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Wage the Good Warfare (1 Timothy 1:18-20)
Okay, if you're in the choir, would you please come up to the platform and stand in place? Oh, in the back. Sorry, in the back. If you want, I can walk down.
Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all. We're thankful that you're here and thankful that you're here safely this morning, considering conditions. So, I invite you to open your Bibles once again to 1 Timothy, Paul's letter to Timothy, and there is an outline, two-page outline.
If you don't have one, they're right here, and you can grab ahold of one of those and follow along as we continue our study in House Rules for God's Church. Last week, we looked at verses 12 through 17, and we saw Paul's gratitude for his salvation and that he recognized that he was the recipient of God's powerful, effective, overwhelming grace in his life.
Even though, as he said, he was a blasphemer and a persecutor, a persecutor of God's church, the Christians, but also a blasphemer of God. And in saying that, with those two words, he just captured the entire law and said he fractured, violated the whole law.
But two times in that same passage, he said, but I was mercied, as we saw. And the mention of God's saving grace in his life caused him to break forth in what we call a doxology, a statement of glory or a word of glory about God in verse 17.
To the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. And this morning, we're going to finish off this chapter with verses 18 through 20, what we're calling this morning, rule number four, wage the good warfare.
So it's as if Paul moves from the quiet of a chapel and the praising of God and thanksgiving to God and the glorification of God and says, okay, time to get back out on the street, back to the world, back to the warfare, back out there where the action is.
And that's important for us to do, right? Part of what we do when we come apart from the world, come here, and by the grace of God, is to fellowship together and worship our Lord and hear the word taught and preached, praise him.
But then it's back out on the street where most of things take place out there. So this morning, we're going to see wage the good warfare, rule number four in God's household. Before we do, let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing.
Our Father, we do thank you that we are also blessed and recipients of your great grace, even being able to gather here. We know that you have brought each one here today. In time, space, history, and your providential working, you have ordained that we would be here this morning.
So we just thank you for that. And we pray that you would teach us this morning from your word, by your spirit, and that you would be glorified in it. And we just thank you in Christ's mighty name, amen.
On the 2nd of August, 1990, and it's hard to believe it's been that many years, 2nd of August, 1990, the Iraqi army, by order of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, invaded their neighbor nation, the nation of Kuwait, and basically, as you remember, just overwhelmed that nation in a short period of time in a brutal way, occupied them.
Led by the United States, a coalition of 34 nations responded, and a massive military buildup began. The buildup of forces in the desert of Saudi Arabia, just south of Kuwait, went on for more than five months, and was named Desert Shield.
Close to a million coalition personnel were involved in that buildup, and over 500 ,000 of them were Americans. Finally, on the 17th of January, 1991, Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm.
A five-week bombing campaign began, and on February 24th, the ground campaign was unleashed. And just 100 hours later, amazingly, just 100 hours later, a ceasefire took place. After this stunning victory, the overall commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, gave a news conference in which he outlined the coalition strategy with maps and charts and statistics, in which he detailed how they did what they did in that overwhelming, rapid destruction of the Iraqi military, considered at that time the fourth largest in the world.
Like most Americans who watch a conference, I was impressed with the amazing victory, and also grateful to the Lord that our casualties were so light. But the one thing I remember, when the issue of the buildup was discussed, and the reporters began to ask questions, why did it take so long, why did you take so long, and why this massive buildup of forces before you actually attacked?
General Schwarzkopf said, never assume away the capabilities of your enemy. Never assume away the capabilities of your enemy. What is true in warfare between nations is doubly, maybe triply true in spiritual warfare.
Never assume away the capabilities of your enemy, and in our case, enemies. This is a reminder to Timothy by the Apostle Paul, as you remember, Timothy being left, sent into Ephesus to accomplish work there, while Paul moved on to Macedonia.
And Paul then charges him with this, and reminds him of his responsibilities as a soldier of Jesus Christ. So this morning, from this little three verse passage here, we're going to see our war, our weapons, and our warning.
Because if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, whether you know it or not, whether you want it or not, you're at war. It's a spiritual war, and we're going to see that warfare this morning. Wage the good warfare, Paul says in verse 18.
