From His Heart

Larry Nobles: Today on From His Heart, discover if you are a good soldier of the cross, willing to suffer for the faith.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Second Timothy, two, verse three, suffer hardship with me, Timothy, Paul said, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We want to be a good soldiers in the army. We are soldiers as believers in the army. We want to be good soldiers and we want to be disciplined soldiers.

Larry Nobles: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and thank you for joining us today for the second message in his seven message series, Soldiers of the Cross. And as we'll be reminded today, there is a spiritual battle raging all around us, and there is a desperate need for disciplined soldiers to combat the enemy and to make a lasting impact on the world for Jesus. And the way to do that is to stand up for the truth, nourish ourselves with the word of God, and faithfully serve the Lord. Pastor Jeff's lesson today is entitled The Discipline of a Good Soldier from the series Soldiers of the Cross, and it's also our gift of thanks to you for your support of From His Heart this month of any amount.

I'll tell you more later, or you can go to fromhishart.org for details. Now though, turn in your Bible to second Timothy chapter four as Pastor Jeff begins to explain that a disciplined soldier is a good soldier for the Lord.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We're in a series called Soldiers of the Cross. The Bible uses that motif that we are soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The moment that we get saved, we are saved and put in the Lord's army. Second Timothy, two, verse three, suffer hardship with me, Timothy, Paul said, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We want to be good soldiers in the army. We are soldiers as believers in the army. We want to be good soldiers and we want to be disciplined soldiers. The discipline of a good soldier. First Timothy chapter four, I'll begin reading in verse one.

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 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of believers.

Prescribe, command, and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity. Show yourself an example of those who believe. I want us to look at three questions and answer three questions with three discoveries from the text I just read. I want us to look at the question, what's going on? And then the second question, what is the need for today? And the third question, what difference does it make? What's going on? What is the need and what difference does it make? First question, we are going to answer from this passage.

What is going on? There is a spiritual battle raging all around us. That is the first discovery. A spiritual battle is raging all around us. Now Paul in Ephesians chapter six, the famous passage about the armor of God, picking up again on the soldier motif, he says this, 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. We're in a battle and it's a spiritual battle. Look at verse one again of first Timothy four, but the spirit explicitly says that the spirit is clearly saying it is out in the open.

This isn't a secret. This is being broadcast. He explicitly says that in later times, the times between the Lord's coming from his first coming to the second coming, you know the Bible calls that the last days. In later times, some will fall away from the faith. Some will We have that word apostatize cuz to fall away is the Greek word where we get the word apostatize. Some will fall away from the faith paying attention and adhering and listening to and latching onto deceitful spirits, demon spirits, and doctrines of demons, teachings of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.

Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be carefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. This is a spiritual battle. And Jesus said of the devil, he is a liar and the father of lies. Whenever he speaks, he speaks a lie because that is his nature, a liar and the father of lies. Now the devil is the master liar. And as a master liar, he knows that the best lies to get you to believe a lie, he has to make it sound like the truth. See, we don't believe a lie that sounds like a lie.

That's just so far out there that it's just like, well that's a lie. He makes the lie sound so good and sound so much like the truth. See, the devil attacks with subtle lies and deception. Now subtle lies can turn into brazen bold-faced lies, but they come out right out of the shoot as subtle lies. Now the beast, Genesis three, one, now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord had made. He's sly, he 's cunning, he's crafty. He's not going to come at you with something that's just so out there that you say, well that's got to be a lie.

He's just going to come very subtly. Do you remember when I told you about the rule in aviation? It's the one in 60 rule. The one in 60 rule in aviation says for every one degree you're off on your flight plan, as you travel 60 miles, every 60 miles one degree off, you'll be a mile from your desired destination. The one in 60 rule. That means if you go from LaGuardia Airport to Los Angeles, LAX, and you're just one degree off your flight plan. When you get to Los Angeles, you're 47 miles off course crashing in the Pacific Ocean.

That's just one degree. That's how the devil works. He's a subtle liar and he has deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons that are being pumped out into our world. Well, how does he do that? I mean, do we have some uh demon around here that say, hey, you can go to the demon church and a demon comes and speaks? No. The devil uses people as his messengers to corrupt others. How does he share doctrines of demons? Verse two, by means of the hypocrisy of liars. People who are seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, their conscience is so totally seared and destroyed that they don't know the difference between good and evil.

The easy to read version puts it this way. Those teachings come through people who tell lies and trick others. These evil people cannot see what is right and what is wrong. It's like their conscience has been destroyed with a hot iron. He uses people. God uses people. How does God get his message across? Through his messengers, through his servants, through his soldiers. How does the devil get his doctrines of demons across? Through his messengers, through his servants, through his soldiers. Now our struggle is not against people. People are the mission field, but the devil uses people to corrupt other people.

