A War Worth Fighting (1 Timothy 1:18-20)

Good morning. It's a blessing to serve at a church

and to be at a church where we go amen,

when we go to the nations. Yeah, he doesn't know

I'm doing this, but actually, Pastor Jonathan, would you stand,

would you jump like that for us again? Please? That

was great? If you would just turn in your bibles

to one Timothy chapter one. We're continuing in the first

Timothy series. We'll be picking up in verse eighteen of

chapter one, and we'll be going through verse twenty. Many

years ago, a man named Patrick Henry is a man

many of us have heard of. He uttered the words

that are so famous and well known today, which are

what are they do we remember? Give me liberty or

give me death? You know? Liberty, freedom from the tyranny

of Britain for Patrick Henry was the cause that he

felt so strongly that he spoke these words that we've

all heard for so long. I want to ask you

the question to ponder and consider. Why would Patrick Henry

feel so strongly about this? Why would he speak these

words saying that he would rather die than live under

this tyranny? And the answer is because liberty, freedom, independence

from Britain was so important to him that he was

willing to fight or even to die for it. He

was willing to go to war for freedom in church.

I want you to consider this today. This is where

I'm going. What is there that you would die for?

What are you willing to fight for? What are you

willing to go to war for? What is so important

to you? What do you value so much that you

are willing to give your life for it? You know,

as we come to this passage in One Timothy, Paul

has already been imprisoned once. He knows the cost of preaching,

he knows the cost of standing for truth. Paul's no

stranger to this idea that when it comes to proclaiming

truth and opposing falsities, that there is a cost. And

at this time, you know, false teachers are arising up.

And we've been in First Timothy, Chapter one, the last

two messages, I believe, and we've seen that there are

false teachers who are devoted, Paul says, to myths and

to genealogies and promoting speculations rather than the truth. They're

not adhering to the truth as it was taught to

them by Paul previously. And so what Paul does here

is he urges Timothy right, He gives him a charge

to fight the good fight. He uses the language wage

the good warfare, go to war and be a soldier

for truth against heretics, against heresies, and against all things

that are contrary to the Gospel. And so, as Timothy

was urged by Paul, preachers of the Gospel, the church

must be faithful to fight for truth in a world

that denies it. Amen. Patrick. Henry's fight for freedom from

Britain was a great and it was an important cause.

And that fight has much to do with the fact

that we were able to stand here today. But there

is no greater cause. There is nothing more important, and

there is nothing of more value than the remaining firm,

standing firm on the word of God. Amen. So let's

read in one Timothy Chapter one, turned to verse eighteen.

If you're not already there, this charge I entrust to you.

I'm sorry, I forget every time, every zone, please stand

verse eighteen. 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, holding faith

in a good conscience. By rejecting this some have made

shipwreck of their faith, among whom or Hymenaeus and Alexander,

whom I've handed over to Satan, that they may learn

not to blasphem. Would you pray with me, Lord, we

thank you for your word kinda thank you for this

passage as we come to it, God, that we were

reminded as Paul reminded Timothy, as Paul had trained Timothy

up and shown him the way and is now encouraging

him to remain steadfast in truth. Then when false teachers

rise up to oppose them and to be willing to

go to war over this cause, because there is no

greater cause than the cause of the Gospel. Father, And

we don't want a gospel that's watered down. We don't

want a gospel that's mixed in with false teachings and

all these different things. Where we desire the Gospel as

it is spoken in the Word from You. And so

got to pray that we would remain firm to that

God that here but from this pulpit, God, we would

continue to preach truth for as long as we're here.

In Jesus name. Amen, if you're taking notes, and I

encourage you to do so, are our points start with,

We're going to be looking at what Paul is in

trust Timothy to do. And so first we see that

Paul he entrusts Timothy to remember his calling. In the

beginning half of the verse we just read, verse eighteen,

Paul says he entrusts Timothy to oppose false teachers in

accordance to the prophecies previously made about him. Remember this

charge that Paul's bringing up, this is the charge to

oppose the false teachings. And he says, do it and

according to the prophecies previously made about you. What is

it that Paul's referring to? What are these prophecies? You know,

this is a reference to a few things, Timothy's gift

for the ministry, to God's appointing him to the office

of elder, and then also to the prophetic announcement to

the church the congregation as seen when they laid their

hands on Timothy and prayed over him. So Timothy was called.

