1 Timothy 6 verse 12. The Apostle Paul tells us in
verse 12, the second line, "...lay hold on eternal life." Now verse
19, the last line in verse 19, he repeats that statement, "...lay
hold on eternal life." You see that twice in those few verses. Paul exhorts us, commands us,
to lay hold on eternal life. But in verse 12, the command
to lay hold on eternal life is preceded by this charge, fight
the good fight of faith. Now, those who lay hold on eternal
life, I wouldn't deceive you. I think many preachers today
are deceiving people, whether willingly or unwillingly, whether
in sincerity or insincerity. I'm not in a position to say. But I don't want to deceive people.
I don't want the blood of my congregation to be on my hands.
And so I'm going to say this to you. I believe what the Apostle
Paul is teaching here is this. that those who would lay hold
on eternal life are going to have a fight on their hands.
He says, fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal
life. In other words, what Paul is
saying is this road to eternal life is not an easy road. And if you think it's an easy
road, you have been and are being deceived. If you think it's an
easy way, there's a possibility that you're on the broad road
and not on the narrow road of life. Now, to begin with, and
I want to make these four statements by way of introducing the message,
to begin with, the early days of conviction, the early days
of repentance, and the early days of faith involve a conflict. It's not easy. When the Spirit
of God comes into our hearts and shows us our sins, there's
a conflict. When the Spirit of God comes
into our heart and shows us our wretchedness before God, as Paul
described it, he said, when the law came and revealed to me what
I am and what I've done and my guilt before God, I died. I died."
And he talks about that conflict of conversion, and when the Lord
Jesus Christ described conversion in the eleventh chapter of Luke,
he described it as a strong man, a strong man being overcome by
a stronger man. In Luke chapter 11, verse 21
and 22, he describes conversion as a strong man. That's Satan,
armed with lies, keeping his palace and keeping his goods.
But a stronger than he, that's the Holy Spirit, comes upon him
and spoils his goods and drives him out. Now, if there's no conflict
in conversion, it's a good possibility that it's not of the Lord. Because
when the Master described a false conversion, He says, the evil
spirit went out and walked to and fro in dry places and finding
no rest, said, I'll go back to my house. And he goes back to
his house and he finds it empty, he finds it swept, he finds it
decorated, he finds it reformed. And then he goes out and gets
seven other demons more wicked than himself, and they move in,
and the last state of the man, the state of the state of departing
from what he has called the faith, the state of going back to his
old way, the state of leaving the gospel is worse than the
state he was in to begin with. In other words, a false profession
that is followed by a fall, the condition that fallen person
is in is worse than if he had never heard the gospel, never
made a profession. The old nature dies hard. Scripture
says it dies or must die daily. It doesn't die easy. Old habits
are difficult to break. Old companions have strong holds. Religious traditions must be
unlearned. Religious customs have a terrible
hold upon people. And it's hard to unlearn these
things that we've been taught from our youth up. And these
days of conversion, these days of weaning a person not only
from the world, but from false religion, they're difficult. It's no easy road. It's no easy
road at all. These traditions and customs
do not die easily. Now, if you start from zero,
you can move faster than if you start from sub-zero, and that's
where we're starting with this religious world. We're trying
to build a temple to the glory of Jesus Christ, and the ruins
of that old pagan temple have got to be dug up and dug out,
and every trace of them removed. Because Christ is not going to
put new wine in old bottles, and he's not going to put new
patches on old garments. And we're coming to people who
are religious by nature. They have an idea of what they
believe about the Bible, and what they believe about heaven,
and what they believe about hell, and what they believe about salvation,
and what they believe about life. And we come to them with the
gospel of Christ, the new covenant, the mercy and grace of God. And
you can't build that temple on top of this rubbish. It's got
to be dug up. It's got to be dug out by the
roots. The old taproot of human pride
and human righteousness has got to be dug totally and completely
out. And it goes deep. And it hurts
to dig it out. And, well, this is what I've
always believed. This is what I've always thought.
