Sunday Sermon: Fight the Good Fight (1 Timothy 6:11-14)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe. I was reading earlier this week from a 17th century

Puritan named Arthur Hildersham and he said the following, true religion where it is received will command the heart and the whole man.

Let a man profess what he will. If his heart and life is not reformed, he is a hypocrite and whatever worship he does to God is but a false worship.

Today we will hear again in this passage the call to pursue godliness that our life and our doctrine would be consistent with one another.

As Paul charges Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith, let us stand together as we read hearing the word of the king in first Timothy six verses 11 to 16.

I'm reading from the English standard version. Hear the word of the Lord. But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness, fight the good fight of the faith.

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.

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 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. 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, who no one has ever seen or can see to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. You may be seated as we pray. Lord, as we come to this text, excuse me, heavenly father, as we, as we come to this text today, as we get closer to our conclusion of this letter that Paul had written to his servant

Timothy preaching in the church in Ephesus, I pray as these charges have been given to a man that Paul calls man of God, that we likewise would desire to be men and women of God.

We are men and women in God's possession. We are vessels belonging to you.

And so God, as you would use us for your purposes, for the advancement of your kingdom, for the proclamation of your word, may we be evangelically minded.

We are in pursuit of righteousness and we are in pursuit of others so that they would hear the word of the gospel of Christ and come to salvation and believe.

May we continue in this word growing in these things that have been mentioned here, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness until the day of Christ appears.

It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and all God's people said, amen. I heard a story recently of D .L.

Moody, the famous American evangelist, the Moody church in Chicago, and also

Moody university named after him, Moody Bible college. Moody had gone over to London and he was preaching in the

United Kingdom. And there were some ministers there, some priests, most likely who were

Anglican, who had been listening to Moody and they became rather jealous of him. They saw that this man, who was a

Yankee, who was an uneducated man, he had nothing better than a sixth grade education, was preaching such powerful sermons and people were listening to him and coming to hear him in droves.

And he would do these evangelical invitations of people to come to Christ. And there were people who were repenting of their sin and putting their faith and trust in Jesus.

And these Anglican ministers watching Moody do this were going, how does he do it? This uneducated man, how does he preach these powerful sermons and attract people in such a powerful way?

And so they went to the suite where Moody was staying. It was a place where he was put up by his benefactors so that he would have a place to stay while he was there in London.

And these ministers came and they knocked on the door and they said, Mr. Moody, we just, we want to talk to you about how you preach such powerful sermons and how so many people listen to you.

And he said, well, sir, come on in. Let's, let's, let's have a conversation. He said, let me take you over here to the window.

I want you to look out this window and I want you to tell me what it is that you see. And the flat where Moody was staying overlooked a park.

And these ministers stood there at a couple of different windows, one on one side, one on the other. And one of the ministers said, well, when

I look out, I see there's children playing out there in the park. And then another minister said, well,

I see a couple walking hand in hand. And another minister said, well,

I see someone sitting on a bench feeding the birds. And when they turned around and looked,

Moody was standing there in tears and they said, well, Mr. Moody, what is it that you see?

And Moody said, I see people who are going to hell if they do not have the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And without giving further word, Moody in effect said to these ministers, that's my passion.

That's my heart. And here the apostle Paul, as he has been giving these instructions to his servant,

Timothy, we've read some pretty deep doctrines as we've gone through first Timothy, some basic and simple instructions that any one of us can understand and want to follow.

But at the same time, there's been some deep truths that have been spoken about here.

And we see that here, basic instructions, deep doctrine. And yet at the heart of all of this is this instruction that Paul gives to Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith.

Over the course of this letter, we have heard Paul's heart for people and his desire for Timothy to have that same heart.

Have a heart for the people in your church and have a heart even for people that are outside the church.

Do the work of an evangelist, an instruction that Paul has given. And so as we read these things here that Paul is going to give with regard to instructions to Timothy, closing instructions that we might consider them as we're getting closer to the end of first Timothy.

Yet we hear from the apostle Paul, a man who has a heart for people, a desire for God and a desire for others to know

God so that this fighting the good fight of the faith is for the sake of Timothy.

It's for the sake of himself, but even for the sake of the people that have been entrusted to his care.

As we look at this passage today, we see this broken up into three parts.

The first two parts are exhortation. We have a first exhortation and a second exhortation. You'll notice that this first exhortation is marked.

It's punctuated by these action words. Flee these things.

Pursue righteousness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life.

