Fight the Good Fight of Faith

you have your Bibles, flip open to um 1 Timothy chapter 6. We're going to be looking at verses 11- 16. And I'll read that to get us started here. Starting in verse 11, this says, "But thou, oh man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. fight the good fight of faith, laid hold on eternal life, whereinto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickenth all things and before Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keepest this commandment without spot unbreak unrebukeable until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate the king of kings and lord of hosts the lord of lords who hath who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see.

To whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. If you don't mind, I know we've opened in prayer already, but I'm always more comfortable coming to a preaching um with uh with prayer. So, let's um let's briefly pray. Father Lord, thank you for uh this passage and for what you have shown me in it and how you have worked within my heart. Lord, I pray that uh your spirit would work this same aspect within the folks that are here. Uh would I be clear in your word? In your heavenly name, amen. So, it's kind of exciting here. Paul calls Timothy the the man of God. That's kind of a special thing to be called, right?

Wouldn't Wouldn't you like to be called that? A man of God or a man of woman? Uh especially when it's coming from somebody like like Paul, right? That's pretty pretty encouraging, kind of exciting. and and and and you can see that Paul is trying to encourage Timothy in this final passage or these final verses and and he refers to him as a man of God. A a term that was used for people like Moses and Samuel and Elijah um men who had been faithful who remained faithful throughout their lives and to the end. And as Paul comes to the end of his letter here to Timothy, he seeks to encourage Timothy and he seeks to Tim or he seeks to encourage Timothy uh to preserve as well to preserve like the faithful men of God that have come before him.

Now Timothy as you know from our study so far has many challenges there at the church of Ephesus. The leaders in the church have departed from the pure teaching of the word of God and Timothy has been called on to remove the ones that are there and to set things right within the church at Ephesus. This is a this is no small task for a young man to do. This is like me up here teaching heresy and and inner have to come and remove me. It's a it's a strong thing for a young man to have to do. And then and Timothy and as he has to do this with this church, he's going to feel pressure to want to compromise and he's going to feel pressure to want to show partiality as he looks for replacements.

And Paul has sought to encourage Timothy throughout this letter, but but not simply in in the acts of correction that he has to has to carry out. But he's sought to encourage Timothy to be a man that is true to his calling. Uh to make sure that his personal testimony within the Lord Jesus Christ is strong. We know from passages that Paul has already given us in this letter that the effectiveness of a Christian minister is dependent on that on the godly character of that Christian minister. The effectiveness of a Christian minister is dependent on their perseverance in the faith. And so he seeks to encourage Timothy in this manner.

And the reality is is if the man of God needs encouragement for perseverance, how much more so do you and I need to hear this? And so Paul lays out here a series of instructions for how to persevere. But but maybe more important is he also gives us uh reasons or motivations to persevere within the faith. I often think that is the the stronger aspect. It's one thing to know what is right, but it's another thing to have that motivation to drive you to do it. And so Paul final or ends his sections with that with that motivation. And we'll look at that. But first, let's look in Paul's instructions for how to persevere in the faith.

And he tells Timothy in verse 11, he says, "Flee these things and follow after righteousness and godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith." And the thing you get out of this right away is that perseverance within the faith requires a fight. I don't know if you've ever had to get in a physical fight before. And if you have, you know, the reality that comes with that is that there's a struggle that's intense. You aren't thinking about anything else but that fight. And you're thinking for every possible way that you can move your body or get a hold of your opponent in some manner so that you can defeat them.

And if that fight happens to be a fight for life, how much more so is the intensity and that thinking of I need to win. I need to get on top of this. And that's the idea here. The Christian life is a focused concentrated effort to living out the faith. Perseverance in the faith is not a let go, let God mindset. It's true that God secures our faith, but he secures it through our work. It's true that God causes growth within us, but we are expected to work out our faith to bring about that growth. And that takes effort. It takes a fighting mindset to live out the Christian life. And yet, it's not a physical fight.

It's a a fight of the actions described here in verse 11 of of fleeing and and following after. The fight then is a fight of fleeing from what we need to be away from and fleeing to the things that are of Christ likeness. I was thinking about this idea and it it brought back a memory from when my wife and I were younger when we were engaged. one of her roommates had gotten married and and they had gone to uh Yoseite for their for their honeymoon and and the husband of that of that that couple was a graphic artist and so he liked to take a lot of photos and he was very good at it or he is very good at it and while they're up there in Yoseite, my wife's roommate um being from Hawaii Yose is very different.

