Fighting the Noble War, Part 1

1 Timothy 1:18

     Now for this morning, let's open our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 1...1 Timothy chapter 1.  We're going to be looking at an introduction, really, to verses 18 to 20.  Chapter 1, as you know if you've been with us, introduces this great epistle.  And in this particular section, verses 18 to 20, in which Paul sums up the introduction to the whole epistle, there is reference made to warfare.  And Paul calls Timothy to fight a noble fight. 

     I want us to look at these verses and then before we get into them in specific, I want to talk a little bit this morning about this warfare itself.  Let's look to verse 18.  "This command I entrust unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which pointed to thee that thou by them mightest fight a noble warfare, holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away have made shipwreck concerning the faith: of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme."

     Now I want you to notice at the end of verse 18 just this statement, Paul calls Timothy to war a good warfare...to fight a noble fight.  The word "to war" that thou mightest war is the verb from the Greek verb strateuo which is the source of our word strategy, and it means to fight as a soldier.  And then to fight a noble, the word kalos means an excellent or noble warfare.  And the word "warfare," strateia means a campaign.  It is not a battle, it is not a skirmish, it is not a brief fight, it is a long term continual campaign.  So what Paul is saying to Timothy in writing this whole epistle is intended to gear him up to fight a noble warfare, to fight a noble or excellent campaign.  He is calling Timothy to the realization that he is in a spiritual battle.

     Now in verses 18, 19 and 20, he gives him three understandings necessary to fight well.  And I'm going to look at those three next time.  But for today, I want just to introduce the concept of this noble warfare because I believe it to be so very important in our time. 

     Not all wars are noble wars.  And not all wars are nobly fought.  But here is a noble warfare, a good and excellent warfare that is to be well fought.  Now what Paul has in mind is a cosmic warfare of massive spiritual proportions.  He's not talking about a physical war or really even an earthly war.  He's not talking even about a human war.  He's talking about war on the spiritual level.  And he is reminding Timothy that he needs to fight a noble war.  And his reminder to Timothy is indeed a reminder to us as well. 

     Now remember, Paul left Timothy in Ephesus.  He left him there to battle against the enemy.  The enemy had encroached upon the Ephesian church.  Error was being taught.  False leaders were in positions of prominence and power and authority.  Godliness was under attack.  And Timothy is to set those things right.  So he is right at the forefront of a part of this great spiritual warfare.  And what Paul says to him in these three verses is very instructive to all of us who at one place or another are engaged in the same battle, the same campaign.

     Now let me just say at the beginning that the warfare of which Paul speaks has at its highest level a tremendous conflict between God and Satan.  That is the primary level of the warfare.  Everything else in a sense comes under that.  It is a war of the Lord God Jehovah and His truth against Satan and his lies.  It is a war between God and His will and Satan and his will.  And such a war is not only fought between God and Satan but between demons and holy angels and between ungodly men and godly men so that this cosmic warfare at the level of God and the highest creature He ever made, Lucifer, filters all the way down to involve every human being, including us.

     Now for us to understand this warfare, we need to take a look at its elements.  You remember in Luke chapter 14 and verse 31, Jesus laid down a very obvious principle...in another context but the principle applies.  He said, "What king going to make war against another king sits not down first and consults whether he's able with ten thousand to meet him that comes against him with 20 thousand."  In other words, Jesus is saying no king goes to war unless he understands the terms of battle, unless he understands the power of his enemy, unless he understands that which is at stake in the warfare.  And we are engaged in a spiritual warfare.

     Now I think this has escaped most contemporary American Christians who really don't understand the warfare at all.  There are many who because they have been given a gospel of easy believism or cheap grace, because they have been told that Jesus is where you get the goodies and that's about it, believe that you come to Jesus to get a whole lot of stuff and life from then on is supposed to be flowery beds of ease and happiness and prosperity, health, wealth, money and all the rest. They have no concept of the spiritual warfare at all.  Many Christians are involved in what I would call "trivia."  I was told about the testimony of one lady who got up even in our own church some time ago to share her testimony.  She said Satan is attacking me to the degree that I can't deal with it anymore.  Satan is giving me onslaughts that I can't cope with.  I'm at the end of my rope.  And when asked exactly what it was, she said that because of painting in our house we've had to put sheets over all of our furniture and I don't think I can stand it any longer.  Now if that isn't living at the level of trivia, I'm not sure what is. 

