Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: 1 Timothy

  • Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners

    Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners

    About this sermon

    Paul thanks Christ Jesus, who judged him faithful and appointed him to his service, though he was once a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Every baptized believer is enlisted in God’s army, and Paul charges Timothy to wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected conscience and made shipwreck of their faith, like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul handed over to Satan so that they might learn not to blaspheme. The church disciplines out of love, to restore. God’s word forms a good conscience, and his grace keeps his people from shipwreck.

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    Sermon transcript

    I thought Brett was so anxious to preach that he just came up here and I could sit down and listen, but no, that’s okay. I’ll be reading from the ESV. First Timothy. You’re reading a little larger section as God gives me providentially the privilege of being here in your midst and preaching to you. I’ve told you that I’m determined to go through 1st Timothy and we’re almost completing the first chapter at this point. Remember that Paul is writing to his true son in the faith, Timothy, and telling him how to take care of things in Ephesus.

    Young church planner has a big problem. People that are teaching the wrong things. Again, I always reflect, everyone thinks, oh, if we can only get back to the purity of the early church in the Book of Acts. Ananias and Sapphira, problems at Ephesus, it went south real quickly, okay? They’re sinners in the church. And so Paul says, go there, get this straightened out, teach them not to teach other doctrines, but what is the core of the gospel and teach the gospel.

    And then he goes on to say that they don’t understand what they’re doing because after all, you know, they’re using the law wrongly. The law has been crafted by God wonderfully, and it’s good if you use it the way God intended, but they’re using it the wrong way. In fact, he says they don’t even understand what they’re talking about. And these make these confident confident assertions. And so he said that the law is for people that are sinners and rebellious. And so we pick up in verse 12, and then we’ll come to the end of the chapter, which is our text for this evening.

    Paul says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus, our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

    Amen. Then our text. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting these, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

    Let’s pray. Living God, we come to this your holy word. I can’t preach it, we can’t understand it, accept it, and live it out, unless by the Holy Spirit, and you pour him out afresh upon us. So please do, and hear our Savior as he pleads for us, and the Holy Spirit groans, that Lord, we may not be hearers of the word only, but doers, not deceiving ourselves and reaping the fruits of living a holy life that’s created in us by your power. For we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

    Well, brothers and sisters, I might have mentioned it here before, but we joke a lot, don’t we, about men not taking directions. Men don’t like following directions. And now we get jokes about women’s voices on GPS. And I was saying that to someone, and they said, yes, well, our GPS, you can switch from male to female. We’re back again. So no problem anymore. Men at least might listen to men. We joke about this, about men not taking directions and ruining kids’ Christmas, because they’re not going to look at the instructions. There’s 1,000 pieces, but they can figure it out.

    Well, that’s funny if you’re a stand-up comedian, but it’s not funny if it’s applied to life. If you stubbornly refuse to get guidance, you get lost. And lost is not just a metaphor, it’s the reality of being in a Christless eternity. And that metaphor is picked up well in Pilgrim’s Progress, we all know that, right? And that’s a land journey. But another metaphor that’s often used in scripture which comes into our text is the picture of a shipwreck.

    If you set out on the sea, you might say, well, you know, what’s the problem? It’s a pretty big ocean. We’re just in California. And you look out at the Pacific, it’s big. It’s big. And you figure, well, you can’t get into trouble. A lot of places to go. Well, if you don’t know where you’re going and how to get there, you get lost.

    Thus, in life, we can make this statement. You need a chart. It tells you where you’re supposed to go and you need a compass to make sure you’re on track to get where you’re supposed to be going. And along with that, you need the ability to read the chart and the compass and understand it and apply it. And maybe it’s a poor metaphor, but it’s this. I think that the Bible is obviously the chart. And the compass is the Holy Spirit, as he helps us to take this word, which is infallible and errant, and take it and set a course in life.

    So that’s the objective. But then there’s the subjective. Can I really understand this? And if I understand it, am I really willing to do it? Because the chart and compass are just null and void if you’re going to be stubborn to go, as we would say, do your own thing. So lacking the chart and compass or lacking that ability, you will shipwreck in life.

    And that’s what Paul is telling us about two people that we don’t know, but we know their names. So let’s read the text again and look at it. This charge, okay, the charge of teaching people not to teach the wrong thing. So I’m assuming that these two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, are two chief examples of people that are teaching the wrong thing. Well-meaning, but wrong.

    This charge, I entrust to you, Timothy, make sure that things at Ephesus, and remember Ephesus, don’t you? great congregation. I think it was OPC. It had to be an OPC congregation, because obviously it was Presbyterian, and it was Orthodox in doctrine, so it’s an Orthodox Presbyterian church. In fact, it’s the closest, it’s the very thing that we pride ourselves, right? It’s right in the book of Revelation. The church at Ephesus.

    You do not tolerate any bad apostles, any representatives that are off base doctrinally. And that’s wonderful. And God commends them for this. But then he goes on to say, but you’ve what? Lost your first love. It’s a good thing that you can nail heresy and prevent heretics. But if you’ve lost your love for me, You’ve lost the core of your faith, and we see that here.

    So the charge, I entrust you, Timothy, my child, again going back to the beginning, my child and the faith, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you. I think that was the preaching at his ordination. At that time, of course, the spiritual gifts, all of them, the apostolic gifts were there, and probably Paul got up and prophesied over Timothy. We don’t have that now, other than in the lower case, the prophesying, the preaching of the word. But that’s what was happening. The prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.

    I don’t know about you, but you may get tired of fighting the Christian life. At times, I’ll confess to you, I don’t find the greatest pleasure in the world being a pastor. We love you sheep, but sometimes you sheep step on our toes, baa in our faces, and make a mess. And you want to give up.

    But why do you keep going? because I can still hear Bob Atwell preaching and Lou Grotenhaus charging that congregation back in 74, and I can still remember the charge that Jay Adams gave to me from Titus. I am a commissioned officer in God’s army, and I cannot forget that which was preached to me.

    Now, you say, I’m not ordained. Okay, sermon’s not for me. Eh, wrong. There are ordained officers, and not everybody should be an ordained officer, but all of you are non-coms, right? You have all been called by the Holy Spirit, you’ve been baptized, and like it or not, you are in God’s armed services. In case there’s some sailors and ex-marines Air Force people, Coast Guard, don’t want to be offended with the Army stuff. You’re in God’s armed services, and he’s commissioned you. You’re baptized. Some of you don’t remember that baptism, but hopefully you made that baptism good, didn’t you?

