“Paul’s Charge to the Man of God” 1 Timothy 6:11-16

We’ll take your copy of God’s holy word and turn with me to the epistle of First Timothy. First Timothy, chapter six, as we continue our trek through this book right now, I think that there will be this message and then one more from First Timothy, and then we’re just going to follow it through into Second Timothy in the days ahead. I think in the future, maybe beginning of the new year, so forth, we’re gonna come back to it if my plan comes, works out the way that it is.

In the beginning or in your bulletin, up in the little thing, I don’t know if you ever really read it, but sometimes I wonder, but there’s a little section where I always write a little something, almost always. And in your bulletin today, I have just this little spiel over the fact that last Sunday was a special blessing, not only because of the baptismal service that we had and getting that precious hug from Danielle in the baptismal waters. And then afterwards, I had one of our young men, actually a boy, a young boy come up to me and say, pastor, I think God wants me to preach his word. I think I’m going to I’m going to study and be a pastor. Now, there’s going to be a lot of years before he gets out of elementary. But praise be unto God for a young man with the aspirations of wanting to go into the ministry.

Now, I had a passion of going into veterinary medicine, and it wasn’t until I was a senior in college at Wright State University that I finally yielded, because of God’s call in my life, to go into the ministry and so forth. However, I say that, but there was always this thing in the back of my head wondering. I wonder if God could ever use me. It was something that I always wanted that that in my life, the way it kind of worked out was I was always willing to be a pastor. I always thought it’d be cool to be a pastor. But I always knew that if you’re a pastor and you mess things up, it’s a lot worse than if you mess up a surgery on a dog or a cat, or in my case, a lion or a tiger. It’s a terrible thing always for a veterinarian to lose an animal. But how much more to lose and to bring either shame to Christ or shame to a church or to work and to mislead someone, to have someone not desire Christ because they see a lack of desire of Christ in my life or obedience and the like. And so it was really that fear that kind of kept me on the road to veterinary medicine until I read some kind of a quote. I think it was Charles Spurgeon.

You know, he gets credit for saying an awful lot of stuff. I’m not so convinced he ever really said, but I think maybe Spurgeon was the one who is at least the one who made it famous. He might not have been the first one. Is that if you can do anything else, rather than going into the ministry, do it. But if you can’t do anything else, go into the ministry. Now, the ministry is full of jokes. Wow, what a job. Work one hour a week and the rest is just a day off. Well, whoever said that was not a preacher and wasn’t married to a preacher. And there was no preacher in his family, at least that was worth anything. OK, so there are jokes like that. There are jokes, just all kinds of things that are over. One I quoted not too awful long ago about a pastor is worthy of being taken care of. Even the ox is to be taken care of when he treads the grain. And that’s the idea of the deacon who tells the preacher, Lord, you keep him humble and we’ll keep him poor. You know, we can laugh at that. But unfortunately, there’s an awful lot of churches that think that’s what their calling in life is. And so The ministry is an interesting thing, but I think we would all admit that the ministry is worthy of protection.

Now we find ourselves in 1 Timothy chapter 6, and this is a book written by the Apostle Paul to the young preacher boy Timothy. And I say preacher boy, he was probably in his mid-30s, but there you weren’t a man until 40. And Paul is giving him some instructions. He sent him to Ephesus and he’s there. He’s taking on some real important things. But in this particular book, he says, I’m going to be coming. But until I get there, I want you to know how you ought to conduct yourself in the church. And that would be in the local church, which is the pillar and ground of truth. He goes on and he gives some guidelines. And so it talks about the church and things that are important. And that’s why we’re really kind of looking at this. The old guy giving the young guy some some personal advice and a glimpse of what that New Testament church is like.

We’re looking at it also from the perspective that we want to have a biblical church. So what is church all about? Is it about entertaining people on Sunday? Is it only about making a program up so that we can interest you enough to keep on coming back so that you can alleviate your moral conscience and feel better and, you know, give God an hour or two on Sunday and then the rest of the week you’ll live like the devil or live like you won. What is the church really all about? And so he says in chapter one, that the church is the depository and the place where truth is supposed to be taught and preached. And so he talks about healthy doctrine. And the word doctrine in the Greek language just is a word for teaching. Give them healthy teaching. You want to know how you ought to think. You want to know how you should develop your Christian worldview. Then look to the scriptures and come to church and to properly understand.