     It's mind boggling that someone would think that is spiritual warfare and that Satan is attacking you because there's so much dust in your house.  But there is that trivial level at which so many people live.  There is an ignorance about the reality of spiritual warfare.  And if we are to understand what Paul says to Timothy about warring a noble war, then we're going to have to understand some of the elements in that warfare and to that end I want to speak with you this morning.

     Now originally there was no war and there was no rebellion.  Everything in God's world and God's universe was perfectly harmonious.  There was no reaction to His sovereign rule.  There was no animosity toward anything that He expressed as His holy purpose and will.  There was no conflict, no fight, no rebellion, just perfect peace and harmony. 

      But then there came a disastrous event which set God and Satan against each other for all eternity.

     In order to understand that, I want you to turn in the Old Testament to the twenty‑eighth chapter of Ezekiel... Ezekiel's prophecy chapter 28 and I want to set your mind in the framework of understanding this warfare.  And we begin to get a grip on it here in the twenty‑eighth chapter of Ezekiel.  Now the prophet Ezekiel is giving prophecies against Tyre.  Tyre, that godless city back in chapter 26 was promised judgment.  God was going to bring a judgment on that city.  Chapter 27 then is sort of a dirge, sort of a funeral song about what's going to happen to Tyre.  And chapter 28 then is an indictment of the prince or the king of that city.  But in speaking against the king of Tyre, the prophet goes beyond the king himself to speak of the one who is the source of his antagonism to God.  The king of Tyre was simply a pawn in the activity of Satan.  Satan was using this man as Satan will do and we are well aware in studying the Old Testament, most specifically the prophecy of Daniel, that behind the godless nations of the world Satan and his demon hosts are energizing their anti‑God activity.  We know that.  And it was no different in Tyre...though the man himself called in verse 2 the prince of Tyre, referring to the one who was king as he is called in verse 12, though this man was an evil man and a godless man and one who was working against God, he was merely a tool in the hand of the one behind the scenes at the level of this supernatural cosmic warfare between God and Satan.  We see that as we begin at verse 11.

     "Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man...and that is a reference to Ezekiel, he is called that in the Old Testament...take up a lamentation on the king of Tyre and say unto him."  Now then, what is said in the middle of verse 12 and following could not even refer to this human being, and we'll see that as we go.  Say to the king of Tyre, "Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum."  Now what does that mean?  Simply this, when a thing is sealed, it is sealed because it is completed.  It is sealed because it is finished.  It is sealed because it is consummated....just as when you write a letter, fold it up, put it in an envelope and seal it.  When you complete a work and you seal that work, it is done.  So here is one who seals up the sum, that it is a perfectly created being, someone who is so complete that the work if over, that the sum of it is done and the seal is placed. 

      Verse 12 also says this individual who seals up the sum is full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, full of wisdom, lacking no wisdom and perfect in beauty.  Now obviously that cannot refer to a human being.  No human being is so perfected as to be sealed off, signed and finished.  No human being is full of wisdom and no human being is perfect in beauty.

     Furthermore, verse 13 says, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God."  Now that could not refer to the king of Tyre who was not in the Garden of Eden.  "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God."  That is to say we're looking here at the serpent, the devil, the enemy, the adversary who was there in the glory of the Garden of Eden. 

     We also would note please that if in his beauty and in his wisdom and in his perfection he was in the garden of God, the fall of Satan and the fall of angels must have occurred some time after the creation and occupation of the Garden of Eden.  There are some people who would tell us that the fall occurs before the creation, that doesn't seem to square with this text.  If this glorious fully perfected individual was indeed in the garden of God in his perfection, then he fell after that creation...sometime before he was turned into a serpent in manifestation and brought about the fall of man through temptation.

