From His Heart

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Today on, From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll learn how to fight the world, the flesh, and the devil all the way to the finish line.

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Here's the thing that you need to remind yourself of. You cannot manage the flesh. The flesh will not be managed. If you get news that you have cancer, guess what? You don't manage cancer. You get it out of your body. Why? Because if you leave it in there and try and cut a deal with cancer, the cancer will take over and kill you.

So you have to have chemotherapy to try and break it down and shrink it, and then you have to have surgery to eradicate it from your body. The flesh is like that. Don't make friends with the flesh. He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

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Here is the truth and nothing but the truth. When it comes to the Christian life, it's a guaranteed fight to the finish. And right now, you might be doing really well in the fight. You see the finish line up ahead, and you think, well, I'm just gonna coast into the finish line because I've done a pretty good job. But that is not God's will for your life. You can't do that; the moment you start thinking, hey, I've got it made, I don't have to worry about anything anymore, your adversary, the devil, is going to come after you. You must fight all the way to the finish.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today, where he answers the question, are you fighting the good fight? The message is part two of the lesson called A Fight to the Finish, the last lesson in Pastor Jeff's new six-message series that we've been in all this month called This is War: Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

As we've mentioned before, this series is our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount from His Heart this month. Right now, open your Bible to the book of First Timothy. Here now is Pastor Jeff explaining what to expect in your fight to the finish.

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Hey, here's the question for today. Are you fighting the good fight? Paul goes on to say to Timothy in chapter 6, verse 12, "Fight the good fight of faith." So how do you win the race? How do you win in this fight that we have with the world, the flesh, and the devil? Three keys.

Key number one: The good fight is a lifelong battle. "Fight the good fight," he tells him. And the good fight lasts for the rest of your life. It lasts until you take your last breath. Now notice some things about this lifelong battle. The command to fight is urgent and non-negotiable. When Paul says, "This command I entrust to you, Timothy," or as some versions say, "This charge I give to you, Timothy," this is not a negotiable thing, and this is urgent. See that from the time that you get saved, you're in the Lord's army. And so, as a soldier, going AWOL (absent without leave) is really not an option. You need to fight the good fight of faith. So it's an urgent command. It's a non-negotiable command.

And listen, as you fight the good fight of faith, just know the arena is tough, but fight the good fight all the way until the clock reads 000. Because listen, the cost is worth it. In 1 Peter 5:10, Peter says, "As we do battle with the devil, and after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you." As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Finally, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord." So the good fight is a lifelong battle.

Second key: The good fight requires your effort and attention. So what does he say? "This command I entrust to you, Timothy," verse 18. "My son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience." Keeping faith and a good conscience. How do we fight this good fight? We do it by keeping faith and a good conscience. We do it by applying ourselves.

Now, the Apostle Paul, who in 1 Timothy chapter 1 said that he was the chief of sinners, said, "I'm a trophy of God's grace because I shouldn't even be an apostle. God should have written me off. I tried to destroy the church of God. I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. But I found mercy in the Lord." He said, "This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am chief. I'm the worst. And if Jesus can save me, the worst of sinners, he can save anybody." That was Paul's testimony.

Now, when Paul gets saved, he goes to work. He starts to really dig in. He starts to study the Scripture. He applies himself completely. That's why he, in my estimation, is the greatest Christian who ever lived. And this is what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: "For I am the least of the apostles who am not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God with me." He labored. That word "labored" is where we get our English word "copious." You know, if somebody's in school and they're taking copious notes, that means they're toiling, they're laboring over those notes. They're trying to get everything down. Well, Paul said, "I labored more than the rest. I studied, I applied myself, I prayed, I did those things."