She doesn't understand, right? and yet it's very beautiful and she's taken with the beauty and she wants to walk down into this valley to this body of water and and the husband's like great I'll stand up here and I'll I'll take photos as you go down there. And so they're showing us the photos when they come back and we're looking at the photos and we see the the event play out in their photos and we see the wife walking down to the water and and and enjoying the beauty of the valley and as she's walking down what she doesn't see but is captured in the photo is there's a huge herd of of elk running along that water heading towards where she's going to be.

And you can see in the photos that she's getting closer to the water, but yet the herd is also getting closer to her. And at a certain point of time, she realizes that she's in trouble and she's going to get trampled by this herd. And she turns and you see the look on her face as she's sprinting with all she has to get out of there so she's not hurt by these animals. And as she's sprinting, you see the intense look on her face and the fear of wanting to get out of that situation to be free of it and into safety. And and and then at a certain point, the fear goes away and you see a smile. And what has happened is that she's she's sprinting away.

She gets to a point where where she's going to get away from the herd and the husband recognizes that and and the husband's kind of a joker so he keeps taking photos laughing, right? And so she sees the smile on his face and she realizes that she's going to be safe, but now she's pursuing after him to where he's at because that's the position of safety, but she knows she's going to be safe if she just keeps fleeing. And so she see the joy in her face as she's running after her husband to be free from the danger. And that's the idea for us. There's this aspect where we have to flee and it's a dangerous issue, this sin that we get wrapped up into and we need to flee and run from that.

But at the same time, there's a joy as we pursue these things that are good and that build us up and that are Christlike. And so the first aspect of that is to flee. And and and and Timothy is too called to flee these things. And these things are what Paul has previously mentioned in this chapter which occur in verses 9 and 10 which talk about the avoiding the love of money. The false teachers that Timothy has had to address were not only uh puffed up with conceit but also seeking to use the ministry to gain wealth. And in the context that Paul calls on Timothy to be content is in that aspect of being content within the ministry and not using it for gain.

not using it because you're discontent and you want to use it to make money to satisfy yourself. Now, think of this for a second, right? Do you picture pastors struggling with discontentment? To be honest, I wouldn't necessarily think that to be the case, but the reality is is that's actually a real thing. The pastors will struggle with discontentment and they'll unfortunately use their positions to gain wealth and to gain what they what they want. And this is actually a common enough thing that the great American novel Elmer Gantry is actually based on this basic idea of the discontentment within ministry that leads men to use it for unholy purposes.

And so it's a temptation there that's called out for Timothy to avoid. And and I think it's a temptation that Paul actually fought against as well too. Paul in Romans chapter 7 speaks about how uh the lusts were uh exposed in his mind because of the law. He was able to uh adhere to the law but the lust that occurred within his mind he couldn't uh address those because they would keep coming up in his mind. But yet the law exposed that as sin within him and and showed his ongoing sin. But Paul rejoices also in chapter 7 that his salvation though is not secured by his ability to meet all aspects of the law.

But is his salvation is secured by his Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's this wonderful uh aspect in chapter 7 as Paul reaches out who's going to save this wretch that I am the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the the fleeing from the lust and the and the pursuit towards Jesus Christ and the joy that comes out of it in his writings. And so what Paul has has found in his own life, he he commands Timothy to do the same and to flee those things and to to get away from the lust. Make that intentional effort to flee. And and you and I as lay people, we we do the same thing. We we make that intentional effort to flee those things that lead us to sin.

And brothers and sisters, if Paul the Apostle struggled with this, if Timothy had to be warned for it, the reality is is every single one of us have the same issue. And if you look in your life and you don't see that you have an aspect of of your weakness that you need to flee from because it'll drive you to sin, then I I have to say that you're not following the command of this passage here because the passage is to make that intentional fleeing aspect. We recognize our weaknesses and we should recognize our weaknesses and where we often fall into sin. And and when we recognize that, we meet to make the intentional effort to uh flee that which drives us into temptation.