Actually, that's from the ESV translation, wage the good warfare. The word is actually war, the good warfare. So he uses the verb and the noun both in that sentence, war the good warfare. So this morning, we're going to see, first of all, our war.
We have a war, we're at war. And if you don't think that you're at war, that's okay. There's an awful lot that's at war with you, but you're at war. And first we need to see, we have our enemies. So just to sort of set the stage a little bit for what we're going to be looking at, let's turn in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter two.
We're going to be looking at verses one through three. This morning, we're going to kind of be doing a little bit of a Bible study here this morning, you know, kind of what used to be called, speaking of military genre, you're a sword.
Drill.
Okay, so thaw out your fingers a little bit, and we're going to be flipping through the pages of the word of God this morning. And first place is Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians two, verses one through three.
What are our enemies? Well, this is a good place to look. For one thing, it's the apostle Paul writing to the Ephesian Christians where Timothy is going to be ministering. And he's just detailing for them what they were like before they were saved.
How is it, what was your spiritual condition before you were saved? What were your spiritual enemies? And he says in chapter two, starting in verse one, and 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 at work in the sons 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.
Well, before people came to Christ, they were at war and they had enemies, probably didn't even realize it. But the one condition that they were in that the Bible describes an unsaved person is simply with one word.
You see it right there in verse one. How does the Bible describe unsaved people?
Dead.
Yeah, dead. They all knew what dead was and spiritually dead. But they were spiritually dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. And of course, Paul is using the word walk there as the normal course of life, how they live life.
Following the course of this world, the first enemy of the unsaved person, and even after we're saved, is the world, the world system. Unsaved people walk or live following the course of this world. They have a worldview, as it's called, that is counter to God.
It is anti-God, anti-Christ. The word der Kosmos has a pretty broad range of meaning as it's used throughout the New Testament here. Essentially here, world or world system. The Germans had a word, German theologians, they call it zeitgeist.
Maybe you've heard that word before. Zeitgeist. Zeit, time, geist, ghost, or spirit. So spirit of the time, spirit of the age. Every age has a certain worldview or world system that's out there. And we do as well, as you well know.
We have the spirit of the age. It is the value system of the world, the worldview that is not from scripture. It is from Satan, as we're going to see. In the upper room in John 15, 18 through 21, as our Lord began to prepare his disciples for his departure in a very short period of time, Jesus says this, John 15, 18 through 21, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. He's talking to disciples, believers in him, and the world is still their enemy. The world hates the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Oh, and by the way, if the world hates you because you're a follower of Christ, you're in really good company. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. So the world system, the world is our enemy.
And then again, over in chapter 16, still in the upper room, verses 8 through 11, speaking of the coming of the spirit, Jesus said, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. And here Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world.
Our first enemy here is the world system, but we also have a second enemy, as Paul said, he called him the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. It is the devil. The first world system, and then the second is the devil, or Satan.
Satan is the ruler of this world system. He energizes the world system. It hates God and it hates the church because Satan is involved in leading it. Satan, the word means adversary, the word devil or diabolos means slanderer.
This is the one who is the adversary of God, the adversary of the church, and he is the slanderer or liar. He energizes the world system and the people in it because he is a liar and the father of lies.
In 2 Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul calls him the God of this evil age, and he blinds the eyes of the unbelieving. Again, back to the gospel of John, John chapter 12, this is verse 31, our Lord once again makes reference to him.
In John 12, 31, now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out. So Satan is the ruler, he's the God of this evil age, he energizes and operates the world system, and he is the enemy of the church.
He opposes Christ, he opposes his kingdom, he rules this world system. Very familiar verse, I'm sure to you, 1 Peter 5, 8, and 9. This is directed to Christians who are scattered all over the place, undergoing persecution at the time.
And Peter says, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
Satan is hoping to thwart the church, thwart God's plan, as we know he's been doing that all through time, and he is the one who energizes and operates through this world system. Second Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul, verses 13 through 15, he refers to Satan who masquerades as an angel of light.
He's not out there advertising his activities as a destructive force, he masquerades as an angel of light. So we have our war, our enemies, the world system, the devil who energizes it and operates it, but there's a third one he mentions in Ephesians 2, the flesh.
