Waging a Good Warfare

tonight we're going to be in uh we're going to do the last our text Tonight is the last three verses of the first chapter in first Timothy and uh I'm going to be picking up where Pastor anen left off last week so if you are able please stand as we read the Holy word of God 1 Timothy 1: 18- 20 and the Bible says this charge I commit unto these son Timothy according to the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by them mightest War a good Warfare holding faith and a good conscience and some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwreck of whom is hus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme father Lord thank you so much again for your

holy word we thank you for the opportunity that we have to always come into your house to learn more and tonight father I especially ask that you you help us to understand this passage and not only that but to be able to apply these truths that we cover tonight in our lives father we love you in Christ's name we pray amen please have a seat the message I'm going to be preaching to you tonight is entitled waging a good War Warfare waging a good Warfare how many of you are military this is kind of up your your alley if you will if you're a civilian I'm sure you can still understand that okay uh so we're going to we're going to look at or we're going to take a closer look at Timothy's charge or

his ministry and I want to share three points with you today about that the first point is the charge to Timothy's Ministry what is that all about says this charge I commit unto the son Timothy according to the prophecies which uh went before on thee that thou by them mightest wore a good Warfare if you study First Timothy besides teaching sound Doctrine and proclaiming the gospel Paul gave a third responsibility to the Church of Ephesus and that is to defend the faith and that is Timothy's charge as we consider Timothy's charge his ministry there is a commitment there of the responsibility of defending the faith Paul reminded Timothy that God has chosen him for his ministry he said in this

verse 18 according to the prophecies which went before on thee that's the author Authority that he's given that he has been chosen although the Bible is not clearly stated there what what exactly that is but I can imagine that there must have been a meeting there of the church Elders the the the apostles there and they got together and and the Holy Spirit Led them to that decision of identifying Pastor Timothy as a guy what I'm talking about is similar to what had happened with the when the Holy Spirit selected Barnabas and Paul in Acts 13:2 why don't you turn there acts 13:2 in Acts 13:2 the Bible said as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and

Saul for the work where onto I have called them the Holy Spirit told the prophets and the teachers of the Church of Antioch to separate Barnabas and Paul he has called them he has given them a calling and he had revealed this his calling to these leaders I think that that's similarly of what happened with Timothy our scripture Our passage doesn't really mention how but we know that he's been chosen one of the things I want to I want you to consider as as well is our God is a God who Reveals His intentions to his servants he never leaves anything without revealing it to his servants you can go to Amos chapter Amos 3:7 on that one so as we look at his charge there's a word that's being used

there and and the word is commit it it's a banking term that means means to deposit another word for commit is and trust and Trust Paul said to Timothy that he is committing or entrusting the awesome and important responsibility to defend the Fate To War a good Warfare to his charge and that includes his responsibility to warn about false teaching Paul once again used the same kind of military term that he used in verse three using the word charge to enforce the statement in verse 18 of our passage and this idea of this word charge Paints the picture of an urgent command or order that's being passed down from a superior officer whenever you see orders and being passed down from your

commanders that's pretty serious stuff so we can say that Timothy was a man under orders and he had to obey them A Soldier's task is to please him who had chosen him to be a soldier especially in this context jump to chapter 2 of 2 Timothy verse 4 chapter 2 of 2 Timothy verse 4 and the Bible said no man that wared entangled himself with the Affairs of this life that he may please him who had chosen him to be a soldier understanding Timothy's charge he must devote himself wholly to the person who gave him that order and that is God himself to the work of the ministry to the work of the Gospel but I found it fascinating as I was studying this that in in U in addition to this whole relationship

or role of commander and and and their Soldier is this Paul reiterated his relationship to Timothy as being his spiritual son so he's not just about commander and Soldier but this paints a picture of a relation relationship between Father and Son there is trust there is love that you would normally find in a normal relationship between parents in a normal relationship between a teacher and their student or helper so Timothy was there by Divine appointment God had chosen him and sent him to do his charge but I should point out also that Paul could have been telling Timothy to stay true to his name anybody know what Timothy means honor God honor God he's probably saying you know Timothy stay