But in addition to fleeing, we also have that following aspect in verse 11. We're also to follow after righteousness and godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Follow after. This uh word in the Greek, it means to pursue, to chase, to to press forward. It has the idea of hunting after prey. I like the idea of the local pig farm pick pig hunters here. Uh what they'll do is they'll go up into the jungle and where we live they're they're pretty common. They'll go up into the into the jungle and they'll bring their dogs and they and they let the dogs run and the dogs will just disappear into the into the greenery into the jungle and and the guys don't know where their dogs went.

can't see it, but they can hear it. And they need to start following after the barking of the dogs. And they start pushing through the brush and they're crawling over logs and and and under logs and in areas that you wouldn't usually hike because there's no pa path. And they're going through that, hearing the sound of the dog as the dogs chase after the pig. And when the dogs are to a point where they capture the pigs, the hunters will continue to follow that sound and pursue that through the difficulties of the forest to be able to get to the pig. That is the picture for us in the pursuit of righteousness and the pursuit of godliness and faith and love and patience and meekness.

I'm not going to expound on these terms because I believe you guys grasp them well and we've covered them already in chapter 3. But but the truth of these verses that that comes out is that the perseverance in the faith requires this fight of faith and it it demands a struggle from every single believer. The perseverance of the faith or perseverance in faith better is a struggle on the part of the believer. We should be struggling from sin and we should be struggling to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Christian lifestyle is not passive. If we think the Christian lifestyle is passive, we've totally missed the idea of how we're to live before our God.

But it's not easy to struggle if you're not motivated, right? In fact, if you're not motivated, it's easier just to just to give up. It's easier to say, "Well, I'm saved. I believe in Jesus Christ. I'm safe. Therefore, I can just pursue a life of comfort. I can pursue my career. I can pursue my hobbies. I can pursue anything else but that struggle that I'm supposed to do because I'm safe." And unfortunately, many people do do this. and praise God for the trials that he brings into our lives to shake us out of this these these kind of mindsets. But but the reality is is we need that motivation and we're going to fall into that that that thing where we don't want to press forward.

And the rest of our passage, Paul then goes on to give us four motivations to drive us to fight for the faith. And there are four motivations that that should outshine really any distractions in this world that would want to pull us away from fighting for the faith. And the first one occurs in verse 12 there. It says that Timothy was called to Timothy. Paul says, "Lay hold on eternal life where to thou art also called." Tim Timothy has been called and it's not a unique aspect for Timothy. All believers are called by the father. In John 6:44, it says, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me.

Draw him and I will raise him up on that last day." From our perspective, it also often feels like we found Jesus. In fact, there used to be a common bumper sticker that was out there in the 70s. Some of you older guys kind of remember that it was it said, "I found it, right?" And it was a great um evangelism tool to get people to ask, "What'd you find?" Oh, I found the gospel. Let me tell you about it. Was kind of the idea. But from our perspective, sometimes it feels like we found it. But the reality is there's an aspect where God calls. God of creation calls and he's called us to him. And what a wonderful motivating factor to know that the God of creation would would would recognize you and call you.

The second motivating factor is that he professed a good profession. In verse 12, Paul says to Timothy and and hath professed that he has professed a good profession before many witnesses. The word good in in this verse and and and uh how it's used in every other aspect in here in this this passage that we're speaking of is not the good that speaks of what is uh morally good, good and bad kind of idea. It speaks to uh what is honorable, what is what is beautiful, what is noble, what is excellent. The profession that Timothy has made is a noble, beautiful, honorable, public confession of Jesus or for Jesus.

This could have occurred at his baptism or could have occurred at his ordination. We're not sure. But but the reality is it did occur at both instances. And all believers make that good and noble and beautiful profession of faith as well. at our baptism, we we make the profession there that we are united with Christ. Just a side comment on baptism. Baptism is a act that is commanded for believers that symbolizes to the believer that that baptism unites them to Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, sometimes people think that they need to raise up to a certain level of faith or goodness or whatever it may be to be baptized.

And that's not actually correct. It's wrong thinking. It's the only thing necessary for a person to be baptized is simply to believe in Jesus Christ, that he's your savior, that he rose from the dead, and that he now rules. To refuse baptism is to refuse that outward symbol of unity with Jesus Christ. And while we cannot see the heart of a person that refuses to be baptized, what we see though is that in that refusal to be baptized, they're they're they're symbolic symbolically denying the unity that they have in Christ. And instead, they're continuing to show their unity which with the world, which is an emity with Christ.

And so baptism while a very simple ceremony is is something very important for the believer needs to be carried out. And it's in that aspect that we publicly announce our uh unity with Christ and being united with Christ. Uh we now live for Christ. And so a believer is called by God. A believer has made a a public uh profession of their unity in Christ. The third motivating factor comes in verse 13. And it's the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. There it says, "I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickenth all things and before Jesus Christ who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession."

