Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

Please turn to I Timothy 6:3-12 if you have your Bibles.

There is obviously much that we could talk about in this passage.

Books could be written and many sermons drawn from this text but the title of my sermon is “Fight the Good Fight of Faith”.

There are many times in our life when we feel like life is a battle.

There are moments when everything comes crashing down at once and we feel like life is falling apart.

And we sometimes question God in these moments.

Our faith might waiver.

It would be easy to try and teach a sermon about the struggles we face in life and how our faith in Jesus is going to make life work out ...........but that is not what this sermon is about.

This is not about a fight to obtain a life without problems or pain but it is about a fight for true life.

Before we dive in, I think it is important to take a moment and understand a bit of the context of this passage.

CONTEXT

These verses are the beginning of the final and concluding section of the letter in which Paul is encouraging Timothy in his ministry.

This letter is one of three “pastoral epistles” written by the Apostle Paul.

Those three being First and Second Timothy and Titus.

They are called the pastoral epistles because the primary focus of the these letters is the “pastoring” or shepherding the church.

In I Timothy, Paul’s main focus is instructing him on how to deal with false teachers, how to conduct church services, the roll of elders and deacons, guarding sound doctrine, and practical instruction concerning ministering to people in the church.

It was probably written right around 63-67 AD which would be over thirty years after Jesus had walked the earth.

Timothy did not go to seminary or have a network of churches and leaders to reach out to with all the problems that he was having.

There was no Facebook group or online forum to post a question to or get encouragement from.

These letters of Paul’s were instrumental in building the foundation of the church.

Why is it important that we understand the context of this letter?

It is because it is highly significant that Paul writes so much about the church and fighting against false doctrine.

30 years before this letter.......... Paul was ravaging the church.

Paul was standing there in approval when Stephen was stoned.

It is important to think of Paul’s writing in the broader context of his life because Paul becomes one of the most ultimate example’s of God’s transforming power and redemptive work in the history of the church.

God took this man who was trying to destroy the early Christian church because he was zealous for the Jewish doctrine.

He said this of himself in Galatians 1:13-14

Paul was a Jew of Jews.

Trained as a Pharisee.

But Paul did not have faith in Jesus at that point.

30 years ago Paul thought he was fighting the good fight of faith.

But here in 1 Timothy Paul’s is now fighting against the very false doctrines that he once stood for.

He is now building up God’s church instead of tearing it down.

Paul defends the very Gospel that he once persecuted.

Now he encourages Christians to “Fight the Good fight of Faith.”

He was no longer fighting the fight of Judaism or of the law but he is rather now fighting the fight of faith in Jesus.

And Paul sees that this is a good fight.

So to understanding the context of who Paul was and where he is coming from, shows us the weight of this passage and why Paul takes this fight of faith so seriously.

FALSE DOCTRINE AND SELFISH AMBITION

Part of the fighting the good fight of faith, for a pastor, is making sure the flock is hearing the truth of God’s word.

From the very beginning of this letter, Paul brings dealing with false doctrine to the forefront.

This letter is a calling to church leaders to guard the Lord’s flock against teaching that goes against “the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Timothy was dealing with some heavy things in Ephesus and he was needing encouragement.

He was more than likely struggling with the desire to quit the ministry and give up.

It seems like ministering in Ephesus was very challenging.

Paul speaks of “fighting with beasts” regarding his time in Ephesus .

The city was the capital city of Asia Minor and the third largest city in the Roman Empire.

Ephesus was a major commercial port so there was some wealth in the city but it was also a city of many religions.

Timothy was living in a place that was very worldly , very diverse in religious culture, and probably not really interested in the gospel.

You may compare it to trying to lead a church in modern city America.

Even though it was probably difficult leading a church in this environment, it seems the most difficult, hardest, and painful problems are coming from within the church body.

These people who are teaching wrong doctrine out of selfish gain are leaders from within the church who are causing division.

Many of us have been in church long enough to have experienced this first hand.

We have all experienced the atmosphere of division and it almost always comes out of any teaching that does not align with the whole Bible and often is accompanied by a spirit of selfish gain.

This division through false teaching is a very dangerous and sneaky ploy of the devil.

Usually false doctrine will have some snippet of truth in there taken out of context.

This is what Satan tried to do when he tempted Jesus.

He quoted Scripture.

But of course Jesus quoted scripture right back because Jesus was grounded in God’s word.

The devil is always trying to divide because a house divided cannot stand.

Satan wants the church to fail.

This is why it is so important for leaders and church members to be aware of what bad doctrine is.

This awareness is part of our fighting the good fight of faith.

From day one, the devil has been dividing and pitting people against each other and against God with lies and deception.

Paul knows this.

And Paul makes it very clear how we should look at these people who preach a false doctrine.

He says of these people, “he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing”.

Pride is the source of this division just as pride is the source from which all sin flows.

Pauls says something very interesting in verses 4 and 5 and it is easy to miss.

He says that those who teach false doctrine have

I timothy 6:4-5

“an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”

I don’t know if you saw this but Paul does not say that false teaching creates friction, dissension, and evil suspicions among ALL people.

Rather it is those who are depraved in mind.

In other words, when someone is teaching wrongly...... it is those who are “depraved in mind and deprived of the truth” who are in constant friction and dissension.

Those who are NOT deprived of truth and NOT depraved in mind, will NOT be affected by false doctrine.

This is a very important lesson for us all to learn here.

As followers of Jesus you have a responsibility to take everything back to the Bible and test it for yourself.

Even though this letter is addressed to Timothy who is essentially a lead pastor in this church, everything Paul is saying indirectly applies to all who are in the body of Christ.

You all are not supposed to sit here and just believe everything that anyones says.

We should all be involved in this fight against false teaching.

Now obviously, we have a great teacher in Pastor David who wrestles with scripture himself for hours and really devotes himself to making sure that we hear the truth.

Many of us who have listened to him preach for 20 years know that we can trust what he says.

But he would never tell you not to seek things out in the Bible for yourself.

It is important that you do this.

And if something rubs you the wrong way, what you are NOT to do is say, “I don’t agree with that” or “I don’t like that interpretation” and then walk away.

That is a foolish, lazy, and complacent attitude.

You have the Holy Spirit within you and if you can read and study the scripture you can be grounded in God’s word.

We do not need to be afraid of false doctrine and wrong teaching because if you are grounded in God’s word and know the truth, there is nothing that can deprive you of the truth.

It is those who are NOT grounded in God’s wisdom, who are tossed around on the waves of indecision, or insecurity of faith.

These are the people change their mind about God.

They often wonder if they are Christians.

They are easily swayed in their thought.

So the best defense against false teaching is to always be grounded in God’s word.

False teaching is usually guided by selfish ambition.

I guess you could make a case for ignorance but from what I have seen, in many cases that ignorance of scripture is usually the result of a proud and arrogant heart that thinks God gave them a special message.

Selfish and prideful ambition is almost always a key indicator of false teaching.

And those who follow it also have their own ambitions for listening to false teaching.

When the church is full of people who are not grounded in God’s word, people will lose sight of the truth because they are going to hear what they want to hear.