And so from Paul this is somewhat of an encouragement

to Timothy. Why Timothy, am I entrusting this great task

of opposing false teachers to you? Because you're called, you

have the gifts God called you, and the people the church,

they laid their hands on you, and they've affirmed you.

And so when Timothy, when he's discouraged by attacks, he's

to remember his calling, remember that God is the one

who called him, and that God is the one who

has equipped him for this. Hen needs to remember as

well that the people are blessing, that God has given

him people to stand beside him, to encourage him to

fight this battle with him, to remember his calling, or

that he was called individually, but that we are called

together and that we stand with one another in the

stance for truth. You see, as I said, standing on

truth is the job of all believers, right, We're all

called to stand for truth, to oppose things that are false.

But Timothy here in Ephesus, where he's the pastor, is

the head of the operation. He's in charge. He's the pastor.

He's the leader, the spiritual leader, the one to guide

the sheep. And what I think is beautiful about this

passage is that it seems Paul is taken a little

bit of the pressure off of Timothy. And bear with me.

You know, sure, Timothy is gifted to do ministry. He

has gifts his talents, but It's not his strength that

will be his greatest weapon against heresies. His greatest weapon

is the spirit of God that lives within him, that

has called him and equipped him, and that has given him,

as I said, support through the church. This is his

greatest weapon. You know, pastors, many of them have gifts,

and they have skills. Many of them are eloquent in

the way that they talk. And others have different skills

and different gifts and all these things, and these are

great things. But the pastor's strength is not in himself.

The pastor's strength is in the Lord who has called

him to this. And so how encouraging must it have

been for Timothy to be reminded that the God who

called him, the God who prepared him for ministry, is

a God who has equipped him and the God who

walks with him every step of the way in the

war against false teachings against heresies. You know, as I

prepared for today, and clearly I had a lot of time,

but I did not take advantage of it like I

should have. It was a late night last night, just kidding.

But as I'm prepared, you know, there were several moments

where I felt stumped, where I hit a wall, And honestly,

this happens pretty often. You know. I'm early in my

days of ministry, and I feel this way, you know,

in preparation for sermons. I feel this way in so

many other ways as well. You know, how am I

qualified to stand before before you all and to give

you the word? You know some of you have been

believers for two times the amount of years that I've

been alive. So how am I qualified for this? How

am I or how can I navigate a difficult conversation

that needs to happen? You know, even early in ministry,

I've had difficult conversations, conversations that I don't want to have.

I have to make phone calls often that I don't

want to make, and these things are difficult, and I

feel inadequate in this. What can I do for a

student who comes to me burdened and full of emotion?

When I have these doubts, when I have these feelings church?

What can I do? I can remember my calling. I'm

unable to change the hearts of anyone in this room.

I'm unable to heal conflict or confrontation by myself. I'm

unable to cure the fears and the anxieties that your

students share with me that they're struggling with. I cannot

cure these things. I cannot fix these things. I don't

have the power to do so. So in these moments,

my best option is not to lean on myself, the

one who is called to this, but rather to lean

on the caller, to lean on the one who is

not broken and insufficient like me. Right, But it is

in my weakness that I'm strong to lean on him.

And so let me tell you today, Church. You know

I believe that in this room, and you've heard us

say it before and we'll continue to say it. I

believe there are men in this room who are called

to the office of elder? Are you called to shepherd?

To oppose false teachings as an elder? Truthfully, the thing

that happens often with seasoned believers when they wrestle with

this question of whether they're called or not, many of

them feels insufficient. Your humility leads you to believe that

you couldn't be called because you're broken, because you're imperfect,

And maybe that's you today. How can I be an

elder when I'm this way? I'm broken, I'm a sinner,

but let me ask you this, when have man's imperfections

ever impeded God's will? Or this? Of all those who

have been called, of all those who have stood in

this pulpit, which one has been perfect? It's not me?