     So, also it says in verse 13, "Every precious stone was thy covering," and then it lists nine precious stones, all nine of which are included also in the breastplate of the high priest which is described in Exodus 39 verses 10 to 13.  They then indicate to us because they are in the breastplate of the high priest and they also here are used in the covering of this incredibly, beautiful and perfect created being that they are the sum of the beauty and the glory of God's creation...for God put in the breastplate of the high priest that which manifests the beauty and the magnificence of His own glory reflected in those jewels and so this being carries the same stones, nine of the same twelve.  It's simply telling us this is a perfect glorious magnificent creature.

     Verse 14 calls him the anointed cherub that covers.  The Jews saw the most sacred of all angels as the covering cherub.  What that means is that when the mercy seat and the top of the ark of the covenant was designed by God, it was designed that there would be two angels, one on each side, spreading their wings over the mercy seat called the covering cherub.  They were representative of those angels which concerned themselves with the holiness of God.  And they cover that mercy seat where the atonement was made between God and men by the sprinkling of blood on the day of atonement.  Those sacred angels then which were the cherub that covered, those to the minds of the Jew which were the most sacred would then be related to this one that was created who is called the anointed cherub that covers, the highest angelic creature caring for the glory and the holiness of God.

     And it says in verse 14, "I have set thee so."  God not only created angels, listen carefully, not only created angels but He created them to fit into a ranking.  They are a hierarchy of angels.  There are angels and archangels.  There are cherubim and seraphim.  There are rulers and principalities and powers and all of those terms have to do with the different strata of angels in God's design for the functioning of the angelic network to carry out His bidding.  And here then was one who supremely was set as the anointed cherub.

     Further it says in verse 14, "Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."  The holy mountain of God and the stones of fire would be the glory of the very dwelling place of God.  This is not an angel commissioned to be out somewhere apart from the immediate presence of God, dispatched to some other duty, angels by the way are not omnipresent, they can only be in one place at one time though they can move very fast, as Daniel shows us in his prophecy.  But angels can be away from the presence of God, that is His immediate glorious dwelling in heaven.  But not this angel.  This angel dwelt in the holy mountain and walked in the area of the stones of fire, speaking of the holy ground on which the throne of God would be placed in that heavenly environment.

     Verse 15 says, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created."  Again emphasizing the absolute perfection of this creature.  And then you might want to underline this, comes the disastrous statement, "Till iniquity was found in thee."  Till iniquity was found in thee.  And there is the beginning of spiritual warfare at the cosmic levels as Satan then pits himself against God.  This anointed cherub takes sides against God, iniquity is found in him. 

     Now we do not understand how that came about.  Some people say, "Well, he was tempted from the outside."  He couldn't have been, there was no evil on the outside, it was a perfect environment.  Others say he was tempted from the inside.  There was no evil on the inside.  He was perfect.  Where did it come from?  It didn't come from the outside, it couldn't come from the inside, where did it come from?  And the answer is we have no idea.  In our finite little minds, we cannot conceive how this could happen rationally, so we accept it by faith in the category of things that we will only understand when we have full understanding in the presence of God.  Until that time we accept the fact that it happened.  And if you have any doubt about it, then you're not looking around you because sin is here, folks, and it came from somewhere.  It's futile and frankly pointless to debate how it could happen.  All we need to do is realize that it did, which is not debatable.

     And so, this angel is iniquitous.  Verse 16 further describes that and God says, "Because you have sinned, I'll cast you as profane out of the mountain of God and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire, thine heart was...here it is...was lifted up because of thy beauty thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness."  In other words, you were so glorious and so wonderful that you became corrupt.  Now here's the only indication we have as to the ontology of sin's origination, it says "Thy heart was lifted up."  It did come then from within.  As to how it came from within, we do not know...we do not know. But this angel was so enamored with his own perfection and his own beauty and his own wisdom and his own glory and so by that iniquitous response of pride did he, verse 18, defile the sanctuaries that God threw him out of heaven to be destroyed.

