First Timothy lesson 34 cont.

Alright, we are in Lesson 34, and this is on Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, and the verses, I'll go over them. We've covered most of it, we're just going to finish up a little bit today. In verses, 1 Timothy 6, 11, and 12, I'll read those just for context. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

So, we went through and we were on question... We got through most of four, and I jumped on my soapbox last week to say how we had many times that verse, fight the good fight, how it's usually truncated, fight the good fight. We truncate it and forget that it's fight the good fight of faith.

That's our battle. That's our battle is to just understand God's Word, the truth of God's Word, and just to rely upon His Word. That is the key. That is the fight. It's not that we're going to go out and slay evil spirits or anything else. We're not to be offensively taking charge and going after evil. We are to stand firm as we went through the Ephesians passage and also some other ones where all the armor and everything we had were to stand firm and to fight the good fight of faith. So, now we're just going on a little bit. Fight the good fight of faith.

So, the word good, is there a bad fight of faith? Just curious. Can you do a bad fight of faith? Okay, yeah Well, there's no truth to it no basis for it if outside of scripture So I guess from that standpoint, but there's really not a bad. I guess a bad fight of faith with it was scripturally So it's kind of it's so good this one the word good is not is not the Greek or gag Agatha's referring to the intrinsic goodness like you know it's just that's the the the basis or the essence of it.

This is the word KELOS, speaking of goodness as seen from the outside by a spectator. So this is the fight, the good fight. So people see that fight, that you're standing on the Word of God and you're showing the faith in your trust in God's Word. Remember, this is Paul telling Timothy how he's to administer the church at Ephesus. So do this fight of faith, but do it in a good way.

Show your good behavior. Remember we talked about godliness and what that is? This is similar. It's just the appearance that you're doing what's right. That's what he's telling them. Show people your good fight of faith. So it's again, not the intrinsic aspect of it, but it's show your good fight of faith. So a little bit different than kind of the, this is like a godly thing. No, show people your faith.

Then the other is the word faith. Now, we had a little bit of discussion last week about this, and I don't know if anybody else, maybe in your Greek translation, Tim, do you have the Greek? I don't know. It's kind of interesting because in mine on the Greek, in Mike's notes, he said, well, let me get into the definition of faith first. Well, maybe not. Mike's note said, the word faith has a definite article with thee with it and therefore refers to the body of Christian doctrine. So does yours have thee before faith? Yeah. See, that's interesting. Mine did not. I'm looking at my PC study Bible. Zodiatis hasn't. Yeah. Miles, did yours have it too? Yeah, I've got the same as Tim, so...

Yeah, I don't know, it doesn't say here if there's any textual difference there, but it's the... Which the definite article can mean... Yeah, I was looking at that here. It can either mean that the body of doctrine, when we see the definite article before faith, but you can also, in this context, the fight, the good fight, the one which is of faith, is maybe a way you could translate that.

See, like on mine, I have the definite oracle in front of the good. But then I don't have it in front of faith, which it's just like if it's the faith. It's like a three-letter. It looks like a T, eta, sigma, tau. Yeah, see, I don't have that. I just have of faith, fight of faith. Did they put of? Did they put of? Yeah, I have of in there. There should be a two-word pair. Taste pistachios. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah.

He also has an article in front of eternal life. See, I have that, but I don't have it in front of the faith. This is just kind of interesting. I got Mike's notes and I'm like, huh, I don't have that. That's why I was asking some of your translations. I'm trying to think which is mine, which translation it is. I thought it was Nav 27 or something. or whatever it is. Anyway, that's interesting. So we'll go back. We'll assume that the the is there. So let's go back. Yeah, so what is the word?

The word for faith is piteos. Sorry, I'm probably messing it up, Tim and Miles. You have the Greek much better than I do. It's used in the absolute sense with the same meaning, and this is from Zodias, using the absolute sense with the same meaning, namely, Christian faith, a firm and confiding belief in Jesus and his gospel. So, that's Zodiatis' definition for this one, or this use of faith. So, Mike says, the word of faith has a definite article with it, and therefore refers to the body of Christian doctrine.