Evil men and impostors, the scripture says in second Timothy, but evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And we do have lots of people who have a lot of learning behind their name, lots of degrees that follow their name, but they are teaching doctrines of demons and they're leading people astray. That's how the devil works. Now Paul on his first missionary journey with Barnabas, he encapsulates in one verse what the devil is up to and how the devil works. So Paul and Barnabas go to the island of Cyprus and they're witnessing on their missionary journey and they run into this guy who is a muckety-muck.

His name was Sergius Paulus. And there was a a man attached to Sergius Paulus who was a a Jewish false prophet. His name was Bar Jesus. He also went by a name Elymas. And as Paul and Barnabas were witnessing to Sergius Paulus, Elymas was telling Sergius Paulus, don't believe what they're saying. They're telling you lies, blah blah blah. And this is what Paul said to Elymas. He said, but Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon Elymas and said, you, who are full of all deceit and fraud, you, son of the devil, you, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

That's what the devil does. He uses people as his messengers, as his soldiers, as his pawns to do what? To make crooked the straight ways of the Lord. And he always does it through a lie, through deception. We have people on the radio, people on television, and they're emissaries from hell. Now they don't tell you that. They stand up and they open the Bible and they say, thus says the Lord, but they're not speaking for the Lord and they're not speaking from the Lord. They're giving doctrines of demons because their message doesn't line up with the scripture.

And what is the devil doing? How does he make crooked the straight paths of the Lord? What what is his kind of first step on that one degree off the flight plan? What does he want to get you to do? The devil wants you and me to think negatively about God. And see, in this passage in first Timothy four, he talks about those who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods. They may come across like, you know, God's standard is here, but our standard is even higher than God's. And we don't involve ourselves in marriage at all because we're just going to be chaste.

And we don't eat certain things because we we just think those, you know, this puts us at a higher standard. And they can come across and you can look at some of those folks and they can seem like, man, they're really with it. They're really man, they're all in. But what are they doing? They're deceiving you. They're tricking you. And they're making God out to be a negative God cuz it says that God has created these things to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. God wants us to get married.

Now for some people, his plan is to not be married, but that's not for very many. For most of us, God wants us to be married. He wants us to have children, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And he wants us to enjoy the things that he has made. They're sanctified, he says, by means of the word and of God and prayer, and they're created to be enjoyed. Now the devil in his very first conversation with a human being, very familiar with it, Genesis chapter three, such a key key chapter. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Genesis chapter three, verse one, indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?

First thing out of his mouth. He takes the word of God, he twists the word of God, he adds a question mark to the word of God. Now that hit Eve cold. See, he's sly, he's crafty, so he knows how to twist things. And you say, well I I guess God said that. No, he didn't say that. This is what God said, Genesis two, 16. This is what God said to Adam. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely. You see the difference? See, the devil says, Eve, is it true that God made all these trees and then says uh uh uh uh, you can't eat from every tree?

That's not what he did. God made all these trees and said to Adam, Adam, from any tree of the hundreds of trees that he made, from any tree you may freely eat. But there is one tree, the tree in the midst of the garden, you shall not eat from it lest you die. It's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So it 's not that God says, uh you see all this, you can't have it. It's God says, you see all this, have at it. Enjoy yourself. Just don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The devil works overtime to make you, to make me, to try and get us to think negatively about God, to think God is some kind of cosmic killjoy, that he sits upon a throne of condemnation. He's got a uh Billy Club in one hand and a bag of thunderbolts in another hand, and the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he might find somebody having fun and break it up, to hurl a thunderbolt down upon you cuz God is mean and God is cruel and God is a God you can't trust.

That's how the devil works, always making crooked the straight paths of the Lord. Hey, we're in a battle for the souls of men and women and boys and girls. It is a serious serious battle. And it's a battle for truth, truth against the lies of the enemy, and they are coming at one another. Why is truth so important? Because Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The truth shall set you free. If you lose the truth, you lose everything. So there's a spiritual battle that's raging all around us.

That's what is going on today. Second question, considering what is going on today, what is the need today? What do we need to combat the battle that is raging? Discovery number two, there is a desperate need for disciplined soldiers, for disciplined soldiers. Now he tells Timothy, now remember, Timothy is not like Paul. He's not so naturally bold as Paul is. He has to tell Timothy, listen Timothy, God hasn't given you a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Timothy is more timid just by nature than Paul is. And he says in verse six, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you need to tell them about these things that there are doctrines of demons.