He says that when we were dead in our sins, we were by nature children of wrath because we operated in the flesh. And you have to take that word as it comes in the context in order to define it. Because as we know, in John 1 .14, John the apostle said that the word, this eternal word he's speaking about there in his prologue, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Now that's simply in that usage, in that context, John is simply saying he became a man, a real physical man. There is no sinful connotation there whatsoever, so that word has to be understood within the context of how it's being used by the author, what we would call authorial intent.
I think a good working definition would be for the flesh, the unredeemed aspect of our person, the unredeemed aspect of our person. And it does certainly include the physical flesh, as we might say. It's important to remember, we're not taking these earth houses with us to heaven, okay?
And some of you are happier than others about that, maybe if you're over the age of 35 or.
40.
As time goes by, you become very much aware that I'm glad I'm not dragging this thing into heaven with me. We will have a resurrected body. So certainly the physical body is part of that picture. But here's what one commentator says, and I think this is a very good definition.
When the Bible speaks of the flesh, it is often referring to our natural sin tendencies. We are all born with a sin nature, Romans 5 .12. Our natural predilection is to please ourselves any way we see fit.
We can be trained to behave in more socially acceptable ways and even find enjoyment in being kind to others. However, without the power of God, in other words, regeneration, we remain self-centered.
We do what we do, even good things, because we receive some selfish payoff. Anything not done from faith or love for God, any deed not empowered by the Holy Spirit is a work of the flesh, as Scripture says, Romans 8 .8 and Romans 14 .23, if you'd like to jot down those references.
So we're in a war. We have our enemies. We have the world system that we live in. We have Satan, or the devil, as he's called, of course, and his minions, his demons. But we also have the flesh. It gets very close to home that way.
But we also have our mission. And so now we're going to get right into verses 19 through 20 in this passage and just see what Paul says about our mission. And he does what he's done already in this passage.
He gives a charge or a command to Timothy. So in verse 18, he says this charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.
It's important to understand with the mission that we have, first and foremost, it's a command. It is a command. And Paul is just, you know, we can just take this military or martial metaphor that he's using, and he's using this all the way through.
He charges Timothy with this great truth, to wage the good warfare. It is not optional. It is a command from our commander-in-chief, as we might say. And Timothy would have been very well familiar with this.
He spent a lot of time with Paul. He had been working with him in ministry for quite some time. He would have understood the apostolic doctrines that he had to teach and preach. He would have understand something about the false teachers that were out there as well, what the threat was to his mission.
But he also had to understand this is a command from God, passed on from God through Paul down to him. And of course, it then comes down to us as well. The second thing we need to see about this mission that we have.
Not only is it a command, it is a sacred trust. He says that, this charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, my child. The actual, the word my is not there. Very literally it says, I entrust to you, child Timothy.
He had a very close, intimate relationship with Timothy. Even though he's charging him and commanding him, sort of like a commander to a soldier. This was a brother in Christ. He had a very close relationship to him.
And he says it is a sacred trust. It is to be preached. It is to be taught. It is to be guarded. It is to be protected. And it's to be passed on intact to the next generation. We see that in 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Let's look at 2 Timothy chapter 2. Very last words of Paul to the church. His last letter to Timothy. He's in prison. He's getting near to be executed. He knows it. He wants to make sure that Timothy understands his marching orders, what his priorities are.
Because Paul's leaving the scene. And so in chapter 2 verse 2, Paul says, concerning this sacred trust, he says, you then, my child, once again this term of endearment, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Remember last time we talked a little about this word strengthened, what it means, what it refers to. Basically strengthened for your calling to service, but also strengthened within that service. God provides the strength we need to serve him.
And he says, you then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. How does that work out? In verse 2. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
This is a sacred trust and it's being passed down. And what you see here is four generations, okay? You have the apostle Paul, you have Timothy, he's passing it down to Timothy, and Timothy is to pass it down to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
You have four generations there. What you don't see is the fifth person there. You know who that is? Who trained Paul? Paul was trained, called and trained by Jesus Christ himself. Paul spent time being trained, being essentially discipled.
