Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're in the final message concerning the battles of the Bible. Stay tuned. Well, as you look into the Word of God, you'll find a lot of battles. They're battled with the Amalekites, the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Midianites, Jericho, Ai, the Moabites, the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the list goes on over and over again. You'll find through the Old Testament a lot of battles. Well, we read in 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 11, it says, now all these things happened unto them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come." Well, here we are. We've got these things in the Bible, so we can learn how to handle our battles in the spiritual sense in this day in which we're living. In this series, we've seen Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. We saw he was commissioned by God to do that. And as pastors and parents, we're commissioned to be leaders. And all of us, all of us as Christians are commissioned to get out there and fight the good fight. Well, in order to do that, we need to be prepared. And we saw with Joshua, when he fought the battle of Jericho, he checked with the Lord. He was very prepared. He meditated in the word of God. made sure he's doing it right. Well, the second battle was a battle at Ai and he didn't bother checking with the Lord. He just went out on his own and lost the battle. Then when he did it the way he did it with Jericho and got directions from the Lord, they had a victory. There's a lesson for us written for our admonition. Then we saw the battle with Gideon. Gideon had some circumstances in his life that were not very good. He had people coming in, the enemies, and they were just, well, they're like the terrorists of today. They were coming in and destroying Israel. And everything in their path, well, God commissioned a young man. He just came kind of out of the farmyard here. Gideon was nobody special. And none of us are anybody special for that matter. But he said, Gideon, you mighty man of valor, I want to use you. And valor? He didn't look like he had any valor. He was hiding behind a wine press trying to get some crop so that the terrorists of his day didn't come and take it all. Well, he was commissioned by God. He was a man of valor. The word's been translated substance, and it has been translated strength. And Gideon had some spiritual substance, and he had some spiritual strength. It's very obvious. So he faced the challenge, and he went to battle and won the war. Now, we're going to look at four scriptures here, and I'll just read them, and then we'll go back and comment on them. 1 Timothy 1, verse 18 begins, This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrecked. The second verse we'll look at is 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse number 12 and he said here to Timothy fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. And then in 2 Timothy 4, verse number 6, Paul said, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing." And finally, 2 Corinthians 10, chapter 10, verse 3, we read, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Well, We've said many times in this broadcast that if you're going to study the Scriptures, we need to study them in three areas. First of all, observation. Second, interpretation, and then application. We just need to observe what is there, interpret it in the light of its context, and then Most important make an application these things are written for our admonition now the first scripture we looked at first Timothy chapter 1 verse 18 I want to read it again. It says this charge I commit unto the son Timothy now we're going to take the interpretation of this verse and obviously it is Paul writing to the pastor his name is Timothy and he was the pastor of the church at Ephesus. And he says to Timothy that you need to war a good warfare, war a good warfare. Now, we need to understand that this scripture is, the context of this scripture is a local church situation. And we need to understand also the purpose of the local church. And if you want to understand the purpose of the local church and how to do God's purpose for the local church, just read 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. It's there. It's very, very plain. Well, the idea for the church, the purpose here, it's a training ground for the warfare. A training ground. Now, we've changed that. We've said, no, let's make it a soul-winning station. Now, it's very important to win people to the Lord, but that's not the purpose of the church. That's the purpose of Christians. Every single Christian should be out there witnessing for the Lord and trying to lead people to the Lord. That's a responsibility of Christians. The purpose of the church is not to bring in a whole bunch of unsaved people so we can win them. The purpose of the Christian is to go out and win those people to the Lord. The purpose of the church is to take those new Christians and train them for the battlefield. Well, we got away from that, and Spurgeon realized that years ago. He wrote an article, in fact, preached a message entitled, Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats. And in that message, he says, the devil has seldom done a more clever thing then hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for people with a view of winning them. The church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders, and now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses." Wow, I wonder what Spurgeon would say about what we're doing in that respect today. Well, 1 Timothy 1.18, he said to Timothy, Paul still talking to Timothy, he said, This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that thou mightest a good warfare and in verse 19 he went on to say holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck now he says holding on to the faith what are we talking about here we're talking about the doctrine If you go down through the book of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and even Titus, and figure out where you see the word doctrine, you see it over and over again. And again, the purpose of the local church is to teach the doctrine to strengthen Christians for the battle. And so, in 1 Timothy 1 and 3, charge them that they teach no other doctrine. 1 Timothy 1 10 there be anything different than other than sound doctrine he said take care of that and then in 1 Timothy 4 6 you need to be nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine 1 Timothy 4 13 till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine 1 Timothy 4 and 16 take heed unto thyself and under the doctrine continue in them 1 Timothy 5.14, let the elders or pastors that rule well, that be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. 