The Christian life is a series of Battles. Here is the shocker, everyone in involved. There are no non-combatants in this spiritual war that is raging around us. Whether you are save, or lost, rich or poor, possess numerous seminary degrees or completely uneducated, everyone, everywhere is involved in this war.
We have a cultural war raging in this country and its roots are in the things of the spirit, not of the Holy Spirit, but all the unholy, evil and wicked spirits of the devil and his minions.
Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of this nation. When we look back at the origins of this nation, the Revolutionary War was fought as much in the spiritual realm as it was on the battlefield. Churches led the way in much of the fighting. The British commanders spoke often of “black robed regiment” speaking of the ministers, and pastors, who spoke about liberty from the pulpits. In those days, all minister wore black robes in pulpit.
One such minister, on January 21, 1776, Pastor John Peter Muhlenberg, was preaching from Ecclesiastes 3 – “To everything there is season and a time for a every purpose under heaven.” When he got to verse 8 and read “there is a time for peace and a time for war,” Pastor Muhlenberg tore off his minister’s black robe revealing a colonel’s uniform of the Continental Army and he said, “The time now is for war,” and he asked his congregation, “Who among you is with me?” 162 men joined him that day and went on to become come the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army.
In those days, a much different relationship existed between the Congress and churches. When the Continental Congress had messages that needed to be delivered to the people, they sent the messages to the pastors and asked them to tell all the people. The biggest distribution source for news was the pastors.
The church was very involved in the war and the very foundation of this nation. According to historian and constitution expert David Barton (founder of WallBuilders), “You find that not only did the pastors deliver the news, not only did they shape the thinking, they were often the military leaders,” Barton said, citing the first three battles of the Revolution as examples.
“During the first battle of the American Revolution, the Battle of Lexington, Reverend Jonas Clark took 70 guys in his church and went out to face 700 British. When asked if the people of Lexington would fight, Clark replied ‘I have trained them for this very hour.’
“The second battle of the Revolution was the Battle of Concord where the British were met by Reverend William Emerson and 300 men from Concord.
As you look to the third battle of the Revolution, as the British retreated to Boston, many preachers brought their churches out to fight the British all along the way.”[1]
Today, we are in a battle for the very heart and soul of this nation. Where is the church? We need to be as bold today as those churches of the Revolutionary War. Today’s message: "Every Believer a soldier." Everybody -everyone is involved whether you like it or not. Every believer is a soldier in the army of the Lord, the question is whether you are a good soldier or a poor soldier, or for many,
are you a soldier who has gone A.W.O.L (Absent without leave)?
1 Timothy 1:18–20
2 Timothy 2:3–7
Many of you have served in the military, and many of you have not. Have you ever considered yourselves as soldiers? As we have discussed last week, we are all in a battle, a spiritual battle. In this battle we face every day: There is no such thing a non-combatant; There is no such thing a sideline spectator; There no such thing as a disinterested party. If you consider yourself as such, then the enemy has won.
Ephesians 6:12 (NASB95) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Remember that our battle is not of the things that we can lay our hands on. So what is the fight Paul charged young Timothy to fight?
1 Timothy 1:18 (NASB95) This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight
Timothy’s call to preach and be the pastor at Ephesus was confirmed by many, outside of Paul. Paul was charging young Timothy to fight the good fight. However this was in the church. Timothy was to guard what was being taught. A great problem today. Why? Because people do not know their Bibles and are open to false doctrines. Because it was in the church – it was an uphill battle. Timothy was young, going against some of the elders. Paul tells young Timothy to “fight the good fight.” It was going to be a fight. The NKJV says “you may wage the good warfare.” HCSB says “strongly engage in battle” Translated directly from the Greek – it's a military term - "to fight [like or as a soldier] the good campaign or war.” Our call as Christians is to the battle because as with Timothy, error and evil are all around. We are to fight like a soldier.
The good soldier: single minded purpose, Rigorous disciplined, unquestioning obedience.
2 Timothy 2:3–4 (NASB95) Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.
A soldier will not allow the affairs of life interfere with the performance of his duties – so to please his commander. A Christian will not allow the affairs of life to become the main object of existence – must not make career, money, possessions, cars, houses and so forth become the main aim in life. As soldiers of Christ, our main objective is to please our commander by being in His will. Paul goes on and relate to Timothy that like a soldier, the athlete must train and compete by the rules:
2 Timothy 2:5 (NASB95) Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.
According to the rules of the day, the athlete must swear that he has diligently trained for at least 10 months. Of course the game must be played according to the rules or the athlete would be disqualified. And likewise the farmer:
2 Timothy 2:6 (NASB95) The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Key word here is hardworking – no one ever said that being a good Christian is easy – it takes work. The diligent soldier has approval of his commander. The diligent athlete wins the prize. The diligent farmer gets the produce.