Most people that end up as Christians, not all, But an awful lot of professing Christians that end up with real problems in their life or having a problem and having victory in their life, well, they never come to church. They never spend time in God’s Word. It’s never taught to them systematically and so forth. So that is one of the things the church is supposed to be known for. Then in chapter two of 1 Timothy, he talks about the order of the church, who’s to do the teaching and preaching and so forth. Chapter three, he gives the qualifications of a pastor, of which we will make passing comments throughout the message this morning. But it talks about how he is to be a man that is considered blameless or nothing in his life upon which something can be grasped. It doesn’t say that he has to be sinless. or every church would be in need of a preacher that doesn’t exist, because no preacher is without sin. But this is talking about sin of which is so blatant and so sinful that, you know, preacher, I can’t hear you because all I can do is see you and know what you’ve done sort of thing. And so. There are the qualifications of preachers. Also, there are the qualifications of deacons in chapter three. Chapter four, he goes on. And in chapter four, he addresses the issue of why. And that is because of apostasy or the departure of truth. Preachers need to know the society in which they are in to teach and preach truth. Apostasy is coming.

He says in chapter 4 verse 6, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of the faith and so forth. And so he wants, you know, the idea of the teaching of truth, because there’s a lot of things that are not true. He refers to some of these things as these things command and teach. So there’s an authority that comes with the office of pastor. that you teach and preach with authority. Some people say that’s with bigotry. It’s not bigotry as long as it’s the word of God. You don’t come here to hear Piatt’s opinion. You should come here to hear the word of God that God graciously has taught me. And I’ve been educated in and then I present it to you. Chapter five, he then says, OK, now the ministry of the church is made up of different kinds of people. And so in chapter five, verses one and two, he divides it up with the older men, the older women, the younger men, the younger women, and how to approach them.

So it shows us that the church is to be multi-generational, that basically sermons and preaching is to be that kind of a heralding forth the truth of God, not just to one group of people, but it is for the entire congregation. both for men and women, for slaves and free, because he does bring in the issue of slaves and masters later on in chapter five and in chapter six. He then talks about widows and so marital status. The church is made up of all kinds of people in those kinds of ways. Then he has that section about elders again. And the reason why he keeps coming back to this issue of elders is because this is a personal letter that is written by Paul to Timothy on how he ought to conduct himself. But it’s also a place where the congregation listens in. So we had that section about if there’s an accusation against an elder, it’s got to have at least two witnesses that it needs to be handled, that even preachers are not above sin. And if they’re caught in sin, that sin needs to be confronted and needs to be judged and dealt with before all that others might fear. And and to realize that what we’re involved in is something so so precious. Chapter six has that section about he continues with this section within the congregation of bond servants and masters, slaves and so forth.

Then on Wednesday night, this past Wednesday night, I kind of introduced this sermon And we looked at it for a particular reason, but if you look beginning at chapter 6 and verse 3, we go into, I’m not going to say a new section because we’re in a very practical section and he’s approaching different people, but it becomes a little bit more random. It’s not rambling, but it’s more random. He has a section he’s going to say, and then he’s going to go over here and then he’s going to come back to it again. Let me just kind of show you what it says. Verse eight, for example. Chapter six, verse eight, he says, and having food and clothing with these, we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation. So as this warning about wealth and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. But then if you look at chapter 6 and verse 17, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty.

So you would tend to think that everything between these two verses are about rich people. Well, it isn’t. Because after he gives this warning about money is the root of all kinds of evil, he mentions greediness, how that they can be pierced through. Verse 11, which is the beginning of our text this morning, I’m still setting context. It says, but you, oh man of God. So now he is specifically still talking about elders and pastors, but he’s over here and he says, if anyone teaches anything otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine, which is according to godliness, he is proud. But then when he talks about the money, he refers to we shall be content. So he’s kind of blending those in the ministry, those that are elders of the local church, those that need some instruction concerning wealth. In a couple of weeks, we’re going to come back to this and have a message what Paul’s charged to the rich or to the wealthy within the church. And this is section, the whole book, but especially this section, is that section where we should listen in.