     Now let's find out specifically what the sin is by looking at another Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, and chapter 14...Isaiah and chapter 14.  And here we find again in a prophecy an indication of the behind‑the‑scenes power.  This prophecy has to do with Babylon and the destruction of Babylon, but there was a greater power behind Babylon just as there was a greater power behind Tyre.  And we find that power identified and spoken of in chapter 14 beginning at verse 12. 

      Notice carefully, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?"  Lucifer means day star, son of the morning.  To show you how elevated this creature was you need only be reminded then in Revelation 22:16 it is said of Jesus Christ that He is the bright and morning star.  When God wanted to speak of the brilliance and glory and magnificence of Christ, He calls Him the bright and morning star.  Here when the prophet refers to this created angel, he calls him also day star, son of the morning.  And though he is not same as Christ, a similar expression is used to speak of the marvelous glory of this creature.  So you understand this is a glorious creature.  "How art thou fallen?" is reminiscent of Luke 10:18 where Jesus said, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."

     "How art thou...verse 12...cut down to the ground who did weaken the people?" 

      And why did this happen?  What was this sin that rose up in the heart?  What was this sin that rose up in the bosom, as it were, of this anointed cherub?  Verse 13 tells us very clearly.  Notice in verse 13, "I will...I will...I will," three times.  Verse 14, "I will...I will."  Five times, "I will...I will...I will."  The problem was pride.  The problem was he was lifted up by his own beauty.  He was so close to God that he became jealous of being God and sought to be equal to God.  By the way, he was still offering that temptation to others in the garden, wasn't he?  When he said to Eve, if you do this you'll be equal to God and you'll know good from evil.  That was the projection of his own pride.  And it is the same problem today. Romans chapter 1, men reject the true God and out of their own hearts they elevate themselves to be equal with God.  They create Gods of their own making, design God who was a God of their own design.  They themselves become the ultimate supreme makers of God, therefore they are God and in such a way defy the true God.  So this matter of pride and seeking to be equal with God is the heritage that Lucifer has left for the whole of the fallen world.

     He says, verse 13, again it comes out of his insides, out of his heart, it is not in the environment, it isn't really in him in his created perfection and yet it comes from within his heart, it is invented by him.  No inside or outside element of the created perfection of God stimulated it, he on his own invented this pride and he said, "I will ascend into heaven.  It isn't enough for me to be where I am, I want to go higher, I want to be at the very dwelling place of God.  I will ascend into what ever left of heaven is still occupied only by God and I will take my place with Him.  I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, that is I will cease to be an angel among angels, even though I am a leading angel and I will go beyond angels, stars here refer to angels, I will go beyond that and I will be as God.  I will sit on the mount of the congregation."  "I will take my place there where God alone sits, where God alone reigns, in the sides of the north."  Ancient peoples believed that the gods had their residence in the north and so the indication here of Lucifer is that he will take, using sort of a colloquial expression, his place‑‑the prophet says‑‑in the throne of God.

     Verse 14, "I will ascend above the heights of the cloud," singular, it is not clouds, it is cloud and has reference not to some created cloud but to the Shekinah glory of God, "I will ascend above the height of God's glory, I'll be like the most high."  So out of this generated invented sin of pride comes the warfare. 

      And God then responds in verse 15, and here is the counter attack, "You will be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit."  God says I'll take you on and I'll destroy you.  I'll take you on and I'll devastate you.

     Now you understand from Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 the nature of this supernatural conflict.  And it's going on all the time.  To get an insight into that, look at Job chapter 1.  In verse 6, "There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them."  Some angels come before God and here comes Satan, His enemy.  By the way, the word "Satan" is used in the Old Testament, it means enemy or adversary.  In fact, if it is used without a definite article, it is usually translated enemy or adversary.  If it has a definite article "the enemy," or "the adversary," it is Satan.  The same word is used in the New Testament 36 times.  So Satan here comes.