God will not do what you can do, and you cannot do what he can do. You can't put your Bible under your pillow at night and all of a sudden learn a lot of things because osmosis—the words come into your mind. That doesn't work that way. How are you going to memorize Scripture? You have to take the time to do it. How are you going to learn things? You have to take the time to learn. And the Scripture commands us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So he says in verse 19 that when you fight this good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience. So keeping faith means you have faith, and you hold to the faith. You cling to the faith. You grow in the faith; you grow as a believer. And that's the command. The last thing Peter ever wrote was 2 Peter 3:18, where he says, "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

So how am I going to do that? How am I going to be a person of faith? You know, we hear a lot about kids, especially deconstructing their faith. Well, that's a formula for disaster—to deconstruct your faith. And don't ever get the idea, you know, when you come to Jesus, some people used to say this: "Well, to come to Jesus, it's all just a step in the dark. You check your brains at the door because we know the Bible is just a bunch of fairy tales." So you have to check your brains at the door and then just believe all these fairy tales. No, you don't. The Bible is true. It's rooted in the person of God. Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me."

And so you don't have to check your brains at the door. Listen, we don't know all the answers to all the questions, but we still hold to the truth. I was listening to a sermon the other day, and Adrian Rogers was talking about being a witness. He said, "You know, some people are afraid to be a witness. Well, what if somebody asks me a question and I don't know the answer to?" He said, "I can give you the answer. This is what you need to say: 'I don't know.' It's okay to say you don't know. Don't make something up to pretend like you know when you don't really know."

And so it's okay to say, "Well, I don't know." Now listen, when you become a Christian, you are born again. You become a spiritual infant. Just like when someone is born into this world, they come into this world as little infants. They're six, seven, eight-pounders. But you know, when a baby comes into the world, the baby can't do anything. You have to do everything for the baby. The baby can only drink milk. The Bible says that the writer of Hebrews said, "I want to tell you a lot about Jesus, but you're not able to receive it because you're still a baby. You're still on milk. I want to give you meat, but you can't take meat because you haven't developed yourself yet. And by this time in your Christian life, you ought to be teachers. But you need again for somebody to go through the ABCs of the Christian life."

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Life.

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And you've come to need milk and not solid food. Listen, all of us love a little kid. When they're little and they're so cute and then they get to be, you know, they grow up a little bit. They're two years old, they're three years old. They're learning how to talk. They're learning how to express themselves. It's cute. It's not so cute if they're doing that and they're 13, right? And some of you, let's just be honest, some of you have been Christians a long time, years. And you're still talking like that. And you're still on the bottle and you haven't grown. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

How do you grow in faith? Romans 10:17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You have to spend time in the book. That's how you grow. Because the Bible is our milk. It's our meat, it's our honey, it's our bread. It speaks to your soul. It fills you up. It helps you to grow strong.

I ran across an illustration about an Alaskan bull moose. You ever seen an Alaskan bull moose? Those things are huge. Well, here was something that was written in National Geographic. Pretty interesting. The males of the species battle for dominance during the fall breeding season, literally going head to head with antlers crunching together as they collide. Often the antlers, their only weapons, are broken. That ensures defeat. The heaviest moose with the largest and strongest antlers triumphs. Therefore, the battle fought in the fall is really won during the summer, when the moose eats continually. The one that consumes the best diet for growing antlers and gaining weight will be the heavyweight in the fight. Those that eat inadequately sport weaker antlers and less bulk, and they lose.

You got to eat. You got to, as Paul says to Timothy in chapter four, constantly nourish yourself on the words of the faith. There is no substitute for that. There is no shortcut there. We have to spend time in the book. So he says to him, keeping faith, hold it fast. It holds you, yes, but you hold to it and you grow in the faith.

And then he says, a good conscience. You must keep your heart clean. How do you have a good conscience? You confess your sins to the Lord. You make sure that things don't pile up in your heart when you are wrong with somebody else. When you do something that hurts somebody else's feelings, you apologize to them. You make it right. Jesus said, if you're going to present your offering and remember that your brother has something against you because you did something to your brother to hurt him in some way, said, leave your offering. Go and be reconciled to your brother. Fix the horizontal relationship, then come and present your offering.

