Ready to Fight

There's a few of you still awake this morning. Take your bobs and turn over to 1 Timothy chapter 1 with me this morning. We started going through this letter. We call it a pastoral letter, pastoral epistle. It's basically written to a young pastor named Timothy by his mentor, if you will, his spiritual father, Apostle Paul. It's an interesting letter because Paul even tells us in chapter 3, verse 15, he says, but if I should be delayed, I've written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. And so he's told us basically, he's written this letter so that the church Well, know how to conduct themselves, how to relate to one another, how to deal with issues, how to

Work even together as a church. And it's an important thing because the church is the pillar and the foundation of truth. It is the body of Christ. We take it for granted so much. I mean, today we talk about going to church. We don't talk about being a church. You know, we talk about what the church has to offer us as opposed to how God's working through us as He puts us in the church so that His name will be proclaimed in the nations and so that, you know, we will be a testimony of who Christ Jesus is. There's so many things that we kind of miss about being a church sometimes. It's unfortunate because there's blessings in being a part of a church.

There's blessings in standing for Christ. There's blessings in knowing what God wants in our lives and then fulfilling those things and walking in obedience. There's blessings. But in many ways, we've kind of made Christianity this selfish thing. Right? We've kind of made Christianity a selfish thing. What's in it for me? How do I get what I want? If I don't get what I want, I'm gonna go do what I want somewhere else. I mean, there's lots of things that we should consider. But as we've started this book,

One of the things that we realize is that from the very beginning, that part of what God wants us to do, if we're gonna conduct ourselves in the household of God, is that He wants us to stand for truth. And what I'm talking about when I talk about truth is the Word of God. And what it says, not in our opinions about it, not in about what we want it to say or don't want it to say, but what it says. Matter of fact, we looked at chapter one and Paul just jumped in and he basically said, you know, I've urged you to stay in Ephesus so you will instruct certain men not to teach false doctrine.

Not to pay attention to myths or genealogies, not to teach that the law, keeping the law, is the way of salvation. That's not what we want to focus on. We want to focus on the Word of God. And we're going to talk about that more this morning. But man, you talk about a battle today for the church. The battle is to actually trust God's Word. Share God's Word. Believe that God's Word makes the difference. Believe that that's life to us to know God's Word. It's a real battle of the day because even many within the church, man, they're moving away from God's Word because it's difficult sometimes, right? God's Word is truth. that penetrates our lives that speaks to our souls, that call us the things that we would never

Call ourselves to. So it can be very difficult. Last week we talked about Paul, how he moved from this truth about God's word and how the gospel conforms to the glory of the blessed God and really about how God revealing truth to sinners and revealing the fact that they need a Savior impacted him. Now he's thanking God. They got even appointed him to the ministry. And we talked about what a strange thing that is today because, man, so many Christians today do everything they possibly can to avoid serving God. Everything that possibly can, every excuse in the world, too busy, not strong enough, don't know enough. I mean, whatever it is, many people today think the worst thing in the world would be for God to call them out to serve, or that serving children, serving the nursery, being a deacon, being a pastor, being a missionary, whatever that might be.

Man, we just think it's the worst thing in the world that God would call us to that. but it's a ridiculous thought. Because man, Paul said, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, although I was formerly a persecutor of the church, although I was formerly an arrogant man, living as if I knew what I was doing and yet opposing God. And because of that, he's like, man, I'm so thankful God would count me faithful and call me and appoint me into this ministry. He said, you know, because God's grace and mercy was poured out on me that he might demonstrate his extraordinary patience with me. Me, man, when we get saved, we are a picture of God's patience.

We get saved. We're a picture of God's love and grace and mercy. God's wonderful, incredible salvation is poured into us and is like, I'm so thankful that God would do that for me and count me worthy enough to then serve him. And so then we ended last week in verse 17 saying, Paul praising God, now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God. Be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. That's kind of what should happen. Guys, when we begin to think about God and we begin to think about what he's done, we think even the fact that he will let us serve him. Because who are we that we could serve him? Now we should kind of just spontaneously break into praise to Lord God Almighty.

So he's really shown us some things in this first chapter so far. But then he kind of, in these verses we're going to look at today, he turns back to the original purpose to help us get refocused, to help Timothy get refocused. So begin reading with me in verse 18 when we read 18 through 20. Timothy, my son, I am giving this instruction, giving you this instruction and keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them, you might fight the good fight, having faith in a good conscience which some have rejected and have shipwrecked the faith among them are Haimanas and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan so that they might be taught not to blaspheme.

Would you pray with me? Lord, I am thankful today for your word. I'm thankful. for how good it is. Lord, you're good. You're good in every way and you're good in every circumstance. But we know Lord this world is hard. We know, Lord God, this world is confusing. We don't pretend to understand everything about what's going on even in our own lives. We don't even pretend sometimes why things happen in our lives that are painful or difficult or trying. Beloir, we know you're good and your word points us to you and your word gives us wisdom to know how to navigate this world, to know how to walk in it and be filled with peace and hope.