We make a confession towards Christ. But Christ also made a confession. He made that in the sense that while under pressure uh before Pontius Pilate, he remained true to the faith. Our Lord Jesus would be tortured. He would be killed. He would suffer for sins he did not commit. And yet he remained faithful to the father so that we could be saved from destruction. And while we are united with Christ in his righteousness, while we are, let me see if I say this correctly. We're united with Christ in his righteousness, but we're united in all that Christ is. And that includes his suffering. We rejoice because we're united with Christ in his righteousness.

So that the father sees us through that righteousness and then loves us as his children. But but the reality is is that we are also united with Christ in his suffering. And that's something to rejoice about. The exa the disciples did in Acts 5. In Acts 5:4-41 it says, "And when they had called the apostles, the Jewish leaders, uh they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and and let them go. And then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." They were beaten for Christ but in suffering for the struggle for the kingdom.

It was something to rejoice over because it showed them worthy of being associated with Jesus Christ. It showed that they were united as well with Christ. They took on the sufferings of Christ in the same manner that they're also taking on his righteousness. And so they rejoice in the righteousness and they're rejoice in the fact that they can suffer as well. You know, we too often get discouraged too quick because we have to suffer a little and we're oh, things are horrible. But the reality is is we don't we don't suffer that much to start with. But yet the sufferings that that we do take on are the sufferings of Christ.

And because we have taken them on, we are united with Christ. When our Lord Jesus returns, if he finds us being faithful to that kind of mindset so that we rejoice in the sufferings of the kingdom as much as we rejoice in the righteousness that we have we have we have carried out the command to fight the fight without spot and unrebukeable as it says in verse 14. And I like that word there unrebukable. It actually means blameless. And I love how Pastor Wayne gives us the definition for this all the time. it has no handles. You can't actually hang on to it. And the idea here is that that you have lived your life in a manner uh fleeing and pursuing doing the good fight so that when Christ does come uh there's nothing to hang on to hold against you because you have committed your life to living out the faith.

to live in that manner then makes the sufferings that we have for the kingdom joyful because there's a joyful anticipation of his coming and the rewards that come with that. And so we have three now we have three motivations to fight the fight. The first one being that we have been called by God. The second one being that we have professed our unity in Jesus Christ. And the third one the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now we come to the fourth which is the greatness of our God. And in verse 15- 16 it says which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate the king of kings and lord of lords who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto who no man hath seen nor can see.

I've been thinking a lot about this aspect and I mentioned a little bit about it last week when I had the chance to share about our our trip in the Philippines and I noted that that there's an aspect of our uh how we view uh God that is is um not as sharp as some of the views that the our Filipino brothers and sisters have. Often times in our western view of God, it's it's very limited and it's very small. But not for Paul. Paul as he goes to describe God he calls him the potent potentate that means ruler that means sovereign that means he is in complete control of everything all his power and everything or everything that that is is is because of his power everything is held together because of his power Jeremiah 32 uh Jeremiah says in 32 um Jeremiah 32:17 ah Lord God behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and outstretched arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.

Our God is sovereign and he's also king of kings. He rules over every position of authority. He rules over politicians. He rules over employers. He rules over officers. All their authority is subjected to his. And every nation's authority is is subjected to God. In Job 12 23 it says this regarding our God. It says that he increasth the nations and destroyth them. He enlargeth the nations and he strengthenth them. Straightening them straighteneth them again. It is God that raises nations and it is God that brings down nations. The greatness of our our country itself was is great because God allowed it or didn't allow it but God raised it up.

And there will come a time and maybe we're living in it now where God is going to bring it down. In fact, I suspect that's the case because as we look at some of the craziness that we see in the news and we we see some of the things that are believed in now and we look at it and we think that is so illogical. That makes absolute no sense. How can they believe in that? And yet I wonder if it's just our time where the Lord is going to bring us down like every other empire. Every empire has its day and every empire is brought down. But that is done by the Lord. That is that is his power. He is the king of kings and he shows it in that.

And for that reason we need to live according to that truth. I used to have or I have a friend I haven't talked to him for a little bit when I was working in the the Bible study fellowship ministry which is a parurch organization and we worked with um men from all over the island and my my staff was a group of about 15 16 men um from all different churches and I had several military guys on my on my staff and at one period of time I had this Air Force officer and he was having problems in his marriage and he was he was basically giving too much of his time to his career and and I had done that myself and I was trying to help him understand that you don't want to go down that path.