He got his doctrine from Christ himself. So there are five generations there, Christ, Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and then others. We have to pass on the baton, okay? If you run, if you're running a leg of a 400-meter relay and you run a blazing fast leg, maybe world record leg, but you come to pass the baton and you fumble it and you drop it, right?
The race is over. It's important to pass the baton on. This is what Paul wants Timothy to have in mind here as Paul leaves the scene. Couple other details here. This is not some kind of secret, esoteric knowledge, you know, that only a few people know, like the Gnostics, the people you got to go to to find the knowledge, right?
You heard it from me in the presence of many witnesses. This was public teaching. The proclamation of God's word is always public. It's always well-known to everybody. Everybody can listen to it. Everybody can evaluate it.
Everybody can test it against scripture. It's public. It's in the presence of many witnesses, not something secret, and he's supposed to pass it on to faithful men. Why do they need to be faithful? So they'll pass it on to other people, just like Timothy is able to teach others also.
Here's another little footnote on this. A few weeks ago, we talked a little bit about apostles and are there apostles in the church after the apostolic generation. If the office of apostle was going to be passed on, you know, to and from the apostles to the next generation, this would have been the place to do it right here, right?
Paul's leaving the scene. He's going to be executed. Of all the people for him to pass it on to, it would have been Timothy. He was closer to Timothy than he was Titus, even though he had a close relationship with Titus.
If the apostolic mantle was going to be passed on to a new generation, he would have done.
It right here.
But what does he say to pass on? The apostolic office? No, the things you have heard from me. And what is that? The word of God. We do not pass down an office. There are no more apostles. We pass down the truth to the next generation.
Okay, so it's a command from God and it's a sacred trust. And it is from God, kind of come around full circle here. It's from God. And so he says to him, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.
It's a little bit of a mystery exactly what Paul is talking about here, as far as what is this, these prophecies. But if you just look ahead, first Timothy 414, I think we get some indication here. First Timothy 414, Paul says, do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.
Apparently, there was a time when Timothy was, we might call it being ordained or set aside for service to the Lord. And at that point in time, he would have been entrusted with his ministry. And he needs to then keep that trust in mind as he goes through that ministry.
Also, in 2 Timothy 1, there's another little indication there. Verse 6, for this reason, again Paul speaking to Timothy, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Now we can speculate a little bit, probably shouldn't as to what this is. But I think this is probably what Paul is referring to here. When he encourages him to wage this warfare in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you.
In other words, he doesn't say wage the warfare however you want to. This has to be done in line with what the charge is from those who commissioned him for his work. So we have our war, and in that war we have our enemies, we also have our mission.
And it's a command. It's not an option. Every single one of us is commanded by God to participate. But it's also a sacred trust from God. We have responsibility to pass on to the next generation the word of God, apostolic doctrine.
And it's so critical we do that. This is a charge and a command from God. Well I thought before we move into number two on your outline there, I'd see if there are any questions or comments you might have.
Questions, comments, fill in the blank. Anything else?
Yeah, Rick? Yes.
It is from God. It's from God. I'm sorry? It is a sacred trust. Oh, you must have the full. It is a command. It is a sacred trust. It is from God. And it is good. It's the good warfare. Sorry about that.
I must have an old copy of my own outline. So any other thoughts you might have or questions about this? Well, we also then have our weapons. God hasn't left us empty handed here. The weapons of our warfare.
We're going to see that. And what does Paul say here? He says in the first part of verse 19, you're going to wage this warfare, you're going to wage it according to this calling that you have, this responsibility that has been laid on you, and you're going to do it holding faith and a good conscience.
Faith and a good conscience. The first thing we need to understand is we have our weapons, they are faith and a good conscience. Paul, you probably recognize this from verse 5. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
He says it there again in verse 19. In chapter 3, verse 9, speaking to the qualifications of deacons, they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Again, 2 Timothy, we were already in that chapter.
2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 3 through 6, he says in verse 5, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well.
For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. So the faith is critical and so is a clear conscience.
The faith here is probably best understood as the objective content of our faith. You can see that word, and this is one reason I gave you that page 2 there on your notes. You might take a look at that.
Some of you are going to recognize this because I've used this in, I don't know, 3 or 4 different Bible studies.
Why?