Whether you’re in the ministry or not, whether you’re an elder here or not, there are practical applications to some of these things. The first one is that he kind of jumps on, but then he applies it to the man of God. And that is, he says, Beware of riches, of wealth, and what that brings. Being haughty, being full of pride, having been exalted artificially, those things have a pitfall. And that’s why it doesn’t say the love of money is the root of evil. But it’s the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. You have some wealth. You can get puffed up. You can have a lot of concerns. You can feel self-complacent. You don’t have to worry about depending upon God. Now, he’s going to give more warning at verse 17, but he does bring it all up in that section. And we looked at that a little bit this coming this past Wednesday night. But those are all held into contrast in verse six of chapter six when I said now godliness with contentment is great gain.

So we show he’s building a contrast and he goes to but you oh man of God then he’s going to address the rich within the congregation. And I mentioned Sunday or Wednesday night that it’s a bit confusing but part of the key is is the very first word in verse three if. And that if is what is called in the Greek language a first class condition, if clause, and it assumes a reality. So it’s something like this. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, then He is proud. So it’s an if then and that kind of helps then keep it in the context and it helps you to kind of figure this out that if a person who would be a pastor or one who would be teacher, a teaching and a teaching situation within the church and does not consent to the doctrines that the is the doctrines and the teachings of the apostles, the doctrine and the words of Christ. If he doesn’t do these things and according to the doctrine with godliness, godliness is an important word in this passage, by the way.

Then, and some were so one of the cautious charges of which Paul is going to give is if anyone departs, may or may not be an apostate, he approached them earlier, but if anyone is in the church and he departs and he is not teaching, he may be teaching more his opinion, he may be doing these things, but if that happens, then that man is proud. And pride goes before destruction, goes before a fall. And there’s a problem within this, and the church can have this problem. And so he goes through in this, and when he says in that context, he is proud knowing nothing. But obviously he knows something. But he’s obsessed with disputes and arguments and over words which come, envy, strife, revelings. evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, who suppose godliness, see there’s that word again, means gain, corruption, ministry for corrupt purposes. From such, withdraw yourselves.

So it’s kind of like a church discipline against those that are teaching and preaching with a heart of pride, a wrong doctrine. But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can’t take anything out. And he goes on and he says a lot of this can come because of a wrong concept of money. But then it gets real descriptive. Verse 10 for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed. From the faith in their greediness and they pierce themselves through with many sorrows. That’s not a pretty picture. I have always said that I am so glad that I was born in God’s providence after the day and age of swords and arrows. Because, you know, it’s one thing to take a bullet. But it would just for me, it’s just nasty to go, you know, to be thrust through pierced or to take an arrow or an arrow. That just seems very gross to me. But it’s supposed to be, because it’s called graphic language. And if one falls in this particular area on what is going on here, it’s a root of all kinds of evil, greediness, and they pierced themselves. And what’s the piercing? It’s sorrow. Pain of heart. Now, in that context, you would think it could go right on into verse 17. Because of that, command the rich or those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty.

Now, haughty isn’t a word that we talk a lot about. I think it’s related to naughty, you know, haughty and naughty. And you know me, I’ve already said, you know, naughty. That’s just a To me, it’s just a dirty word. I don’t mean swear cursing kind of dirty. I just mean it just is naughty. Oh, you know, it’s just kind of a bad phrase. That’s what my my mom said. Now, don’t be naughty. Oh, do I need to take a shower or something? You know, naughty. But here it is haughty. To think better of yourself than what you ought, don’t be full of yourself. Some people have said that and some men go into the ministry because for whatever really bizarre need in their life, they enjoy being in front of people and having all of you look at me. I am only up here because God wants me to be up here. I don’t get a kick out of having a lot of people stare at me every Sunday, you know, but some people, some men like that. It makes them feel, I guess, important, whatever. And so when they get puffed up on that danger point, you know, danger, danger, the lights should go off. But what’s interesting is that the spirit of God did not have Paul go from verse 10 to 17. He then stuck a section in that is so rich, so full. It is a passage that I preached when I was in seminary, taking a homiletics class, because I thought that the preachers in my class needed this passage of scripture.