This is what Mama taught me and Daddy taught me and the old pastor
in whom I had so much confidence. This is what he taught me. Brethren,
I tell you, these days of conviction and repentance and faith and
digging out the old rubbish and getting rid of it, that a temple
to the grace of God and to the glory of God and to the mercy
of God, apart from any human merit at all, for that temple
to be built, you've got to clean out the honeysuckle vines all
of the roots of human righteousness. And it's not easy. It's not easy,
don't you think it is? And I'll tell you something else.
The trials of faith are not easy. After you're converted, you'll
be persecuted for what you believe because you're out of step with
the religious world. And they'll persecute you and
mock you and ridicule you on every hand because you're out
of step with them. You'll be persecuted in your
family. You'll be persecuted among your
neighbors. You're different. People don't
like different people. They like conformity. You'll
be persecuted for the Word of God where you work and where you socialize. But
if you're traced the gospel of God's grace. I'm not talking
about religion now, I'm talking about the gospel of God's grace.
If you'll trace it all the way back to the apostles, you'll
find that everybody who contended for the grace of God has had
to pay the price. Every one of the apostles were
martyred except John, who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, hated, and despised for what
he taught. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's
Progress, one of the greatest books that has ever been written,
spent twelve years in prison for nothing in the world but
preaching the gospel of grace. Martin Luther was hated and hounded
all over Germany because of preaching and standing for the gospel of
grace. Benjamin Keats who pastored John
Gill's church, later pastored by Charles Spurgeon, faithful
pastor, preacher of God's grace and mercy, was put in the public
stalks on the street with his hands in his feet and neck through
the stalks for people to come by and spit at and mock and ridicule
for nothing in the world but preaching God's grace. And you
don't have to be a preacher of grace to be hated for it, all
you have to do is really believe it. and stand for it. And these
trials are not easy. They're not easy. These trials
of faith are not easy. And then I'll tell you something
else. The trials of mental life, I'm talking about from 40 to
60 years of age, are the most difficult trials in all of an
individual's experience. Now, they talk about young people
have trials and young people have it tough nowadays. If you'll
go through the Word of God, you'll find that the real trials come
to individuals between 40 and 60 years of age. Turn to Galatians
chapter 5, verse 17. I'm talking about these days
when the trials of grudges, holding grudges, The clouds of gossip,
when it becomes a sweet morsel to sit around and talk about
other people and to enjoy passing on the latest information. That
comes not when you're young, but when you're in middle life.
The clouds of temper, when you become difficult to live with,
when everything you're edgy and everything that doesn't go your
way makes you angry. And you begin to get angry with
people, and you fall out with people, and you hold these grudges,
and the days of malice, when folks don't do me right, and
I want to get even with them, and the days of lust. How old
was David when he got in all this trouble? Fifty years of
age. Fifty years of age. The days of weariness, when you
get tired of it all. I've watched men and women both,
men especially, I've seen them when they're young, they go through
courtship and marriage and they love their wives and then children
come along and they've got a job to do, they're working at the
mill or somewhere and they're trying to get ahead, they're
trying to get a promotion, they're trying to get a little more money
to pay the gas and the electric and the lights and the water
and the rent and the groceries and the clothing and the car
and the taxes and the insurance. and all those things upon them,
and they want to raise their children right, and they want
to do everything, and they've got goals, and they've got purposes,
and they've got a cause for living. And then when they get about
forty-five years of age, or fifty, they're high as they're going
to go at the mill, or at the plant, or wherever they are.
The children are grown and gone. They're pretty comfortably situated.
There's no more goal. There's no more purpose. There's
no more battle. There's no more fight. And that's
where David was when he was walking on the roof up there. He'd already
won all the battles. He'd whipped everybody around
him. He's king now. He's rich. He had everything
he wanted. His kids were grown and gone. And his mind began
to, in a stalemate, he began to have problems with malice
and hatred and and temper, and lust, and weariness, and all
these things, and that's when he failed. And that's when he
hit the bottom. And it says in Galatians 5, 17,
"...the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary, the one
to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would."
