The Fight for the Gospel

Good morning Harmony!

Today we are going to wrap up our series in 1 Timothy by looking at what Paul reveals about fighting for the gospel in the final verses of chapter 6.

When we began our series in week one we saw three actions that were necessary in order to keep the gospel of Christ central in our lives, defending the gospel, celebrating the gospel, and fighting for the gospel.

And hopefully throughout the book as we have studied and looked at what Paul has to say to Timothy and to us you have seen that overarching theme of keeping the gospel central and staying focused on that and how important it is to guard the gospel from false teaching and to celebrate the blessing of the gospel as we live.

Today we are focusing in on just what it looks like to fight for the gospel and how we are all called to participate in this battle that is raging against us in keeping the gospel central in our lives.

Now, when we talk about battle there’s usually some questions we are going to have for that battle.

And these questions are not in any specific order, because we may not ask them all in the same order.

The first question many of us might have is who is the enemy? Who am I fighting against, what do they look like?

Another question that is going to come to mind is the how - how are we going to fight this battle? Are we going to use tanks and people, are we going to use ships, or aircraft - and when we are talking a spiritual battle, we are going to ask some of those same questions, what are the resources to fight the spiritual battle that is going on?

Then there’s the question what do we have to gain, or the what’s in it for me question.

Then we eventually get to the question why? Why am I doing this, why am I fighting in this battle, and am I on the right side?

And some of us are going to struggle with those questions more than others, or struggle with some of those questions maybe a little more than others, and that’s ok. Some of us are going to answer those questions really easy, that’s ok too. The important thing is that you come to the right conclusion on each of those questions. And that all works the same way in spiritual warfare.

Our main point for today is that:

Main Point: In view of the majesty of our great God, we fight the good fight of faith, using our material resources for eternal gain.

In view of the greatness of our God, we fight a fight of faith that is going to cost us something in exchange for something better.

Last week we looked at our stuff and how that fits into the gospel and we talked about how we need to be seeking the gospel and the Kingdom more than we do the material gain. Today Paul is doubling down on this message because it is important to know where to draw the battle lines when it comes to our spiritual well-being.

Beginning in verse 11 we read:

1 Timothy 6:11–21 CSB

11 But you, man of God, flee from these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all, and of Christ Jesus, who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you 14 to keep this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal power. Amen. 17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, 19 storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life. 20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding irreverent and empty speech and contradictions from what is falsely called knowledge. 21 By professing it, some people have departed from the faith. Grace be with you all.

Prayer.

Verse 11 begins by telling us who or what it is that we fight against, and it’s those things that we talked about last week. We are to flee from pursuing the wealth and the riches that this world has to offer. Again, Paul isn’t saying that wealth is wrong, he’s saying that if your pursuit or your life goal is to be this wealthy person then you have given your life over to pursue the things that are against the faith.

So when Paul is talking today about fighting for the gospel, he is primarily talking about this very spiritual battle that is occurring within.

Yes there’s influences and things that are outside of our flesh that is going to be providing influence, but this is a very deep internal battle that is going on where we are fighting to put the flesh to death so that His righteousness might live in us.

We are fighting the enemy within to remain faithful to the gospel.

And with that in mind, we are told here in the final verses of chapter 6 three pursuits we must keep at the forefront of our hearts and minds in order to fight the good fight of the faith. Three things we must pursue in order to become and remain gospel-centered.

The first pursuit that we must have is pursuing the right tools or weapons of the warfare.

1. To fight for the gospel, we must pursue the POWER of the gospel.

Verses 11 and 12 show us that these weapons are things we receive by the gospel of Christ. We are told that we are to flee the desires of the material world, flee from the craving of money and things, and instead we should be pursuing the things of God.

Paul says you, man of God - let the weight of that sink in for just a moment.

Christian, you are a man or a woman of God, you are the person that the world sees when they think God.

And that can be a good thing or a bad thing. But you represent God in everything that you do.

Fortunately it’s not all on you, you’ve been given some tools to help you in that.

And we get a list of our weapons, similar to that of Galatians 6:13-17 where Paul speaks of the full armor of God.

The first weapon is the weapon of righteousness - we can only receive that weapon by pursuing the righteousness of the gospel. Why am I told to pursue righteousness - because our enemy, our flesh, the world, the devil, they want us to pursue unrighteousness and self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness operates contrary to His righteousness. God’s righteousness is not the same thing as self-righteousness. Self righteousness is going to be pursuing the things that are of self-preservation, and that means that if I am pursuing self-righteousness I am going to begin to look down upon people. I’m going to be trying to get all that I can out of this world if I am pursuing self righteousness because in my self righteousness I am going to want to be better than everyone else.

