why would they get angry if they are personally not a part of their system, right?

I'm not a part of my system. I'm a passive recipient of the grace of God.

Hallelujah. So if somebody wants to refute what I believe, number one, they got to do it from the text of Scripture.

Because that's the only way I'm going to be convinced. But also, you know, they can argue for their position all they want to.

And I don't think it should discourage us. Because if our arguments are coming from the

Word of God and we're comfortable with that, we should be confident in that and not let that discourage us.

That person is responsible before the Lord. And I think if we just simply understand the

Bible the best that we can and then try to, if it comes down to an interpersonal interaction, just state our case, but state it biblically.

And that way, without being personal, it's not personal, that way their argument is with the

Word of God and not with me personally. I always like to say, you know, it's not personal.

It's kind of like, think of it like a SEAL team sniper. Not personal. Might be devastating, but it's not personal, right?

They're equal opportunity devastators. So, of course, I'm joking. But if our argument is from the

Scriptures, then they may want to make it personal. And that was the whole point, I think, of this quote. Why do people get so upset personally about it, angry?

Well, probably because they are an integral part of their system. And so the argument from grace is what?

It devastates their carnal thoughts. Because grace and flesh are mutually exclusive.

It's an offense to the carnal mind. It's as simple as that, I think. I'm not sure if that answers your question, but sure.

Yeah, anything else? Anybody else? Jesus said, when they attempt to defend it, they are expressed unwittingly.

Yeah. And so that gives me a lot of room for grace. It's an incredible thing to see, to participate in, to interact with.

But the reality is, it's obvious. And it is devastating. It is devastating. Like the sniper quote that you said.

Might not be the best metaphor I could have chose, but kind of how my mind works. Could have been like, you know,

Vito Corleone, build a business, you know. But I think, and you go back to Romans 8, and you look at that passage,

Whom he foreknew. That's an active verb. It's not foreknowledge. The Armenians will oftentimes, it's a little sleight of hand.

Well, sure, God has foreknowledge, and you need to stop. Whoa, whoa, that's not what it says. God foreknew. It's something he did.

And it ends with glorification. And nowhere in that chain does anybody drop out.

Everybody who he foreknew gets glorified. That's inarguable, unless you want to twist the scripture or make foreknowledge something

God has, which he does have. He has all knowledge. He has perfect knowledge. He's omniscient. But that's not what

Paul says. That is an active verb. It's something God did. Kind of like Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said,

I never knew you. Well, it's not saying he didn't know about them. He never actively knew them.

So, right.

Yeah, and the only solution

I have is like my own salvation that I had nothing to do with. I'm totally dependent on the

Spirit of God to convict that person of the truth. And my job is simply to proclaim the truth to the best of my ability and trust the

Spirit to take that and do what he did with me and those who have come to know him. Conviction, confession, repentance, and salvation.

And that's the work of the Spirit of God. We can't take on to ourselves. That's what our minions do.

They take on to themselves all these different ways to manipulate people's emotions. And if we just do this, we just do that.

Well, God's method is to take the Word of God and faithfully teach it and preach it and trusting him with the results.

But yeah, it is a concern. And that's a good sign if we're concerned about people's salvation, right?

Anything else? Anybody else have any thoughts or comments? Okay, real quickly here in the few minutes we have left.

I have simply just added from 15b through 16, we must remember who our God is, okay?

Part of doing spiritual warfare is knowing who our commander is and who our Savior is. And we won't take a lot of time here.

But Paul says, and this is, once again, another doxology. It's almost as if the minute he begins to contemplate the return of Christ, he just launches into the statement of praise to God.

And he says at the end of 15 there, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the

King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. We must remember who our God is. He's the author and sustainer of life.

Back from verse 13. What does Paul do? He goes right back to creation. Creation is the foundational doctrinal truth for everything else in the

Bible. All theology is built on the doctrine of creation. You give up creation, you give up basically the rest of the

Bible. That's what it comes down to. And he goes right straight back to it. He created all things.

He's the one who John says in his gospel account, in chapter 1 verse 3, all things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

Colossians 1 16, the apostle Paul, same apostle said this, for in him, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

Jesus Christ is the creator. And he is the one who is our commander in this spiritual battle.

He's the sustainer of life. He sustains our life. And he's coming back.

Verses 14 and 15. We mentioned that. And then Paul says he is the blessed and only sovereign.

There aren't two. There aren't three. There aren't multiple sovereigns out there. He is the only one.

The only sovereign one. And here is that kind of a well -known little phrase, king of kings and lord of lords, right?

Remember that in Ephesus, it was not only the center of the false worship of this goddess

Artemis, you know, that had the big temple of Artemis, and they even had a trade going on, probably even possibly what

Paul's talking about. There are people who think godliness is a means of gain. Go back and read the account in Acts, right? Paul got in big trouble because he was wrecking the trade, you know, the silversmiths there at the time.

But he says he is the king of the reigning ones. And I just simply made a very literal translation of the participle there.

King of the reigning ones. Lord of the ruling ones. Ephesus was also the center of emperor worship, okay?

So there was a massive cult to the false goddess Artemis, but also a cult of emperor worship.

I think this is Paul's way here, and a lot of commentators feel it's his way of tweaking these false cults, you know?

You think you have a god in the emperor or a goddess in this woman Artemis?

No, no, no, no. Of all of the reigning ones, he's the king. And of all the ruling ones, he's the lord over them.

And he's also the one who, the only one with immortality, okay?

Basically, it's a word that says no death. He's not the one who is a dead god, a dead person that we worship.

We worship the true and living God, the one who's alive right now. And just reminds me of that great verse in Hebrews 7, 25.

He ever lives to make intercession for the saints. He ever lives. He's alive right now making intercession for you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

And because of all of that, he's the only one with immortality. He's the one who no one has seen or can see, right?

He's revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And because of that, he's the one who is worthy, the only one worthy of eternal honor and dominion.

So Paul ends this section with a statement of praise, a statement of the glory of God, and why he is the only one who is worthy of our honor and our worship.

And he ends it all by saying, amen, okay? So let's pray.

Father, thank you for our time in your word this morning. And thank you for what it teaches us about who we are in Christ and about how we are to engage the spiritual warfare that we find ourselves in.

Continue, Father, to build these truths into our hearts and minds and help us to realize who we are in Christ, that we have eternal life.

We need not fear. We need not fear the future or anything else because of what you have accomplished for us.

And so we just thank you for that in Jesus' name. And we pray now, Father, as we gather to worship you, that you would give great joy to all who participate, that you would give strength and encouragement to those who preach and lead us in worship, and help us to always then praise you in Jesus' name.