There's the contrast. It's no easy road. Fight the
good fight of faith. and lay hold on eternal life.
And that fight's not over when you come to Jesus. And the poor,
dumb, misled preacher who says it is has got a hole in his head. He doesn't know what he's talking
about. Come to Jesus and he'll solve all your problems and you'll
be happy all the time. That's not so. Your problems
have just begun sometimes when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's the trials of mental
life, there's the trials of forty, fifty, sixty years of age when
the battle really gets tough to fight the fight of faith.
But that's what we're commanded. We're commanded to fight the
good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. And then old
age comes. Now I hadn't been there yet.
I'm almost there. I'm creeping closer, but now
this is what I've observed. From here down I can speak in
the spirit, but now I'm speaking from what I've observed. Old
age is not an easy road. Old age is a time when you begin
to fight against indifference. Indifference. Well, what difference
does it make? What difference does it make?
You know, that's the reason it takes young people to raise children. Because when we get a little
old, our grandchildren can get away with murder. I mean, I don't
mean a fight, I mean murder. What used to, we used to correct,
you know, but now, what difference does it make? Don't get upset
over a little thing, but everything's a little thing when you get older,
you know. That's right. You fight indifference, and if
you want to go to the house of God, you go. If you don't want
to go, you don't go. You're indifferent about it. You fight the fight
of bitterness. Life has passed you by. The children
have forgotten you. They never call me. They never
write to me. They don't care whether I'm living
or not. Nobody ever comes to see me. That's the fight against
getting bitter. You retire from the mill, and
you're not needed anymore. They don't need you down there,
and they don't need you in town, and the kids don't need you at
their house, and your husband or wife, they've gone fishing,
they don't need you, and you're just not needed by anybody, really.
And you've got to fight bitterness. And then you've got to fight
the fight against complaining and murmuring, complaining, complaining
against the providence of God, complaining against the things,
against the pains of the body. complaining against our state.
That's a fight. And then there's the fight against
self-righteousness. Old people are always so good. That always amazes me. They're
so good. But they're not. And they're
going to have to remember that. They're still sinners saved by
the grace of God. They're still guilty. They're
still before God's sons of Adam. And when we get older, when we
get in our 70s and 75 and 80, and the so-called temptations
of life are not as strong as they used to be, let's don't
get too good in our thinking. Self-righteousness. We've got
to fight that. Turn to Acts chapter 20. The
20th chapter of Acts, verse 22. Listen to this. Paul was concerned
about about the end of the road. And he says in Acts 20, verse
22, And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem.
He was an old man here, and he was about to go to Jerusalem.
He knew that he was going to be put in jail and martyred,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that
the Holy witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
the word of God is wait for me." The Holy Spirit showed me that,
he said, through other preachers, that I'm going to bonds and afflictions. In other words, what's ahead
of me? He was an old man, white-headed man, and he knew when he went
to Jerusalem that the trouble was waiting on him, real trouble. But none of these things moved
me. neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy." And
I say to every one of us in our fifties and sixties, old age
is ahead, and it's a tough, tough, tough time. I know that it's
got to be. The days of indifference and
the days of bitterness and the days of desertion and the days
of pain and the days of sickness, the days of being hospitalized,
the days of our health failing and our eyesight and our hearing
and when people don't care as much, those afflictions away. But I hope we can finish the
course with joy, don't you? I don't care what it holds. I
hope that I can finish my course with joy. I hope that it can. But I've got to fight the fight
of faith. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
10, 38. Listen to this. Hebrews 10. I want to avoid a bitter spirit. I want to avoid that spirit of
indifference, that spirit of complaining. I want to be as
zealous for the gospel when I'm 80 as I am right now, don't you?