    Because if you’re a communicant member, you’ve got to go, yeah, I believe the Bible. I believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. I promise to live a godly life. And the real big one, oh, by the way, I promise to listen to the elders. Please remember that one. when they confront me about my life or my doctrine. So the prophecies previously made about you may not be the ordained ones, but you’re in God’s army. And we have to remember what was preached to us and taught to us, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Friends, I don’t know about you. Another sermon for another time.

    But when you get up in the morning, you got to get ready to fight. And if you don’t get up with a will to fight, here’s the deal, Satan will come into your bedroom and beat the snot out of you while you’re in bed. Some of you have experienced that. Like it or not, you can complain, as we do at times, God, why did you set it up this way? Why did you, you know, when you saved me, sanctify me completely, why do things have to be so hard? That’s the reality. Christ had to live through a sinful world, and you get the privilege of living like Christ through a sinful world. You might wage the good warfare. And that’s what Paul is urging Timothy to do. Holding faith, here’s the key, in a good conscience. How are you and I going to be able to do this? How is Timothy going to be able to hold on to the faith?

    Don’t let that doctrine go. Don’t you let the Incarnation go. Don’t you let the two natures of Christ go. Don’t let any of that go. Don’t let the five points of Calvinism or ten, however Coppice says they’re supposed to be. How many of you have the points of Calvinism? Don’t let any of that go. But what else?

    A good conscience. Now, I don’t want to say I’m an expert, but I did my master’s thesis on conscience in Paul. And conscience is that moral ability of self-reflecting on yourself and others and making moral judgments. And a good conscience is one that functions according to the Word of God in convicting or approving people. It’s not always feeling good. Look at Psalm 51. That’s a good conscience. beating up on David after adultery and murder.

    How are you going to make it? Holding on to the faith. And what is the faith? Great is the mystery of? We’ll get to it. Well, I don’t know. That’s in the Lord’s hands. I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to get there and get invited back enough times. We’ll get to chapter three.

    What is godliness? Great is the mystery of godliness. It’s Jesus Christ. who is incarnate, came, lived, and dies, seen by angels, risen in glory. Godliness comes through the work of Christ in you and you’re believing that in a living accord, but then a good conscience.

    I’ll just use one example since I’m a man. If you guys are messing with pornography, you won’t make it. You can’t tinker with that. Electronic, paper, mental, whatever. You start doing that and going down that and making justifications, your conscience will become dull and it will not be convicted. You won’t flee back to Christ and get rid of it. You are going to get in big trouble and don’t think you won’t.

    There are men in jail right now, formerly reformed pastors who are in jail for soliciting sex with people over the internet. Should we be surprised? David was a man after God’s own heart. You say, well, that’s the old… No, don’t do that. He had the Holy Spirit. He was born again, wasn’t he? Think about that. I mean, David had to be born again. How else could he have believed? How else could he have repented and believed without a new heart? He might not have been called that in the Old Testament, clearly, well, circumcised heart, but he was, and yet he sinned.

    If you reject, and that’s what goes on, by rejecting this, what happens? Some have made, and there’s the image, shipwreck of their faith. You’ll tinker with the chart, you’ll tinker with the compass, and you’ll go off and you’ll run into a bunch of rocks, and your life will be wrecked, among whom are I’m glad I’m not Hymenaeus or Alexander. That’s not how I want to be remembered in scripture. Whom I have what? Handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. That phrase is so scary and yet comforting, right?

    If you are disciplined by the church because you’re Your conscience is so messed up that you don’t follow what the Lord says and get help directly from God or coming to your elders or someone else in the congregation, what will happen? You’ll shipwreck. You’ll shipwreck. And now what happens? Out of love, love for Christ’s glory and love for you, the church will do what? They’ll excommunicate you. And literally, think about this, you’re not saved by your church membership, but covenantally that represents baptism and taking the Lord’s Supper doesn’t save you, but that’s the ongoing fellowship.

    And if you’re picked up by the elders, in this case, Hymenaeus and Alexander, and you’re put outside the camp, sounds like the Old Testament, you’re put outside, right? You’re out in the wilderness. Everybody else is in it, the tabernacle and worshiping and having fellowship and everything, and you’re out there, unclean, unclean. But you see, you’re out there not alone.

    Because outside of this building, symbolically, friends, is Satan’s territory. And I know Christ has risen from the dead. He owns everything, but it’s enemy territory. And your pastors and elders are taking you like a little flock like a little bunch of commandos and they’re trying to get you through the landmines of Swickly and Pittsburgh and everything else around here so that you don’t get your spiritual limbs blown off you and destroyed. But here’s the love of God even evidenced here. Here’s grace. If you’re put outside of the body, the whole purpose is There’s other passages in Corinthians.

    Why? So you get beaten up by Satan, and you finally come bleeding back going like the prodigal son. Wow, I was better off when I was a church member. You know? All those seemingly constricting and stupid rules and all that meddling of the elders seemed so terrible and… I was way better off then than getting beaten up out here.

    You have what you call a prodigal son moment. Oy vey, I’m eating pig’s food. This is better to be a servant in my father’s house than, you know, to be out here eating with the pigs. So that’s what Paul is saying to Timothy to do. Okay? So that’s the text. My point is, let me ask you some questions. You see the war? Are you a soldier? Do you think like that? Do you get up in the morning thinking like, I’ve got to put on the whole armor. I can’t make it without truth. I can’t make it without Christ’s righteousness. I can’t make it without the peace that He gives me. I can’t make it without the helmet of salvation. I can’t make it without.

    Arm yourself. Okay? Now again, salvation is all by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, but you can’t lay in bed, brothers and sisters. You cannot lay in bed. You have to get up and put the armor on with what? Prayer. Put each piece on with prayer. Christ provides it, but you have to actively throw yourself at His feet and ask Him, do you live on active duty or are you more like somebody that’s off-duty or AWOL?

    Got a civilian mentality. Oh, I’m not wealth and prosperity, but at least health. Look, you have a godly, wonderful pastor, and we lost that in heaven. God, why’d you have him have a stroke? I mean, that should tell you this life isn’t easy. This is in heaven. And not only the physical struggles, but the spiritual struggles. So I ask you, are you arming yourself? What motivates you? Do you really see this? The faith, the faith.

    I can’t let go of Jesus and what He’s done and let go of the Bible, but also, I’ve got to have a good conscience. Now let me hedge this. You can make two big mistakes with your conscience. And I’m going to get someone to draw this. You can navel gaze. What happens if you look at your navel? I know it’s silly, but think about it. I’ll make you close your eyes. But think of yourself looking at your navel. Okay? And I want the cartoon where the person’s not only looking at his navel, but the head’s in the navel.