Your word teaches us how to have eternal life, a relationship with you, forgiveness of sins, and how to love one another. I pray that you just open our hearts to your Word today. I pray that you would speak, Lord, because I can't do this. This passage is filled with some deep truths, and I need you, Lord, to speak about your Word. So please do that. And I pray that you'd speak to each one, draw those that have never trusted Christ to salvation, strengthen those of us that know you. And Lord, we love you. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So here's this interesting little transition, right? He's praise God for calling him into the ministry.

He's already talked about Timothy taking these stances, and then he says to him again, Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this instruction and keeping with the prophecies previously made about you so that by recalling them, you may fight the good fight. Now that's really what this passage is about is fighting the good fight. And that's super important for us because the same fight that I was taking place in Timothy's life as a pastor in Ephesus or in Paul's life as a church planner around Asia Minor and so forth. That's still, that same fight is still taking place today. And this is fight for Christ. It's this fight for souls. It's fight for our communities. It's a fight for our churches.

It's a fight for our families. So we'll talk about that good fight in a minute, but basically before he talks, excuse me about this good fight, Paul knows that Timothy is going to need to be encouraged. He's going to need to be built up because this fight is tough. It's tough and we learn later on that in 2 Timothy chapter 1 that Timothy is a little bit timid sometimes. Timothy can get a little overwhelmed sometimes and man if you're in the ministry you're going to get overwhelmed sometimes and you're going to be timid sometimes and you're going to get persecuted. You're going to get criticized and you're going to have all these things happen if you're really going to walk with Christ.

It's going to happen. It's not even a way around it. So he begins this little turn back to what he started by saying Timothy, my son. That doesn't really mean too much if you just read it at face value, but this is the second time in 18 verses that he said this. Verse two, he says at the first time, to Timothy, my true son in the faith. And we talked about that back then that Timothy was a young man, that had come under Paul. Some say that Paul let him to Christ. Some say that Paul didn't lead him to Christ. It doesn't really make any difference at this point in time. He's a young man that Paul had seen God's hand on and that Paul said come with me and he even had him circumcised because his father was a Gentile and his mother was a Jew and he hadn't been circumcised.

Did a lot of things in Timothy's life so that Timothy would be ready and willing to go with him and make an influence. But really what he's saying, just by reiterating the fact that he says, Timothy, my son, what he's saying to Timothy is, Timothy, I know who you are in the Lord. I know who you are, I know your heart, I know your desire, I know the calling in your life. Basically what he's saying is Timothy, I know that you are a man that has the same heart I have, the same desire I have, the same ministry I have, you're my son. Now that was big to Timothy because Being a pastor in a really worldly, paganistic, rebellious city like Ephesus was going to be a grind.

It was going to be very difficult. It's going to be costly. But the apostle Paul over in Philippians chapter two describes Timothy this way, chapter two verses 19 through 22. He says, now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon so that I too may be encouraged by news about you. For I have no one else like mine did who will genuinely care about your interests, all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know his proven character because he has served with me in the gospel ministry like a son with a father. So now there's been several times in Paul's writing that brings up Timothy. And he talks about Timothy having this heart and this concern and being sincere and this purpose in Christ.

And Timothy needs to hear him again, say, my son. Quite honestly, a lot of people need encouragement when they're serving the Lord. But encouragement isn't something that comes easily. It's not something that people offer up easily. Me quite honestly, it's kind of hard to encourage people sometimes because we're almost seemingly wired to criticize. I know, I know I'm talking to college heights. Some of you people that are here for the first time, welcome, thankful that you're here, but you know, college heights is practically perfect. So you've arrived at the right place.

No critics here, nobody's struggling, nobody falling short, so welcome to the right place. But for those that know anything about the church, man, the church, We struggle sometimes because, you know, ministry, here's somebody out there serving, here's somebody out there teaching, here's somebody out there giving and are they perfect at it? No. Do you have a better way? Most assuredly. Would you do it differently? Absolutely. Would you be longer? Would you be shorter? Would you be louder? Would you be softer? Would you be nicer? Would you be harder? Absolutely, right? And people are really happy to tell you all the ways that you should do things.

But it's pretty hard to hear somebody encourage you and go, man, you're a man after my own heart. You're a man after God's own heart. You're a woman after God's own heart. I'm thankful for who you are. And Timothy was going into the fire. as a pastor in Ephesus. Like, by the way, most pastors do. It's tough. It's especially tough to do what Paul's calling Timothy to do. Like I said, we'll talk about that in a minute. So first he starts with reminding the man, man, you're a son of mine. Look to me, see what I've done, see what God has done through me. See how ministry has been and know, right? Walk that way.