I promise. If God's standard for elder, for preacher, teacher,

shepherd were perfection, I wouldn't be standing here before you today,

and pulpe it's all over the world would be empty

on this Sunday morning. And so I can't tell you

today whether you're called believer. I can't call you, but

if you feel the call. Even students, you know we

talk about elders and things, but you know this is

the thing that the older generation and the older are

parents and things that you know we can say whether

we're called or not, we can question that. But also

for students, want to encourage you men, young men, have

you considered whether you're called? If you feel the call,

listen to me. Don't be discouraged by your flaws and neglected.

Don't lean on the called, lean on the caller. And so, believers,

remember your calling, remember what God has affirmed through his

people and called you to. Because when you remember your calling,

you were reminded that it really has nothing to do

with you, and it has everything to do with him. Amen.

And so first, Paul and trust Timothy to remember his calling.

Remember what you've been called to, remember what has been

affirmed of you. And then secondly, we see Paul and

trust Timothy to guard his conscience. If you'll pick back

up with me, Let's read verse eighteen and nineteen. He

says 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 holding faith

and a good conscience. And so how is Timothy to

wage the good warfare? To follow Paul's charges, It's about

holding faith and a good conscience. Required to writely opposed

false teaching is a good conscience, and required to maintain

a good conscience is faith. You see, faith is the

precursor for these things. When Timothy's faith is strong, his

conscience is clear before God because the outpouring of genuine

faith is faithfulness to the Word. When he has faith,

he is faithful to the Word. When he's faithful to

the Word, he stands in opposition to false teachings. And

when he does these things, he can stand before the

Lord with a good conscience, a clear conscience, knowing that

he has been faithful in this. And so when Timothy's

faith is strong, he has a good conscience, listens to me.

Because he's able to apprehend God's law, he's able to

understand right from wrong. In faith, the Lord gives him

wisdom to know right from wrong, to understand the law

and to follow it strength to do so. He's able

to understand truth from lies. And his strong faith produces

a steadfastness to this truth you know. In verse five,

which Pastor Jonathan went over a few weeks ago, he

says that the aim of our charge, speaking of this

specific charge, is love that issues from a pure heart

and a good conscience and a sincere faith. The aim

of this charge to wage the good warfare, to fight

the good fight, to oppose false teachers and their heresies.

The aim is love. When Timothy does these things, which

are an overflow, as I said of his faith, he's

loving the Lord, his God with all of his heart.

He's loving his neighbor enough to correct him and to

tell him the truth. How often do we struggle with this?

To tell our neighbor the truth. And with this his

conscience is clear and it is good. And so Church,

how do we how do we wage the good warfare?

It's by clinging to faith. Now, as I said, this

leads us to stand on truth, producing a good and

clear conscience. And so consider this, what are you tempted

to bend on? What false teaching are you tempted to

bend on? Are you encouraged maybe by an unbeliever or

are someone who believes a little differently than you. What

are you encouraged to bend on? What sin in your

life are you encouraged to bend on? And to justify?

You know, they're all over the place, but for some

of us they may hit close to home. You know,

when your child comes home and they tell you that

they're pursuing a homosexual relationship, you'll be tempted to think

that loving your child well is affirming this sin, that

the only way that you can love them is to

decide that you no longer believe that the word homosexuality

means what it means in Scripture? Do we value our

relationships more than faithfulness to the truth and to the Lord?

You know, we believe that a baby in the womb

is more than just a clump of cells. But when

we or our children get pregnant outside of marriage, we'll

be tempted to choose a route that ends the life

before anyone in the church knows, because we fear the

embarrassment and the shame of this sin. And so do

we value our reputation more than faithfulness to truth and

to the Lord? You know, when we're tempted to say

that our sin, it really isn't that bad. It's not

harming anybody, It's really not harming me, and it's it's small,

especially in comparison to what so many others are doing.

It's not like I'm committing murder, So surely I'm fine.

Do we value our sin more than we value obedience?

And so, Church, how do we wage the good warfare?

How do we guard our conscience? It's by looking in

the faith of Satan's attempts to sway us from the truth,

and we say.

No, no, my faith, the truth and faithfulness to God

is of more value to me than whatever relationship, whatever reputation.