And the basic outline, oh, I’ll add a lot more this morning, so it’s not a repeat message, But it is a message that I have always remembered, it’s always been in my mind. Flee, follow, fight, and be faithful. It alliterates all Fs there, but that’s not forced. Alliteration’s good, especially good for memory, but when it comes from the text, it’s really cool. And it is alliterated here. And so we have a precious, passage of scripture here. And it starts off where if you can read the Greek language. Let me use this one. It pops. If you want another characterization of how this gets starts off, this is a wowie zowie set up. This is something that Paul could do in the Greek language. that could grab your attention. What’s unfortunate is some of the newer translations, I didn’t go check this, but someone else said that it was not translated in the NASB, New American Standard Bible, which is considered a really good translation, but they left it out. I think that would have been one place that translation blew it. Because we have here, he starts off, but, showing the contrast. He’s building a contrast. You. And that is he usually you is found in the verb. This one it’s found as a word. Sue. But it’s more than that, but you. And it then has a statement in the vocative, which is not really that common in the New Testament. He wanted. He was wanting to forcefully say, but you, O man of God.

Now, what’s also interesting is in the New Testament, this is the only occurrence of the phrase, man of God. Now, the Old Testament’s A lot of places. The term man of God is used of Moses, Deuteronomy 33, verse one and other places. If you want to pick a biggie man of God in the Bible, I think everybody Moses has got to be like in the top two, but he’d be one of my top ones. Moses is called a man of God. Samuel is called a man of God. Elijah was a man of God. Elisha, you know, all the heroes of the Sunday school era and others. David in Nehemiah 12, 24 and 36 was called the man of God. A long line of godly men. And in the New Testament, one. Timothy was called a man of God, but you. So this is specific. To Timothy. I can’t tell you. What kind of. Gravity. Use the RC word, the gravitas. Of the setup. Of what he’s about to say. You. Man of God. Now, later on in Second Peter, chapter one in verse 21, it does a holy men of God, you know, wrote and were born along by the spirit of God. But here it’s narrowed to a single guy. You, man of God.

Now, that just shows us, first of all, that it’s possible in the new day and age to be a man of God, not a prophet like Elijah, Elisha, but it should cause every man and every woman, every young person. Are you serious about God? Do you wanna be known as the person of God? Now, the context here, he’s calling the pastor the man of God. In context, this is gonna be a warning for myself. for Pastor Ryan, for our elders, application directly, you deacons, application broadly, our Sunday school teachers and Awana helpers. But ultimately, anyone who knows Jesus Christ as personal Savior, do you wanna be a man of God? Well, pay attention to what he’s gonna say. And so you see what I mean when I say this is a wowie zowie set up with evocative, with the context of using something very, very carefully. And he gives four imperatival words on how to be a real man of God, person of God. And what are they? May I just urge you and me, you better take this seriously. I mean that.

Number one, flee. What does it say? But you, O man of God, flee these things. Now, it would have been kind of nice if he said flee, you know, give the bullet points. Let’s get a PowerPoint presentation up here. You know, flee these things, stay away from it. And no matter what it is, you know, whatever I would put up there, whatever the Spirit of God would put up there, we would say, yes, I will run. But he doesn’t. And so since he don’t flee these things, well, in context, remember, context is king or hermeneutic. What is he saying? He’s saying right what we have just already gone through. You might have thought that was all intro, but it was actually a way to speed up the first point of the sermon. Flee these things. What things? Flee money. Preachers are not to get caught up in money.

So when you can see a preacher saying, you know, Fellowship Baptist, you know, I’m an important person and I gotta be here and everything. So I want you to buy me a jet. It’s a setup. He hasn’t fled. He’s caught up. If you ever had, I would say either the blessing or the cursing to have me baptize you, I have almost I think it started way back in my first church, the first person I ever baptized. And I thought, oh, I’m going to have some fun with them. And it’s part of the fun of being able to be a Baptist and immerse people. You know, we want to make sure you get them all the way under. And so I generally tell them, unless it’s a real small child, then I just tell their parents. I tell them, I said, you know, we believe in immersion, death, burial and resurrection. But, and I usually tell them right before we come out, you know, it’s back there and back, and I’ll say, and just, oh, I forgot to tell you that if you want me to bring them back up out of the water, it’s a special check. And it’s written Piatt, and that’s spelled P-I-A-T-T. Lots of zeros. And everybody laughs, and of course, it’s a big joke. Not to some. There are charlatans in this world that they do want your money.