He says in pointing out these things to their brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. A good diakonos. We get deacon from that word servant. You know, when when you hear at funerals, well done my good and faithful servant. It's not what it says. It's well done my good and faithful slave. But the Bible likens us to a slave and it likens us to a servant and it likens us to a soldier. Those are all different motifs that the Bible uses. But he tells Timothy, hey, you're going to you're going to serve the Lord.

You'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit for old women. You say, what why is he going after the old women? He's just talking about old wives' tales. They had their old wives' tales just like we do today, and most of those were gnostic uh stories or Jewish myths and fables that had gotten in there. He says, don't even waste your time on those. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise, the promise of God for the present life and also for the life to come.

It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. Take that to the bank. You can count on that. Hey, we need in this battle that's raging, we need disciplined soldiers, those who are trained and those who are fit and those who are ready to enter into the warfare and to be ready in the toughest part of the battle. See, this isn't a minor battle. This is a major battle and the stakes couldn't be higher cuz the souls of people, the eternal souls of people weigh in the balance. I was thinking about a major battle versus a minor battle in the book of Joshua.

Remember, they come right out of the shoot. When they cross the Jordan River, what do they do? They're going to go fight Jericho. Jericho, that great walled city. Jericho, the place is like there's no way anybody's getting in here. But God brought about a great victory. They knew they can't defeat Jericho. They need God to defeat Jericho, but then the next battle is AI. They spy out AI and they say, AI. AI is the JV. AI is nothing. We only need to send two or 3,000 people to AI. We'll wipe them out. They're small. They got beat at AI because they took things under the ban at Jericho and God wasn't going to bless them.

But here's the thing. This battle is Jericho. It's not AI. This battle is huge and so we need disciplined soldiers. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Now all of us know about physical discipline and we know that's hard. Spiritual discipline is hard too. Spiritual discipline is hard work to spend time growing in your faith. It doesn't just happen by osmosis. It doesn't just happen because once or twice a week you just kind of open the Bible for a lucky dip and so you need to be disciplined in how you study, just like you would be disciplined with diet and exercise, bodily discipline.

Are you taking time? We have the New Testament challenge for the first 90 days. Are you Are you participating in that to read through the New Testament in 90 days? I hope so. Are you taking time to uh to nourish yourself on the word of God? It It's It's our bread, it's our milk, it's our meat, and we have to nourish ourselves and grow ourselves up in the word and grow ourselves in prayer. It's hard work. I had a friend of mine, my discipleship leader when I was in college, and he would pray for about 100 people every day.

He would take about an hour every day to pray through his prayer list. And I asked him one time, I said, Everett, do you ever feel like you don't want to do that? Like you just don't feel like praying? He said, yes. I said, what do you do then? He said, I pray more. He was just disciplining himself for the purpose of godliness. Hey, it's hard work. Let me tell you something that I have found that's a a help. You can listen to things now. There there are sermons online. You can listen to almost anybody you want for free.

And so when you're doing chores, when you're on the treadmill, when you're on the elliptical, when you're working out, when you're walking in the neighborhood, you can listen to sermons. You can listen to things that will help you grow. Take advantage of those times to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. It's hard work and secondly, it's heart work.

Larry Nobles: How is your heart today? Is it spiritually fit to receive and absorb and manifest the truths of God, putting them into action for kingdom's sake? You're listening to part one of the lesson called The Discipline of a Good Soldier from Pastor Jeff's seven lesson series, Soldiers of the Cross, emphasizing the suffering that followers of Christ should be willing to take and frankly expect in this life. The apostle Paul told Timothy, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. That's in second Timothy chapter two, verse three. Now suffering comes in many forms. There's physical suffering, that'd be an example, but also being ostracized is another.

Being excluded, being berated, laughed at, ignored, and denied all are some ways that Christians are suffering. Are you ready for that battle for Christ? Pastor Jeff Schreve's series will help you. It's also one of our gifts of thanks to you for your support from His Heart this month of any amount. And with that gift we'll not only send you the series, but also the companion booklet The Lord's Army. To get the series and the booklet call 866-40 Bible, 866-40 Bible, or go online to fromhishart.org and request the seven lesson series Soldiers of the Cross and the booklet The Lord's Army.

Again call 866-40 Bible or go to fromhishart.org and thank you for praying for and joining with us in this kingdom effort. Thank you for being with us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles inviting you to return same time, same station as we present part two of Pastor Jeff's inspiring and practical lesson called The Discipline of a Good Soldier. That's on Thursday when we'll again open God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His heart.

Guest (Male): From His Heart is the listener supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more. Go to fromhishart.org.