The second exhortation is more broad, where Paul says,

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 it is, the exhortation in verse 14, keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ. So you have in that first exhortation things that Timothy must do and even setting himself as an example to the rest of the body in terms of the pursuit of godliness.

But in that second exhortation has to do with the doctrine. Keep the doctrine close.

Don't let it go. It is the doctrine itself that is driving you to flee from sin and pursue righteousness and to fight the good fight of the faith.

Lastly, we have in verses 15 to 16, an exaltation.

So you have a first exhortation, a second exhortation, and then an exaltation of Christ in verses 15 to 16 with some incredible and lofty language, even higher than anything that Paul has used in this letter up to this point.

He is the blessed and only sovereign. He is the king of kings and lord of lords. He alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light.

No one has ever seen him nor can see him. And to him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen. So in these things, as we hear these exhortations and even this great exaltation of mighty doctrine, this charge is being given to Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith.

And as we hear this instruction given from the apostle Paul to his servant Timothy, may we also hear and understand how we are to fight the good fight, how we are to pursue these same things, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness, and find application in these things in the life of every

Christian. So let's come back to the first part here, this first exhortation, where Paul begins this statement with this statement,

As for you, O man of God. Now this phrase, man of God, this title, appears over 70 times in the

Bible. It occurs only one time, applied to only one person in the

New Testament. And that's Timothy. He is the only person in the

New Testament who is called man of God. The word appears 70 times, or the title appears 70 times in the

Old Testament, and it's applied to men like Moses. He's the first one in the Bible who is called man of God.

Samuel, even David, is called man of God. The angel of the

Lord in Judges 13 is referred to as the man of God. More often than not, it is a title that is given to a prophet.

Elijah and Elisha were both called men of God. When somebody came to speak to Elisha, he said,

I've come to talk to the man of God. There are even prophets in the

Old Testament that are not given names. We don't know what their names are, and they're called man of God.

In 1 Kings 13, there is such an account. I'm in 1 Kings 13 here, and it was

Jeroboam who was standing by the altar to make offerings. And the man of God came to Jeroboam and said,

O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places, who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.

So these priests who had been sacrificing humans to God, these priests would end up being sacrificed on those altars as they would be put to death for the abominable practices that had been done in Judah at that particular time.

Now, this was a prophecy concerning a king named Josiah that wouldn't come about for several generations.

But that was exactly what would be fulfilled. This king would come exactly by that name,

Josiah. And here is this unnamed prophet who's known only by man of God who is making this declaration at the altar.

Well, Jeroboam was incensed by this, and he stretched out his hand and he said, seize that man.

And when he did, his hand withered up and shrank right there in his very presence as he had it extended in front of him.

Well, this terrified Jeroboam. And he spoke to the man of God and said, plead to Yahweh on my behalf that my hand would be restored.

The man of God did so, and his hand was indeed restored to him. Well, more goes on in this account of this man of God.

He was told by God. After Jeroboam's arm was restored, he said, come into my house and eat and drink.

And the man of God said, no, God has told me in coming here to deliver this message that I'm not to eat and drink anything.

And I'm even supposed to go back by the way, by a different way than I came.

And so indeed, the man of God was returning back to the place where he came from, but going by a different route.

Well, there was a prophet who was told about this. There's this man of God came, spoke this word to Jeroboam, and his hand shrank.

And then the man of God restored it. The prophet heard about this and said, which way did he go? And so the prophet went the way that the man of God had gone.

And he came to the man of God and said, come to my house and eat and drink. The man of God said, no,

Yahweh told me that I am not to eat and drink anything. And I am even to return back to the place where I came from by a different way.

Well, this prophet said, an angel has come to me and has said to me that you are to come to my house and you are to eat and drink.

And the man of God said, oh, OK, then I'll go with you to your house and eat and drink. And as he was sitting in the prophet's house, eating and drinking, the prophet said to him, you have disobeyed

Yahweh. For he told you not to eat and drink, and now you won't be able to return to the place that you came from.

The man of God was back on his way. And as he was on the road, a lion came and devoured him and drug him to the side of the road and left him there with his donkey on one side and the lion on the other.

And as people passed by that place, they saw the donkey, the dead man of God and the lion right there, realizing that this man had disobeyed

God. And this was the penalty or the punishment for his disobedience. So there is quite an honor in being called man of God.

But there's a little bit of terror in that as well. For God places a higher responsibility, a higher expectation on the person who would be his man, who is in his possession to do the work that God has assigned for him to do.

And surely these things were on Timothy's mind when

Paul called him man of God. It was bittersweet to a certain sense.