true to your name you've been named to honor God like Timothy if you are God's servant called by him obeying him uh and doing his will in the work of the ministry then you ought to be able to finish the work that you have been called to do a lot of times we're so focused on the the task that we forget that we have an almighty God behind us who's stiring for us even Paul I mean Timothy should have realized that not only is he there under the Divine appointment but he's got the backup of the almighty God so that was the first point the second point I wanted to share with you is that Timothy was dispatched on God's campaign on God's campaign and this is again what I was talking about we forget

who sent us into the mission fields but it is God so Timothy's charge was to defend the Fate he was dispatched to fight a good campaign he was summoned to a lifelong campaign or Ministry that ends when he dies Paul uses this picture of military and the the differ that I want to point out is when you think about campaign versus Battle Battle is a short struggle that there is usually an end but a campaign is a really long event and in this case in Timothy's case it's a lifelong event his ministry there is no end it ends when he dies so he was he was dispatched on God's campaign that he might as War a good Warfare the Christian Life is often compared to Warfare or struggle to get Victory it's

it's you find them throughout scripture for example Ephesians 6 chapter U chapter 6: 10-1 17 that talks about the armor of God going to battle getting ready and the services of the Christian Ministry are like those of a soldier where are the soldiers there raise your hand yay 2 Timothy chap 2:3 if you go there that verse says Thou therefore endure heartness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ you jump to verse uh chapter 4:7 the Bible says I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Timothy was to war a good Warfare which means that he is to be engaged in a righteous cause who is faithful to his Commander to his post he never leaves his post who is actively

observing the Motions of the enemy in other words he is always going to be on guard and he is fearless en couraged and he's ready to bounce up and meet the enemy and never forsakes his standards never compro compromises his standards and who continues his faithful service his faithful calling all the way to the end till death such a soldier is what a Christian minister should be such a soldier is what a Christian should be see the word good here in good Warfare means honorable Timothy was given two weapons in his charge or two tools if you want to call it that holding faith and a having a good conscience holding faith and having a good uh conscience go back to verse 19 of our passage it says

holding faith in a good conscience which some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwreck see in this verse Paul changed his illustration from army to Navy he wanted Timothy he warned Timothy that the only way to succeed is to hold fast to his faith and to have a good conscience see it is not enough folks it is not enough to proclaim the Faith by our lips we must practice our faith in our lives we must stay true to the word of God we must hold fast to the true fath faith and at the same time a good conscious using no improper methods in spreading the gospel we cannot use false teachings in spreading the gospel see because once the conscious is seared even a preacher is capable of

gross sin you go to uh chapter 4 of first Timothy verse 2 the Bible says speaking lies into hypocrisy in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron we must protect that good conscious a person with good conscience would do the will of God in spite of who is watching or what people may say the only way to to keep clear of a good conscience tole keep clear of your conscience listen this is this is the gold nugget is to judge oneself and to confess sin the only way to keep a clear conscience is to judge yourself and confess your sins in fir 1 Corinthians 11:31 you don't have to go there I'll read it to you for if we judge ourselves we should not be judged 1 John 1:19 if we confess

our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness see the reason why I'm kind of mentioning about good conscious it it is important to to having a good Warfare having a a successful Ministry is you must have aside from Faith your good conscience don't compromise that and then finally in verse 19 Paul started talking about shipwreck it says with some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwreck as I studied into more and that is actually when you put away your good conscience you you start to compromise that then you're making shipwreck you're getting ready to to crash professed Christians who make shipwreck on their uh of their fate

they do so by sinning against their conscience yes it is possible to sin against your conscience shipwreck yet the Shipwreck begins with unconfessed small sins if you have or you understand what I'm talking about I don't know what the average uh number of sins is per day per person but I know it's a lot you ought to be on your knees a lot confessing your sins that is why we should consider that the only way to keep a clear conscience is to judge ourselves you cannot conf confess your sin when you're feeling that you're not guilty you have to realize and judge yourself that you are guilty of that sin therefore you confess take care of that see bad Doctrine usually starts with a bad conduct