Truth is sturdy, but if not protected and defended, slips easily from one's grasp. It is not faith in general as exercised by the Christian, to which reference is made here, but to the faith as consisting of a body of doctrine with its corresponding ethical responsibilities, namely Christianity and the Christian life. So this is basically the fight the good fight of defending the entire doctrine of faith, You know what I really think it comes down to is not a debate, not a situation where I have all the right answers for the test.

It comes down to the life that you live. And I think that's where Paul is going with this, that the good fight of faith should be manifested in the life that you live. Not that you should, and you should be able to defend at least as much as you know. See, that's why, I mean, that's why I guess I'm trying to figure out, you know, like, the faith and faith. To me, it's defend, you know, fight the good fight of faith.

Defend what I've taught you. Defend what the Word says. And I think that's what he's saying now, whether that's, you know, the entire doctrine of things. But I like what you said, too. It's defending what you know. And many times if you step out of what you know, that's when you get into trouble. So I think this is really just defending what you know in your Christian life.

This is defending the word that you know. And it's the good fight. The good fight is, and I suppose maybe what Mike said, that it's, you know, defending something else is worthless. But defending the faith, which is defending God's word, that's the good fight. Yeah, I was thinking about what Mike was saying there, and we're not there yet. But it doesn't tell us to take an aggressive stance. It says be prepared to give a reason. And so what is that? That's obviously the question of why. Well, where does the why come from?

Other people. You handle this situation differently. How did you do that? How can you remain calm in a situation like that? Yeah. Again, I think you hit on it again. It's defensively. It's responding. The fight of good faith is to stand firm in the Word. Stand firm in the Word of God. That's what your fight is.

It's not that we're going to, again, go out and slay the world. We're not to go after, although, Evangelically, yes, you're supposed to bring forth the word, but this isn't, again, my soapbox, this is not to go after evil spirits or evil people and club them. This is to fight the good fight, which again, what I think I said, you never won anybody through an argument. So I think this is, the good fight is standing firm on his word. That's what this is saying. And again, I like what Mike said, what you know. you know, don't try and defend things you don't know. Anything else on that?

I might make one other comment, and that's that maybe it's because of what I've been reading lately, but it's interesting how we as spiritual men, people, are learning what it's like to be on that spiritual plane, which the Lord Jesus is. So spiritual growth has to do, I think, with an increased intimacy with the Lord Jesus. So one of the things I read last night that Donna and I were talking about is that we have a tendency to put more weight on our own natural mind and what we think it says than what it really does say. And so I think sometimes you find yourself in this fight trying to defend what you think it says rather than have you been persuaded that this is what God really says.

And the reason I'm persuaded is because I know Him about it. That makes sense. Yeah, I think two thoughts I think on that. One, it's like what your mind wants. That's why people truncate off the faith. Sure. I want to go out and fight. That's what God called me to do is go out. Well, you truncated this verse. Right. So what you want to... The other is I think what gives...

I think your second point is like trying to use God's word or whatever. I think Not trusting the word, but trying to find the word. I think this is where people go, and I want to do something, so I'm going to go find a verse that justifies my position. That, I think, is where you lead into problems. Because you're trying to justify your position by finding a verse that will do it. Aha, so now that, well, that may be taken out of context of five other verses. And so I think that's where you may be getting at the problem, where you're trying to justify something.

Yeah, I was thinking about how can a place like Dallas Seminary, that has such a great reputation and started by a guy who was really solid over a couple of generations of students, now these guys are sort of off the rails. And I think it's because they apply their human intellect to God's Word and think that they can understand who God is and what spirituality is all about with this mind, so they go off and create a bump, so to speak, from the doctrine. On the other hand, the Spirit of God is our teacher, and when He teaches you something, it gets locked in you're persuaded that what you know is true.