    Can’t live life like that, right? Because what happens? When you walk around, you bump into things. You can’t see where you’re going. Navel gazing and extreme introspection and going over everything and questioning every motive or whatever is disastrous.

    On the other hand, you know, you can get to the point where you go, you know, yeah, Calvin said, you know, everything I do is always tainted by sin, so what can you say? I’ll never be able to do anything right, so just get on with life, you know, and just not, instead of looking in your navel, you just bore ahead and you never sit down and go, Whoa, that was not the way to talk to my wife, was it?

    That wasn’t the way to really display the love of Christ to my children. Boy, oh boy, it’s been years since I’ve sat down and gone over my vows of church membership and even taken some inventory to see if, you know, I’m growing in grace. See the opposites. A good conscience is one that what? Drags you to the Word of God for evaluation, but then always drags you back to the foot of the cross for more grace to continue on.

    Or to put it in Jesus’ own words, if you love me, you love Jesus? If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. If you keep my commandments, you’ll abide in my love, just the way I’ve kept the Father’s commandments, abide in His love. I’ll end with this.

    One of the most intriguing passages of scripture for me, and I encourage one of the pastors to preach on it, is John 17. I have a weird mind. Most of you know that because you’ve listened to me preach a couple times. I often wonder, what’s the language that the Trinity speaks? Maybe I shouldn’t even ask that. What’s the inner Trinitarian language between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Is it Hebrew? Is it a divine? I don’t know. I don’t think there’s an answer to that.

    But John 17, in a sense, opens up a veil and shows kind of this inner Trinitarian love of the father and the son. Remember, I was with you, give the glory that I had with you, show them that they may be one with the, that’s one of the richest passages in all scripture. And I’ll tell you this. I don’t know where it is now, but there’s a book, three volumes put into one by Martin Lloyd Jones. on the high priestly prayer. They were sermons. I think his family put together this huge book. I think it really exists.

    I’ve never seen it. I know I read it because to be honest, I won’t go into a lot of details. I was super depressed at one point. I was supposed to go to Nigeria on a missions trip. That’s the laugh. I was too sick to go to Nigeria. I almost died in the United States. Still don’t know what it was. I was in bed for hours at a time. I couldn’t think straight or anything. All I did was cry.

    And reading through those sermons on John 17 pulled me back because it shows us the heart of the Savior and his relationship to God. So, my question to you is, do you continue to cling to the faith and maintain a good conscience? In the words of Paul, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, Some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” I’ve got a long list of questions, and I don’t know if the Lord will ever answer them when I get to glory. But one of them will be, whatever happened to these two guys? Did they ever repent? Were they restored? Did their satanic pounding bring them back?

    I don’t know. But at this point, I’m not so concerned about Hymenaeus and Alexander. I’m concerned about Tom and Harry and Sally and Susie and me. So, do you have the faith? Do you have the good conscience? I just end with this. What gives you good conscience? The word. is the standard.

    The motive is fear of God and gratitude for his grace. And the goal is, is this for the glory of God and the good of others? I hope we’re sailing together to the celestial city, and none of us will shipwreck. I mean that with all my heart and soul, that not one of you will be lost. I have friends. Brett may have this experience too, and Dan, who went to seminary with me, who were far smarter, far more capable, and no longer believe in Jesus Christ. They’ve not only been demitted from the ministry, they’ve apostatized.

    May God grant us safe sailing into the arms of our Savior. Let’s pray. Father, as individuals and leaders, the whole congregations, Lord, we need to maintain the faith. We want to be like Ephesus. We want to love the truth and be able to discern. Lord, we want that. We don’t want to ever become like the churches around us that are muddleheaded and just muddying up the gospel. But also, Lord, we want to maintain that first love, that zeal, that incredible passion for Jesus Christ.

    We can’t do that without a good conscience, a conscience that helps us when we stray to the left or the right and helps us to fulfill that injunction of scripture. Deviate neither to the left nor to the right. Do not add to nor subtract from the word of God. Just remain faithful. Help us, Lord God, to come into your arms, we pray, in Christ’s name. Amen. If you’ll take your hymnals with me and turn and stand.

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  • Guard the Deposit

    Guard the Deposit

    About this sermon

    Paul’s final charge to Timothy is to guard the deposit entrusted to him and to avoid irreverent babble and the contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. The Levites guarded the tabernacle, and Adam was placed in the garden to keep it but let the unclean in. The deposit is the gospel, the Scriptures, and the flock, and the pastor is an under-shepherd. Christ, the true King and Shepherd, guards his church through faithful ministry. Paul’s letter ends as it began: “Grace be with you.”

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    Sermon transcript

    First reading Genesis 2, 15 through 17. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.

    Numbers 18 1-7 So the Lord said to Aaron, you and your sons and your father’s household with you shall bear the guilt in connection with the sanctuary. And you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt in connection with your priesthood, but bring with you also your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be joined with you and serve you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

    And they shall thus attend to your obligation and the obligation of all the tent. But they shall not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary and the altar, or both they and you shall die, will die. They shall be joined with you and attend to the obligations of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent. But an outsider may not come near you. you shall attend to the obligations of the sanctuary and the obligations of the altar so that there will no longer be wrath on the sons of Israel. Behold, I myself have taken your fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to perform the service for the tent of meeting. But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil. And you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.

    First Timothy 6, 20 and 21. O Timothy, guard that, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter, and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed, and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

    That ends the reading of God’s holy inspired word. May it be a blessing to us. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to the end of this book, the end of this epistle. We thank you for the way that you have been with us, but we have a little bit more. Be with us, strengthen us, show us your word of truth. And cause us to long for heaven because of this. Cause us to know the Lord Jesus Christ. For truly, heaven is heaven only because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because you are there, oh Father, and because your Holy Spirit is there. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

    Well, we come, as I said, to the end of 1 Timothy. And it is possible that these are the last words of Paul. The last inspired words that Paul will ever write. This could be Paul’s last letter. you might be thinking that seems really strange because this letter has a one in front of it and there is excuse me a number one in front of it and there’s a number two in the next letter so this is not paul’s last letter well it’s easy for us because hindsight is 20 20 we know that there’s going to be another one But Paul does not know that. And so this, in his mind, if we can push away against reading the Bible as a completed whole and read it as Timothy would have read it, read it as Paul wrote it, We understand that this very well could be his last.