Then he says, I'm giving you this instruction and keeping with the prophecies previously made about you so that by recalling them, you might fight the good fight. So not only does it encourage him by saying, man, I know who you are. Keep walking your way. But he says, I know what God has said about you. Now part of the hard part about this verse is that we don't have any of these prophecies recorded. There's nowhere in the scriptures that tells us what these people said about Timothy. And really it doesn't tell us what God said. I mean, that's what prophecies are where God speaks to a man and that man says, this is what God says about you.

But we have some scripture to tell us kind of how this worked. In 1 Timothy 414, Paul writes to him again, says, don't neglect the gift that is in you. It was given to you through the prophecy with the laying on of hands by the counsel of elders. Now really all that's talking about is that God has given Timothy a specific or specific several gifts for Timothy to use, and they were recognized by men from God saying, Timothy, you're set apart to do this ministry, you're set apart to do these things. That's the gifts that God has given you. Second Timothy 1.6, Paul again says to Timothy, therefore I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying out of my hands.

And so basically Paul says I was there. I was there. I know what God said to you. I know what God said about you. I was there when these men set you apart. So you need to continue to do this ministry. It's really important. And here in chapter one, he's saying to Timothy, men, it's important for you to remember what God said. You are to be about the ministry that God has given you. It's really important for you to know. Now, Next Sunday night we're doing our deacons ordination. We have five new deacons that have not been ordained. We have one that has been ordained. We have six new deacons. And I'm going to tell you, man, if you're a part of college science, even if you're here the first time you ought to come, and just see what God's going to do.

We'll have them share their testimonies a little bit. We'll have a charge to them as new deacons, what they need to be about and thinking about. We'll have a charge to the church, what we need to do and response to them. But I'll never forget My ordination, which is really what we're talking about here with Timothy. This was where God sent him apart for this ministry that Paul's talking about. I'll never forget. I had been called to be a pastor. I'd never been to Bible college. I'd never done anything. I mean, I'd preach some and done some things. I'd been an interim pastor for a while, but I'd never pastor my own church. And man, I, who?

When you start pastoring a church, it is unbelievable. Some of the things that happen, spiritually, physically, conflict, turmoil, sin, blessings. So I passed my church for a while, and then my home church says, Mike, we want to ordain you. We want to make sure that we recognize that you've been called out. We've seen God in you. So I go back to my home church, and I sit in this room with these other deacons and pastors, And these guys are like,

Man, we know, Mike. And sometimes you wish you didn't have to hear it, not because it was bad, because when I started going to that church, man, I was anything but godly. I was anything. I was anything but godly. And these men went and we've seen what God has done in your life. And we've seen what God has done in best life. We've seen how he called you out. We've seen how he's equipped you and we've seen you grow. It was so humbling. I mean, it was a blessing. It was humbling, right?

It's humbling to realize that this isn't a work in my own life. I didn't do this. This was a work that God did in me and that God did in Beth. This is a work that raised us up and moved me from a maintenance man and a trucking company to

Pastoring a church. I wasn't something I chose. It wasn't something I had on my radar. There's something that God did. And so Paul was saying to Timothy, I want you to remember. what these prophecies were, what these men said from God about you and how he raised you up and changed you and called you out and has given you this task. In fact, it would look very much like what God did in Paul and Barnabas' life in Acts chapter 13 verses two and three. It says, as they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them, then after they had fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them off.

In other words, Paul and Barnum weren't looking to go out and start churches and be missionaries to win the world of Christ. And then they were in Antioch teaching and helping the believers, but the Holy Spirit said, just like the Holy Spirit would have said about Timothy or me, or you, if you're going to serve the Lord, here's where I've called you to. Here's the gifts you've been given, as though they laid hands and they sent him out. And so Paul is saying, Timothy, you've got to remember the work of God in your life if you're going to be faithful, if you're going to fight the good fight. Now here's what I would say to most of us, right?

If you are a believer, then the Bible teaches that God has given you gifts to use within the body of Christ. to stand beside me and to stand beside others so that we can honor God with how we serve within this community of Casper. So the name of Jesus will be exalted through his churches. He's put us together. But we don't get to think that we can do that on our own. We have to remember that God has called us and equipped us and prepared us for the ministry that He's given us and every time the ministry gets hard, every time there's criticism, every time there's sacrifice, every time there's loss, every time there's pain, every time there's deeper commitment,

Every time you gotta get up and do it again when you're tired and you don't feel like it or when you're sick and you don't feel like it, every time you're like, is it making any difference and what difference does it make? You gotta remember, The God has given you this call. The God has given you that gift that He wants you to be used for His glory and you can continue on to fight the good fight. Because man, if we just check out and all we think is that we are the answer, that we have the strength, that we have the wisdom, that we can make the difference, we're gonna quit. We're just gonna quit.

Well, He says, so that by recalling them, he may fight the good fight. Now what in the world is the good fight? Well, the key to it is to look back, right? And even this verse, verse 18, Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies. What instruction has he given Timothy here in chapter one? Well, they're not hard to see. Chapter 1 verse 3 is the first one I mentioned it already says, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine. So he's given them instructions and that's what he's calling him too. Remember that what I've instructed you to teach men, not to teach false doctrine, right?