Because this is a common theme throughout the New Testament, the faith, the faith. Somebody might say to you, well I have faith, I'm a person of faith. But a legitimate question for them would be, faith in what?
Or faith in who? Faith is always objective, and whereas the use of this word in the New Testament may be for personal subjective faith, there's always a connection to the objective faith that we call scripture, the word of God.
And you can just see as you work down through, even Luke 18 there, will Jesus find the faith? It's something that can be found. The second reference, it's something that can be obeyed. And then in Acts, the proconsul was turned away from the faith.
So the objective faith is in view all the way down there. And I want to highlight the number of times it occurs percentage-wise in the pastoral.
Letters.
Do you see that? First Timothy 1 .2, my true child in the faith. First Timothy 1 .19, we're seeing it right now, holding faith and so on. And all the way down through, clear down through Titus 3 .15, who loved us in the faith.
The objective content of our faith is what is being referred to here. Jude, who also was concerned about false teachers in the church and those who had crept in unawares, as he said, encouraging Christians to contend for the faith.
Once again, it has to be fought for, it has to be contended for. And again, in Jude, building yourselves up in your most holy faith. It also is what we use to build ourselves up. So what he's talking about here is the objective content of what we believe.
It is so important that we preserve that, that we fight for it, and so on. And that then, of course, is one of our weapons of our warfare. Also a good conscience, a good conscience. The conscience is that part of our immaterial being that the word of God informs.
And then the conscience then informs us whether or not what we're doing or thinking or whatever it might be is in line with the word of God. The conscience in 1 Timothy 4 .2, we're going to be seeing that, can be seared.
In other words, it can be scarred over so it's insensitive. In Titus 1 .13 -16, the conscience can be defiled. We also know that there are people of certain religions whose doctrines inform their conscience that it's perfectly just for them to commit suicidal murder.
And they do that without even thinking twice. They're perfectly fine with it.
Because their conscience tells them it's fine. Their conscience is informed by the content of their faith. And ours is as well. Another pretty good definition, I think, is also, and it's actually from this same author.
A good conscience is the possession of one who actively and knowingly is walking in accord with the will of God as revealed by the word of God. So there you have the objective content informing the conscience.
To have rejected a good conscience, as he's going to say here about these two people, is to have knowingly compromised the will of God. Such a compromise is the precursor to a total shipwreck of one's faith.
Most of those who have abandoned their faith could, with a bit of investigation, trace that departure not to unresolved intellectual difficulties, but to some significant moral compromise. Can't tell you how important that concept is.
When you encounter people that say, well, I don't really, I'm not interested in Christianity. It doesn't meet my intellectual needs or it doesn't make sense to me. Their problem is not intellectual. Their problem is moral, okay?
Men love darkness rather than light. Why, John says, their deeds are evil. Whenever you hear somebody say, well, I need more data, I need more data. Now, we always want to give people as much data as we feel comfortable giving them through the gospel, what did Christ do, what did he accomplish, who is he scripturally.
But you're going to oftentimes, and I've experienced this with people, get to a certain place where they just say, well, that's not quite good enough. And you give them more data. Well, I'm not interested in that.
You can keep playing that game. That person's problem is not intellectual. It's not they need more data, they need more information. Their problem is moral. And ultimately, a failure to believe in God is always a moral issue.
So, faith and a good conscience are two of our weapons. And our weapons, very important, this is 2 Corinthians 10, 1 through 5. They are not of the flesh. Our world system that we live in right now, and most of us can probably relate to the idea that, you know, it is so counter to God, the values are so counter to God, to the word of God, that we sometimes feel like we would like to wage something other than spiritual warfare, but that is not our place.
Our weapons are not of the flesh. Here's Paul to the Corinthian Christians in verse chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians. He says, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away, I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
Paul was accused of all kinds of things. For though we walk in the flesh... Now, here he's using the two terms of this word, two meanings, kind of playing them against each other, okay? It's almost like a little word game.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. See how he's using those two words? Yeah, we're walking around physically, but we don't wage a physical warfare. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. This is a war of ideas. This is a war of concepts. This is a war of being able to take the word of God and apply it to a situation.