     "And the Lord said, Satan, where did you come from?  And Satan answered the Lord, From going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it."  Here is the restlessness of Satan as he moves about the earth endeavoring to thwart the plan and purpose of God.  "And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect man, an upright man who fears God and shuns evil?  And Satan answered the Lord and said, Doesn't Job fear God for nothing?  You've given him so much, of course he fears You, he's rich and he's protected and he's blessed and he's got abundance. But I'll tell you what, You make it tough on him and he'll turn his back on You."  And you remember the test.  God did and Job didn't turn his back and Satan lost the battle. But that gives us an insight into Satan and God in conflict.  And Satan is always trying to play one ups on God.  You say You have a man, let me at him, I'll how you he's not Your man.  He is endeavoring to diminish the power of God, the glory of God, the work of God, the purpose of God and the will of God.

     Now in the New Testament he is given many names.  He is called the "Accuser of the brethren."  He is called the "Adversary," which is a different word than his name.  He is called "Beelzebub," "Belial."  He is called "the deceiver of the whole world," "the great dragon," "the enemy," "the evil one," "the father of lies," "the god of this world," a liar, a murderer, the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world, the ancient serpent and the tempter.  And he is set against God.

     Now he is not alone in this.  Let's go to the last book of Scripture, Revelation and chapter 12...Revelation and chapter 12.  And I want you to understand that we're honing in on where we are in the midst of this cosmic warfare.  So far we know it's God against Satan.  And God bringing about His holy purpose all the way along, being attacked by Satan. 

      But notice Revelation chapter 12 verse 3, "There appeared another wonder in heaven...in the vision that John has here...and behold a great red dragon."  And in the symbolism typical of Revelation this dragon has seven heads which probably refer to the sequential imperial governments of the world.  And you can compare that with Revelation 17:9 to 11, we won't get into detail.  But it pictures this dragon as one who is the summation of all forms of anti‑God world government.  He has ten horns because he is the supreme ruler of the final confederacy of human nations against God which we know from Daniel 7 is the ten‑nation confederacy of the revived Roman Empire that pits itself against Christ.  So here is the dragon.  He embodies all the evil of the systems of man, he embodies the final form of human world government set against Christ.  This is none other than Satan himself. 

      And it says in verse 4 that his tail, the tail on the dragon in this imagery, drew the third part of the stars...and there's that word "stars" again which refers to angels...drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.

     Now we learn from this that when Satan fell, he drew with him one third of the angelic host.  Now keep this in mind.  The angels do not procreate.  Jesus said in Matthew that they're neither marrying or giving in marriage, right?  Angels do not procreate.  And angels do not die.  They were created to live forever either in the domain of God or in the domain of Satan.  Hell itself was created, Jesus said, for the devil and his angels and hell is eternal because they are eternal.

     So, angels then are created beings.  They were all created at one point in time and they live forever.  They do not procreate.  There are as many demons today...or rather there are as many angels today, fallen and unfallen, as there were in the day God created them. There's no diminishing and there's no adding to their ranks.  We know nothing of sequential creation and we know nothing of the obliviating of any angel host or forces.  So God creates a whole angelic host and that's the end of His creation, of them and they do not procreate.

     Now of that group one third of them went with Satan in his fall.  That's what the text is saying.  Two thirds remain with God, one third with Satan.  Satan then in his cosmic warfare is not alone.  He, though he's a tremendously powerful creature, though he has great influence in the world, though he can move on the souls of men, though he can become the force behind governments and nations and anti‑God activities worldwide, he is not omnipresent, he's fast but he's not omnipresent.  But his work is enhanced because a third of the whole angelic host is with him.

     Now you say, "How many are there?"  I don't know but I do know there are angels and there are angels and there are angels.  Because the Bible talks about them in terms of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands which uses the word in the Greek language which is the largest Greek word to express numeration.  They have no word larger than ten thousand. So it's as if he is saying more and more and more and more.  We might say zillions and zillions and zillions, using our typical hyperbole.  We do not know how many there are.  But a third of them are actively involved with Satan.