Whatever sin, and whatever sense of comfortability that I covet.

Faithfulness to truth trumps all of these. And so when

we stand firm and our faith and take a strong

stance on truth. You know, we may not like the opposition.

When you stand firm on truth, you're gonna hear things.

People are gonna talk, People aren't gonna like you. We

may feel uncomfortable. You know, we may lose the world.

More important than all of this is that we can

stand before the Lord with a clear conscience, knowing that

we have remained steadfast and guarding the truth, guarding our

hearts and guarding our conscience. And we may have lost

the whole world, when internal we have gained our soul.

And so, Church, will you stand firm on truth? Will

you maintain sincere faith is what Paul says, sincere faith

genuine faith and a good conscience, by not bending home

what God has said, but remaining faithful to it and

opposing all who say otherwise. And so Paul and trusts

Timothy number one, as we said, to remember his calling.

And Paul also trust him to guard his conscience and

lastly to fight all heresies. To read with me, and

in verse nineteen or pick up about halfway through, says

by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,

among whom or Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have handed

over to Satan that they may learn not to blasphem.

See Hymenaeus and Alexander were men in the church here

at Ephesus, there were men who Paul is named here

is as false teachers. They had resorted to teachings that

were contrary to the Gospels as taught by Paul, and

Paul uses this metaphor of a shipwreck describe what they've

done to their faith. And so what was meant to

behole like a ship, what was meant to reach its

destination was rather hit by a wave that it could

not stand against, and it never arrived. Jimenaeus and Alexander

did not lose their salvation, but rather they were men

who had professed faith but didn't truly have saving faith.

And so, if we remember from earlier, one product of faith,

as I said, is an apprehension of God's law of truth.

When we have genuine and sincere faith, then the product

of that is to understand truth, to follow truth, to

fight for truth. Their lack of faith and resorting to

false teachings, then is evidence that their faith was empty

from the start. So Paul handed them over to Satan.

And you know, we hear this and you're like, what

does this mean that he handed them over to Satan.

You know, these men were exposed, They were exposed, exposed

as unregenerate, and they were disciplined to be sent out

in their ways so that they should learn not to blasphem.

You know, there's similar similar language that Paul uses in

an earlier passage and in one Corinthians five, and many

of you may know this passage, but this is concerning

a man. Paul, he's writing to the church at corinth

concerning a man that has committed sexual immorality, says that

he slept with his father's wife. Yikes. It says in

verse five of one Corinthians five, you are to deliver

this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,

so that his spirit may be saved in the day

of the Lord. I'll read that again, one Corinthians five

to five. You are to deliver this man to Satan

for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit

may be saved in the day of the Lord. And

so you see the similarities. Delivered this man to Satan

and one Corinthians five, you know, hands them over to Satan.

On Timothy one. There's similarities here, but there are also differences.

And so this man in sin is also delivered over

to Satan. But what we see is that the reason

is different. It's so that his spirit may be saved.

You know, listen, the goal of church discipline for a

believer is, always, has been, and always will be that

the believer would be restored through repentance. Was that when

a believer falls short, when a believer is in sin,

that we would go to the believer, correct them in love,

and that they would repent and be restored. And in

one Corinthians five, the man in sin is excommunicated in

order that he may understand the severity of his sin

and be purged of it, brought to repentance, and eventually restored.

This man is a believer, you know, we see that

the people, and in Matthew eighteen we see church discipline

and laid out a little bit more in detail. Right,

And so there's steps to this. One person goes, and

then if they continue in sin, you know, a group goes,

a second person goes with them, right, And if they

don't repent, and then if they don't turn from their sin,

if they continue, then we get to this place where

we excommunicate them. Right, And many would look at this

and say that this is not an act of love,

that this is an act of hate, of neglect to

push somebody away. But the goal is always, as we said,

repentance and restoration. And so this person is excommunicated. They

are removed for the purpose of showing them how serious

their sin is, right, creating steps for them to find repentance,

creating steps for them to be restored. But then differently

in one Timothy, though the men in san Jaimnaeas and Alexander,

they are not believers, they're false teachers, and their false

teachings have exposed them as an regenerate. As I said,

the goal in exercising church discipline on these men and

excommunicating them is primarily to protect the church, to protect

the church from being infiltrated with false teaching. You know,

unbelievers attempting to sway the church at Ephesus into false

doctrines and saying, do not have a place in this church.