And it is not a fleshly or carnal, another old-fashioned word, type of warfare. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, they are spiritual, and they are powerful to tear down strongholds. Paul here is picturing a massive structure out there, the world system, like a castle, the old Latin word forte, fort, you know, where we get the word fortress.
The strength of the enemy is the fortress. And when you, back in the day, when you had a battle, you would attack the fortress, the fort. Some of you musicians recognize this little word forte, you know, you have that little F, maybe two Fs.
I used that one time, and one of the musicians in the group came later and said, you could even have three of those, you know. And she was a pianist, so I guess I can only imagine her really pounding down on that piano with real strength, you know, if there was three Fs there.
But the fortress is what Paul is picturing here, and it's a fortress of ideas, of concepts. Everything in here tells you this, arguments, lofty opinions, thoughts, and so on. And today, probably the greatest threat to the church, the greatest fortress that's out there, I would say, in my opinion, is critical race theory for a couple of reasons.
One is, a lot of the arguments historically within the church were kind of in-house, you know, they were theological or doctrinal arguments that theologians and churches would wrangle about back and forth.
This one is almost like a world religion. It's massive.
It's huge.
It's popular. And it's also very, very, very powerful because so many people believe it. One of the reasons it's easy for people to believe is it's essentially a religion,.
Okay?
It's a religion of self-righteousness because you hear a lot about justice, justice, justice. That is very easy to get people hooked on.
The natural man wants to self-justify. Every religious system, apart from historic, orthodox, biblical Christianity, is a system of self-justification or works righteousness, every single one. You may need to peel the onion to get down to it a little bit, or I'd rather say peel the artichoke because it makes more sense to me.
But once you get down to it, they're all the same. Man is intrinsically involved in the salvation process somehow. He's part of the system. He has to be. It's a man-centered system. All of them are, apart from biblical Christianity.
And by the way, they always all break down at the weakest point, which is where? Where man is, okay? If man is in the chain of things, the chain is gonna break at the weakest link, and that's gonna be man.
But our weapons are against, are not carnal, they're spiritual. They are ideas and concepts that come from the word of God. This is why it's so important to have your worldview and your thinking and your opinions shaped by scripture.
And to be able to use the sword of the spirit, Paul said, which is the word of.
God.
So, our weapons, they are faith, good conscience, they're not of a flesh, and they are spiritual instead. In Ephesians chapter 6, we were just there. Let's just go back there briefly. You're familiar with this.
Paul, writing to this same group of believers in Ephesus that Timothy is going to be ministering in, probably several years before, he gets down toward the end of his letter. He's going to make practical application.
How do you do spiritual warfare? And you can listen to how much of this is defensive. Basically, most of it is defensive. Finally, he says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. There's that reference to strength again.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Once again here, our warfare is not against people, okay? I know, I know, I know.
You all can think of, what about this person? What about that person? Yes, they are enemies, as Paul says to the Philippians, enemies of the cross of Christ. But our enemies are people, but not so much the people, but the underlying thought processes, the worldview energized by Satan.
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Hear how often he says, stand, stand, withstand, stand, okay? He is not saying, run around all over the county and drive stakes in the ground, or do other strange things that people do.
We are mainly in a defensive war, but we also have offensive weapon here. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
There's our great offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit, okay? The word of God. Praying, whole thing is bathed in prayer. Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
And also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. What's Paul's weapon? It's the gospel. Pray for that, Paul says. And he says, I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
So our weapons, their faith, a good conscience, they're not fleshly, they're not carnal, they are spiritual. This also then comes with a warning in verse 19. The last part of 19 and then verse 20. This warning is important for Timothy to hear, but also it's important for us.
The warning, by rejecting this, what's the referent to this? Faith and a good conscience, okay? By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith. And actually, the word there is not there. It's actually the article the, the faith, shipwreck of the faith, the objective truth that represents our faith.
Among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. What's the problem? The problem is rejection. They have rejected the word. They have rejected a clear conscience.
You cannot have a good conscience, a clear conscience, if you reject the word of God. Your conscience has to be informed by the word of God, or it will be seared. It will be scarred over or defiled, as we're told later on.
This word rejecting is used in extra biblical literature, some places, to speak of people tossing goods overboard on a ship. Tossing things overboard. And so Paul kind of just continues this nautical metaphor here.