There was a sense in which Timothy is going, what an honor. Paul, the apostle, is calling me by the title that Moses and Samuel and David were called.

But I also remember that there was a man of God who did not do as Yahweh had instructed him to do, and he was devoured on the way.

And so Timothy recognizing, I must keep my way pure. I must do as God has instructed and not diverting to the left or to the right.

And so here Paul calls Timothy that man of God. You, oh man of God, flee these things.

Flee what things? Well, in direct context, it's going to be the things that we just read about. Remember the nature of the false teachers that we had heard about last week in verses 3 through 5.

A person who goes away from the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

And because he is not drawn to the good doctrine of Christ, he divides the church.

We're not pulled together in unity, but rather we are pulled apart from one another. For this man has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicion, and constant friction.

Just about every word that Paul could use to indicate division happening.

If we're not in the sound words of our Lord Christ, we will not be together.

And so instead, Paul says, you've got these false teachers here who are in pursuit of godliness.

They're in pursuit of something that looks like godliness, but they are pursuing it for their own selfish gain.

They imagine that godliness is a means of gain. They do what they do to profit from it.

Maybe they do what they do to make a living out of it. You know, there could be some pastors out there who will never get rich and famous.

They don't have these huge mega churches, and they're not living in big mansions. But nonetheless, they're like, you know, preaching is easy for me.

I can do that, so that's going to be my occupation. That's going to be my way of life. So they do the role of a pastor or a preacher just so they can make a living.

In which case, their heart is not really in preaching the gospel.

Their heart is in just providing for my needs and my family. The idea and the mindset is still on the money and not on the mission.

And so this is a person who imagines that godliness is a means of gain. But Paul says in chapter 6, verse 6, godliness with contentment is great gain.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of it. But if we have food and clothing with these things, we will be content.

But then Paul goes on to warn about those who desire to be rich. And they fall into temptation and into many snares.

And he says in verse 10, the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. And it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pangs.

And it's exactly this that Paul says, flee that. Don't have anything to do with that.

Don't let your mind go astray from the mission. Remember what you are in this for.

What you were called to. Why did you wander around with me for so long and in so many dangers that we were in?

The things that you witnessed, the persecutions that Paul went through, why did you go through all of that? Was it for the money?

It was for the message. It was for the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.

That those who hear it would come to faith and salvation in Jesus Christ.

So flee these things that are not of God. And instead, Paul says, pursue.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

So he says, flee these things. We have several places in scripture where we are told to flee something.

1 Corinthians 6 where it says, flee sexual immorality. Later on in 2

Timothy 2 .22, Paul tells Timothy, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness.

So there are several places we're told to flee something. But it's never just flee. We're supposed to turn in the direction of righteousness.

This goes back to the very first declaration of the gospel that was made by Christ.

In the gospels. In Matthew 4 .17. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1 .15. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel. So Jesus doesn't just say, repent.

He also says, believe. You're turning from one thing and you're turning to another.

Right? Just like you take a coin and you turn it around. You might be turning heads around the other way, but you're turning tails toward you.

And so in this way, I guess a better way to put it, you're turning tail toward sin and you're turning your head toward God.

That would be the better way to use the illustration. We're turning away from something to something else.

We're repenting of sin and believing in Christ and his gospel. And so likewise here,

Paul gives that same application. Flee the way of the false teachers.

And pursue the marks of the man of God. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

Let's go through these things again, just like we did when we read of these things back in chapter four.

First of all, you have righteousness. This is synonymous with justice. So it is understanding what is deemed right by the

Lord and pursuing that. As you have heard it said in Matthew 6, 33,

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all the things that you need will be added to you as well.

Now in seeking the righteousness of Christ, this does not mean that we don't have righteousness once we become

Christians. So now we have to go looking for it. No, the moment you come to faith in Jesus, you are made righteous.

And there's no more righteousness you need than what God has already given to you in his son.

When you come to faith in Christ, Jesus no longer sees you as an enemy, but he receives you as a friend.

God does not see you as the object of his wrath and his judgment, but he sees you as the object of his love and affection.

Having been adopted into his family through the blood of Jesus Christ. You are made righteous, clothed in his righteousness in the presence of God.

You have all the righteousness you will ever need. You don't need any more. As Christ is completely righteous, so that is the way that God sees you when you've been clothed in his righteousness.

So then what does it mean to pursue righteousness? This isn't righteousness in that same sense that we've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but rather it is going after those things that God has said is right.