    He could be beheaded the next day after this, for all he knows. For he is not guaranteed another day. Well, we know that it is not his last. We come to this letter. We come to the end of this letter. We notice in this last year and three months, this last 15 months that we have spent in it, we see that this letter begins in the same way that it ends. And it ends in the same way that it began.

    It begins by telling us to oppose error and to proclaim truth. And that is what we are told to do in this passage, to oppose error and to proclaim truth. 1 Timothy 1 verse 5 is a verse that really is a thread that works itself throughout the whole letter. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. It is love that causes the preacher to oppose error and to proclaim truth. We might review this letter, this epistle, just very briefly what we have seen in these last 15 months.

    Chapter 1, oppose those who are false and who are teaching false ideas and false things. Chapter 2, deals with women, deals with praying for all people. even for wicked rulers and wicked magistrates. They are to be prayed for. Chapter 3, what did we learn there? We learned about pastors. We learned about deacons and how the church is to be set up Chapter four, we read about the latter days and we have another mixture of instruction that is given to us there. In chapter five, we have instruction on widows and how we are to deal with elders in the church And then chapter six, we have profession of faith, how to make profession of faith and the basis for making a profession of faith.

    And we also have in chapter six, a glorious vision of Jesus’s second coming for he is coming. Oppose error and proclaim truth. In our passage though, the one that we come to 20 and 21, we have Paul telling Timothy that you must guard the deposit which is entrusted to you. Very particular language, very specific language. It is the same kind of language that would be used for a bank account. guard the deposit that has been entrusted to you at the bank. You might say that to your bank Second Timothy, which we know that Paul wrote later, has something else to say about this that really gets at the heart of it, of reaffirming what he says here.

    Second Timothy 1.14, Paul says, by the spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit which is entrusted to you. We have to ask ourselves, What is the deposit?

    What is entrusted to Timothy? What is entrusted to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? There are a couple of things. We could say even a few. That which is entrusted to the church is the gospel itself. That which is given to the church and deposited in the church is the scriptures by which we know and learn that gospel of Jesus crucified and raised for us. And that deposit, which is given to Timothy as well, is the flock itself. It is the church of which he is a minister. And we have in 1 Timothy a glorious picture of the gospel which is to be protected, which is to be deposited, and is entrusted, and is to be guarded.

    In 1 Timothy 3.16 we have those wonderful words, that poem, that song. He, that is Jesus Christ, God, was manifested in the flesh. vindicated by the Spirit, Jesus was seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and Jesus was taken up in glory. The church has the gospel, and the church must guard against error and proclaim that truth. So I’m not making it specific, you see, it’s the gospel, it is the scriptures and it is the flock of people, the flock of sheep that are deposited into Timothy’s care.

    What does it mean to be a pastor? It really means to be a shepherd. Timothy was a shepherd, he was the under-shepherd. Ultimately, Jesus Christ is the true shepherd, and the good shepherd, the full shepherd. And everyone else who is under him is a minister, is just an under-shepherd.

    And they answer to him. It is important that we understand the way that a pastor answers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and will answer to him on the day of judgment. Pastor Knox and I will give an account for our ministry among us, and so will any other pastor who has come before, and any pastor who will be in the future, whether you stay here, whether Lord and His providence takes you elsewhere, Wherever you grew up, every minister, every pastor will give an account before God on that day. Really, we must understand that the church of Jesus Christ is not fun and games. It is a serious matter, a serious matter of opposing error and of proclaiming the truth. How are we to understand guarding this deposit. It’s interesting as we look at the way that words are used in the Bible. You might think of what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 17. In 1 Samuel chapter 17, we have the precursors to what’s eventually going to be David and Goliath. Remember the story of young David during that time. Young David is just a shepherd, but his father Jesse sends him to go bring some things to his brothers.

    Bring some parched grain and bring some bread, 10 loaves of bread. I want you to give that to your brothers, Jesse says. What I also want you to do is take this cheese, take this cheese and I want you to give that to the commander of the thousand. That is the commander of the thousand men that David’s brothers was in.

    You can imagine him carrying this, this deposit that has been given to him. He has to deliver this so that they might be nourished. Can you imagine what would have happened if someone had tried to take that, if there were some marauders on the trail there? Surely he would have defended that with his life.

    He wanted to get that to his brothers, to get that gift to the commanders. when David says that he wants to go face the giant, to face the giant where his brothers, his older brothers, all the thousands of Israelites, none of them were desirous to go to war with one-on-one against Goliath.

    He says, I’m going to do it. I want to do it. And they say, Well, you’re a little young and we’re not sure you ought to do that. And he says, you know, listen, I have experience in these kinds of things. Do you understand that I guard my father’s flock? And there have been times when a lion comes or a bear comes. When that lion or that bear comes and tries to steal from the flock, you know what I do? I’ve killed them. I can kill a lion. I can kill a bear. That is how important it is to guard my father’s flock.

    What a picture of the gospel and what a wonderful picture of guarding against error and guarding the sheep We are told, Timothy is told, Timothy, guard the deposit very serious. As we look in Genesis chapter 2, we see the idea of guarding as well. In Genesis 2, chapter 15, we see that Adam is told, as he is placed in the garden, to work it. and to keep it.

    I think some people have a bit of a romanticized view of what Adam was doing there. As if he just has a leisure time to just garden. And he has just cut a little here, and plant a little here, and prune back a little bit there. He certainly was doing that.

    When we come to that word, keep it, and then keep it, not just work it, but keep it, it is the same word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament as Paul uses for Timothy in our target passage. He has to keep it, but there is really a guardianship, almost a militaristic understanding of it, as if he were a security guard for the garden. We all know the story that the serpent enters, tempts Eve, and eventually he partakes of it too, Adam partakes of it as well. But what should he have done?

    Understand that this was no regular garden. The Garden of Eden was a sanctuary. The Garden of Eden was a holy place and nothing unclean was to enter in because he was to guard against that happening. Adam was, among other things, a priest in the garden. What is a priest? A priest is one who ministers before the face of God.

    How was Adam born? Adam was born before the face of God. God shaped him, molded him, and he breathed into him the breath of life. The Holy Spirit entered into him and he became a living being. He began his existence face-to-face with God. He was a priest in that garden. We could say, retroactively, he was a Levite in that garden. He was to guard it and to protect it. And if anything had come in would make it impure. He should have entered into a form of holy war against it. He should have destroyed whatever entered in. He allowed that which was unclean to enter into the holy place and defile it. And God kicked Adam and Eve out. He allowed the anti-Lord, to be his lord and his wife’s lord.