I want to avoid the days of self-righteousness. When I begin, as I get older,
to look down on others who are still down here battling, down
there where the sun's beaming down, and down where the enemy
is engaging them, and down where they're being troubled on every
hand, I want to sympathize with them. And Hebrews 10, listen
to this, now verse 38, Hebrews 10, 38, "...the just shall live
by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him." But we're not of them that
draw back, and I'm talking about any time. I'm talking about the
days of conviction. I'm talking about the days of
when our faith is tried. I'm talking about this middle
life, this period of trial, when the going gets real tough. I'm
talking about old age. We are not of them that draw
back. I am not quitting. By the grace
of God, I am not quitting. We're not of them that draw back
under perdition, but we are of them that believe and keep on
believing to the salvation of their souls. And don't you think
for a moment your soul is saved if you're not of them that keep
on believing. That's right. I know you people
make a little profession of faith and join the church and get baptized
and call it salvation, but it's not salvation. Our Lord said
himself, He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved.
Our Lord said himself, You are of the household of Christ if
you hold fast the profession of your faith firm unto the end. We're not of them that draw back. And I'm saying that if you're
going to lay hold on eternal life, you better, as Barnard
used to say, roll up your sleeves and spit on your hands, because
you've got a fight on your hands. You're fighting principalities,
you're fighting powers, you're fighting rulers of the darkness,
you're fighting spiritual wickedness in high places. We're not wrestling
against flesh and blood. You've got an inside fifth column. You've got an inside adversary. You've got an enemy that's found
his way into the secret recesses of your heart. He's inside. He's on the board of trustees.
He's on the board of deacons. He lives in your heart. That's
where he is, your enemy. He's not outside, he's in here.
He's in here. He's called the F-L-E-S-H flesh. That's who he is. He's called
the body of death. He's called the body of sin.
And he's inside the house, and you can arm yourself all around
the walls and fight the enemy coming from without, and you
won't win the battle unless you find out where he is inside.
That's where he is. He's in the magazine chambers.
He's in there where you keep the ammunition. That's where
he is. He's inside. Fight the good fight
of faith. And nobody said it was easy.
And the man that says it's easy doesn't know what he's talking
about. And lay hold, lay hold on eternal life. Now, four things
I want to give you in closing. First of all, to lay hold on
eternal life, you've got to believe it. You've got to believe it. I don't know whether you're here
this morning and you believe it or not, but you can't lay
hold on something you don't believe. You've got to be convinced of
it. You've got to be persuaded of it. Eternal life has got to
be to you a reality. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? How's a man going to lay hold
on something that he doesn't believe, of which he's not convinced? How shall they call on him in
whom they've not believed, and how shall they believe in him
of whom they've not heard? He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. If you're going to fight the
good fight of faith in the days of conviction, and in the days
of trial, And in the days of middle life and in the days of
old age, you've got to be persuaded and convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that there's something to fight for. You see what I'm
saying? Eternal life. Eternal life. This life is the
gift of the Father. The Father gave it to us. We
didn't earn it. We don't earn it by fighting.
We don't earn it by persevering. It's the gift of God. And it's
not only the gift of the Father, it's the purchase of the Son.
He bought it. He paid for it. He secured it
by his death, by his blood, by his sacrifice. It's the gift
of God. It's not given to the great,
not given to the mightiest, not given to the wise. It's given
to those who need it and who can't get it for themselves.
Do you believe it? I believe there's a salvation
to be had. I believe there's grace for the
guilty. I believe there's mercy for the
fallen. I believe there's forgiveness
for those who err. I believe there's eternal life
for sinners. I believe God Almighty delights
to show mercy. I believe it. I believe it. I believe there's life after
death. I believe there's a kingdom of God to be sought, to be laid
hold of. I believe there's a resurrection.
I believe there's a day when God's calling forth the dead.
