05) 1 Timothy Sermon - Fight the Good Fight
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Turn with me today to the first Timothy chapter 1. Chapter 1 summarizes the reason for Paul’s writing of this letter to his son of the faith. After a brief salutation, the rest of the chapter 1 contains the objective of Paul and his instruction to Timothy.
Timothy had been given the task to stay in the church at Ephesus and to command and correct the false teaching that was being presented by a portion of the leaders of the church.
3 As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine 4 or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith.
With the heart of correction and restoration to the truth, Paul reveals what the purpose of their correction was.
5 Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and turned aside to fruitless discussion. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.
These people were off course, they had drifted from the truth of the gospel and were attempting to teach things that they did not understand for unholy motives. If correction to love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith were what they were to be brought back to then, it is obvious that these leaders were not exhibiting these in their lives.
He then affirms the perfection of God’s law and that it is not a question of quality of the Law but the will of God in regards to the law. They were like teaching many of the same false teachings that we see Paul correct in other churches.
He sums it up with the statement that anything contrary to the sound doctrine and teachings about the Gospel were to be rejected and corrected. A message that he asserts was entrusted to him.
In support of that decree he gives a personal testimony of the work that Jesus did in his own life.
12 I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry—13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Paul gives thanks to Jesus who considered him faithful and to entrust his message of redemption to a man who was a proven blasphemer of God, a persecutor of God’s church and a violent arrogant men.
Paul was thankful for the grace and mercy that God demonstrated in his own sinful life. He gave the first of the trustworthy sayings.
15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life.
Paul’s life was an example to those who would hear the gospel in the future and could look to him as an example of God’s love, mercy, and grace. Paul’s faith was based on the good news of Jesus and what was accomplished in his life.
Fully giving all of the praise to God.
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Today we come to the end of the introduction to the letter with the conclusion to the charge to Timothy and the work he was to do.
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.
The rest of the letter is instructions to help Timothy with the task before him. Each area that he addresses is important to health and growth of the church. Each instruction is given to correct areas of the church that have drifted from the worship of God and the will of God.
Generational Legacy
Generational Legacy
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight,
The Charge
The Charge
The word for instruction here is a strong word that is closer to a command than soft instruction. The ESV says is this way.
18 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,
Earlier in the chapter Paul said he had urged Timothy to stay and charge “certain people” not to teach any different doctrine and later he the aim of their charge was love from a pure heart, clean conscience, and a sincere faith. But here he says that now
“I am giving or entrusting this charge and task to you. My child or son, I cannot be there to do it myself and now I am passing this task on to you. It is your time to lead and to handle this.
It is all to often that the church can settle into a framework of leaders up here. Pastors and elders are here. They have been appointed and called to this upper tier of the church. The rest of the church stays down here in the lower tier. This mentality start to fix itself and there becomes a great chasm between the upper and the lower.
The issue is this is that is can put places of false barriers to growth that should not exist. There is only one tier. That is the church under Christ. Each believer sits under the Great Shepherd and is called to follow him. Each person is pursuing the sanctification and the continued grace that is at work in a persons walk with God. The church should be filled with people at all different levels of spiritual maturity but all of them constantly moving forward.
Each at their own pace and in their own walk. Along the way men and women are looking over their shoulder and encouraging and training the less mature to take steps forward in their faith. Step by step. Leading and being examples. Generational legacies of christian believers with eyes fixed forward on Jesus and our hand reaching back to those the will follow.
Paul had been doing this with many people and we see that when the time comes the baton of leadership can be handed on to trained believers. Too many times now days do we hear of a church who’s pastor leaves and the church comes to a complete halt at best and completely implodes at worst. When people are being trained in the word and growing more like Christ the church will find men and women to step up to the tasks that God calls the church to accomplish.
Paul is confident in Timothy. We almost get the impression that Paul is more confident in Timothy than he is himself.
He reminds him of the prophecies that were previously made about him.
We have no record of the actual event that Paul is referring to but it is likely that Paul is referencing a time when God reveled the work that Timothy was to perform. We see in the early church that the Holy Spirit would lead at times and that God would speak to the apostles.
I may have resembled what we see in chapter 13 of acts.
The Appointment
1 Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a close friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off.
Paul was reminding Timothy that God had spoken about him in some way as prophets spoke the words of God. This was to be an encouragement to him. If he was doubting of wanted to turn away he was telling him to remember that you have be called to this.
Today leaders of the church are not appointed in this way. We see two parts to a call of a leader today.
The first is an internal desire.
