Watch out for people who have something new. Jesus gave a trust of truth to Paul, and Paul gave a trust to Timothy, and Timothy gave it to faithful men who would give it to others also. And that same deposit of truth has come down to us. And when you hear somebody come along who's got a theology that no one ever heard of, run the other direction. When God's Word says you're wrestling with a spiritual enemy, it's not talking about some competition, some athletic event where no one is hurt in the end. It's a picture of a life-and-death struggle.
And though you can't see your foe, his attacks are real, and more clever than you might imagine. Thankfully, God's Word provides you with both the defensive and offensive strategies you need to face spiritual warfare and come out victorious. John MacArthur is covering those principles in detail in his current study on grace to you. Based on 1 Timothy chapter 1, it's titled simply, Spiritual Warfare.
And now with the message, here's John. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, I want to read those verses for you beginning at verse 18. This command, I commit unto thee, Son Timothy, according to the prophecies which pointed to thee, that thou by them might fight a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience which some, having put away, have made shipwreck of the faith, of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Now the key phrase that we know today is at the end of verse 18, fight a good warfare, or fight a noble warfare. Paul is calling Timothy to the awareness that he is engaged in a war. And in so calling Timothy to that sensitivity, he calls the rest of us as well. Now in the midst of this fiery conflict, what is it that Timothy has to understand? Well, he has to understand his responsibility and his accountability to three sources, the church, the Lord, and then to the blasphemers or enemies themselves. In order to win, in order to fight the noble fight the way it ought to be fought, we have to first understand our responsibility and accountability to the church. Paul, as an apostle in the church, commands Timothy to carry out a commission given to him by that same apostle and confirm by those who had the gift of prophecy in the church.
He has a responsibility to those within the church who were led by the Spirit of God to call him into the ministry to fulfill that ministry. The command to Timothy was very simple. The command is to fight the noble war against the foes identified with Satan and that's going to be using the Word of God and that's why all the way through the epistle he says you've got to nourish up in sound doctrine. So you have a command. Second thing, the first one was a command.
The second thing in his relationship to the church was a commission...a commission. Look what he says in this second main verb here. This command, I give...really the first verb, the first one is a substantive, it's a noun. This command, I entrust or commit to you.
Now here he takes another dimension of this and he says not only do you have a command, but you have a commission. I entrust you with this. The word pyrotithomy is a word for a deposit you put in a bank. It's a valued deposit. Paul gave to Timothy a valuable deposit.
What was it? It was a deposit of truth. It was a deposit of truth which is more valuable than anything. Second Timothy 2, 2, the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, the same entrust to faithful men.
I entrusted it to you, you keep it and entrust it to others. He repeatedly told Timothy to keep care of that sacred trust. Back in chapter 1 verse 11, he says the glorious gospel of the blessed God was committed to my trust and he got it from Jesus.
Read Galatians 1. Paul got it from Jesus. Paul then took that trust that he had from Jesus of sound doctrine, that gospel, that biblical truth and passed it on to Timothy. And he says, Timothy, hang on to that and don't let it be adulterated and don't let it be varied and don't change it. The end of the epistle chapter 6 verse 20. Oh, Timothy, keep that thing which was committed to your trust. Second Timothy 1, 14, look at this. Verse 13, hold the form of sound words. Verse 14, the good thing committed to thee, keep it by the Holy Spirit.
Don't let go of it. So Timothy had a command and he had a commission. He had a military command to fulfill his calling and a commission of doctrine with which to fulfill that calling. And we must be true to the historic faith. Watch out for people who have something new. Jesus gave a trust of truth to Paul and Paul gave a trust to Timothy and Timothy gave it to faithful men who would give it to others also. And that same deposit of truth has come down to us and when you hear somebody come along who's got a theology that no one ever heard of, run the other direction.
This is an ancient trust to be preserved. Watch out for those who have new truths. Thirdly, there is not only a command to obey and a commission to fulfill but there is a confirmation to live up to. He says, this command I entrust or commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which pointed me to you. Now this command and this commission, this calling of Timothy was confirmed through prophecies. Now prophecy, the gift of prophecy or the New Testament prophet mentioned so often in the book of Acts, the New Testament prophet and the gift of prophecy, you can read about that in 1 Corinthians 12. That gift and that prophet were used by God to speak the will and the Word of God in the early church.
The gift itself is the gift of proclamation. I feel I have the gift of prophecy, that is I speak forth the Word of God. When I use that gift, I don't speak revelation from God.
I'm not getting direct revelation. I speak revelation from the Word of God, but not from God directly. Now the apostles spoke doctrine usually. That's why doctrine was called the Apostles Doctrine, Acts 2, 42.
They spoke primarily doctrine, whereas the prophets would speak the practical issues of the church. Now these prophets, we don't know who they were. They're plural. The prophecies are plural.