You have to stand firm, fight the good fight against false doctrine. And then in verse 5 of chapter 1, he says, the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. So he's saying to Timothy again, now in verse 18, this instruction that I have given you, which is to stand against false doctrine and to have the goal, the goal of our instruction as followers of Christ, as a pastor, as a teacher, is love. from faith and a good conscience, right? But the love he's talking about, we know from the great commandment. The love of the Lord your God with all your heart's all-minded strength.

The love of your neighbor's yourself. Like he's saying when you're teaching truth, What you need to have as a goal is to love God. For people to love God more than love God before. For people to love each other more than they loved each other before. That's the goal of true teaching. So now he's telling Timothy, man, pay attention to these prophecies so you'll fight the good fight. But here's the problem, right?

Standing firm on the word of God, is really not fashionable today. It's not fashionable in the world, but it's not so fashionable in the church either. Because when you stand firm on the word of God and you have to say to somebody, that's false doctrine, that's not true. The name wanna say to you, well, that's just your opinion. I have my opinion, you have your opinion. Well, no. No, this is what the Bible says. This is the word of God. Here it is. I'm not making it up. He wrote it, not me. This is truth. You may not like that, but I'm not bending on it. But what happens in this fight for truth is that it's easier sometimes

To move away a little bit from the truth. We don't want to have to say to people that the Bible says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none who are good, not even one. There's none who are righteous, right? All have sinned, all have fallen short. We don't want to say that to people because some people get offended by that. Do you see the fight now? The good fight is to speak this truth. Now, how does speaking the truth to somebody that they are sinful then lead to loving God or loving others? Although that works, is that you don't just tell them that they're sinful, you tell them that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now you tell them that God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were at sinners, Christ died For us, and you tell them that for God's will love the world, the gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, and you point them to the repentance that God's calling them to, to the truth of Jesus Christ being the only Savior, the only way to eternal life, and that person when they believe in Jesus Christ, they then love God like they've never loved Him before, and because of Christ in them, they then can love one another like they've never loved before. That's what true doctrine does.

But the fight, the fight is to remain committed to true doctrine. And I gotta tell you, there's times where it's costly, it's costly to talk about true doctrines, costly to talk about the word of the Lord. You guys know I'm a chaplain at the police department, the other day I was in getting ready to ride and another chaplain was there and he just read some scripture and one of the officers was pretty offended by it, very vocally offended by that. Same thing's like, why do we gotta talk about that? Why do you gotta bring that up? And so I kind of said to this guy, I said, hey man, what's the deal? You know, this is a guy I like, I appreciate.

And I said, how about you let me ride with you today? Ah, you can't ride with me today and I'm like, you told me I could. He's like, well, next week, I'm like, all right, you said it, out loud. But you know, he flat out told me, I don't wanna talk about Jesus.

I said, come on man, we can talk about Jesus. I'm not talking about Jesus, chap. Well, we'll find out. We'll find out. And I'm not there to shove it down the throat so you gotta hear me now, I'm not. But I care about this guy. I do. I care about this guy. I pray for this guy. I pray for a lot of these guys. I want this guy to know life. I want him to know hope. I don't know why he struggles so much with us. I'm going to ask him, why? What's the big struggle, man? Just tell me. But if you think I can back away from the gospel and bless this man or anybody else for that matter, you're mistaken.

I mean, your mistaken sound doctrine brings about life at every avenue of our lives, but false doctrine brings destruction at every avenue of our life. He says to him, and I love this. He says, recalling these prophecies made so you may fight the good fight, then he says, having faith in the good conscience which some have rejected and shipwrecked the faith. And he goes on to explain. When you fight the good fight, you have to have faith. The faith to believe that when you stand on truth, God does a work that's bigger than you. Here's the problem for most of us today, most of us think that we have to be the answer for somebody's change of heart.

That we have to somehow convince them, talk them into it. Somehow have some answers for them that is outside the Bible. We can't just share the Bible, share some scripture with them, point them to Jesus through the Word of God. That's not enough because we think we are the agents of change.

But Max read a pretty good verse for us today. Jesus, I'm divine. You're the branch. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit for a part for me. You can do nothing. Now here we have this challenge for us to fight this good fight. The fight he's talking about is not some fight against society. It's not some fight against the person. It's not this political fight. It's not a social fight. It's this fight for truth. If we ever get that figured out that what people need is the Word of God, we're

Going to be far better off than trying to figure out how we can socially move them toward God. It's not going to happen. But man, when we start sharing the Word of God with them, and we trust that God's Word through the Holy Spirit is enough The men and women will begin to get saved and men and women will begin to repent and lives will get better. But we've got to convince ourselves of that because many, many, many aren't there. Not a fact that it's so fashionable today to ignore the word of God that it's happening more and more in churches all around our city and our state and our nation and our world.