If I am pursuing His righteousness, we get a different picture, because everyone equally needs the grace of Christ in order to be saved, and that includes me.

The enemy wants me to go down that path of thinking I am better than everyone else. And we can point at a lot of people and say that that person thinks they are better than Christians or smarter or more intellectual- they think they are better.

And for the lost it’s really easy for the enemy to win - they don’t know Christ, so they are going to easily behave as though they are better than everyone else. They are easily going to get attached to the trap that is self-righteousness.

But let’s take a moment here and remember that Paul isn’t talking to the lost, he’s talking to believers in Christ.

How often have we taken a stand on that pedestal in our own righteousness looking down upon those that are less righteous than we are?

How often do we look at someone or talk to someone and think to ourselves “I am a better Christian than they are”? We may not say it, but back there at the back of the mind many of us will certainly think it.

We forget who we were in our sinful state before Christ, and we become self-righteous in our thinking of comparing my Christianity to their Christianity.

Paul goes on and he says for us to pursue godliness. The opposite of godliness is ungodliness, and none of us would ever want to be ungodly, right?

What is ungodliness? Pursuing my way, the things I want, over the things He wants for me.

Pursue faith - a believer in Christ that is walking in that relationship with Christ is going to pursue the weapon of faith - Jesus tells us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains. The opposite of faith is unfaithfulness - we fight unfaithfulness with the pursuit of faith.

The list goes on, love fights hate, endurance fights slothfulness, gentleness fights aggressiveness.

What’s the point?

Verse 12 is talking about fighting the good fight of faith, and I can’t do that if I am not pursuing the right weapons of God.

If I try to fight the good fight without pursuing the things of God I am going to battle with the wrong weapons. I will be going with unrighteousness, with an ungodly attitude, without faith, without love, without endurance, without gentleness. I will be venturing out on my own to convince people of something I fail to practice, and as a man or woman of God, I fail to represent Him at all.

The end of verse 12 says take hold of the eternal life that you were called to that you should use to tell others about Him.

You, man or woman of God, are to flee from the things of this world because those weapons are useless to the Kingdom of God, and we need to pick up the weapons that God has given to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying look, if you want to have victory in eternity, you gotta pursue the things of the Kingdom.

When we pursue the things of Heaven we are going to demonstrate our good confession on display for the world to see.

And Paul says in the presence of God, and in the presence of Jesus, I charge you to keep this commandment to pursue these things because Christ is coming back and He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

We are told to seek his Kingdom first, and that means that we are pursuing His weapons in the fight.

So, how are we going to fight this battle? With the power that He gives us through our pursuit of a deeper relationship with Him.

The second pursuit that we must have to fight for the gospel is we must pursue the treasure of the gospel.

2. To fight for the gospel, we must pursue the TREASURE of the gospel.

What is the treasure of the gospel? Is the battle worth the fight?

Again, Paul is talking to believers here, and in verses 17 through 19 we see that Paul is not against wealth, but he is against placing our hope and our faith in wealth.

Verse 17 says

1 Timothy 6:17 CSB

17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.

Paul says to tell those with stuff and with money not to place their hope in money and stuff because those are things that can be taken away.

You can lose your job, the bank can come take your stuff, the government can come take your stuff, you could have all the stuff in the world and it can all vanish in the blink of an eye.

Don’t place your hope on that stuff that is able to lead you away from God, Paul says, but place your hope on God who richly gives us all things to enjoy.

By pursuing the power of the gospel we pursue the treasure of the gospel, that is eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal life with our Creator.

God richly provides, He lavishes us with His goodness and His mercy and His grace so that we become His children!

And He gives us our stuff!

He has provided us with all things, whether little or much, so that we can enjoy them. He has given us work so that we can be fulfilled, He has given us abilities so that we can earn, He has given us things to enjoy! Again, Paul is not against having things, Paul is saying don’t make the things God has given us the things we seek or chase.

The very next verse gives us instructions of what to do with the things that God has given us - Paul says to share them with others. Verse 18 says instruct those who are rich to do what is good and to be rich in good works and willing to share generously.

And we aren’t talking rich by our standards, Paul isn’t saying just the millionaires or the billionaires should be doing this.

He is saying that if you have found yourself in a situation where you have more of something than someone else, that’s anything ranging from clothes to food to house to money then you should be using that to be rich in good works and generously sharing those resources with others.