We don't know where this happened. But he says, the prophecies, and then he uses an interesting verb, it means leading the way to you. Now the fact that he says prophecies leading the way to you indicates to us that there probably were more than one and they were sequential along a path of time that kept directing attention to Timothy. And finally they culminated in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy and verse 14, neglect not the gift that's in you, given you by prophecy. In other words, God gave that gift to Timothy and then articulated that gift through the prophecies and then confirmed it by the laying on of hands on Timothy as an act of confirmation by the elders. So the elders laid their hands confirming Timothy to the ministry because God Himself through the voice of the prophets through prophecies had articulated Timothy's ministry. Now we don't know what he said, but Paul says to Timothy, in one place do the work of an evangelist, in another place preach the word. So those prophecies must have been those that called Timothy to be a preacher and an evangelist and a teacher of the Word of God.
So he not only had a command from Paul in this verse, he has a commission, an entrusted set of truth, a deposit of truth, but he also has a confirmation as New Testament prophets have articulated that this indeed is a man called to preach. You know, I can't help but wish that was the way it was going today. Wouldn't it be great if we came together on the Lord's Day and the Spirit of God spoke through one of us directly and pointed out in the congregation who was called to preach? Boy, it would be great.
It would simplify so much. You say, doesn't the Lord do that? Yes, the Lord still calls in the heart, but we can't hear His voice. You say, well then how do we know whether a guy's called or not? The only way we know is to watch his what?
His life, to watch his life. But it would be so much simpler if the Lord just told us, and we'd get so excited about that. But we don't know the content of those prophecies. We don't really know when they occurred, but we know they culminated in the elders of the church laying their hands on Timothy because those prophecies set him apart to preach. Beloved, may I say to you that I think we need to regrip the thought that anyone who serves the Lord Jesus Christ in the role of an elder and a pastor, anyone who serves in terms of leadership articulating the truth of God is under command, commission, and should be under confirmation of the church. That's so important, so important, so that we are affirmed and assured that they represent the Lord. And they should be those who understand that they are called to do their spiritual duty, that they are entrusted with biblical truth, they are entrusted with the word of the living God, and the word is sufficient.
And the church comes alongside and says, yes, this is so. This was Timothy's responsibility and accountability to the church. He was commanded through the apostle, he was commissioned through the apostle's doctrine, and he was confirmed by prophets who gave prophecies and the laying on of hands of the elders. He had responsibility and accountability to the church to use his gift and war, the noble war. And I find myself in the same position, though in a different way called, I'm under mandate by God to do my duty. I have been given a tremendous trust through generations of people before me who gave me the truth of God, and I am confirmed by the church. I remember well my ordination time. I remember facing 200-some pastors and answering questions for hours and hours.
I remember the resultant confirmation that my call indeed was legitimate to the ministry, and off I went to fulfill that responsibility as affirmed by the church. And there are times, beloved, in the distress of battle that that's all you have to hang on to. There are times when you say, I'm not happy with the way it's going. I'm not happy with a lot of things. I'm weary in the battle. I'm tired of the fight. I'm tired of people who come and listen and do nothing about it. I just want a vacation.
I want to get out. And all you've got to fall back on is the fact that you're called, you're commissioned, you're commanded, and you're confirmed, and you have no choice. William Barclay writes about John Knox, the great Scottish preacher. He was teaching in St. Andrews. His teaching was supposed to be private teaching, but many people came because he was so gifted. He was a man with a message. So the people urged him, and we read this, people urged him that he would take the preaching place upon him, but he utterly refused, alleging that he would not run where God had not called him, whereupon they privately among themselves advising, having with them in counsel Sir David Lindsay, they concluded that they would give a charge or a command to the said John Knox and that publicly by the mouth of their preacher. In other words, these people said, this man should be preaching. He should not be holding a private Bible study in St. Andrews. He should be preaching. And he wouldn't force himself.
He wouldn't do it on his own. And so the church got together and they said, we will publicly command him to do that by the voice of our own preacher. And William Barclay says, John Knox was a man chosen and yet a man who hesitated to take the tremendous responsibility upon himself. So Sunday came and Knox was in church.
He doesn't know anything about this. He's just sitting in church. And John Rowe, the preacher, was preaching. The said John Rowe preacher directed his words to the said John Knox.
He just identifies them in the congregation and speaks directly to it. Brother, you shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are here present, which is this. In the name of God and of His Son Jesus Christ and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth, I command you that you refuse not this holy vocation, but that you take upon you the public office and charge of preaching even as you look to avoid God's heavy displeasure and desire that He shall multiply His grace with you.