1 This saying is trustworthy: “If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work.”
There is an internal desire to lead God’s people but that is not the only part, the second part is the affirmation from the church that the character and fruit of the individual is inline with the person’s desire to be an overseer. Just because someone wants to be a Pastor or Elder does not mean that their life reflects what the bible says are to be seen as an outpouring of their life.
This makes the hiring process used in churches today very difficult to be effective. Obviously if a person applies for as a pastor of a church, they are desiring that position. What becomes nearly impossible is the affirmation of the church of the fruit of a person’s life. in this way there is a dilemma with how this is done today. Many churches will hire men to be their pastors to find years down the road that they can no longer affirm this person as a pastor and what usually happens is that those people leave to try to find another pastor.
I would encourage anyone looking for a church home to look less to the pastor and more to the flock. Is the flock growing, healthy, cared for. Do they dedicate themselves to the word, to fellowship with one another, eating together and to prayer. Does the flock recognise that they are sinners saved by grace, working out their salvation, and pursuing Jesus and his will above all.
If that is what you find you will find leaders that have been called.
Paul is pointing Timothy back to the time of his affirmation to be encouraged by it. I was very humbled by my ordination as many pastors came to participle in that ceremony and to lay hands on me and to pray over me and my family. And then to be called by the church to this position. I am always encouraged by those moments.
This is the fight i am supposed to fight like Ephesus is the fight that Timothy is supposed to fight.
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight,
Remember them so that you may fight the good fight. This is a military term that implies that this is not an easy task. This will be a fight it will be a fight for truth and it will effect the church the people that you are to care for.
18 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,
The christian life many times is sold as a peaceful walk through a flower filled field where nothing will ever be hard again. Though we receive, hope, peace, and abundant life we still live in a fallen world. John MacArthur wrote:
1 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 4: Fighting the Noble War
Our Lord Jesus Christ has called His followers to an abundant life of love, peace, joy, and communion with Him. Gospel presentations and tracts stress those truths in their appeal to unbelievers. There is another side to the Christian life, however, one that doesn’t often find its way into our evangelism. The Christian life is also a warfare, as believers enter a lifelong fight against the evil world system, Satan, and their own sinful human flesh.
The christian life is full adversity. Let alone that we still have a remnant of the fallen nature of Adam that gives us desires that are contrary to God. These desires what is against the Spirit.
16 I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
The walk of a believer will have traces of that sin nature that will always be there until we are glorified in heaven. But unlike before we are saved we are no longer bond as slaves to that nature. It is the spirit that gives us new desires that gives us desires to follow God’s will for our lives. As we walk in the spirit many of those fleshly desires will become a thing of the past. no longer in the front of our minds.
But we must walk in the spirit, walk in accordance with his word or those desires will come back anew in our minds and hearts. There will always be trial of our own hearts and minds.
There is also the external battle against the world. The war against the schemes of the enemy. Satan the fallen Cherub. In the prophecy of Ezekiel about the king of Tyre he speaks of the force behind the king.
11 The word of the Lord came to me: 12 “Son of man, lament for the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord God says: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone covered you: carnelian, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold; they were prepared on the day you were created. 14 You were an anointed guardian cherub, for I had appointed you. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 From the day you were created you were blameless in your ways until wickedness was found in you. 16 Through the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I expelled you in disgrace from the mountain of God, and banished you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17 Your heart became proud because of your beauty; For the sake of your splendor you corrupted your wisdom. So I threw you down to the ground; I made you a spectacle before kings. 18 You profaned your sanctuaries by the magnitude of your iniquities in your dishonest trade. So I made fire come from within you, and it consumed you. I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of everyone watching you. 19 All those who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have become an object of horror and will never exist again.’ ”
The spiritual war has been fought in an invisible war that is spoken of many times in the bible and Paul claims that this is a war that we participate in some way.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. 13 For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. 14 Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, 15 and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. 16 In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God.
The only offensive weapon that we have in the battle is the Word of God. The truth. All of the schemes of the enemy fall into deception and deceit by pulling the mind heart and strength of a person away from God’s truth.
The christian life is a battle for the revealed truth of God to be alive and central to our life. It is a battle in ourselves to constantly fighting against all of the promises of this enemy. The promises that lift you up and make you the center of your faith. But promises that never deliver in the long run.
It is a fight for the minds of our children. To be diligent in teaching them the truth about themselves and the empty promises of the world that come from the devil ti spirit of the air.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
We are in a battle against the arguments and ideas that wage war against the knowledge of God.