It's like the security of salvation. Am I persuaded about that? Yeah. I wasn't the first day, maybe. But down the road, the Spirit of God persuaded me that I'm secure. And as you grow and learn other things from God's Word, you recognize that the real teaching that's going on is the Holy Spirit. It's not some intellectual guy with a seminary degree, or me, or you, or any of us. It's him. Two comments.

One, I think, which is a problem, and maybe where Dallas and a lot of these things start to go off track, just a doctrinal thesis. A doctrinal thesis has to come up with something new. So all these guys going through Dallas Seminary to get a doctorate have got to come up with something new. The thing with the intellect is it's stumbled by the cross. Well, I'm just saying it's a procedural thing because if you go for a doctorate, you have to come up with something new. So every doctorate that goes through Dallas Seminary has to come up with something new.

Well, I'm going to come up, and I need something. Oh, okay. This. It's just a forced procedural thing that causes us to deviate. You know, I think that's really how Dallas, I think, got off. I agree. It's just in time, all these doctrinal theses went left or right or whatever. They didn't stay on the Word because they had to come up with something new. And so I think that by process, I think, is a problem.

The second is coming out of the brethren church, which is most of these teachers we adhere to here at Holly Hills were brethren. A lot of it were brethren teaching. Coming out of the Brethren Church, the body, we strayed so far away from the teaching of what these guys taught.

And it's like, how did we get there? And I just think, you know, maybe it got more worldly that you had to kind of tie a little bit of how this applies to the world, so we're going to get kind of more worldly over here. And I try in my mind to think how we got there. And I know a lot of the Brethren churches, and they're good, but they're not growing like they should. And I just wonder, being there, I have to look in the mirror and say, how did we get there? Because when I came here, it was like, wow, that makes sense. Then it's like, well, that's a brethren teacher. That's a brethren teacher. How did this happen? And I really don't know.

I think it's just one of those things where, I think it was the beginning in Timothy, where it was, it was like starting off here and you get drawn off. I think it was 1 Timothy 1, maybe, I think, where he's telling about that. I have to go back, just my thoughts. It's where you just start off a little bit. If you start off a little bit, the road goes off. So I think that's where the Brethren were.

They just started off a little bit and now they're not really adhering to all the teaching that the old Brethren taught. I think what explains that is that you may start off with pure Biblical doctrine though, you know, I mean, of course though none of us You know the whole Word of God, you know perfectly in our minds, but But there's always a way from the Word of God, which is the flesh That's all it is and and you know and what any you know Anything that can deviate us from the Word of God is what the flesh will gravitate towards, right? Mm-hmm. And so, you know like in the Brethren Church as an example or like we're talking about Dallas and There's always going to be this drift factor if you don't maintain it on the Word of God alone.

When you talk about the thesis thing, it's Acts 17.21 with the Athenians.

You used to spend your time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. Yeah. That's exactly it. Always going to be something new. Yeah. And that's just the fleshly tendency. Yeah. And it seemed like, I know with me, when I was first saved, the Lord led me where I needed to go. Yeah. But after a while it felt like I think everybody goes through the euphoria of salvation, the peak, and then the slow ride down, and then you suddenly find out and then you start the spiritual growth, if you have the right truth.

There's that amnesia that has to be understood because you're already positioned, and that'll never change. Right, but you'll stay in the nursery forever. I think that's the key. The thing about no growth, if you don't have the truth, you stay in the nursery forever, which is fine. You're saved, but you don't have the spiritual growth.

I think it is, and I don't know if you remember, in 1 Timothy 1 or 2, it was about if you start deviating. Paul gives a warning about this. Start off a little bit, and you'll end up way over here. There's something in the first, but also in James, where the progression from sin, it starts here, lust, and then the eye, and then this, and this, and that. It starts just an offshoot, and then that takes you away.

So the key is to stay focused on God's Word. That's our fight. is to stay true to His Word. And again, it all revolves around our knowledge. What is eternal life? To know Him. That's the key. To know Him and His Word. So again, if you stay there, the deviation doesn't happen.