You know, if we have broken relationships with people and it's our fault, then you got to repair that. Romans 12:18. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. As far as it depends on you. Sometimes it's not possible. Some people hate you just because they've chosen to hate you. Well, okay. I mean, you can't do anything with that. But if you've done something, you need to make it right with him first.

John, chapter one is a passage of scripture I go back to often. It says, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, guess what? We lie and do not practice the truth. You can't walk with God if you have darkness that you're holding onto. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.

So the Christian life is constantly bringing anything out of the shadows into the light and under the blood. And you don't let things foul and fester in the darkness, because God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. So if you say you're walking with God and yet you have this darkness there that you're not dealing with, you're a liar. The Bible says you lie and you don't practice the truth. So the Christian life is keeping faith and a good conscience. We make sure that our hearts are clean before the Lord. There's not some secret sin somewhere. We're bringing all those out into the open with Jesus.

And then key number three, the good fight comes with a great warning, a very sober warning. He says, this is what you do, Timothy. Fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme, keeping faith in a good conscience.

And Paul says, Timothy, some have rejected that. Some have thrown that aside. Some have said no to that. Some have said, no, I want to go my own way in the Christian life. Hymenaeus and Alexander exhibit A and B in the church there in Ephesus. Listen, you mark it down. If you go your own way, you will suffer shipwreck with regard to the faith.

Anybody that's ever been out on the lake or on the ocean knows that shipwreck is not a good word. You don't want to suffer shipwreck. Now, if you're on a little river and you can swim to the shore, that's not that big a deal. But if you're out in the ocean, that's a big deal. If you suffer shipwreck, it can mean death.

You know, the Jews. Interesting. I learned this in seminary. My professor said this. He said the Jews didn't like the ocean. You know, they called Galilee the Sea of Galilee, but the Sea of Galilee is not a sea; it's a lake. Lake Gennesaret, but they called it the Sea of Galilee. You don't find them on the Mediterranean Sea that much. Why? Well, the Philistines were on the coast in the Old Testament, and the Phoenicians were on the coast. They didn't want to go to the coast. Why didn't they want to go to the sea? Because what happens on the sea? You can die on the sea. You can get hit with a storm on the sea. It can be difficult on the sea.

That is why when the scripture says that God buries your sin in the deepest sea, that was great news to a Jew. Because they know, hey, we don't like the sea at all. And if God is burying it in the sea, nobody's going to dig that up, because we don't like to go on the sea. It really gives you insight into Jonah running away from the Lord, that he would go to Joppa and get in the sea on a ship headed to Tarshish. Because they didn't like the sea; they were afraid of the sea, by and large, as a people.

Shipwrecked, you reject the word of God, you reject faith and a good conscience, and you're shipwrecked with regard to the faith. The terrible thing is, hey, if you go your own way, hear what the Lord says. You're going to suffer shipwreck with regard to the faith; it's not going to go well for you. You don't want to experience shipwreck.

And secondly, if you go your own way, you're going to be devoured by the enemy. Because he says in verse 20, he names two guys, Hymenaeus and Alexander. These guys suffered shipwreck according to the faith. He said, I've handed them over to Satan. I've delivered them to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.

You know what Hymenaeus did? We know from 2nd Timothy, chapter 2, beginning in verse 16, the apostle Paul says, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Gangrene is a bad thing. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they have upset the faith of some.

He delivered those guys over to Satan so that they would be taught. That literally means to learn by suffering, taught not to blaspheme, not to put words in God's mouth, not to say things that revile God, not to do things that are a stench in the nostrils of God. Delivered over to Satan. You say that doesn't sound good. It's not good. It's not good.

What is Paul saying? He's saying he kicked them out of the church. You're not in the church anymore. You're not in the safe confines of the church anymore, where the Lord protects you. You're out. And what's outside? Peter says, be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

When I was in Africa on a mission trip, we went to the Mari Safari park on a weekend excursion. I was in Africa for two weeks, and we were in a really nice compound, and the compound had an electric fence around it. You felt pretty safe because you're in this compound with an electric fence. When we went out early in the morning to go on a safari, right outside the fence, there were two lions.