    Interesting though, that same word, keep it, guard it, be a security guard. We turn to Numbers chapter 18, and guess what? The same word is used. Keep it, that is guard it, like a security guard. And that is what the Levites are in Numbers chapter 18. There was another place earlier on in Numbers that I would have been glad to read to you. Same idea. Guard the sanctuary. Guard the tent.

    Do not let anyone or anything come in. Even fellow Levites that were unclean. Even fellow Hebrews, they were not allowed into that place. And especially Gentiles, for they have filth running through them ceremonially. They have pig and other sorts of creeping, crawling things within them. You cannot allow them to enter into the sanctuary, which is a holy place.

    The Levites ministered before the face of God, but the Levites were security guards. We could say, Adam, Guard the deposit, that is the garden that’s been given to you. Levites, guard the deposit that has been given to you, namely the holy place and the most holy place, for they are to be holy unto the Lord. And if anything unclean or anyone were to enter into that sanctuary, that holy place, We see that they were to be put to death.

    Really, it is holy war once again to go into defense mode and to go into attack mode and really show no mercy. You can’t enter into this place. You will defile it. Gives a picture of what Paul is telling Timothy. Now, don’t misunderstand me. In no way, shape, or form am I saying that Timothy ought to enter into a literal holy war. Not at all. Those are Old Testament concepts and they pass away with the land and with those people.

    But as New Testament believers, we understand that the war that we rage is not literal, it is not carnal, but it is a holy war before our God. Ephesians talks about this at the end, talking about the sword, and the belt, and the helmet, and the armor, and the shield, and all of these things. And 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says similar words, with holy war in mind, but spiritual holy war. for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divine. They have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. It is a holy war. but the tools of prayer, preaching the word of God, and even the sacraments.

    And these are all to be protected, for they have been entrusted to the elders, entrusted to the pastors, entrusted to all of you. Now the ancient people, the Hebrews, they had these things entrusted to them as well, but they were unfaithful in them. That is what almost our whole Old Testament is about. The people who had something entrusted to them, and they were not faithful to them. Romans 3-2 tells us that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. This is very serious. They had the oracles of God. They had the prophets, they had the scriptures, they had God himself and they were unfaithful.

    Romans chapter nine talks about the deposit that was entrusted to the Jewish church and the deposit is to the Israelites. What is deposited to them that they did not guard the adoption of sons, the glory of God. The covenants were given to them. The giving of the law was given to them. Worship, the promises of God, the patriarchs, to the Old Testament church, all these were given.

    And they failed to guard this deposit. As we sang Psalm 127, there we read about the guards, the guards of the city. guarding the deposit that was given to them. But notice that we sang in Psalm 127 verse 1, that unless the Lord guards, unless He is doing it, that they do so in vain.

    Ultimately, It is not the pastors who are doing it. It’s not Timothy. It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is the King. Great David’s greater son who sits on his throne and he rules and he reigns. And through the means of the church, he is protecting and he is guarding these things, guarding the oracles of God. and the Lord Jesus Christ as the King. He is protecting his church even as he has told Timothy and Paul to do.

    He says, Timothy, avoid irreverent babble. How does our translation have it? It has it differently. Avoiding worldly and empty chatter. before the founding of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, there was a little bit of irreverent babble. There was some godless chatter.

    There were missionaries who came along and they said, You know, we need a new idea of missions. We don’t need to worry about the old reasons for missions. There was a missionary, a professor in China who also functioned as a missionary, and she said the old reasons for missions, original sin, the deity of Christ, the atonement, Christ’s resurrection, Those are the old reasons, and they’re worn out like an old cloak. We’ve moved into the modern age. People don’t need those things. new reasons for missions. All we need is medicine and agriculture and education and engineering. These kinds of things that will cause the Chinese people and other places that have a third world existence, if we can just help them to modernize. They don’t need this superstition. They don’t need this magic religion, she said. Well, certainly we are in favor of our missionaries helping out with medicine. I hope so.

    Agriculture, education and engineering. But if it does not come with the gospel of Christ crucified, then even our medicine and our agriculture and our education and engineering will be a part of that irreverent babble. and that empty chatter. The gospel must be proclaimed, and error must be avoided, and at times it must be opposed. It must be guarded against. And Timothy ends.

    Paul writes, grace be with you that is how our translation of the pew has it grace be with you now if you to read this you might think you have one minister just blessing another minister you could think that it’s simply me saying to pastor knox grace be to you that would be worthwhile if you read it that way But the Greek gives us something that the English does not.

    It gives you in the plural. Southern speak would say, grace be to y’all. All right. Grace be to everyone. Now, you might be puzzled by that. You begin, and this is given to Timothy. This is a personal letter, is it not? So you would expect a personal one-on-one sort of greeting, and you would expect a personal one-on-one sort of blessing at the end. Why is it? that it’s not a personal one-on-one blessing at the end. It is plural.

    The reason is because Paul knew that what he was writing was scripture. And it was to be read in all the churches. It’s not just the personal interaction of one minister to another. This is to be read in all the churches of Jesus Christ, starting in Ephesus, on throughout the world, all the way to Grace OPC in Swickly. Timothy knew this is the inspired, inerrant, God-breathed, Holy Spirit-wrought Word of God.

    That’s why he is saying, grace be to you all. Or if I may, grace be to yins. This letter, Paul understood, and I believe Timothy understood as well, was part of the deposit that Timothy was to guard, that he was to keep. Grace be to you, Timothy. Grace be to you all, church of God. But understand this, there is no grace if there is not that deposit. There is no grace if there is no gospel. Grace be to you all. Grace be to Yenise. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Rich in Good Works

    Rich in Good Works

    About this sermon

    Paul tells Timothy to charge the rich in this present age not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides everything to enjoy. They are to do good, be rich in good works, and be generous and ready to share, storing up a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of true life. Wealth can vanish overnight. God gives some believers wealth so they can bless the church and missions, and those who have Christ are rich in the age to come.

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    Sermon transcript

    The Lord Jesus speaks to us this day. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

    Let’s open then to, or turn to 1 Timothy 6.17, our target passage.

    Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. So in the reading of God’s holy inspired word, let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. Cause us to tremble at it, but cause us to take joy in it.

    We do also ask that you would be with our sister Laura, who is constantly on our minds. As she is away from us, we ask that you would strengthen her. We thank you for the contacts that we have had with her, and many of us have had with her in this time. We do ask that you would bless her as she is away. Strengthen her by your grace, and strengthen us by this word, for your word is truth. Apply it to us. Apply us to it. In the name of Jesus we pray, the one who is so precious to us, Jesus our Lord. Amen.