By tossing overboard faith and a good conscience, some have made shipwreck of the faith, okay? So that's the problem. A willful, deliberate act of rejection. Rejection of the faith, or sound doctrine.
And they can't possibly have a good conscience. And Paul actually names names. Now he says, some, and so it's a larger group than just these two people, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hamanias and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
This warning is a warning not to reject apostolic doctrine. Don't reject the word of God. Make sure you learn it, teach it, believe it, inform your conscience with it, so your conscience then is able to guide you ethically.
The penalty is shipwreck and excommunication in that regard. But the purpose is redemptive. Would you notice that they may learn not to blaspheme? In the Bible, there is a range of church discipline. It's important and it's critical.
You probably can think of like Matthew 18 and that process there. Jude even in his little letter, when you get to the end of Jude, he says, okay, now basically, what do we do with these apostates? And there's three different kinds of people he mentions.
Well, with this group of people, you deal with them this way, you deal with this group this way, and so on. It's not a one size fits all. There may be a time when somebody actually needs to be approached by the elders and say, you can't come here anymore.
That would be very severe. But basically, he's saying, turn them over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. In that day, and it's too bad it's not that way now, it may come to this, inside the church was a place of safety, place of care and concern, a place where you would be guarded.
But outside, out in the world, was a place of danger, spiritual danger. Essentially, they viewed the outside world as that world which was dominated by Satan, and it's not a safe place for believers to be.
And so this is what he's talking about here, that they may learn not to blaspheme. It is redemptive. All of church discipline is designed by God to be redemptive. God does not do anything to push people out of the church.
If that person does not respond, they may be put out in a certain limited way like this. But it is designed to bring repentance so that person can come back into the church. And if that is not possible, if they refuse to do that, if they prove themselves to be an apostate after all the effort is made with them, the next step would be to make sure the church is kept pure.
The holiness of the church is very important. But it is always redemptive, even as we remember we talked about the law, the ultimate purpose of the law is to generate a knowledge of sin and an awareness of our sin, why?
To drive people to the cross, okay? So it is redemptive, even things that are uncomfortable like that. Well, one commentator says this, the nature of the disciplinary procedure is less clear. Several texts, and you could go to Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, 5.
2 Corinthians 2, 5 through 11. 2 Thessalonians 3, 14 through 15. Again, there's multiple texts that deal with these things in various ways. But these texts would seem to indicate that handing over to Satan involved a last stage in which the unrepentant sinner was turned out of the church to be treated as an unbeliever.
This was probably envisioned as a removal from the sphere of God's protection into the world where Satan still held sway. The situation of even more extreme punishment involving death inflicted directly by God is not in view.
And that would be, of course, Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, where because they lied to the Holy Spirit, he and his wife both dropped dead in church. Not exactly seeker sensitive if you want to build a big church, right?
But however, speaking of that, you read the next three or four verses, and there's a progress report there, the church continued to grow even after that happened. But that was Acts chapter 5, probably not that situation here that they may learn not to blaspheme or speak falsely about God.
Very interesting that Paul says this here. Remember what he said one of his major sins was? Blasphemy against God. He has it in mind here. So, we are to wage the good warfare. We're in a war, we have our war, we have our weapons, and we also have our warning.
Do you have any thoughts or questions from this passage before we close? Okay, wage the good warfare. Never, ever assume away the capabilities of your enemies. Next time, we're going to see rule number five, pray for all kinds of people.
This is a tough one, because we are going to be commanded by Paul to pray for political leaders. He says kings, but in our case, there's presidents and vice presidents. So, just giving you a little advanced warning here.
We're going to be told we need to pray for those in political leadership, okay? And I know, I know, you've been praying and they're still there. But we're going to put that in a biblical perspective next time, okay?
Let's pray together.
Our Father, we thank you for your word this morning. Thank you for its power in our lives. Thank you for its power to create in us a clear conscience. Help us to wage the good warfare. Help us to be faithful in passing down what we have received from faithful men through the years, through the centuries and decades.
You made sure that we heard the truth. Help us to be a part of that tremendous legacy to pass down what you have given to us. Accomplish all of your many divine purposes through it. And we will always praise you in Jesus' name, amen.