But here's the thing, If we focused on social issues, instead of the word of God, social injustice or social ills, if that's our focus, then a lot of churches want that to be our focus. They want us to deal with the problems and societies and the needs. And by the way, I believe church is ought to be the ones that help and meet needs and minister to people. The Bible teaches us that to be true, but that's not the focus and that's not the battle. But if we leave the Word of God behind, then we decide all we're gonna do is talk about social needs. Would that help people love God more?

Would that help people love others more? The answer's no. You wanna think about the social ills, how many people are asking the question today? Why isn't God fixing all these problems? Why isn't he? Does that help people love God more? No. People get angry with God because he's not doing what they think he should do, though he is perfectly righteous and holy. Does it help him love others more? No, because others have different opinions than they have. That's not how departing from the word of God works. The truth of God's word points us to love him more because we know that God is sufficient for every single man and woman no matter what they're going through.

And God will cause all things that work together to those who love him. I call the coin to his purpose, right? That's the word of God. What about politics? It's very, very fashionable today for Christians to focus on politics. And this is the reason they give, because we ought to be impacting our country for Christ. Hallelujah. I agree completely. I believe that we ought to be involved in politics to the place where we're impacting them for Christ. But is impacting them for Christ? Does that involve saying, I'm this and you're that? You should be this because I'm this. I'm this because you're that. No, impacting them for Christ means saying this is the word of God.

You're calling people to Christ. You're calling people to repent. You're lifting up Christ in the middle of our politics. It's not about politics. Politics don't make people love God more. Have you ever noticed that? They don't make people love God more because man, they get mad at God when they get the wrong president in office. God, you screwed up because my guy didn't get elected.

I'm sure you've never heard that before. I told some guy one time, I said, well, I believe that God puts the bad presidents in place as well. He literally got mad and walked out of the room like, well, you don't know your Bible at all. You don't know your Bible at all.

God, there is no ruler in office today that hasn't been put there by God. Read your Bibles says so. So politics, man, we can't focus on politics. We don't focus on the word of God. That points us to a loving God who sovereign over all things and works through all things for the good, not just his good, but ours as well. And then sometimes people, they depart from the Word of God because they have what I would call personal preferences and by that I mean sin. You can't tell me that who I am and what I do is sinful because I can't help being what I am and what I do.

Well, sorry about your luck. I can. Because the sin that you are practicing in your life is destructive and hurting you as well as other people around you, and that is not what God wants for you. Here's what God's word says about that, and you can come to repentance. And if they do come to repentance, guess what? They love God more, and they love others more. Isn't that true? See man, here we are, sometimes we're thinking it's hard to speak the truth, it's hard to stand on the truth, it's hard to go. Man, the Bible says this in a world where they don't want to hear the Bible, in a world where they are, they're rampantly angry about the Bible.

The Bible's still the best hope for the world and you and I should know that. But we've got to fight the good fight. We've got to be ready to fight the good fight. Man, some of us, we don't want anything that's difficult. Matter of fact, it's crazy time that we live in this world where Christians actually believe that what God wants is a perfectly easy life for every single one of us. He doesn't want any cost. He doesn't want any sacrifice. He doesn't want us to be different. He doesn't. But that's not what the Bible teaches at all. The Apostle Paul wrote, all who desire to leave God in Christ, Jesus will be persecuted. Will be persecuted.

Jesus said in this world, you will have tribulation, but fear not. I have overcome the world. Man, Jesus didn't make it any clearer. There's going to be cost to us standing in this world. There's going to be people that oppose us. There's going to be people that persecute us. There's going to be people that don't like us. We might lose friendships. We could lose family members. Beth and I have lost family members

Because of standing for Christ in what we hope to be the most humble way we could. They don't want to have anything to do with us.

Is it worth it that we still speak truth to them? It's still their only hope, and we cannot compromise. So he says, remember what I've set you apart for, fight the good fight, have faith, and you and I've got to get back to believing that Christ will use his word before he uses any of our wisdom. And I shared this this morning because over the years I've seen it happen more times than I wish I could say to you. Somebody will come to church, they'll find somebody like, I might have a really hard time and you're like, well, you know, I want to be a blessing to you, but the service is starting, well, I'm having a hard time and pretty soon somebody goes, well, let's just stay

Out here and we'll talk today. Seems reasonable, right? When really what you could do is say, come sit by me and let's see what God has to say to you today through the Word of God. and trust the Word of God to speak. Is God bigger than Mike Cooper? If he's not, let's just go home.

Let's just go home. Because God uses His Word. He uses it through preachers, as weak as I am. He uses it through teachers, as weak as you are. He uses it through people that are fallible and fallen. But His Word is living and active. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It's able to divide the bone in the moral, the soul in the spirit. It's able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. It's His Word that He uses. The man, the fight for that truth. is real. We have to have faith and we have to have a good conscience, he says. What in the world is a good conscience? It just means you have to do it from pure motives.