     Now some of that third aren't any good to him.  The reason is, they're bound in everlasting chains.  We read in Jude that there were some angels who sinned at the time of the flood in Genesis 6 and they were put into everlasting chains.  We don't know how many there were but they came down, cohabitated with men, produced a half‑breed race which God drowned in the flood.  That segment of demons is bound in the pit.  And they are in everlasting chains. 

     There are others, I believe, that are temporarily chained.  You remember that the demons in the demoniac of Gadara said don't send us to the pit?  Perhaps through the redemptive history God has been putting more and more in the pit.  And some of them will be released, Revelation 9 says, in the Tribulation.  They're going to come out of the pit, but not the ones in everlasting chains. 

     So he started with a third of them, some of them are in everlasting chains.  Some of them are in temporary chains.  Whatever's left, he's working with in the world.  And he's working against God and the holy angels.

     Now to give you a little more insight into the passage and the conflict, we have to ask the question: what is the specific target of these angelic beings that have fallen and are now known as demons?  What is their target?  Go back to verse 1.  John says there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  Again, typical of the imagery of Revelation, the woman is none other than Israel.  The woman is Israel.  The sun and the moon, no doubt, are references to Jacob and Rachael.  And the twelve stars would be references to the twelve sons.  You can compare Genesis 37:9. 

     So here is the woman Israel. 

     And the woman Israel, verse 2, being with child cries out travailing in birth, pain to be delivered.  Here is this woman about to bring forth a child.  Now what was the great child brought forth through the nation Israel?  The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And we know that.  Verse 5, let's pick it up there.  "And she brought forth a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron."  Well, that can't be anybody but Christ.  "And her child is caught up to God, His ascension after His perfect work and He sits on the throne."

     So we have basically then Israel bringing forth a child.  In the midst of that vision while she desires to bring forth the child, as it were, verses 3 and 4, we have Satan gathering his force.  And at the end of verse 4 it says he is ready to devour the child as soon as it was born.  Is that not the case?  What happened at the birth of Jesus Christ?  Did not Satan do everything he could to destroy that child?  He had tried everything even prior to that.  He tried to destroy the whole godly line in Genesis 6 by creating a demon‑men race because of the demons who cohabitated with the women.  And God had to drown that whole civilization.  He tried to destroy the godly line by so corrupting the nation Israel that there wouldn't be any possibility of a godly seed.  Even some of the kings who were in that line were cursed and God had to bypass those cursed kings, namely Jeconiah.  He tried to kill the babies in the New Testament time when Christ was born through Herod.  He tried to kill Jesus Christ by having Him shoved off a cliff.  He tried to get Christ to fall to temptation and forfeit His kingdom and do unrighteousness.  He tried to kill Christ in the garden.  He tried to kill Him on the cross.  He tried to keep Him in the grave.  I mean, always the dragon fights against the Messiah.

     And that's the way the warfare goes.  Satan against God, focusing on the destruction of Christ and His work.  And now he continues to fight against the work of Christ in His church.  He will fight against Christ when He comes in His return.  He will go on and on until finally he is bound forever in the pit of hell, the lake of fire.

     But I want you to notice that during the time of the Tribulation in the future, there's an interesting focal point of the battle.  It says the woman Israel, verse 6, is going to go into the wilderness during the Tribulation for three and a half years, the period after the Rapture, before the Second Coming.  There's going to be a holocaust on the earth, but Israel will be protected.  And while all this is going on in earth, notice the description that comes in verse 7, "There was war in heaven."  Now you ought to underline that because that's really true.  That is a consummating statement.  There is war in heaven.  There will be war in the future, there was war in the past, and there is war right now.  In this particular scene, Michael and his angels are fighting the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels.  Now there you have another element of the warfare.  It is God against Satan, but it is also Satan and his angels against God and His angels, the chief of which is now Michael...Michael.

     And they have fought.  And they are fighting.  And they will fight.  We know in the Scripture that this battle is not just relegated to the future.  We find Michael in contention with the devil about the body of Moses in Jude 9.  So Michael and the devil were even at it back in the time of Moses.  And they will still be at it in the future at the time of the Tribulation.&n