So it's interesting because, and we talk about this a lot, how much time do you spend, and I know when I say this it's going to sound legal, how much time do you spend actually reading God's Word? If we recognize that God's word is food, spiritual food, I mean, how many times a day do you eat? You know, two or three times. And you're snacking all the time. If the Word of God is not part of how you live your life, then you're not getting spiritually fed, and you become more susceptible to somebody who's pretty slick in the way they teach. So God gave us His Word so we could feed off of it. Well, again, I think the... We don't want to be fat on God's Word, but that's all I was going to say when you were saying that, which I'm getting fat on the food. I think a lot of people, myself included, get lazy. We'll listen to people, but we don't actually get into the word. It's easier to just turn on a sermon. Yeah, I mean to listen to something.

I always love to puff him up because he loves it. Basically, Mike told me that. Just read the Word. That's what I do every day. And it's just read it. Just read it. Don't study it like you're going to pull out the Greek and tenses. Just read it. And that really helped. That helped more than anything else, than any other study guide or any other sermons or anything else. That's probably the best thing, is just read the Word. Every day, read the Word. I would add to that, too.

At some point, you have to say to yourself, why am I doing this? Because it's tedious, maybe, sometimes. But you begin to find out that the reading of God's Word, with the Spirit working, begins to reveal the person of Christ to you through those words. And there's a love affair that goes on between you and Him, and so you want to be there. You want to spend time with Him. Well, in a crazy world, peace and rest comes through him. And the more you know him, there's more peace.

And I start every day reading. Before I hear anything, you know, if Ingrid's listening to Fox or something in the kitchen or whatever, I don't want any distraction before I start God's Word. Every day. Because if I start listening to something, my mind is already off in left field. I'm starting to think half. And so I start every day before anything happens, before any news, before anything. Just get into God's Word. You can tell by a person by the news he listens to. If they listen to MSNBC. I'm not getting into that. It's all trash. It's all earthly. So, anyway, yes, before we deviate into that rune, let's get into question five.

How would you explain the difference of the phrases, fight the good fight of faith and take hold of eternal life? So, fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you were made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So, how do you kind of explain the differences?

It's really, I think, when you get into the tenses of this. You were asking why you're spending time with the faith, the doctrine of what is in the scripture. I think the why is to take hold of eternal life. That's why you spend that time, because you're investing in something that is eternal, not temporal. And it's more than that, but that gives a why perspective that's eternal, not finite. Yeah. Well, that fits with the definition of eternal life. What is eternal life? What is eternal life? John 17. Well, and I think also it's heavenly rather than earthly. Yeah, yeah. Yes.

And really, it's kind of all touched on it, but part of it is in the Greek and the tense. The fight, the verb is in the present tense imperative mode, commanding continuous action. So that's continually you're fighting the good fight of faith. So it's a continuous action, more earthly based, that it's why we're here, we're to defend and fight the good fight of faith. But the take hold verb is in the aorist imperative, referring to a single rather than a process. So take hold. Take hold of the eternal life.

What is it? John 17. It is to know Him. That's eternal life. Take hold of that. Fight the good fight. That's a continuous process. But take hold of the eternal life. So again, it's kind of more in the tenses that it gets, the difference between these two. The fight is a continuous action. We're to continually stand firm in God's word, but the result or what you hold on to is the eternal life, what we have in Him. Also, the Greek word for take hold of, and I'm not going to butcher that word because Tim and Miles are here, which from Zodiatis means metaphorically to lay hold of in order to obtain and possess. So you want to obtain and possess this eternal life. Hold on to it. Possess it. It's yours. Possess it. So again, that's what you hold tight. Fight the good fight.

You're continually doing that, but in the process, you take hold of the faith, or take hold of eternal life. So again, it's just kind of the differences between the two tenses in here. Well, it's active, too. Yeah, which means? You keep doing it. You do it. And how do you do that? That was my follow-up. How do you take hold or lay hold of? Oh, that's a great question. How do you do that? Do you just sing a song?