That's all I mean, pure motives. And sometimes people draw the Bible like it's a sword and they slash people with it and thump people with it. The Bible will do that on its own. You have to have a pure heart. The reason you share the word of God with somebody, the reason you stand on the word of God is because you love them, because you love God. A good conscience. You don't have to manipulate. That's God's job. You don't have to save. That's God's job. You don't have to convict. That's God's job. So we do have to fight the good fight with faith and a clear conscience, good conscience. Then he says, and he says kind of a contrast,

He says, which some have rejected and have shipwrecked the faith. Now that is... That is a tough verse. What have others rejected? Faith, a good conscience, and the truth. Paul's talking about these false teachers teaching false doctrines. They've rejected that. They've rejected the truth. They've rejected the faith in trusting God. They've rejected this good conscience. They're manipulators. They want to have somebody that makes them feel good about who they are.

They're tough. And he says, man, rejecting this truth, rejecting faith, rejecting a good conscience, they have shipwrecked the faith, shipwrecked an easy thing to describe. A ship that should be floating, a ship that should be safe, there's a ship that's either run aground, or been torn apart in the sea, and all of a sudden those are inside, they're dying. The cargo they were carrying is lost to shipwreck, it's a destruction, it's a painful thing. And these guys that have done that by teaching false doctrines, man, they destroy and they destroy at every level. False doctrine will destroy your marriage. False doctrine will destroy your marriage. Me, we, if you've been around your Bible very much, one of the greatest passages about marriage is Ephesians chapter five where says, husbands love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

And then he says, and wives are to submit to their husbands as a church submits to Christ. How many women just got mad at me? You can't say that. I didn't, didn't say it. But husbands, I'm here to tell you, we got the hard job, and we fall down in many ways. We should be loving our wives sacrificially. We should be. Should be the goal of your life every single day. And if you will, your wife won't have a hard time submitting, but wives you still are called to submit. You still are. And when you have that kind of relationship that God calls you to, you'll have a strong, faithful marriage that'll grow and that'll be powerful.

You'll have to work at it sometimes, sometimes harder than others, but you'll have a strong marriage. Does it false doctrine destroy your family? Boy, yeah, you better believe it. Doctors that say you don't really need to teach your kids truth, because you know, it might be overwhelming. Let your kids just grow up and believe what he wants to. Don't make him go to church. Don't teach him the truth. You know, those people that teach their kids too much truth, you know, those Bible thumpers, they're all ruined their kids.

Well, you don't have to ruin them. They all have sin in their own life and the world will help ruin them right along with. You not sharing Christ with them, but if you share Christ with them, you have a chance. Train up a child on the way he would go and when he is old, what? He will not depart from it.

See, true doctrines, they build up, false doctrines, they destroy. And we can go farther and farther and farther if you want to, but false doctrines are shipwreck of the faith. He goes on, says, basically, let me give you an example. Among them are Hymenaeus, an Alexander whom I have delivered to Satan, so they may be taught not to blaspheme.

Isn't that a crazy verse? You know, preaching through a book is great until you come to a great. We're going to talk about delivering people up to Satan. And all you people can think I'm crazy, right? Listen, these guys obviously were pretty rough guys. And Paul mentions them later, I'm an AS in 2nd Timothy 2 and Alexander in 2nd Timothy 4. We can't know 100% that these are the same guys, but they probably were. And this is what it says about these guys in 2nd Timothy 2, 16 through 18. It says avoid irreverent and empty speech since those who engage in it will produce even more godlessness. And their teaching was spread like gang, green, time and aes and fileetists are among them.

They have departed from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place in our ruining the faith of some. 2 Timothy 4, 14 and 15 says, Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his works. Watch out for him yourself because he strongly opposed our words.

These are men that are shipwracks of the faith. It talks about to have irreverence speech and produces godlessness. They're teaching spreads like gang green, having departed from the truth, ruining the faith of someone strongly opposing the words of truth. Those are offensive men. Those are men that are doing destruction within the church. Those are men that are leading people astray. Those are men that are compromising the truth about Jesus Christ. And so often today, we go, well, it's not the worst thing in the world and you don't really have to deal with them and you don't really have to address them. That just causes conflict. Aren't we supposed to be nice? We are supposed to be nice,

But we're talking about fighting the good fight. The good fight is to keep the truth before us in our hearts and our minds and before those that don't know Christ, so they can come to know because the truth, the Bible says that you shall know the truth and what? The truth shall set you free. But because we're so afraid of addressing things in difficult ways, man, we don't want to address these false teachers and these false prophets, and they are around. They're in your church sometimes. They've been in our church sometimes. We've had to deal with them. And I've had some times where I've said to guys, this is not true. This is not right.

You need to teach this. You need to know this. And man, there's times where they won't listen. They won't do anything. It actually comes to a place where I have to say to them, you can no longer teach. You can no longer be in ministry here. You can't do it because what you're teaching is destructive.