1 Timothy 6.1 says that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. 1 Timothy 6.3, the doctrine, which is according to godliness. Then in 2 Timothy 3.10, but thou has fully known my doctrine. 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. 2 Timothy 4.12, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4.3, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, and we're living there today. Let's just not worry about the doctrine. Well, you get rid of the doctrine, you get rid of the strength, You send Christians out on the battlefield, they have no strength, what do you think's going to happen to them? Exactly what's happening today. We can sum it up in one word, apostasy. Well, in 1 Timothy 1.18, he says, war a good warfare. In 1 Timothy 6.12, he says, fight the good fight. Fight the good fight. Fight the good fight of faith. of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hath professed a good profession before many witnesses." So he says, lay hold, lay hold on eternal life. Now what's he mean here? Well, he means get a grip on the things that are eternal, and don't be so concerned about the temporal. You know, when it comes to our churches, people are eternal. Buildings are temporal. Sometimes, you know, I've traveled around a lot, and sometimes you come to pastors, you'll come see my buildings. No, I want to see your people. The thing that is important is the people. Lay hold on the things that are eternal, he says to the pastor. And, you know, we're looking at leadership, and we're looking at leadership in the home. And the fathers, bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Lay hold, get a grip on the things that are eternal. Your children, your family, they're eternal. That house you think that's so important? It's going to burn up. It'll be gone. people live on forever and forever. And so he says, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, you're called. Now in Ephesians 4 10 tells us that we're all called, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling, the words translated vocation, it's been translated calling 10 times, that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called fight the good fight of faith that's what we're called to do well in second corinthians 10 3 we read for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh. So we have the Christian walk and we have the Christian war. How do we fight this war? Well, verse 4 says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, fortifications, pull them down. How are we going to do that? Well, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, here's the key, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You got to think about something before you do it. Someone has well said you may not be able to keep a bird from landing in your hair, but you can keep them from building a nest there. And we may have some wrong thoughts that come into our minds from day to day as we live in this wicked world, but we can keep those thoughts from building a nest in there. And so how do we do that? All right, we'll conclude this with this portion of Scripture, Romans chapter 6. You really ought to turn there with me if you can. Romans chapter 6, here it is. Knowing this, that our old man of the old nature, we're all stuck with that, is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin now we have two natures the old nature can't do anything but sin the new nature it cannot send whichever nature we are going to feed that is the nature that's going to grow so he says now if we be dead with christ we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death has no more dominion over him now he focuses on us and says for in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto god likewise reckon ye yourselves also to be dead indeed under sin but alive unto god through jesus christ our lord now here's the key let not sin verse 12 let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof now we're either going to let it happen or we're not it's simply a choice Second, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What the Lord loves to hear is when we pray is us simply praying scriptures back to Him. You can't go wrong doing that. Well, all right, we're going to do this. We're going to look at verse number 12. And I say, all right, Lord, today, today, I will not let sin reign in my mortal body. To reign is to have the predominant control. that I should obey it in the less thereof. And so today, Lord, I am not going to yield my members as instruments of unrighteousness. What are my members? Well, my hands, my feet, my eyes, my mouth, my ears, my tongue. I'm not going to yield my members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but I'm going to yield myself unto God. Yield yourselves. What is yourself? Your mind, your will, and your emotions. All right, Lord, I'll give you my mind today. I will give you my will, and I will give you my emotions." If God is in charge of those three things, you're going to have a good day in the Lord. But he says, let not sin reign. You've got to make these decisions. And so, I will not yield my members as instruments of unrighteousness, but I will yield myself unto you i will give you my hands my feet i'll give you my members my eyes my ears i give you the members you use them today but more than that you get to the self-life that yield myself my mind my will and my emotions to you today and my members as instruments of righteousness. So I will use my eyes for righteous things. I will use my ears for righteous things today. I'll use my tongue, I'll use my feet, I'll use my members as instruments of righteousness, but I need God to help me do that. I can't do that in the power of the flesh. Now, once that is a reality in our life, you can say in verse number 14, today, sin shall not have dominion over me. Why? Because God's in control. And so as we have looked in this series here, we've seen Joshua. He was commissioned for the battle. He was commissioned in the area of leadership. We need to be as leaders, as pastors, as parents, we need to know that we're commissioned by God. But Joshua was also prepared, and we need to make sure we're prepared. Gideon, the same situation, some rough circumstances. He was commissioned as we are today as pastors and parents in the area of leadership, but we need to get prepared, we need to get direction from the Lord, and then the challenge is there. We just simply need to go out and fight a good warfare. If you want to make that a reality and win the battle, make Romans chapter six a part of your life.