We get a little badge. Put your badge on for the day. My immediate answer is, what is the first part of this? Faith. So, how do you take hold of eternal life? Believe what he said. Fight the good fight of faith. The faith is, you have eternal life. You have a life in Christ. Your very life is Christ. Take hold of that. The fight is of faith. Faith is what? Believing what's true of you. Believing what He told you. That's how you grab a hold of what eternal life is, I think.

I would maybe say that, answer Philippians 3.10, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, be conformed unto His death, that by any means I may apprehend. He apprehended me.

I want to know Him. And I think that that's, you can sit down intellectually, read those verses, and think, oh, well, I think God is doing this, or I think He's doing that. But I think the Spirit of God puts it in your heart one day, Wait a minute, this is really about knowing the Lord Jesus. Not knowing about Him, just knowing Him. And that's what He wants. Okay, I'm in. How do you take hold of that? You don't cause that to happen. You're responding to Him making that so important to you that you want it. You're in. And desire it.

Mike, you read Philippians 3.10.

Read 3.12 for us. What's that?

Philippians 3.12. 3.12.

Yeah. You can read it. Press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. There you go. Yeah. So, I mean, when you start to realize that The God of the universe has come and taken hold of you. He wants you. And He wants you to know Him.

And you're, like Donna was saying, we're talking on a spiritual level now, not an earthly level. And your faith is this thing that says, okay, I know that. I believe it. And like Mary said to the angel, let it be done to me. I'm in. You know, again, I think it's... They fit very well together.

Faith, the good fight of faith, what does that produce? What does that produce? That produces me holding on to eternal life, and understanding that, and believing it, trusting it, resting it. I think intimacy is the fellowship of his sufferings. It's all of that. It's to know him. That's eternal life. Are you really taking hold today? You know what I mean? You could turn this into a legalistic perspective. Looking at the way that it's written.

Yeah, and actually, you know, now when Paul exhorts Timothy to lay hold of eternal life, he does not imply that he does not possess it. Timothy was saved and possessed. Eternal life is a gift of God. What Paul is desirous of is that Timothy experience more of what the eternal life is in his life. So Paul wasn't judging him, it's just take hold of this. Well, you know, it's interesting when you look at the fact that take hold is an imperative heiress. It's a one-time deal.

I don't wake up every morning and say, oh, I got to take hold. No, that's already done. It's like I'm already saved. And so I don't have to keep repeating that. I mean, I don't know God unless he reveals himself to me, but he's telling me this is what I want to do.

You know, that's interesting, now that you think about it. It's Aristotelian and it's one time, but it's like every day you have to... It's a fact. It's a fact that you have to realize. But again, I think this is the beauty of Paul's direction to him is fight the good fight of faith. The result will be you take hold of this eternal life. So, it's like if you trust in his word, you trust in the eternal life. And that word eventually becomes a person. Yeah, well, yeah. That's what the Lord Jesus is. He's the Word of God.

So again, what I was saying, what is eternal life? And we've referred to this, but it's John 17, 3. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So, to know God, that is eternal life. That is eternal life. You know, we think of other stuff, and it's like, what is eternal life? Well, no, it's to know God, and Jesus, whom he sent, that's eternal life.

Yeah. Well, and I was thinking on these verses, too, that it's, to fight the good fight, it's dependence that you have on the Lord. The more dependent you are on Him, It's an easier fight, too. The good fight is a lot easier the more you trust in him. You've got a witch came first, the chicken or the egg. Faith or the good fight. I mean, the more you trust in In His Word, you become stronger. Eternal life is now a part of you. You know that. You know that you are. You have eternal life. You know Him. And what it says is, know God and Jesus Christ who sent Him. That's eternal life. That's what you're holding fast to.

What about the power of the resurrection? What about that? What about it? Is that part of it too? Well, it's all faith. It's faith in God's word. And yeah, the resurrection power is believing in what transpired at the cross. It's a possession though. Yeah. Yeah, good point. That's possession of it. That's the power of that life.