I never went into the ministry for money. There are those who do. I think I used that illustration last week, wasn’t it? When I said one guy in seminary, he was given a really good salary to go be with one of the seminary professors. He didn’t make it because he said the salary wasn’t big enough. Before I took my first church, and we had Eileen already as a child, and my first salary was $9,600. And I had also, I don’t know if I told the whole story, but my boss at an office supply store where I was a salesman had offered me my own store, and beginning at $110,000 in 1981. That’s a long time ago, and that’s a lot of money. Now, was that a hard decision? No, it really wasn’t. Money is nice. And we’re going to talk about that. That’s in a couple of weeks. But I never went in the ministry for money. I appreciate my salary. And as I’ve said for all the 30 years I’ve been here. It just pay me enough I don’t have to change my oil. I hate that job. I don’t want to change the oil in my car. Your hands get messy. You wonder if you’re going to be part of global warming, if you get a drop on your driveway. And it’s just nasty. Just pay me enough I can pay somebody else to change my oil. Now, for those of you who like to change your oil, may the Lord bless you. But I don’t want to change my oil. I do want enough for that, but beyond that, beyond that.

He goes on because the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. What it it’s about money and covetousness. It’s the concept of to get rather than giving. A pastor is a person who is to give. A Christian, we are to esteem others higher than ourself. We are not to be self-centered, we’re to be God-centered. We’re to love our neighbors ourself. We’re supposed to be loving and kind and all of those things like that. And when he says over here again, now godliness with contentment is great gain. Pastors should be a person who is contented. Discontent can disqualify. Now, the word to flee in the original language is so written and the verb means constantly flee. It isn’t that you can flee for a while and then you don’t have to worry about it. but it means that you are constantly diligently for your whole life. And he’s gonna go through for how long here in a moment, but it’s a constant vigilant fight. It’s a word that also where we get the English word fugitive, take flight because disaster or captivity is real. It might be like, especially for those of us that grew up in the Midwest, you hear the tornado alarm. You immediately go to the basement. Just immediately.

Now, we live down here in Florida. We got hurricanes and they warn you for two weeks and then you find out it doesn’t even come close by. But in the Midwest, you hear that alarm. Yeah, you flee. You get down there like ASAP now. And that is what this word is. Flee these things. But it’s interesting, the Apostle Paul tells us to flee other things. And this is where it doesn’t get pretty. First Corinthians, Chapter six, verse 18. Flee sexual sin. It says in Second Timothy, Chapter two, verse 22, where Paul gets real specific, Timothy, flee youthful lusts. Sexual sin and flee, not fleeing. Has nailed. And I mean that. Way too many preachers and godly men. I mean, we have the Old Testament. You have David, a man after God’s own heart, watches a woman take a bath. Boom, doesn’t care who knows, sends people to go get her. Flee, youthful, constantly flee.

Oh, it’ll be better. I’m older now. I’m in my 70s now. doesn’t make any difference. Flee constantly. Don’t flirt with sin, flee it. Flee. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 14, it’s interesting, Paul there also in 1 Corinthians says, flee idolatry. Idolatry would be anything that which comes between you and God or that which you exalt, either equal to and or more or higher. than God himself. Flee those things. Money, fame, number of books written, who you can hang out with, those are traps that will pierce you through. So flee. The second word is to follow. What’s interesting is it has the idea of as you’re fleeing, you’re going one direction and leaving another direction. It’s the opposite of fleeing. It was a word that would be like what a track star would do and putting his feet in the stocks to push off, to get out of dodge, get out and to get moving. But what’s great here is, is these, where we are to follow, he does tell us this. It’s found in the word, I’m reading New King James, it’s pursue, but it means to follow, pursue, go after, flee these things up earlier, but then pursue, pursue what? And he gives a list. And let me, for sake of time, we’re going to have to quickly speed this up a little bit.

So the first thing, the goal or the target or fleet to, first of all, is righteousness. Now, when we are born again, we contribute to our salvation, our sin. Christ provides all of our righteousness because we don’t have any. There’s an unrighteous. No, not one. But here he said, pursue righteousness. That’s because this is not the righteousness that we receive at salvation or this is not salvific language. He’s not in the midst of salvific trying to prove the doctrine of salvation. He’s trying to prove how we how to be a man of God or a person of God. And so this term righteousness has to do with the sense of uprightness, that which is simply right. Do what is right. Do what is respectable.