    I appreciate the text that we have just read from the Apostle Paul, but the reason I appreciate this text is not simply because of the content. I appreciate this text because of the way that it comes to us. Remember in past weeks, or if you’re familiar with what has just come before us, we have a doxology. The Apostle Paul is writing, thinking about the day when the Lord Jesus comes, and he begins to just enter into praise.

    You could almost sing what he says. Praise God. And then he ends with amen. It’s almost as if he ends the letter there. You could really read 1 Timothy 1, 1 all the way to 6 to that doxology and just have him say amen. And you would have said, that is enough. That is sufficient. He’s said everything that he wants to say.

    But Paul is a preacher. And as a preacher, you know some preachers, it’s almost as if they’re not sure when to land. Coming in for the landing, pull up again. One more thing I have to say. And so that is what he does. One more thing. To God be eternal dominion. Amen. Oh, gotta say this.

    To the rich, to the wealthy in this present age. I think our translation says in this present world, but it would be more, it would be closer to the Greek to say this present age. We have two ages before us, this age and we have the age to come. Paul talks about the rich, those who are wealthy in this present age, this present evil age.

    He is talking about believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s not speaking about those who are non-Christians, who love their wealth. He’s talking about those in the church who love the Lord. He is not talking about those who desire to be rich. He’s already talked about that. He’s talked about that in verse 6, 9.

    He said, those who desire to be rich, they end up tangling themselves up. They get into trouble. He has some positive things to say to the rich, and he has some negative things to say to the rich. That is, what they ought to do and what they ought not to do. First, we start with the negative. That’s what the Apostle Paul begins with.

    He says, the rich who are within the church ought not to become conceited. They ought not to be haughty. They ought not to be arrogant about their wealth. They ought not to think that they are superior to the other brothers and sisters in the church.

    Certainly, there are many ways that we understand that we are equal, we are on an equal ground before the Lord. We are covered in the blood and we bring nothing to our salvation. But there are ways that all believers would seek to show themselves greater than other believers. He’s cautioning against that. Do not think yourself superior if you are rich.

    How does a man become rich? There are many ways that it can happen. Someone can be born into it, but even people who are born into it can waste it and throw it away. How does one become rich? Well, oftentimes, the most common way is someone becomes rich because God blesses that person. If someone has been blessed with a large amount of wealth, he ought not to think highly of himself as if it was his doing. You see, it is the Lord’s blessing that gives wealth.

    You could take two people of equal talent and equal intelligence, if there were such, and they both begin a business, it is God’s grace. Though they both work very hard to exceedingly bless one. and to mildly bless the other, or to make one very blessed financially and to the other to have just a little bit, or even to lose his business and lose everything.

    Everything comes crashing down upon him. Do not be cocky Do not be arrogant because it comes not from you. The rich man and the poor man are depending upon God’s mercy fully for all things. We love a rags-to-riches story, but We have to say that in reality, oftentimes, we have a riches to rags story. And that is what Paul is trying to talk about here in 17. Entrust, instruct those who are rich in this present age not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches. The uncertainty of riches.

    Our money can be here one day and gone the next. It can be gone, taken away. There are many people who are entrepreneurs. They understand the way that money can just come in our hands and fall out of it. There are some people we can think of, even, who have gained and lost three and four fortunes. That is to say, being very wealthy and then being on the street, and then wealthy once again and on the street. Do not put your focus, do not place your love upon the fleeting nature of money and of wealth.

    When I was working during seminary, I worked in a restaurant and there were some men there who were part of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s a group that does a lot to help people get off of alcohol, and they’ve expanded it to other different types of addictions. But in the Alcoholics Anonymous, you take 12 steps of recovery. Well, I wish that Alcoholics Anonymous used the Christian God rather than just God in general. But my point in bringing this up is not to talk about their God, although we should disassociate ourselves from the Alcoholics Anonymous and understanding of God.

    But some men came to me and they said, well, you’re going to be a minister. You’re going to be a pastor. You should read about Alcoholics Anonymous just in case some people in your church might have that sort of addiction. One of them gave it to me. I’ll never forget the first chapter of the Alcoholics Anonymous book.

    The writer describes the time of the stock market crash that eventually brings about the Great Depression. The stock market crashes. and people who had great wealth and really had put their faith in the stock market and wealth, not realizing the way that it can just be gone from us. It’s very trying to read. The people, they lose everything they have because of the stock market crash.

    The writer of the Alcoholics Anonymous book, whose name I don’t even know, he talks about those who just begin to jump off of buildings onto the pavement from stories up, many, many stories up, because they could not bear life without those things, without that great wealth. Very sad, very difficult. It is heartbreaking, but I believe it is a good picture of the way that putting your faith in riches and in wealth is suicide.

    But what about the positive? That’s where the negative ends, the positive begins. They are to put their faith in God, not in riches, not in wealth. Instruct them to, excuse me, put on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Verse 17. What a wonderful statement to come from God’s Word that God gives all things for us to enjoy. There are those who would seem to make it be the case that Christians are not to enjoy anything.

    We are to live our lives with sad faces, And we are to be depressed. We’re not to seek to have anything joyful. Maybe some people might think, I need to move out of the country. I need to go into a very small place and be with other people and just be depressed all day. That’s not the Christian life.

    Paul is saying that God gives good things for people to enjoy, for wealthy Christians to enjoy. for those who are not so wealthy Christians. He gives these things for their enjoyment. The people that I’m talking about, the people that Paul is talking about, is those who are called Aesthetics. ascetics. Pardon me. Ascetics. An ascetic says, I want to live a holy life. I’m not going to get married because that would bring joy to my life. I’m not going to eat good food. That would bring enjoyment to my life as well.

    See, the Apostle Paul, he is taking aim at two separate groups. Those who are wealthy and those who would intentionally not enjoy anything in life. but he has dealt with them in chapter four as well. You see, in a sense, he’s really summing up this whole book. He’s saying that he’s talking about the enjoyment of this life and of this world, not as a friend of this world, not as the wicked who do not understand God and do not know Him, but to enjoy the finer things of life.

    That is not wrong for the Christian to do. It is not wrong for the Christian to enjoy good food and marriage, to enjoy the theater, to enjoy good music and to enjoy sports. Certainly, it’s best not to indulge in these things on the Lord’s Day, all of them. Let those things be for the other six days.

    But God, in His grace, has given wonderful things for us to enjoy in culture and all things. Just look at food. Have you ever thought of food? Just the glory of what God has done in food. So many colors, so many tastes, so many textures and varieties. If someone were a chef among us, he’d be able to even discuss that even more and tell us all the more about it. This is God’s grace, his common grace to all people. He could have made all food taste like manna. Very bland. He could have made all food taste like vanilla. And that would be very vanilla indeed.