2 Timothy 2:7 (NASB95) Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
The Christian likewise must work hard. The problem arises when the believer feel he/she can take a break and lay back and coast. When one becomes a Christian, often times the problems really begin to mount up – not go away. We must be on our guard. The difference is that we now have the power of Almighty God to deal with the issues.
"that by them you fight the good fight"
Who is “them.” For this we have to look back to verses 1:3 and 6-7. As we will see, some of the biggest Spiritual battles we will fight will be within the walls of the church.
1 Timothy 1:3, 6–7 (NASB95) As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,
6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.
Against these Timothy must fight the good fight, and so must we. We must fight against the heresies the creep into the church. We see it all around us. for example you may hear from some, “God is love and God doesn’t care about same sex marriage as long as there is love.” But that is not what the word of God says. Whole denominations are falling away because they have bought into the lie. As soldiers we must know and study the commands and our manuals, the written instructions, our Bible, forwards and backwards. Many are losing because they don’t know the word. God said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Maintaining a pure Biblical based doctrine is great and needed, but more is required.
1 Timothy 1:19 (NASB95) keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.
“faith and a good conscience” Paul often places together they are dependent on each other. Strength in one produces strength in the other; failure in one will produce failure in the other.
Conscience is the inner voice that tells us right from wrong, good and evil, conscience here is not talking about a clear conscience – or lack of guilt – but a properly functioning conscience
A properly functioning conscience requires the proper input. Godly input. That is where faith comes in. Is our input from Godly sources, the Bible, godly teachers? Can you see why Paul’s charge to Timothy against false teachers was so vital? But where are we getting the inputs to our conscience? From television? from movies? from popular music? from video games? from peer groups?
If our conscience is warped because of the influences of the world, and our conscience is no longer functioning properly, we often will suffer moral failures. Moral failures, which nothing more than rebellion against God, will give rise to faulty theology or faith. A bad or ill-functioning conscience will produce a bad faith that will ease the conscience in justifying the moral failure. If faith is faulty to start with, the conscience will suffer. Can you see the Spiritual warfare in all of this?
1 Timothy 4:1–2 (NASB95) But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron
A conscience seared with a hot iron – Their conscience will bother them if they are not doing wrong. In Romans 1, Paul says in extreme cases, God gives them over. So you can understand the charge Paul gave Timothy to guard against false teachers.
"some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith."
Paul now shifts From a military analogy to sea-going analogy. The sad thing about being shipwrecked, is that you are seldom alone. You take others with you.
This is like a sailor who tosses overboard his compass because he feels he knows the way blindfolded. Now he has lost the way. Another sad thing is many are lost and don’t know it – because they have no compass. It vital to maintain that personal fellowship with God through Jesus.
A man can preach with all the eloquence of men and angels yet be nothing before God. Moral failure bring disgrace to God. You can easily go from being a soldier of war for God, to a prisoner of war, or even for some, going A.W.O.L. Suffering moral failure will shipwreck your witness, and your usefulness to the Lord. Paul gives two examples:
1 Timothy 1:20 (NASB95) Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.
What did Hymenaeus and Alexander do? I don’t know. There are some speculations but that is not the point. Blaspheme here may simply mean they gave a bad name to the church. It could be in reference to a deed or deeds that cause the enemies of God to blaspheme. In the OT, David was guilty of a similar thing with his sin with Bathsheba.
2 Samuel 12:14a (NASB95) “However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme …
Sometime the greatest battles we fight are because of those in the church. This is why we must stay diligent, always on the alert, The enemy is within as well as with out.
“handed over to Satan” Delivered to Satan – is another word of being put out of the church or excommunicate. We’ll call this church discipline, something we see precious little of today. The purpose of the punitive measure was not so much punitive as much as they will learn. How? By being out of fellowship with God’s people and under the influence of Satan.
I have always said and I personally truly believe that the most unhappy people in the world are those who are truly Christian, but are out of fellowship with god, and out of fellowship with God’s people, and clearly out of the will of God. The only remedy is to get back in the will of God, reestablish fellowship with God and thus, back in fellowship with God’s people.
We all are soldiers. We are at war. We have a difficult job. We must be and stay vigilant because the enemy will want to rob us of our faith and conscience. But we don’t fight this war alone. Nowhere in the Bible does it call for us to be “lone ranger” Christians. We fight this good fight together. And we go through this fight with Jesus by our side. Jesus said:
Matthew 28:20b (NASB95) and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Perhaps some of you are a prisoner of war and don’t know it – your faith has been shipwrecked. You need to recommit to your Commander.
Perhaps someone here today does not know our commander, Jesus, and want to enlist and be in the army of the King
[1] afajournal.org/past-issues/2020/july/pastors-to-patriots/ and
founderskeep.org/uncategorized/black-robe-regiment-johann-peter-muhlenberg/