Now, he’s already given us the qualifications of a pastor, right? I mean, we could just pick a couple. Do what is right in your marriage. Husbands, love your wives. Do what is right with your children. Because if you can’t handle your kids, you can’t handle the things in the household of faith. Remember the passage for elders that that a pastor is to have a good reputation of those that are from without out in the world. You should be able to know and go to anyone that I borrowed money from and or some of the people I have dealings with. And I have dealings with some pretty weird people in the exotic animal world. But you should be able to go to him. What do you think of Piatt? Does you know what do you think of him? Is he a good guy, bad guy or what? What about him? A sense of righteousness, the living uprightly.

The second word is that of God. They pursue righteousness, pursue godliness. And again, this is a life of piety. Pursue a life that is exactly like what God wants you to be pursuing. There again, it goes all the way back to the qualifications of a pastor. Live a life that is blameless. Nothing on your life to be upon which to be grasped to have access to the pastor. That’s why all of you, if you choose, you can have my cell phone number. I’m 100 percent available. I told someone this week, oh, don’t worry about calling me. You know, I live in a goldfish bowl and I’m good with it. I don’t have anything to hide. And so we should live a life of godliness. and piety. To live a life of faith is the next word. Again, that’s not salvific faith, saving faith, but it has to do with believing or trusting God. A pastor should be a man who just relies and trusts God.

If you wanna be a man of God, the next one is love. I’m gonna tie the next three together, love, patience and gentleness. I mean, those all kind of go together, right? And we see those sometimes at the beginning of epistles and in the middle of the thing. But the love is agape love, that which doesn’t seek repayment, but does stuff that is genuine out of true concern. And that’s part of what makes me laugh sometimes is I like to prove something with a joke. Like we have two people going into surgery this week. I’ve already told them. Well, I told one of them, yeah, I’m going to come and pray with you so you don’t won’t be a crybaby. And it’s just a joke. And they know that because I really love them and I want to go with them. I want to pray, you know, with with Elsie, because I know that that will comfort her because I love her. And that should be a mark of a pastor and a pastor’s heart. There’s gotta be that agape love. Of patience. Patience is that word of, it has the concept of remaining under.

I heard a sermon once, all the way back in seminary, from a very famous person who preached this, and he said it’s the watermelon effect. The watermelon seed effect. And I’ve never forgotten it. Of course, now we, because of the nation of Israel that bred these seedless watermelons, all the younger generation, they miss all kinds of, they miss out on all kinds of fun. But, you know, back in the olden days when watermelon had a lot of seeds, especially the big, the dark ones, the black ones, you could then squirt them and you could and get the person over next to you or, you know, I could, I could probably hit Bob Varner from here. And you know, and it was just fun. But he said this term of patience means to remain under so that any pressure that comes down on you, you just squish right out of it. And you come out and you fly away. But pastors, they get so down.

I have to confess, and I imagine that, and again, this is just for me, but I sometimes have, I wonder about pastors who talk about, well, I’ve got burnout. Well, then I think you were burning incorrectly. And Fellowship Baptist over 30 years has really helped me. You let me run races, marathons. I was involved in triathlons. The church puts up with my, monkey habit and things, which helps fight against burnout. You know, you have another life, you have interest, and so forth. Follow after these things, and gentleness. I would say that as I get older, that’s what I strive for maybe the most. I want to be known as a gentleman. A gentleman in how I handle people, but a gentle man. I love it. when children run up to me and they’re not afraid of me. They don’t run up to every man in this church, but they’ll run up to me. I did it right over there on a pew. I’m not gonna say which child because I don’t want him to get in trouble with his mom, but I even looked at one little boy and he’s looking at me and we’re kind of winking and making eyes. And a child is a good indication if a person sees you, as a threat or a person they can trust. You never want to betray the trust.