I believe that God created us not for annihilation, but God
created us for his eternal glory. I believe that. And I believe
that life is not in me, and it's not in the mechanics of religion,
and it's not in the forms of the ordinances. That life is
in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who satisfied God's justice and
honored God's law. That's where it is. I've got
to believe it. And secondly, to lay hold on
eternal life, you've got to seek it. You've got to seek it. Now turn to John chapter 4. Now
a lot of people are seeking eternal life in the wrong place. This woman in John chapter 4
was talking to the Lord, and she said in verse 20, John 4,
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. This is the holy mountain. You say, you Jews say, that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. And the Lord Jesus answered and
said in verse 22, You don't know what you worship. You don't know
what you worship. My friends, verse 23, Thou art
cometh, and now it is when true worshipers shall worship the
Father in spirit and truth." Salvation's not in this mountain. It's not in Jerusalem. Eternal
life is not in the law. Don't seek it or find it. You
won't find it there. Eternal life's not in religious
works. Eternal life is not in Reformation. Eternal life is not even—now
be careful, eternal life is not even in the
teachings of Scripture, the doctrine. I want to hold to the truth.
I want to hold to the right doctrine. I think we ought to hold to the
right church government and the right form of mode of baptism
and the right way of this, that, and the other, the right doctrine.
Man's depravity God's elective grace, particular redemption,
just and justifier, eternal life's not in those doctrines. You may
hold to those doctrines, you may learn them, you may memorize
them, you may love them, but eternal life's not in them. It's
in Christ. It's in a person. Now, that's
We're not supposed to separate him from his word, but men do. We're not supposed to separate
him from the ordinances, but men do. We're not supposed to
separate him from his church, from his truth, but men do. They
hold to the truth while they reject him who is the truth.
Eternal life is in Christ. Turn to 1 John 5, and I must
read this. You know it by heart. But we
must look at it again. It's so powerful. In 1 John 5,
verse 11, this is the record that God hath given to us eternal
life. 1 John 5, 11. And this life is
in his Son. This life is in his Son. And
he that hath the Son of God hath life. I want you to hold to the
truth, but don't seek the doctrines. Seek relationship, a living relationship
with a person. Don't seek the right church.
I hope you find it. I hope you find a place where
your soul might be fed. I hope you find a place where
the Word is preached and the Word is emphasized, but seek
a living, personal, intimate relationship with the Lord, that
you might walk with Him, that you might talk with Him, Christ
in you. Paul said, I prevail till Christ
be formed in you. You might hold to the right doctrine,
and when these trials come, you can't cope with them. You can't
handle You might have a religious experience. You might look back
with delight and joy at a time of great happiness and great
peace and great religious experience. But when you come to these severe
times of trial and these times of testing, the man who sang for me in Dayton,
Ohio, Lenny Miller is his name. He's one of the leaders of the
church where I preached last week in Dayton. His 16-year-old daughter went
out one night, out of her own living room, out in front of
her own house. The mother and father are great
Christian leaders in the church. He is a great believer. And someone grabbed her and brutally
raped her and brutally beat her to death and left her out there. And when I was in Dayton last
week, they had just caught the fellow and the family had just
gone through the trial. All that had happened last October
and they had just gone through the trial. Just gone through
that terrible agony all over again. The boy had been sentenced,
been found guilty. And the daddy came to the services
every night. Eddie, you met him. Great fella.
Got up and sang for the glory of God. Let me tell you something.
If God calls you to go through something like that, your doctrine
is not going to help you. And your little easy profession
of faith ain't going to give you the strength. It won't do
it. And your relationship with the
church, I don't care if the pastor is your best friend, you've got
to know him. You've got to know him. Christ
has got to live in your heart. His glory, His purpose, His grace
has got to be real. It's got to be a place to put
your foot when everything around you is sliding and giving way.