It's not good. You're going to lose your family over this. And I started talking to him and he kind of struck me because he he told me he said you know my job is very important and the security of this country depends on my job and if I don't do my position or if I don't do my job nobody's going to do it as well as I do and I need to focus as much as I can on this job for our security. And I think it was like a major or something. So he wasn't too high up the chain there. But I thought of this verse with him and I tried to talk to him about this the reality that you know what yeah you give your all but at the same time even at that aspect it's God who is the king of kings and it's God who brings up our nation.

It's God who will hold our nation. It's God who's ultimately going to bring us down in his timing. Unfortunately, my friend chose not to take any of that advice and currently struggles with his marriage. And so we must recognize that our Lord is king of kings. But he is also lord of lords, which is the next one. Lord means master. A master was one who is an owner of slaves. A lord owns people and and those people are subject to his will. And so all the lords that that that make people subject to their will, their wills are subject to God's. And God is immortal. He has no beginning and he has no end.

I don't know about you, but I don't struggle too much with the idea of eternity future, but I do struggle with the idea of eternity past. And maybe it's just because God has made us in a manner so that we will live for eternity either either in glory or in damnation. But but that eternity past is something I always kind of struggled with. And one of the things that actually brought me peace on this idea was the understanding that in that eternity past uh God was in a relationship because there's a trinity. There's within the trinity love that's expressed in the trinity. So there's a a fellowship that takes place within the trinity.

And it's not that God is just sitting there with nothing else around him just existing. He he was active himself in this communion in this uh fellowship with the other parts of the trinity. And the wonderful thing about salvation is that an eternity future that we're going to be a part of is him inviting us into that fellowship so that we are children within that family and part of that fellowship for all of eternity. Our God is immortal and he dwells in unapproachable light. He's uh in a purity that's beyond what we can grasp. But yet by faith we're going to experience that for all of eternity.

Paul as he finishes reminding Timothy about the greatness of God cannot contain himself and he breaks out there at the end of verse 16. And he says, "To whom be honor and power and to whom be honor and power everlasting, amen." To contemplate the majesty of God often brought Paul to this point where he would express these doxologies or these great statements uh of praise towards God because he's just taken with who God is. And the reality is that's the same for us. I'm just checking my time. When I was studying this, I want to share this with you guys, not so you think anything of me, but hopefully just to see the reality of what I'm saying and maybe you're encouraged with it as well, too.

I'm studying this and I'm thinking about the greatness of God and how this has drawn Paul to this statement. And uh one of the things that a couple of the other pastors and one some of the deacons have uh done here is we're in a a little group chat and we're in this group chat because we've committed to trying to exercise three times a week. Uh the ones in that group are getting kind of old. We're getting kind of sluggish and we don't want to um slow down and we ought to be able to minister as best as we can and so we've committed to moving our bodies a little bit to try to help us do that. Now now some of us are more faithful this commitment than others but but we won't talk about that.

But it was my day to go and exercise. And so I thought, okay, I'm going to go out and and my son has left his workout gear in my garage. So I just go out in the garage. I I do my time in the garage. And I go in the garage and I and I'm thinking about this majesty of God. And I start to kind of do some warm-up exercises. And to be honest, I get to the point I just got to stop. And I'm just so taken with the greatness of our God. That this God is the one who has called us to him. That this God is the one who has sent his son to redeem us. those of us who are worthy of wrath and we see that sin in ourselves and we know that we're worthy of wrath and yet he has sent his son to save us and he has

given us the example of Jesus Christ and he has brought us to a point where where we accepted Christ and we were happy for it and we and we did that act of baptism in obedience uh picturing that union with our savior and to be honest I'm so taken with it I just got to stop and I get down on my dirty garage floor and I get down on my knees and I just start praising God. My brothers and sisters, we're looking motivation for how to live the faith. I want to encourage you, focus on your God. Look into God's scripture. See what he says about it. Think about it. Meditate it. Let it fill your brain. It will move you.

I promise you, it moved Paul throughout the church history. It has moved men and women to write beautiful songs and poems, things that we we sing today and we enjoy so much that lifts up our heart that came from them being enthralled with God. Trust me. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek the father in his word. Think on his word. Meditate on it. He has done wonderful things. And out of that will come a motivation that will drive you to want to flee that which which dishonors him and flee to those things that please our Lord and Savior.