And so Paul, he's excommunicated them, he has handed them

over to saying that they may learn not to blasphem.

So they're disciplined and removed. And he does this, and

he's encouraging Timothy to remain stead fast on this is

that when these people come in, these unbelievers, with these

false doctrines, teaching things that are contrary to what I've

taught you, to send them away. Timothy is to protect

the flock, to protect his sheep, and this cannot happen.

You know, it's unfortunate that so many of us are

are familiar with the disease of cancer. Right, It's a

terrible disease. And you know, I'm no doctor, I don't

I don't even have a doctor. But it's understood that

the cancer is dangerous, right, It's it's volatile no matter

where it is in the body. And so often when

when cancer is detected, we know that people they go

through chemotherapy, right. We know that people go through radiation

in order to what to kill the disease cells. Right,

There's there's a disease in the body, and so the

goal is to use this treatment to rid the body

of the disease. And the disease is bad enough itself

where it is, but what's even worse is when the

disease begins to grow when the cancer begins to grow

and get larger, when it begins to spread. And these treatments,

if possible, will be done early in order to stop

any growth or spreading, so that no other part of

the body would be protected. And I want you to

listen to me. This is where I'm at with this

false doctrines, heresies, they're cancerous. You know. They can start small,

A little band on the truth here, a little band

on the truth there, and eventually you have what we

currently live in, a nation that doesn't know God, a

nation that doesn't believe in objective truth. So for Paul,

for Timothy, your pastors today the church, the goal is simple,

fight the disease. We are to be the chemotherapy, the

radiation to the heretics and the heresies that try to

infiltrate our church, to fight them off, to oppose them,

and stand firm on what we believe to be true.

Paul's example to Timothy of excommunication is difficult. It's confrontational,

all right. This is not an easy task that Paul's

encouraging Timothy to do. That's why he's encouraging him because

it's not simple. It's not easy, it doesn't come without heartache.

It doesn't come without some failure. Probably, it doesn't come

without difficulties, time and effort, all these different things. But

it encourages him. It encourages him so that he'll remember

to remain faithful to protect the rest of the body.

False teachings have to be fought. You know, there are

many who want to throw scripture out, but I'm here

to tell you that the scriptures, they are God breathed

and they're profitable. You know, there are many who say

that that women should be pastors. Women are listen, Women

are absolutely vital to the church, absolutely vital and important.

But scripture is clear the office of pastor is meant

only to be held by men. There are many who

say that gender is fluid, but I'm here to tell

you that in Matthew nineteen, Jesus affirms what Scripture has

already said in Genesis, that God made them man and

he made them woman. Many say that Jesus is not God,

but listen, let me tell you, in the beginning was

the Word, and the word was with God, and the

word was God. You know, there are many who say

that you can earn your salvation through good works, but

hear me, a person who breaks the law will still

be judged by the law, no matter what good they've done.

Many say there are several ways to eternal life, But

what did Jesus say said, I am the Way, the Truth,

and the life. There's none who comes to the Father

except through me. To church. When heresies, when false teachings

and false doctrines, when they try to infiltrate us, When

someone tries to tell us that what we know Scripture

says to be true is false, then it is our job.

It is the pastor's job. From this pulpit. We must

be a people who proclaim truth and oppose all falsities,

all heretics, and all heresies, strongly and firmly, remaining firm

on the word of God. It is a rock that

never waivers, It never changes. What God has said he

meant it is good, and we are to remain faithful

to it and listen to me. If not we, then who?

If not we, then who? If we won't stand for

truth in a world that denies it, and who will?

You know? And I don't know about you, but I

want to be able to stand before the Lord one

day with a clear conscience, knowing that My faith was

sincere knowing that no matter of the opposition that I've

already seen, the matter of the opposition that I'm going

to see, that I was faithful to this because there

is nothing of more importance. Patrick Henry fought for liberty.