and the secret sin when our conscience is seared from unconfessed sins then we begin to reject our good conscience which leads to the Shipwreck of our faith I want to thank Pastor John for pointing that out to me in his studies as well is very helpful to kind of share notes but our passage ends with a Stern rebuke of two members of the church let's read verse 20 read along with me not loudly of whom is himonas and Alexander which I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme a sin that is familiar to Paul because Paul prior to his conversion was a blasphemer an evil speaker of God there is absolutely no 100% shity that these are the same guys but I would go on the side

that they probably are and so I'm talking about hus was mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:1 17 and Alexander in chapter 4:14 let's go to these verses so we can understand a little bit about what this is all about first 2 Timothy 2:17 the Bible says here and their word will eat a as doth a caner of whom is hus and fetus let me sort of paraphrase this and their word if they go on will eat into the spiritual body as a mortifying store spreads through the Natural Body the words describe both the malignant nature and the contagious character of false teaching the picture that comes to mind when I was reading all this Gang Green once he gets to you pretty much the only thing you can do is to cut it off and

then in second Timothy CH 4:14 this says about Alexander says Alexander the coppersmith did much did me much evil the Lord rewarded him according to his will works it sounds like a really bad guy see him minus and Alexander were among those who rejected their good conscience and had made shipwreck of their faith if you study the verses describing these two Paul basically have some three major complaints about these guys first they rejected the the guidance of conscience they have seared their conscience is no longer playing a role in them they had allowed their own desires to speak louder than God's voice God still voice they lapsed into evil practices and they had taken to false teaching

with all of that Paul went on to say that he delivered them unto Satan which implies that there was a Apostolic discipline that dismissed them from the membership of the local church go to First Corinthians chapter 5 stay with me we're almost done 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 the Bible says to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus see in God's wisdom when we dismiss someone from the protection of the Saints the church they are more vulnerable to Satan's Temptations and in the hope that when they get through and Satan start dealing with them that they would realize that they need to repent this verse 20 it

uses the word learn that they may learn not to blaspheme this verb learn in this verse means to learn by discipline to learn by discipline you don't just teach them there comes a point where you know what talking no longer works you discipline them when a Christian refuses to repent the local Fellowship should exercise discipline and making him vulnerable to the attacks of Satan speaking of discipline I want to go back a little bit to chap uh Matthew 18:1 15-1 17 it talks about the church discipline in verse 13 He says moreover thy brother shall uh If thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou Hast gained thy

brother verse 16 but if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two or more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established and if he shall neglect to hear them this is verse 17 and I think this is where we're talking about these two guys okay and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it to unto the church but if the negle but if he neglect to hear the church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican they you don't treat them like a a brother anymore in Christ scripture tells us that when a person transgresses and does not follow the doctrine of Christ that person should not be received that person shouldn't be with us 2 John 1 verse 9 and 10 2

John 1:9 and 10 whosoever transgressed and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ had not God he that abided in doctrine of Christ he had both the father and the son verse 10 if there come any unto you and bring not his doct Doctrine this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed if if someone's been disciplined and they're not listening to the church anymore we we excommunicate them they shouldn't be part of our fellowship so this is my last point and is about the the summary of Timothy's charge and the application to us today see Timothy's charge or order or Ministry was to engage in a lifelong campaign as I was saying in defending the Fate at his post as a pastor

or a minister of the Fate his primary mission was to ensure that the teaching of the church was sound of sound Doctrine free from false teachings he is to accomplish his charge by holding on to the true faith and keeping a good upright Consciousness he used to bring false teachers under the church discipline and ultimately excommunicate them of those who refuse to comply or are Shipwrecked Beyond recovery leaving those folks to the attacks of Satan the application we as New Testament Believers should choose to be today's Defenders of the faith why do you think this letter is still in scripture today it's not only for us to know what Timothy did what Paul did but the application is to you and I as Defenders of the faith we are to hold on to our true faith and keep a good and upright Consciousness to be effective Defenders of the faith see when we do this when we do this effectively as a defender of the faith we honor and we glorify Our God and that's what it's all about