When I've gone through this with my kids and I've asked them, what does righteousness mean? Give me a definition of righteousness and I'll ask them, what's the first word right there at the beginning of righteousness?

It's the word right. So it's doing what is right. Same with justice.

What's a definition of justice? What's the word right at the beginning of justice? Just. It's doing what is just.

But even more specifically, it's doing that which God has said is righteous. What God has said is just.

So we need to continually be after that. Every day, even asking ourselves, what can

I do today that is good in the sight of God? And we go after those things and pursue them.

The next one on the list is godliness. This is one we've talked about over and over, over the course of this letter, especially in the second half.

For it was said to Timothy back in chapter four, have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths.

Rather, train yourself for godliness. What is godliness? It is piety.

It is holiness. It is devotion to God. It is the desire to be like God or to grow in Christlikeness.

This is what it means to be godly. You might take, in contrast to godliness, there's worldliness.

Do you want to be like the world or do you want to be like God? And so the desire to be more holy as he is holy, as the instruction is given in 1

Peter 1. So we pursue growing in godliness. Next one on the list is faith.

And as I had said previously when we saw that in chapter four, this doesn't mean that you don't have faith.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have faith. So what does it mean then to pursue faith?

But we rather grow in faithfulness. We grow in our confidence in the word that God has given to us.

For when we first come to faith in Jesus Christ, surely we believe this word. But how immature is your trust in that word?

As you continue to grow in the word, you become more confident of the word.

You are more and more sure these things are right and true. God has said my sins are forgiven and I believe it.

God has said there is laid up for me an eternal reward with Christ forever in glory and I believe it.

And your desire and your pursuit of things in this life becomes less and less about the stuff of this world and more and more about the things of Christ.

As Paul gave the instruction in Colossians chapter 3, if you are a follower of Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

The more we seek those things, the more we grow in our faith. One commentary says the following about this word and where it sits in this verse.

Faith is always the gift from God and never something that can be produced by people.

In short, pistis, which is the Greek word translated faith here, meaning faith for the believer, is

God's divine persuasion. It is therefore distinct from human belief, yet involving it.

The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what he prefers, the persuasion of his will, unquote.

As 1 John 5, 4 says, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that he has overcome the world, our faith.

The next word, number four, we see on this list is love. And this is the Greek word agape, which means benevolence.

And the interesting thing when I was looking each one of these words up in a Greek dictionary, every single one of them up through these words, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, every one of them had as part of their definition what

God desires. So righteousness is what God calls right. Godliness is

Christ -likeness, being like God. Faith is what

God has said is meaningful and true and good. Love is God's affections for certain things, so likewise our affections must be oriented into those things that God loves.

If we have a heart that desires godliness, then we are going to love the things that God loves and we are going to hate the things that God hates, namely our sin.

A lot of us are walking around trying to find the sins of others, but we're not as diligent to put the death, the sins in ourselves.

My friends, the sins in other people won't kill you. The sin in yourself will.

So we should be more about putting to death the sinfulness and unrighteousness that is within us and bringing to life, understanding those things that have been brought to life in us by faith in Christ, that pursuit of righteousness and godliness in His name.

We love what God loves. And so likewise in being said to Timothy to pursue love, it is also being said to him,

God loves men, you must love men. God so loved the world,

He gave His Son. You must love the world that you would preach about His Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

The next on the list, number five, is steadfastness. Steadfastness is endurance or patiently waiting for, enabled by God to remain in Christ even amidst the challenges of life.

I loved the selection by our musicians today when Josh led us in How Firm a

Foundation. Let me remind you again of that fourth verse. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient will be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

We will go through fiery trials, but God has put us in these situations to refine us, to make us more like Him, to get rid of the dross and the sin.

May those things be burned up, and what is left is those things that are righteous and good and pure.

This is steadfastness. That when difficult times come, it doesn't cause us to shrink back or fall away.

Instead, we press on, because we understand, as said in Psalm 23, this was the psalm that I closed with last week, but in Psalm 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Which for a shepherd, a rod and a staff were instruments to guide and also correct. And these are the things that God is doing for us, even when we go through difficult trials, that we would be drawn nearer to Him.

And this steadfastness that we have is not under our own power to endure, but it is the power of God working through us.

Jude 1, 24 to 25, to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.

He keeps you from stumbling. And presents you before Him as perfected.

Lastly, number six, pursue gentleness. And this word is synonymous with meekness, or divinely balanced virtue.

It's in Matthew 5, 5, where Jesus says, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

When I preached through the Sermon on the Mount and looked up that word, exactly what do we understand meekness to mean?