There's got to be a rock on which you can stand when nothing else
is standing. There's got to be a shelter in
which you can hide when the storms of life are so great that they're
tearing everything about you. All my foundations and all my
support is gone except the Lord Jesus. And I guarantee you, I
promise you, there is no trial, there is no test, I don't care
what it is, that can overcome you if you're in Him and He's
in you. And that's the reason I say this
thing of laying hold on eternal life is to seek a person, a person. And then seek eternal life, turn
back to 1 Timothy 6. and you lay hold on eternal life
by believing it, you lay hold on eternal life by seeking it,
and you lay hold on eternal life by watching over it. But thou, verse 11, O man of
God, flee these things." He's talking about temptations and
snares and foolish and hurtful lust which drown men in destruction. He's talking about the love of
money, the love of fame, the love of power, the love of luxury. Men have gone after those things
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But, O men
of God, flee these things. You're going to lay hold on the
eternal life by watching over it. Now, you take care of your
natural body, don't you? You got nine or eight or seven
hours sleep last night because you want your body to be healthy. You're going to eat the right
this morning. I did. I drank my orange juice because
I need my vitamin C, and I ate certain things, not that I wanted
so much, but I knew what I ought to have. I'm going to be careful
to eat the right things. I'm going to be careful to protect
my body and try to take care of it. I think we ought to. But
my spiritual life is more precious than my physical life, much more
precious. And as I flee those things that
are harmful to my natural life, if I've got good sense, I'll
flee that which is harmful to my spiritual life. That's what
he's saying. Flee these things. And do what? And follow after this. Righteousness. Not mine own, but Christ's. But
also that imparted righteousness, that obedience and holiness without
which no man can see. Follow godliness. Follow faith. Follow love. Don't hold grudges. Don't get mad at folks and stay
mad at them. I'm not saying we don't get mad.
Anybody that says he doesn't get angry, I don't know whether
that's so or not, but I do say that we're not supposed to let
the sun go down on our wrath. We're not supposed to stay mad
and hold grudges. Follow patience, meekness. Follow these things. Follow that
which promotes a relationship with the Lord. Pursue it. If you want to lay hold on eternal
life, you watch over it. It's a precious, wonderful possession. Some of you take better care
of your diamonds than you do your spiritual life. That's right. Some of you take better care
of your car than you do your soul. You put it in a garage
at night, you polish it and wax it and clean it up. see this
tuned up and all that, and you don't take that good a care of
your soul. You wouldn't drive your car into
the Armco parking lot and park it there and leave it there because
of that stuff that falls. You drive an old car to work.
Well, don't drive your soul through these places of the world and
expect them not to be tainted by it. Huh? Don't park your soul
where it's going to be exposed. to things that are detrimental
to your relationship with Christ. Isn't what I'm saying so? I know
it's so, and you do too. Follow that which promotes a
relationship with God. And then the fourth thing, and
I've gone too long, but let me say this. Turn to 2 Timothy 4. If you want to lay hold on eternal
life, believe it. Seek it in Christ. And then when Christ gives it
to you, Protect it. Watch over it. Watch over it. And then last of all, expect
it. Paul says in II Timothy 4, I am ready, I am now ready, verse
6, I am now ready to be offered the time of my departure is at
hand. I've fought a good fight. I've
finished my course. And it was a fight, Paul said.
I fought My departure is at hand, and I have fought a good fight,
and I finished my course, and I might add, with joy. What is
it for a saint to die that we the thought should fear? It is but to pass the heavenly
sky and leave my sorrows here. True, death's cold stream is
awful deep, and heaven's walls are mighty high, but he who guards
me while I sleep can guide me when I die. A parting world,
a gaping tomb, corruption and disease, these are thorny paths
to heaven my home. the place of endless bliss. Eternal
glory is just before, and the Lord Jesus is waiting there. He will meet me to guide me o'er,
so what have I to fear?" Our Father, we are thankful for the
Word that comforts us. We are thankful for the Word
that lets us repent and start over. We thank Thee for Thy promises
and Thy grace that doesn't leave a man where he is, nor judge
him for what he's done, but Thy promises and Thy grace which
views us in Christ and lets us come daily repenting and daily
confessing and daily beginning again. if we confess our sins,
art faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Grant, O Lord, that every one
of us, whether the Apostle Paul might say, I will fight the fight
of faith, I will by the grace of God lay hold on eternal life. God give me the strength Thy
grace is sufficient for all things. In His name we pray, amen.