    God has given grace to people that we might enjoy these things. It is not wrong. Paul says the rich are to do good. Rich people do good. But wait, how? He does not say, he is not specific, and he does not need to be. Certainly we must admit that the nature of wealth, that those who are wealthy have more of an opportunity, many times, to do good things. Let me just give an example to you.

    Someone who was very wealthy. Imagine the Bill Gates, something like that. Someone who was very, very wealthy, that a million dollars is no problem at all. If that person were a Christian, or if I were in his shoes, I’d like to think I would give a million dollars to a chair, the chair of Vossian Biblical Theology, to the local seminary. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

    I can’t do that. I don’t have anything close to that. Certainly not. And many of us, maybe all of us here, could not do such a thing. But a wealthy person, a really wealthy person, has opportunity to do wonderful things that we do not have. The Apostle says, do good. And leaves it at that. I know of a a Christian within a reformed church, and he’s a bit well-to-do. He does not flaunt it. You know what he does?

    Every Lord’s Day, brings 30 people to his house, has a table big enough for 30 people That church is doing well for many, many reasons. Many reasons. The word is preached there, the sacraments are faithfully administered, but fellowship It’s really strong, it’s very strong there. In large part because of a very wealthy person who was able to have 30 people at his place on a Sunday. If there’s anyone new, a visitor, come to this person’s house and he works through the rest of the congregation as well. Think about the ways that God blesses wealthy people so that they can bless the rest of the church. It is a wonderful thing that all of us, or many of us, have not opportunity to do.

    Paul says to store up treasure in heaven, even as the Lord Jesus Christ tells us to do. Store up treasure in heaven. Jesus says to do that where moth and rust do not corrupt and those who would be robbers do not break in and steal. And he says that those who are wealthy, who would give of the things that they have, would actually be gaining in the age to come, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

    The Apostle Paul is not undoing The fact that we are saved by grace. He is reaffirming that. We are saved by grace. But a wealthy person who gives of the things that he has, he certainly gains something in the next life. We certainly ought not to think that if a wealthy person just gives away everything that he has, that he will gain eternal life.

    Jesus tells a rich young ruler, a man comes to him and says, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, well, obey the Ten Commandments. And the man says, no problem, I’ve done that from my youth. And Jesus says, well, in that case, sell everything you have, and then Only then will you have eternal life.

    Jesus is not talking about works-based righteousness, that that man would have actually done so. He would not have earned life. He did not have it in the first place, and he proved so by showing that money was his God. That man was not building a foundation for the age to come.

    But those who are believers, who would give of what they have, will gain in the future. And the future is the time which is truly life. We will have life indeed, and we are putting away for that. The whole of the Christian’s desire is in the blessings of the future, ultimately. because there we have an inheritance by our God. 1 Peter 1, 3, and 4 speaks about the future and the inheritance that we have. While we are in this world that’s passing away, Peter says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

    Here, to an inheritance. And what is that inheritance that we have? All believers, we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. We have an inheritance that is given to us by grace, but that which we give in this life, We somehow gain something in the next, and there is certainly mystery to that.

    But we know that our inheritance cannot perish, it cannot be defiled, and it cannot pass away. Heaven is the place in which the rich Christian, and every Christian, must be investing And that is not the case with our earthly treasure. Riches may leave us while we live. But we must leave them when we die.

    So what Paul is saying is, even as the Lord Jesus has said, invest in the future. Invest in that which is truly life. Lose that which you have here, and you will have it in the age to come. Certainly, the apostle’s not saying to make yourself poor. We’re not talking about any vows of poverty. Those are not biblical at all.

    God gives much to one and a little to the next. And we all should praise God for what he has given for each other, because he has given many, many gifts. It certainly is the case that a Christian can be used of God outside of the ministry. I hope you understand that. There are many people who think that Christianity, it’s as if only those who are ordained do the really ministerial stuff. God gives opportunity for all of us to bring people into worship. There are many things that we can do, but how much more for the wealthy person I know of a person who thought, I need to be in ministry because that’s what Christians are supposed to do. I need to be concerned with the lost.

    This person tried to go into ministry and found out that he had no gifts for it. But he had gifts for making money, and for making money very, very well, and for making a lot. You know what this person did? He said, God has not called me into ministry, Realize that if he puts a lot of money away, he can be giving it off to missions. And that person gave many millions and millions of dollars to missions. He understood what God had called him to. He understood the gifts that God had given. And that person was giving away that he might not have what was fading, so that he might gain in the life to come, investing in the future.

    But what will treasure in heaven look like? What will it be like? Will some have more than others? It seems to be the case. Will some people be jealous in heaven that others seem to have more than others? I don’t know. I do know this. We will not have a sin nature, so there will be no jealousy. What will treasure in heaven look like?

    We can only guess, and we ought not to guess. We ought to focus more on the one who is the giver of all good gifts, focusing upon the Father, focusing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be without sin. even the sins of jealousy and of pride. And we will praise God for the crowns that we wear, and we will lay our crowns down at the throne of God. For truly, even the things that we have in heaven will be demonstrations of His grace. But who is rich among us? Are there people here who are rich?

    If you listen to politicians as they speak, they almost want to set a certain numerical amount. This is the amount that is, if you make over this amount, you’re rich. If you make under that, you are not. And that number seems to be shifting and shifting.

    Very strange. We certainly would not want to define wealth and riches by the ways of this world, by unbelievers who are seeking to define it simply so that they might tax people. There is not an absolute line. By many stretches of the imagination, we would think that all of us here As we compare ourselves with other people within the United States, we are not rich. I would assume so. I do not know.

    But if we compare ourselves with people outside of this country, compare ourselves with those who might live in squalor, not having enough water and food and not having clothing and shelter, well by that, We are all rich for we have all of these things. So are we rich or are we not? I will leave it for you to decide. Are we rich in this present age? We began by talking about those who are rich in this present age or in this present world as our translation says it.

    The Apostle Paul is a preacher, and a preacher of Christ is one who proclaims another realm. That is what a preacher is. That is what a preacher does. He proclaims a heavenly place. He proclaims the age to come, the place in which we are all rich. if we have had Christ save us, if He has drawn us to Himself. We are rich according to the age to come. That’s what Paul is inferring at the beginning of verse 17. We are wealthy and rich in the age to come if we have the Lord Jesus Christ.