Whoa! That's a strange thing to happen to you when you're just innocently sitting in church, to be commanded to avoid the displeasure of God and get on with a matter of preaching. And after saying that, John Rowe said to the people, was not this your charge to me? And do you not approve this vocation?
And they answered, it was and we approve it. The whole congregation confirmed it, whereat the said John Knox abashed, burst forth in most abundant tears and withdrew himself to his chamber. His countenance and behavior from that day till the day he was compelled to present himself in the public place of preaching did sufficiently declare the grief and trouble of his heart, for no man saw any sign of joy in him, neither yet had he pleasure to accompany any man many days together.
He went into isolation and sorrow, so overwhelmed with the duty, so overwhelmed with the commission, so overwhelmed with the confirmation of the people. John Knox was chosen, says Barclay. John Knox did not want to answer the call, but John Knox had to because the choice came from God.
And years afterward, the regent Morton uttered his famous epitaph by John Knox's graveside, quote, In respect that he bore God's message, to whom he must make account for the same, he, albeit he was weak and an unworthy creature and a fearful man, feared not the faces of men, end quote. That is...that is a more modern call to Timothy, isn't it? You have to understand your responsibility to the church when you're called and commissioned and confirmed to preach.
And then just briefly, I look at that second point. In order for us to win the war, the noble war, we have to know our responsibility and accountability to the Lord. Not only to the church, but the Lord. Look at verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience.
Stop at that point. And there we're back to those same two things, faith and a good conscience. We saw them in verse 5 of chapter 1, a good conscience and unfeigned faith. Faith and a good conscience. We see them in verse 9 of chapter 3, faith in a pure conscience.
And Paul puts these two things together throughout this epistle. The first one, having faith, means believing in the truth. Believing in the truth. Holding faith in the faith. The faith being the content of truth and faith being believing in that. So we say believing in the faith.
In other words, true doctrine. Holding faith. Holding the content of true belief and believing in it. We could say it means commitment to believing the truth of God.
Timothy, this is your responsibility to the Lord. You've got to hold to the faith. Hold to the faith.
You can't let go of the faith. Throughout this epistle, he talks about those who have erred concerning the faith. In chapter 1, those who swerved, turned aside from the faith. Chapter 6, verse 21, those who have erred concerning the faith. Chapter 6, verse 10, they have erred from the faith.
He says, you can't do that. You can't swerve from the truth. You can't abandon the truth of God. And so our obligation to the Lord in the fulfillment of our ministry is to stay true to the Word of God and then to have a good conscience. And a good conscience simply means a conscience that is pure, a conscience that is undefiled. Remember we said that the conscience is the self-judging faculty that is in everyone that tells you whether your life is right or wrong? And when you have a good conscience, your conscience is saying, good, good, good. You're doing well.
That's fine. It's a conscience like Acts 24, 16 that is void of offense toward God. It's a satisfied conscience, a conscience at rest, a conscience that says all things are well, all things are right.
So what are we saying then? Your obligation to God then is to hold the truth and a pure life. So we're back to the two key words in these epistles, doctrine and godliness.
Remember I told you that when we first started the study? The two key words would be doctrine and godliness, truth and purity, faith and a good conscience. Same thing, just different ways to say the same thing. Timothy is called to the truth, sound doctrine. He says it over and over and over again, sound doctrine. Charge those people, chapter 1 verse 3, they don't teach any other doctrine.
They need to teach the true doctrine. He emphasizes that in chapter 4 verse 6, good doctrine, words of faith, sound doctrine. And then, of course, the emphasis on godliness. He calls for godliness. Chapter 2 verse 10, the women, instead of caring for the outside, should be adorned with godliness. That is purity, moral character, godliness. Chapter 4 verse 7, exercise yourself to godliness. Verse 8, godliness is profitable. Chapter 6, godliness, verse 6, with contentment is great gain. The call is ever and always to holiness, godliness, purity, as well as sound doctrine.
Now that is the character of one who wins the spiritual victory. Now let me say something as we draw this together. Sound teaching and pure living go together. There is an inseparable link between truth and morality, between right belief and right behavior.
Now I'm going to say something. I want you to write it down and keep it in mind. Theological error...get this...theological error has its roots in moral rather than intellectual soil. Theological error has its roots in moral rather than intellectual soil. The point is this, when people teach wrong doctrine, it is not that they do not understand, it is that they are at the base evil...evil. And they have a theology to accommodate their evil. Don't you for a moment imagine that a false teacher, a liberal, a cultist, an occultist, or anyone who teaches falsely around the things of God is some kind of poor, well-meaning, nice person who went astray, they are in error because their hearts are evil. And they will not submit their evil to the cleansing work of Christ and the true gospel, so they invent an accommodating error. And the reason these theologians come along and want to vote on what Jesus said is not because they cannot intellectually know the veracity of Scripture, it is because there are things in the Bible they will not submit to. And in order to avoid a necessary submission, they will eliminate them.