It was a great fight, very important. There's nothing more

important than this. You know. You may or may not

know this about me. Student ministry was never something that

I intended on getting into. I did worship ministry here

and college ministry. If you don't know, I've been here

for a long time. I think I started coming here

when I was around ten years old, came up through

the youth ministry, started leading worship here when I was

seventeen on the stage, and I've been here ever since.

And I was doing worship ministry and college ministry. And

then then one door, one day, a door opened and

the Lord through the elders opened the door for me

to be the student to step into student ministry and

to lead these students. You know. And there are many challenges,

many challenges that come with student ministry. Four or five

of them are sitting right there, just kidding. They're great.

But one of the greatest challenges is the smell. Yeah,

I'll be I'll be honest. These guys right here, they're

in the clear. They're good. But the truth is, in

my time in student ministry, I won't call any names.

God bless them, but I've had some stinky boys, some

stinky middle school boys, you know, at camp. I have

a rule for the boys, and it's a rule I

don't have to have for the girls. Deodorant is a must.

You know. I've literally, uh, I don't know if I

did it this past year or not, but I have

before had to do smell checks to identify who the

stinky culprit was. We had a boy that was stinking.

He was stinking up the rooms and everything, and we

girls were complaining, People were making comments, and so I

guess it's my job to find out who it is.

So we lined them up like the military, So put

j arms up, boys and we smelled them, and we

identified the culprit. You know, the thing about some boys

is that they think that, you know, that the smell

that they had, like I said, boys, you are good,

don't worry. They think that the smell that they have

is something that can just you know, be covered up

acts body spray, just spray it on and it makes

the odor disappear. But it doesn't work, you know. And

I love these boys enough to tell them the truth.

I'm not gonna lie to these boys. It don't work.

Axed body spray does not make it disappear. Showering and

putting on the odorant works, you know. And this is

silly example. I joke with you, But the truth is

that it's not loving to affirm a lie when I

should be telling the truth. Paul says to Timothy that

the aim of this charge is is love. And we

resort back to that the aim of this charge is love.

If we love God, we love truth, right, and if

we love people, we tell them the truth. So Paul

and trust Timothy to remember his calling to guard his

conscience and to fight heresies. How can Timothy do this?

How can Timothy oppose false teachers and doctrines. Well, it's

by loving God. It's by loving truth and loving people

enough to tell them the truth. It's a church. Let

the outpouring of your faith lead you to a place

where you can stand before God with a pure heart

and a good conscience because you have stood in opposition

to the lies and firm on truth. Many of you

have your Bibles with you. I'm preaching and I forgot

my physical bible. But if you have your Bible, can

I see it? Can you hold it up? Search for

truth there? That is where truth lies. Believe in it,

stand strong on it. Don't let anybody oppose it. And

when they do, correct them in love. Let them know

that this is what the Word of God says, that

this is truth. And I love you, but your feelings

about the matter don't matter. My feelings about the matter

don't matter because truth is truth and truth is worth

fighting for. And so Church, the book that you just

held up, let this be the weapon that you wage

war with. Remain firm, stand firm on truth. There's nothing

of greater value. There's nothing of greater importance. Would you

pray with me? Lord, We thank you for your goodness again, God,

We thank you for truth that never changes. God, that

what you've said you meant God, and and you stand firm.

And so Father, I pray that we would stand firm

God when when there are questions about what we believe,

when when people question the things that we believe, God,

that we would lean on you and your word know

that it never fails. Why we're saying some minute ago,

he won't fail. So Lord, I pray that you would

be the rock that we lean on, that we turn

to God, that we would wage the good warfare God

in a fight for truth in a world that denies it. God,

that one day when we stand before You, we can

have a clear conscience in knowing that we have done

what you have called us to do from this pulpit,

from all sidewalks and streets. God. And so Lord, we

love you. We thank you for the opportunity God to

study your word. Father. I pray that the time that

we look in the Word would not just be on

this Sunday morning, but Father, as we go home, that

we would study it for ourselves. God, we would search

for truth on our own and not desire to be

spoon fed, but know that you desire for us to

know you intimately and personally. Father, that is done through

study of your word. And so Lord, we thank you

for Jesus. We thank you for salvations and his name.

We pray amen Aten and all to Him.