Because more often than not, the word is going to make meekness synonymous with weakness, just because they rhyme.

So meek is weak. That can't be the definition of weak. Jesus is not calling us to be weak.

So what is the definition of meekness? And here's the definition that I found in the

HELPS Word Studies. Meekness is God's strength under His control.

What a great definition. So meekness is not being weak because we have

God's strength. But we also don't use that power with undue harshness.

But in meekness, we have received the strength of God and have placed it under His control.

And this is that call to gentleness, even gentleness. It's not a call to be weak.

It's, in fact, a call to be strong, but to do so under the control of God. So as Timothy is called to this, man of God, flee these sins, pursue these things, may they be desires in us as well.

Now the person who has been called to be a preacher and a teacher has a greater responsibility to these things.

But they are still a Christ -mindedness that we all should desire. Pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

Paul goes on to say, in light of this in verse 12, fight the good fight of the faith.

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.

Just like I said about righteousness, we must desire what God says is right. And it means like you would wake up today and think, what can

I be in pursuit of that would be pleasing unto God? It's the very same nature of this exhortation that Paul gives in verse 12.

Fight the good fight of the faith. That's a daily thing, that we continually be fighting the good fight.

Whenever we hear this expression, spiritual warfare, our understanding of spiritual warfare might be like This Present Darkness written by Frank Peretti.

For those of you who are old enough to remember that book, how popular it was back in the 90s. It's like there's angels and demons that are fighting with one another.

They have their spiritual swords even. Like right here as we are gathered in church and we're hearing the word of God spoken and we're singing songs and we're praying together, like there's demons and angels fighting all around us because our minds start to wonder, ah, the demon's getting a hold of us, so here's the angel, comes along, no, beats him back.

That's what we think is happening in spiritual warfare. My friend, the desire to wake up today and worship

God is spiritual warfare. You are fighting back the powers of darkness and pursuing the light of Christ.

The desire today to love your spouse, even though your spouse might be difficult today to love, that's spiritual warfare.

I saw some wives elbowing their husbands when I said that. It's usually the husband. I was not the easiest to love this week.

I had a pretty grumpy week. But still, the desire to love your spouse, a husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church, a wife to submit to her husband as the church is to submit to Christ, that's spiritual warfare.

The desire to discipline your children in the training and the instruction of the Lord and being consistent in that is spiritual warfare.

The desire to seize the temptation when it occurs in your mind so it doesn't reign over you or turn into sin that you would possess to make you feel good for a little while.

That's spiritual warfare. To not give in to the temptation, to fight back the sin, to put to death what is earthly in you, these are all things that we do to fight the good fight, to remember

God's promises today and not fall into despair. But though I weep, and as David says in the

Psalms, my couch is soaked with my tears, yet you don't lose your grip on the promises of God that are given to us in Christ and you continue to hold fast to the reality of heaven that will be for every one of us who endure to the end.

That's spiritual warfare. Not letting the lies of Satan discourage you, but letting the truth of God encourage you.

And thus we fight the good fight. We take hold of the eternal life to which we have been called, about which

Paul says to Timothy, you've made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Have you been baptized?

Are you a baptized believer? Then likewise, you've made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

And hold fast to that. Remember what it was that you proclaimed. And just like a husband and a wife must continually remember the vows that they made to one another on their wedding day.

Their marriage didn't begin and end on the wedding day, but that they continue to remember these covenant confessions that they made to one another.

So we must be in remembrance of those things as we continue this walk of faith or fighting the good fight of the faith.

We remember the pledge we made at the very beginning. The declaration I made at my baptism when

I said through my baptism, I am buried with Christ in my sins and risen again to new life.

So am I walking in that new life? Am I going after the world or am

I going after the righteousness of Christ? So continue in the good confession that you made in the presence of many witnesses.

This is the first exhortation that's punctuated by these various instructions, these action words to flee and pursue and fight and take hold.

And next we have a second exhortation in verses 13 to 15. Paul says,

I charge you in the presence of God. Now this is just like when

Paul said in verse 11 called Timothy man of God. Well, that's an honor, but also a little bit fearful.

And same with this statement in verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God. What an honor, but at the same time pretty intimidating to know that everything that I say and do is being witnessed by God.

I stand in the presence of God. I have come into his presence and entered in as said in the book of Hebrews through Christ.

He is our entrance into the very place of God. Jesus is our fellowship with God.

And so now in the presence of God who gives life to all things. You know why you woke up this morning?