1 Now I, Paul, myself, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble among you in person but bold toward you when absent. 2 I beg you that when I am present I will not need to be bold with the confidence by which I plan to challenge certain people who think we are living according to the flesh. 3 For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, 4 since the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments 5 and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
This is a battle and we are seeing the effects of the arguments and ideas that are dominating the world and have seeped into the minds of believers.
This is the battle that Timothy is called to. This is the battle we are likewise called to. Paul is simply charging Timothy to fight for the truth of God. Stay close to the Gospel that you were taught and remove and correct any words that are contrary to the message of the apostles.
10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. 12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 1 I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and because of his appearing and his kingdom: 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear. 4 They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time for my departure is close. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
He is to fight the fight having faith and a good conscience.
Faith and Conscience
Faith and Conscience
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight, 19 having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith.
This is a fight that hinges on having faith and a good conscience. Paul will repeatedly tie faith and conscience together and here the faith is referring to full trust in the gospel of Jesus. Trust in the work of the cross and the saving grace of God.
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
Timothy is to live in the reality of what is hoped for. The reality that he has been saved and will enter the presence of God in the heavenly tabernacle. This hope is to drive his ministry.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus—20 he has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)—21 and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
The conscience that we were born with is that warning system that we have that guides us in our lives. A good conscience is a result of a life lived for God. It is that part of our mind that accuses or excuses our behavior and thoughts. We find positive affirmations when we do what is right and we feel shame, guilt, fear, remorse, and many other negative feelings when we do wrong.
Before a person is a believer their consciences are arbitrary to their upbringing and the world around them. They have set a moral standard that is based on their own conscience. However, one of the things that happens when a person is regenerated is that their consciences are sprinkled clean and the law or what is good or bad has written on their hearts.
Who here has found that they experience the negative feelings about things that used to not bother you? As we know the truth as we hear the word of God we come to know what is right and wrong. We should listen to our conscience as it is a warning to our minds like pain is a warning to our bodies. And just like our bodies if we choose to live against those warnings eventually our consciences can be seared and we no longer hear the warning
To have good conscience is to live with a pure life according to correct teaching. What we believe will come out in what do.
A couple of commentaries commented on the idea that false teaching like what Paul is charging Timothy to correct comes from wrong behavior. Theological error tends to come from man conforming the teachings of God to affirm their sinful behavior. They use the word of God in ways to defend their ideas instead of his ideas.
This can be affirmed by the numerous times that we find the different types of immorality exposed in the lives of false teachers.
To have a good conscience a person is to know sound doctrine and to live a godly life. Because when you don’t there are consequences. Without faith and and a good conscience a persons faith will be shipwreked.
19 having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith.
The word for rejected means to “thrust away” or to reject. These people have rejected the truth and by doing so they have made a disaster of their faith. Their trust in the gospel as truth. Even though they are believers, have been swayed and they will not walk in the light but according to the world.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—9 for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth—10 testing what is pleasing to the Lord.
It is possible for a believer to turn away from the truth and even though they have been saved they fall for the false teachings of the wolves. This is what was happening in the church at Ephesus. These false teaches were already seeing whose faith has been brought to disaster.
Delivered to Satan
Delivered to Satan
20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.
We don’t know really anything about either of these two. The same names come up in different places but little is added to who they are or what they have done. But these two men had come to the point in their correction that Paul had already delivered them to Satan. It is believed that the most likely interpretation of what Paul was communicating was that he was speaking of removing these two from the church community.
This is not the only place that Paul uses this type of language. We see it in 1 Corinthians.
4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
For a person to be delivered to Satan means that they are not fully under his control. As all unbelievers are under the dominion of the spirit of the air, Christians are of God.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
Removing them from the church and the community of God is from the same aim as Paul has said earlier. The aim is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. The goal is restoration. This would come after the elders and other believers had confronted them in their sin and the are unrepentant and unwilling to hear the truth. They are unwilling to submit to the elders of the church for correction. There is no guilt or shame about what they are teaching or doing.
The hope is that by removing them from the community. There is a general covering for those that are in the community of God’s people and by removing them from the church the hope is that they will be called to question what they are doing do to being separated from the flock. The church and elders have not abandoned these people but delivered them in the hope that they would return to God.
There were not other options at that time.
Many times in the bible we see that what draws a persons mind back to God is the effect of their own sinful ways. As they live in their false ideas, eventually they will lead to a time of trial and that trial hopefully leads them to turn to God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The first chapter is Paul preparing Timothy for what is next. He is going to go into the church start to correct many of the false teachings and also the false behaviors that were coming from those false teachings.
In the church today and in our church we are still called to fight the battle.
It is a fight over the truth and the arguments against the truth. It is a fight to stay close to the Gospel and lead others to the same place.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.