What happens most of the time when that happens? They leave. They leave and then they say, well Pastor Mike's a big jerk. You know, he's not gracious. He's uncompromising. And so I couldn't stand it and I had to leave. You know what happens sometimes? Even some people in our church still go, oh, I'm sorry you got to treat it bad, but you know, you should still be a part of my life. I want to walk with you in your false teachings.

And the Bible says, that's not the way we treat those people. We should treat them like unbelievers so that they might actually repent and come back to Christ in truth. That's what this passage is about. So these men Man, they have destroyed the faith. They've shipwrecked the faith. He says, so I delivered them to Satan that they may be taught not to blaspheme. The word taught there is a word of correction. It's a word of leading somebody back to the right position to stand in. It's about repentance. And so the Apostle Paul is saying, I've turned them over to Satan that they might repent. That's important for us to know that they might not blaspheme anymore, that they might know the truth about God.

But what does it mean that he turned them over to Satan? We all kind of go, that's pretty weird. Well, there's another example of this that he writes up in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll read that and we'll talk a little more. 1 Corinthians 5, 3 through 5 says, even though I'm absent in the body, I'm present in spirit as one who is present with you in this way. I've already pronounced judgment on the one who's been doing such a thing. 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, hand out one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord.

And so it's the very same thing. This was a man who was sleeping with his father's wife. You can read that in chapter 5, sleeping with his father's wife. And the church didn't do anything about it. Paul's like, are you kidding me? You cannot let that stay in your church. So he says, you've got to turn him over to the Lord. You've got to rebuke him. You've got to cast him out. You can't let him live that way. I'm going to turn him over to Satan so that his flesh will be dealt with and in the day of salvation he'll soul, but we'll be right. These two passages are about taking men that are bent and wrong in destroying things and bringing them back to truth.

So what does it mean to turn him over to Satan? Let me just say this. Many years ago, and this is so true, I heard a guy say, well, even the devil is God's devil. Have you ever heard that before? You should remember that. Even the devil is God's devil. Because sometimes we think that there's a devil, and there is. The Bible says he's like a roaring lion roaming about seeking someone to devour. He's not casual. He's evil. But even the devil is under sovereignty of the Lord God Almighty. to accomplish what God wants to accomplish in this world. Job chapter two, I'll read this and let you know what this looks like. It says, then the Lord said to Satan, verses three through six,

Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him. A man of perfect integrity who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity even though you incited me against him to destroy him for no good reason. Only stop right there. This is chapter two. This is not the first time God has called the devil before him and mentioned Job. Earlier, he's called the devil before him, along with the other angels. And he says to the Satan, if you consider my servant Job, he's faithful. More than anybody else on earth.

And Satan said to God, well, that's because you've put ahead of a protection around him. Why wouldn't he trust in you? Why wouldn't he be faithful? So the Lord said to the Satan, Well, you can do anything you want to him, but you can't take his life. You should read this in Job. I'm not making this up. This is in the Word.

So that in response to that freedom, the Bible says that in one day, Job had 10 children meeting together, the house collapsed and killed all 10 children one day. Raiders came and took all of his camels, had thousands of them, took all of his sheep, thousands of them, took all of his cattle, thousands of them, and took all of his servants, all of his wealth. Everything he had, and his kids included gone in one day. So here it is again. God says, the second time to Satan, he thought about Job, look, he's been faithful after all that you did him, but oh no, he didn't say that.

He says, listen to me, he says, even though you incited him or me against him.

See, God was sovereign over this. We don't like to hear that. I know we don't like to hear that. God had a plan in this, even in the loss of all his property and even in the loss of all ten of his children. God had a plan in that.

And so when Satan comes back, God says, you incited me against him. It was me working through you to accomplish my purpose. That's a little bit humbling, isn't it? And then he says the response to this,

He says, skin for skin, Satan answered the Lord. A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life, but stretch out your hand to strike his flesh and bones and he will surely curse you. to your face. So again, Satan knows this is God working. This is going to be God's responsibility.

And so then he says very well, the Lord said to Satan, he's in your power, only spare his life.

Interesting, isn't it? That God would use his devil in ways that God knew would ultimately bring glory to God God knew that even though Job was going to go through a trial like you and I probably have never come close to where he becomes destitute in one day and where then he becomes sickly beyond description where there's sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. He's scraping off of the potchards and he's just wasting away morning and grieving and struggling to understand why it happens.

God used Satan to accomplish something that would bring great glory to God. And ultimately, we bring great blessings to Job. If you've never read that book, you should read that book. The book of Job. It's a good one. It's tough. You'll have to wrestle. You'll have to see God in a deeper way.

But the end of it all, you read it all. And Job gives great glory to God. See, truth causes to love God more. Love others more. It always does. So what he's saying here is, I'm gonna give this guy over to Satan basically over to God so that God through Satan can teach him not to blaspheme.