When Paul says, I've delivered you over to Satan, it's like saying, you're out of the compound. You're out there now. That's where the lions are. I've delivered him over to Satan that he may be taught not to blaspheme.

Now, does that mean that you lose your salvation? Well, you can't lose your salvation. But some of the people that didn't keep faith and a good conscience were never Christians. Hymenaeus is an enemy of the truth, probably never a Christian. But sometimes, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, we read about a guy, and Paul said, there is immorality among you, Corinthians, that is so gross, so terrible, so horrible, it's not even talked about; it's not even done in the Gentile world, that a man is committing fornication with his father's wife.

And he said, you, Corinthians, in the church, you've celebrated this. And he said, I, on my part, have handed him over to Satan so that his flesh would be destroyed, so that he could be saved on the Day of Judgment. Well, as they treated him like that and he was experiencing the consequences of his actions, that man came to repentance, and they welcomed him back into the church.

The Lord hands you over to Satan not to destroy your life, but to teach you not to blaspheme, not to live a life that is disobedient to the Lord that blasphemes and reviles his name. It's a sobering warning of what can happen. You go your own way. Listen, you can never go wrong going his way, but you can never go right going your own way.

We go his way. He sees. He knows. He wants what's best for us. He loves us. His ways are right concerning everything. So what do we do? We do what the psalmist said: do I lift my hands to your commandments, which I love? I surrender myself to your way, God, not my will, but yours be done.

Hey, it's a fight to the finish. Now, I know as I close out, I know it's tough. I know the Christian life is tough. And listen, when we talk about fighting the world, the flesh, and the devil, I think the greatest enemy of those three is the flesh, the internal enemy, that part of you that wants to do evil. I feel it, you feel it. We feel it. Paul felt it. Every Christian feels it.

And here's the thing that you need to remind yourself of. You cannot manage the flesh. You have to murder the flesh. You cannot manage it. You have to put it to death. Because if by the Spirit, Romans 8:12, if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the body, we will live. That's how you live the Christian life. You put to death the deeds of the body. You don't manage the flesh. The flesh will not be managed.

If you get news that you have cancer, guess what? You don't manage cancer. You get it out of your body. Why? Because if you leave it in there and try and cut a deal with cancer, the cancer will take over and kill you. So you have to have chemotherapy to try and break it down and shrink it, and then you have to have surgery to eradicate it from your body. The flesh is like that. Don't make friends with the flesh.

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If that describes you today, then you've likely made friends with the flesh. And that's why you need to come back to him today through one, genuine repentance. Two, confessing your sin. Three, in faith, resurrendering your life to walking by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Or maybe you know that right now, this very moment, you are not a child of God. You've never surrendered your heart to him. You can change that. You too can admit your need for a savior because you can't save yourself. And you can turn your heart and will over to the Lord, our loving and caring God.

So we hope that you'll go to fromisheart.org and click the Why Jesus link. There, Pastor Jeff has some answers to the questions that you probably have. Again, that's the Why Jesus link at fromisheart.org.

You've just heard part two of the last message in Pastor Jeff's new six-lesson series. This is Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. We believe this series can help you learn how to fight the good fight and allow you to better share Christ with the world as he gives you breath. It's a message you can share with those around you who may need encouragement and you as a model for them.

So many are battling temptation and fear and addiction and shame without ever realizing what's happening. You can be a part of their answer. From His Heart is able to be on the air each and every day through the faithful support of friends and family who listen to the daily program and want to help in this outreach.

We'd like to send you this series in the format of your choice when you make your gift today of any amount. Make that gift when you call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromishart.org.

Well, that's all for today. We trust you'll be able to join us again next time when Pastor Jeff will begin a series designed to help you shine for the Lord. Be with us then when we begin the series Shine and the first message, When to Say No. That's when we'll open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

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Every Scar.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out more at From His Heart.org.