In this passage, Paul is telling Timothy to be continuously fighting the faith battle and to take hold, be constantly reminded of what is eternal life, which is knowing the true God and Jesus Christ. Also notice that eternal life is not a prize at the end, but it is something to be possessed and enjoyed now. which is a key. It is not the result of the contest, but the substance of the contest. So, again, it's to possess it now. Right now, you possess it. You know you have eternal life. Possess that. And that's by faith. So again, it all fits together. There's great wisdom by Paul in this. We'll move on to six.

How does the word confession really help us in understanding God's word? So it's fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. So what does the word confession really help us to understand God's word? What does this mean?

Are we setting up a confessional in the back of Holly Hills here? A little green light when Mike or Miles or Roger are in the booth? No, it's when you go forward to receive the Lord. No. No. No. No. So what does it mean? You made the good confession. What does that mean? Well, verse 13 gives some context, right? Yeah. Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. So, what was the good confession? Yeah. What's the word confession mean? What does confession mean?

You say the same thing. Yeah. What's the thing that's said that's the same? You're just saying what God said. So the word confession or profession is homolegio, made of lego, to say, and homos, the same, hence to say the same thing as another. Thus, to agree with what someone else says.

Here it is used of Timothy's statement of his agreement with the doctrines of Christianity at the occasion of his baptism. This is in front of many witnesses. So this is, I think, referring to his baptism. So in the early church, the baptism of a person was a matter in which the church generally took an interest and a part. Christian life should be manifested to the world like a continuous baptism. So this is the confession. Confession is to agree to the same thing, what Paul has talked, what the Word says. You want to say the same thing, and he said that in front of many witnesses, maybe in reference to his baptism. He said this when he was baptized. So would that be like Romans 6?

I would say it's... I'd say it has to do more with the walk than it does with the positional doctrine. Yeah, I agree. In the context, I should look at the tenses on it, but I think it's more of the continuous, so it's not a one-time or more positional. This is more a walk, a continuous. Well, he made the good confession, so that's past tense, that's a one-time.

Yeah, when he was basically commissioned to go out, probably with Paul and all the people around him, when they commissioned him to go out and serve. Another example of that was last Sunday at the Lord's Table. What do you do when you take the Lord's Table? You show the Lord's death or you confess the Lord's death until it comes. So you're actually doing what this verse says. You're preaching, proclaiming the Lord's death.

And the word here would be the same, proclaiming your faith and who you have a hold of. And it isn't practiced, memorized, or a behavior a translation of behavior, it's the Spirit of God working through you. And again, I think this confession is just, you know, saying the same thing in your life and in your words.

And you did this in front of many witnesses. This is really saying, when you started, Timothy, remember, when you started, you confessed this. And you confessed this faith in Christ. So, again, you made the confession in the presence of many witnesses. So this is just Paul reminding him of what he said when he was basically commissioned to go out and to serve. I remind you, Timothy, this is what you said. This is what you professed in front of all these people. And this is how you live every day.

All right, anything else? I thought it was going to be a lot shorter. So we're done. We're going to have Mike come up, but we're done. We are done with this lesson. So Mike will start the lesson next week on lesson 35. He'll send that out to everybody. So let's close. Did you send out 35? I was at camp yesterday. Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you. We thank you again for the time. We can study your word and we thank you for just the guidance that Paul gives to Timothy and how much we can take from that.

And again, to fight the good fight of faith. You've given us all the armor to just stand firm in your word. and to just repel our flesh, number one, and just anything else that attacks. We have all the necessary equipment to stand firm and defend the faith. And the faith is just trusting in your word and what you say about us, what's true about you, what's true about us, what's true about our life and you. and just how that allows us to rest in this chaotic world that we have.

So, Father, we just thank you again for this time to open up your word, and again, we just thank you for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who just guides us in your word. And so, Father, we just pray for Mike as he gives the message in the next service, and just prepare our hearts to receive it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.