Man, that's a tough response, isn't it? Sometimes there's drastic measures that have to be taken in response to false teachings, the false doctrines and the false teachers. Not only do we need to say to them, no, you can't teach that here, no, you can't influence people here, but we have to influence them spiritually. We have to say to God, you deal with this guy's heart, you lead this guy to repentance, you lead this guy to repentance, you do the work that needs to be done because it's your name at stake and it's your church at stake. drastic matters. And we go, man, they're so hard and they're so deep. Well, then leave them to God.

Listen to what His Word says. Let it stand on the truth, be uncompromising. Even if that means we have to say to somebody, no, you can't teach that here. And they don't like it. And they offend us or they get mad at us and persecute us. It's okay. We do that for their good, we do that for our good, we do that for the glory of the Lord. If we have to pray, Lord, you bring them to correction, to repentance, whatever that means, if that means hardship, then let it be. I'll never forget I had a friend in high school that suddenly out of the blue, maybe, I don't know, 20, 30 years after I graduated from high school, he calls me.

And he just says, hey, how you been? I'm like, I'm okay. What's going on with you? Oh, I don't know. He kind of shares a little bit with me. Well, then he keeps calling me pretty much finds out. I find out that he's struggling. And he's really wanting to know what's going on with God. And so I share Christ with him several different times. He's not really, he's not really picking up, but I don't know if he wants to, but doing my best. I began to pray for him. Lord, whatever it takes, save my friend, save my friend, save my friend. So one day he calls me and he says, man, I'm mad at you.

I'm like, oh, good. Join the crowd. I said, why are you mad at me? He says, well, I know you've been praying for me. So I have been praying for that. Makes you mad and he goes, yeah, because my life's been miserable the last two or three weeks. Finally, the other day, on his own business and he says the other day, I had a big check somebody gave me and he says, and I lost it. And I couldn't find it. And I'm tearing up my house. And I don't want to call these people because I'm supposed to be a reputable businessman. And he's like, I need it, though. I need it to pay my bills and all this stuff.

And he says, I'm tearing through the house. I'm mad. I'm going through the garbage. I'm mad at you. I'm mad at you because you've been praying for me. I'm like, well, good. Thanks for thinking of me. He says, but as I'm going through my house, I realize on my TV, as there's this guy, he's preaching. I stop and I listen to him. He goes, I want you to know, I trusted Christ that day. I trusted Christ that day. And he says, I'm not mad anymore. He says, number one, I found my check. And number two, I knew you were praying for me. Thank you. That's the way this works, guys. You can pray for God to do whatever it takes to bring people to Christ, whatever it takes to bring people to repentance.

You can trust God. He loves them. And even if it's such a trial that it's Satan doing a difficult work in their life, you can trust the Lord. It's the good fight. It's the good fight. So what do we learn from this kind of crazy little passage? First of all, we better be ready for the fight. We better be ready to stand for the truth of God's word in a world filled with false doctrines and false teachings. We've got to stand in opposition to them.

Secondly, we've got to trust God to move through his word. We've got to stop doubting the power of the word of God and just share it and trust God to move through it. Thirdly, we need to know that they're going to be people who oppose us when we do it. It's not surprising. It's not shocking. It's not the best part of it, but it's going to happen. It's happened from the very beginning. It's still happening today. And we've got to love them and stand for the word for them. Listen, man, you may be here today and and you've never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior and there's a battle going on in your heart.

It's the battle. for your soul. God wants to save you. That's why he sent Christ Jesus to die for you. And your flesh and the devil and the world is going to tell you don't do it. Don't trust him. You don't need him. You're good enough on your own. And it's not true. The truth is is that there's one way Jesus said, I'm the way the truth in life. No man comes to the Father but through me. What a sweet gift though. There's a way to have eternal life. It's Jesus. Trust him. And maybe you're a believer here. You've been on this fence. You don't want to be offensive. You don't want to make people angry.

You don't want to stir the pot. You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to be that gal. You want to get along with everybody. You can't do it. You can't do it. The Bible says to be friends with the world is to be enemies with God. The best thing you can do is trust God's Word and share it with people, allow them to hear the Word of God even if it brings conviction to them because that conviction will bring

Repentance and they'll come to Christ. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in the year, maybe not in 10 years, but God will use His Word. We've got to trust Him. Are you ready to fight? I hope you're ready. If I hope you're praying for us to be a church that stands firm on the Word of God, let's pray. Father, I love you. I'm thankful for your Word. I'm thankful that you cause us to wrestle through your Word, knowing that when we find your truth, it sets us free.

Knowing that your truth leads to loving you more and loving others more. Knowing that your truth brings about repentance, conviction of sin and salvation and life. Or give us a faith to trust your word, share it with those in need. Give us a good conscience to do it for their good and for your glory. Help us be ready, Lord God, to take stances when necessary.

And let's just watch what you want to do through your word. I love you, Lord God, thankful for you. May you bless these men and women. May you draw those who are lost of salvation today. May each one of us Lord be stronger in Christ than we pray in His name, amen.