It's that simple. And so you have the call upon the heart of anyone who is called to ministry to retain true doctrine and true purity of life. You read 2 Peter 2 and you'll see how bad theology and bad morals go together. So the call to a faithful soldier is a call to understand the responsibility and accountability to the church through which we were commanded, commissioned, and confirmed, and the responsibility to the Lord by whom we are called to serve Him with the truth and purity of life. God saved the church from error on the one hand, but not only error on the one hand, but error taught by corrupt people.
You know that is very common. How many do we hear about who are in the ministry supposedly teaching the truth with ungodly lives? And then even doubly worse, those who teach error and ungodliness is their pattern of life as well. So Paul says, look, Timothy, you've got a war of good warfare. In order to do that, you have to know your responsibility and accountability to the church and your responsibility and accountability to the Lord as well.
Let's pray. Gracious Father, we feel like we have stood on holy ground again. We feel in a way like we've been transported to another time and another place. We've felt the heartbeat of Timothy as the adrenaline pumped through him as for the first time he read those verses, as he sat in that room somewhere in Ephesus and someone delivered this epistle to him and said, this has come quickly from the Apostle Paul.
Read it. And he realized the battle at his side. And he also realized the calling of God. We understand the quickening of his heart, the fear of confronting such a formidable foe as Satan himself and trying to deal with false teaching and immorality at high levels of leadership in the church.
We understand the human fear and the human timidity and the anxiety and the sense of inadequacy. But O Lord God, we know that that does not diminish the commission nor the command. And O God, may it be that as we live out these things and bring to fruition in our lives the understanding of these principles that we may know great victory for the advance of the kingdom and the glory of Christ. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.
Thanks for being with us. John is chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His lesson today is part of his current study titled Spiritual Warfare. John, I know that as a pastor you can relate to the spiritual challenges that Timothy faced in Ephesus.
Spiritual warfare, fighting for sound doctrine, fighting to keep people from spiritual shipwreck. But for that listener who's thinking, well, I'm not a pastor. I'm just an average Christian trying to take care of my family and myself.
I'm not trying to lead a local church. What role does a person like that have in fighting the good fight? Well, the apostle Paul said to every believer, put on the armor. He assumed we're all in the fight. Look, it is a battle for every believer. When Paul said, I have fought the good fight, he wasn't talking about a fight for success in ministry. He was talking about a fight for the truth, a fight against error, false doctrine, a fight against good people with bad intentions who made ministry tough for him. So for every believer there is a battle. There is a battle between the flesh and the spirit, Romans 7, right? What I want to do, I don't do.
What I don't want to do, I find myself doing. O wretched man that is in me, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Paul feels like he's got a dead corpse strapped to his new life, and this decay is so very intimately expressed in his life. And the Christian life is a battle. That's why the language of Paul is so often fighting, boxing, wrestling, running, training, agonizing. He uses that verb agonizimai.
He talks about agon, which is a struggle. The whole of the Christian life is a battle. And at the end, we want to hear the Lord say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done is the affirmation of the Lord that you fought well.
And that's what Paul is saying at the end of his life. I've kept the faith. In other words, I didn't give up on sound doctrine.
I fought the fight. I ran the race, and I'm now ready to meet the Lord. And every believer has that responsibility.
Paul says to the Ephesians, having done all to stand. So at the end of all the smoke and all the battle, the Lord wants you to be standing firm, and that's why we titled this book Stand Firm. I want every one of you to get a copy of this book.
It's a new book. It will give you a pathway to a life of holiness radically different from the people around you. It will show you how to stand firm, how to meet the call to holiness in a way that strengthens you and everyone around you. Stand Firm is the title hardcover, 150 pages, 25 percent discount right now, and you can order some today. That's right, and this book is a practical guide on how you can stay faithful to the Lord no matter how hostile the world becomes to God's Word. To pick up Stand Firm, again, it's 25 percent off the regular price for a limited time, contact us today. You can call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org.
Stand Firm can help you win the spiritual battles you're facing and honor Christ in a fallen world. The book has chapters on the power of prayer, how to grow in your love for others, and how to persevere even in the most difficult trials. To order this book, Stand Firm, at 25 percent off the normal price, with free shipping, call 800-55-GRACE, or go to gty.org. And remember, that 25 percent off discount applies to nearly everything we sell. Now is an ideal time to get started on your Christmas shopping. You can get gifts that will bless your loved ones all year long, like the MacArthur Study Bible, or John's book on the parables, or the MacArthur New Testament commentary series. To see all that's on sale and place your order, call 800-55-GRACE, or you can place your order online at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to join us tomorrow for another look at how to withstand spiritual attacks. It's 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Friday's Grace To You.
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