So you got to flee sin, especially sexual sin. You got to follow that which is right and godly. And again, we could go back to the list on passion. The other one is, is you got to fight. And the word there is verse 12, the first word, fight the good fight of faith, fight the good fight of faith. It’s the word to agonize, to strain every muscle. It has an athletic background and a military background. But if you put that down, you know, when I was running one particular race, I ran a Gasparilla five K and I knew I could get back in time to run the 15 K. So I’d be running 20 K. And so I knew I could do both. But towards the end of the 20K, I was really tired. And so at the point then, you know, for me, I always, I’m not big into competition, but when you’re getting closer and closer to that line and you see somebody up over there that could be your grandpa, you’re thinking, I’m not, I can’t let him win. You know, that’s how embarrassing is that? And so you strain every muscle to beat him over that That’s what this word means, to strain or the idea of in the military, if you’re fighting, that you prepare every muscle of your body for the fight. It’s a good fight.

It’s the fight of faith. We sometimes have forgotten that. The reason why this sermon is so important is because in the book of Ephesians, those are the people that got this letter also. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Beloved, if you are coasting in your Christianity, you are blinded by the master deceiver. You need to fight and strain every spiritual muscle to be able to fight against the struggles of this life. Well, there’s a lot more that could be said there, but then we have to go to the other one, and that one’s this, because this is where he spent the most time. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. In other words, use eternal life as a weapon. Lay hold on and be faithful to the end. That’s what he’s gonna say. To which you were also called and have confessed a good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

I urge you in the sight of God who gives the life to all and before the Lord Jesus or before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep, see the words, you know, lay hold on, keep this commandment without spot Blameless, same word used of an elder in chapter three, until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ appearing. Remain faithful to the end. If you’re a believer and you know the word of God, something that you either heard once or that you have as your life’s commitment, that when you die, what is it that we want to hear? Well done, thou good. and faithful servant.

You see, there are some that aren’t faithful. We’re not saved by our faithfulness. We are saved by the blood of Christ, graven on his hands where we read the passage in the confession. We’re saved by Christ. We’re responsible to be faithful to the end. faithful to God, to Jesus Christ until the end. We need to get a grip on the reality of our eternal life. You might say, but I hurt. I deserve, oh, give me a break. You deserve what, a fantasy until you die, which may be a couple of years? How do you compare that to eternity with the great God of the universe, immortal, invisible, God only wise, for a thrill in this life. Get a grip with the idea to be practical in this life. Keep the commandment.

Well, I want my freedom. I don’t, because if I’m free, I’ll really mess up. And so will you. Keep it until Christ comes. Our present command is to do these things, flee, follow, fight, and remain faithful. The command is not easy, but we’re to keep it. The command is not easy because we’re in a battle. And in battle, there are casualties.

This week, we became aware of a terrible casualty. Not in gossip, but in warning. Steve Lawson, a friend of mine. His wife, Anne, a friend of mine. I’ve been in their home. I’ve been in their kitchen. I’ve talked to them about life issues, whether it be her mother or moving to Texas. I have been taught, I have heard, and many of you have as well, of the sermons of Steve Lawson. Flee, follow, fight and remain faithful. He mentored Pastor Ryan. He would have, my understanding is, would have been the one to hand him his diploma when he graduates. He will not now. A man influential not just in his church, at Trinity Bible Church in Dallas, Texas, but also at Grace, involved with Grace Community Church and John MacArthur, friends. Ligonier Ministry. These are good ministries. They are good doctrine. G3 and so many other places.

His own personal ministry of One Passion. And we have a passage like this. I’m not preaching this passage today because of Steve Lawson. I’m preaching because it was the next thing on the preaching calendar. But what a stark scream to reality. My brethren, we must flee, follow, fight, and remain faithful to the end. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. May God in his grace keep us, keep me, keep the men of our church from falling into this kind of sin. Still, My soul. Be still.

Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven. We need you. The presence of your Holy Spirit. In our lives, we need the refreshment of your word daily. In our lives. We need to exercise our responsibility to flee, to follow, to fight, and to be faithful, to keep every thought captive to our blessed Savior. And Father, this kind of sorrow that pierces the heart, If the judgment of God begins with us in this kind of destruction because of sin, how much more upon those who do not know the gospel? Father, if there be one soul here today or that would ever hear this message, we do not stand in judgment, we stand in a real sense in fear. There go I, but by the grace of God, Keep me faithful. But if they know not you, may they flee to the Savior for forgiveness, who receives all who come to him by faith. Father, still our hearts for your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.