By the grace of God. It is only by his blessing that you get to take your next breath.

You know, and in the same sense too, we must consider this as Christians. It is also by the blessing of God that we don't get to take our next breath.

Because then we graduate from this life into the next one where there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, and we will dwell with God forever in his perfect kingdom.

But God is the one who gives life to all things. Even the atheist is sustained by the common grace of God.

As Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, God causes his son to rise on the just and on the unjust, and his reign to fall on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

So he gives life to all things. Every animal that exists is sustained by the hand of God.

That's one of those challenges that God makes of Job when you read through the book of Job. Are you the one that feeds the birds?

Are you the one that cares for the calf when it is born?

Are you the one that sustains the lilies of the field? All of these things are upheld by God's righteous right hand as we sang about this morning.

God is the one who gives life to all things. And Jesus Christ, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate, made the good confession.

Remember that Paul said, you've made the good confession. So you're following the example of Christ who made the good confession standing in the presence of Pontius Pilate.

Pilate asked Jesus this question, are you a king? And according to Matthew's gospel,

Jesus' response is, you have said so. Now in modern vernacular, it would be, you got that right.

That's how we would understand that. So Jesus made the declaration of his kingship even standing before a man who said, do you not understand that I have the authority to either put you to death or to let you go?

And what was Jesus' response to him then? You would have no authority if it had not been given to you from above.

And that was the authority that Christ himself was in submission to when he gave himself over to die as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Christ made the good confession in the presence of Pontius Pilate. And so Paul is even giving

Timothy a heads up here. Like you are going to be dragged before authorities and you are gonna be put in this position, the same position that our

Lord Christ was put in. You are going, it is going to be said to you, you either renounce this confession or you be put to death.

And what are you gonna say? You've made the good confession in front of many witnesses as Christ made the confession before Pontius Pilate, so you hold fast to the confession and keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, by being in pursuit of these things, by fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness, by fighting the good fight of the faith, by taking hold of the eternal life to which you were called, in so doing, you keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our

Lord Jesus Christ. The man of God, specifically the one who has been called and appointed to the work of preaching the word of God, that's what the man of God did in the

Old Testament, that's what Paul is instructing Timothy to do here in the

New Testament. You would be like those men of God of old to whom the word of God was given and he spoke it.

Well, the word of God has been given to you. And so now as you take this word and you proclaim it to God's people and to the world, you become a testament of that word.

And so what does your life look like as one who says, turn from sin to the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will live? Repent and believe. If you're going to stand before the people and say that, but your life is not going to be consistent with what it is you preach, then you bring that word into reproach.

And people won't believe it because they won't even see the power of it at work in your life. And so Paul instructs

Timothy in this to fight the good fight, to take hold of the eternal life, to flee from sin and pursue those things that make for godliness.

This is to be the recognition, the activity, the occupation of the man of God.

Now I didn't even get to the exaltation part. I'm going to save that for next week. So we'll look at the exaltation and then close out the remainder of this letter.

But we have a great exaltation of Christ which I will read as the conclusion of this sermon before we come to the

Lord's table. But let me just reiterate once again. These instructions that Paul has given to Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith.

And just like I used the example of D .L. Moody in the very beginning. Moody who had a heart for God and for people.

And that was his driving motivation in the ministry that he did. So that is to be the very thing that drives the man of God.

That is to be the thing that Paul says should be driving Timothy. Now not all of us here, as I said earlier, not all of us here have been called to a position of preaching the word.

Not all of us here have been called to evangelism. You may never go overseas somewhere to preach the gospel.

You may not ever even consider yourself a public speaker in the sense that I can't even go downtown and stand on a box and tell people to repent and believe.

That kind of thing terrifies me. But I can speak one -on -one with somebody. All of us have been called to some degree to be evangelically minded.

Though you may not preach the word in this way or go on mission, nonetheless, you must have that heart for God and for people.

And so as Paul has given this instruction to Timothy to be this man of God, and remember it's said earlier that a pastor becomes like an example to the rest of the congregation.

So that is something that all of us should desire to be in pursuit of. The man of God should flee sin and pursue righteousness.

And guess what? So should you. You should be in pursuit of godliness, of faith and love and steadfastness and gentleness.

Every day, my friends, you must fight the good fight of the faith. Every day, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.

Every day, you continue to affirm the good confession that you made as a follower of Jesus Christ.

And we do this in light of the fact that we stand in the presence of God.

Continue in this until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion forever and ever.

And all God's people said, amen. ♪ This is

When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

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