And when we do that, Paul says, we are storing up for ourselves treasure in Heaven, treasures as a foundation for what is coming in the Kingdom, and we are taking hold of what is truly life.

So again, we have a comparison - we can grasp and take hold of the enticing riches of this world, riches that last only for a little while, or we can take hold of the eternal things of Heaven and build our Kingdom wealth by being generous and sharing those things of this world.

So what do we have to gain or what’s in it for me? A greater treasure than this world could ever offer me.

The third pursuit we must have:

3. To fight for the gospel, we must pursue the TRUTH of the gospel.

Verse 19 says that we do all of this - we share our stuff, we flee from the pursuit of stuff, we do all of that to take hold of what is truly life. We must pursue the truth of the gospel.

Paul says guard what has been entrusted to you, the gospel truth, avoiding irreverent and empty talk. Avoid the enticement to get into arguments with people who just want to argue for argument’s sake. Avoid those who are going to be irreverent in their actions.

The church at large has a problem today.

Churches will entice people with either entertainment or prosperity gospel or both.

But Paul instructs Timothy, he instructs us, to refrain from that. To avoid that kind of action.

Guard what has been entrusted to you, the gospel, don’t water it down, don’t let culture define the gospel.

Don’t allow contradictions in your churches Timothy. Avoid false knowledge, like that knowledge that says culture has changed.

Has culture changed? Yes. It has, it has significantly changed over time, but the same problem persists today that persisted then. Our culture is immersed in sin.

We may have to consider different ways to reach this lost and dying world so that it communicates with that culture.

But we cannot allow the culture to change the truth - one it cannot change the truth, the truth is the truth.

But when we begin allowing irreverent or contradicting actions or talk to infiltrate the gospel, then we have falsely compromised the gospel of Christ.

There are churches out there that have men not called to pastor who seek their own prosperity.

There are churches out there with women in the pulpit that think since culture has changed, Paul is just out of date in how he addresses the topic. They have created a contradiction to the gospel.

There are churches out there that have active homosexuals as their pastors or leaders - again, they have contradicted what the gospel says.

And there are a lot of churches out there that are more like rock concerts or sporting events or whatever that seek to press that God wants you to have it all and to be entertained. He’s just a God who wants to hang out with you.

They are pursuing the culture and the things of this world rather than those things that God has called them to.

How we view the gospel matters. Is it the complete truth to you, or is it just a good concept?

I have no doubt that many of the people who attend these churches are believers in Christ, but Paul says by professing these types of things, and there are lots of them that we could mention, by professing irreverent and empty talk and contradictions and false knowledge, Paul says, some have departed the faith.

Now I am a firm believer in eternal salvation and in once saved always saved, so what I believe Paul is saying here is that some who were never saved have departed from ever being saved because of this false teaching that is taking place, because these folks are chasing the entertainment or the preacher that tickles their ears rather than the true gospel.

If that is what you are seeking, Paul says, then you are looking for the wrong gospel.

For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.

Is it worth it to give it all up for the full gospel of Jesus Christ?

Are you fighting on the right side?

We must pursue the truth of the gospel. We must engage today’s constantly changing culture with a never changing gospel. The truth remains the same forever.

Our church must be gospel-centered, we must be focused on Christ and keeping Him central in our hearts and in our lives. We can’t begin to chase our own desires, we must remain faithful to the God who calls us into eternal life.

So, when we am challenged by the weapons of this world, the temptation to be self-righteous, to be ungodly, to be unfaithful, unloving, slothful, or aggressive; we need to counter with the power of Christ that resides in us because we have His eternal hope.

When we are doubting His goodness or struggling with a situation, when we are challenged to wonder if the treasure of Heaven is worth it, we need to remember the eternal gain that outlasts anything this world has to offer.

And when it comes to determining which side we are on, we must remember the absolute truth of the gospel, despite our desires to be entertained, despite our desire to sin, despite our desire to be cultural, because the truth of the gospel is more precious than all of that.

Paul closes the book with a short, single sentence. Grace be with you all.

I want to leave you with this - we fight a battle that has already been won.

Dr. Warren Wiersbe is quoted for the phrase

"We aren’t fighting for victory; we’re fighting from victory."

If you are a follower of Christ, you are fighting from the side of victory, a victory that was won through Christ.

If you don’t know that victory, may today become the day you do.

Prayer.

Questions for the Week

1. What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?

2. For believers, on what fronts is spiritual war being waged? Where are most of your own battles fought?

3. How can our possessions work against us in spiritual warfare?

4. What are the dangers of simply trying to avoid sin without intentionally pursuing righteousness?