    He hides our unrighteousness with His righteousness. The Lord Jesus covers our disobedience with his obedience. The Lord Jesus shadows our death with his death. That the wrath of God cannot find us. We are rich if we know the Lord Jesus Christ. Rich indeed, rich in the age to come. Amen. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The King of Kings and Lord of Lords

    The King of Kings and Lord of Lords

    About this sermon

    Paul’s doxology in 1 Timothy 6 praises God as the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. No one can look on God’s full glory and live, but the only Son has made him known: whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father. Earthly rulers fade like passing fashions, while Christ’s government and peace increase without end. His people respond with praise: “Our God reigns.”

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    Sermon transcript

    to 1st Timothy, chapter 1, verse 17. 1st Timothy 1, 17, and then we’ll just turn a page or a few over, depending on your Bible, to 1st Timothy 6, 15 and 16. When someone reads the Bible, God is speaking. May we be mindful of that. Let us hear God’s word. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

    Turning to 1st Timothy 6, 15 and 16. We begin mid sentence here, which he will bring about at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To him be glory, to be the honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

    So ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired word. When I see honor and eternal dominion, I just want to pour more on. No, you’re supposed to be reading. Pardon me. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, bless us with your word, for we need it. This word is our meat and our drink. May we feast this day, in Jesus’ name, amen.

    For our meditation this day, I would point you to one other verse that will help us to have the lights of these passages shined upon us. that we might see God’s glory in these written words. The verse, the words that I would point you to is Isaiah 52, 7. You don’t need to read it or open to it. I’m going to read it to you.

    But what I want you to see this day is that the Lord Jesus is King. The Lord is King. Isaiah 52. 7. It reads, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. It’s those last three words I want you to just bark upon. Your God reigns. And you can make it personal about you. Our God reigns. That’s what I want you to understand.

    We come to these passages, to these two texts, these doxologies in 1 Timothy. One is given in the beginning of the book, in what became the first chapter, and one is almost at the end. And they seem to be mirror images of each other in many ways, especially the way that they break down in the Greek. Both of these passages contain no verbs in the original Greek.

    However, they are supplied for us by the translators of the English. But it’s oftentimes in God’s Word where we find verbless praise to God. Think of what the angels say at the birth of Christ. Glory to God. in the highest. There’s no verb there. It’s just glory and to the one who it is given. Glory to God. Equally we have that here. Why? Why are these placed here? Why are they placed in the two separate places that we find them?

    One in 117, where Paul just erupts into praise. And then the second one, where Paul seems to just erupt into praise again. It’s as if you can just imagine him writing, and he’s writing to Timothy, and then The things that he’s writing about become so real and so clear to him that he must pause for just a moment and say, praise God, give honor and praise to the king who reigns. And it is my desire, it’s my hope that you would this day, this day, like every day, but especially on the Lord’s day, that you would magnify the Lord your God, that you would magnify the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart and in your mind this day. May we be with Paul, who is just, he’s just trucking along in his writing, and he just goes into praise. some of the high points, the pinnacles of praise to the Lord Jesus and to our God in the writings of Paul, and especially in the pastoral epistles. So what of the first chapter? What of the first chapter in that doxology, that praise that Paul gives there? What are we to think of that? I’ll just remind you of the context. Paul is writing about himself. He’s talking about God’s amazing grace.

    He says, I was a sinner. I was a blasphemer. By many stretches of the imagination, Paul was a law keeper. Law keeper extraordinaire, humanly speaking. There was no one like him in his generation. But yet, he was a sinner, a blasphemer, a wicked man. It’s amazing what God does for Paul. For anyone else, we would think of the worst man. We think of Paul, it has such a good connotation, we think, Paul. But that’s not how the first generation of Christians would have seen him. They would have been frightened at the very name of Saul, which he was before.

    God had grace on this one, that he is headed for eternal destruction. God holds him back and grasps him. He is one who is, as it were, snatched from the flames that he was about to enter into. What an amazing God this is. But he would not only make the one who was the greatest enemy into his friend, he would make the greatest enemy of the Christian church to really be the premier theologian of the apostolate. The great theologian of the apostles. And so it is there when Paul’s thinking of where he was headed and God had grace to save him. But then God has even more grace that he causes him to be not just a preacher, but one who writes about one third of the New Testament.

    This is amazing what God has done. And he begins to just erupt. And what does he say? These glorious words, I read them again now to the eternal king, the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. What can you do to respond to God’s grace to you? Praise him. Thank him, praise eternal, be heaped upon this one. He is the king of ages. Christ is the king of the temporal realm, but he’s also king of the atemporal realm. He is the king of the place where there is no time. But He enters into time that He might be exalted as King.

    God is immortal. God is imperishable. But in the Lord Jesus Christ, we see Him put into a grave and beginning to be found immortal or perishing. but raised from the dead. God is invisible, but in Christ we see God. John tells us in John 1 18, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the right, at the Father’s side. He has made Him known. No one has ever seen God, but Jesus has made Him known. But Jesus can speak in very real ways.

    He can say, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. John 14, 9. We cannot see God’s full glory. We cannot behold all of God. We would be consumed and it would be unknowable to us. But in Christ, who reveals the Father. We know God in a very real way.

    So, the first instance, Paul is talking about himself, and then he erupts into that praise, as I said. That’s why it’s in that first instance. But then we must ask, what about the second time? At the end of the book, why does Paul enter into this doxology, into this praise? Paul’s not talking about the first coming of Christ. He’s not talking about what God has done for him in Christ. It’s the thought of Christ’s second coming. And the context that precedes this in chapter 6 is all about the second coming. The context speaks of fighting the good fight of faith. This is not war imagery, it’s athletic imagery. To fight the good fight, box the good boxing match, we could say.

    That is, continue to make profession of faith before an unbelieving world until Jesus comes back. That’s what Paul is saying there. He says, just as the Lord Jesus made a profession of heavenly things, before a wicked ruler, Pontius Pilate. So, the Christian Church must continue to keep, to hold on to the faith and proclaim Christ and believe in Him with every fiber of its being, both corporately and also individually. He’s saying, Praise this one. Praise him because he is coming again.

    The one who made that profession of faith before Pontius Pilate, he is coming back because he has been raised from the dead and he is going to judge the world. And just the thought of that, the thought of seeing his savior and being free from sin causes him to praise God. Does the thought of your being saved cause you to want to praise God like Paul does in the first instance? Does the thought of seeing your Savior face to face, does it cause you to want to erupt into praise in your heart?

    Surely it must. I hope that it does. First, in the chapter six doxology, Paul speaks of the king of the earth. And then he speaks of his heavenly brilliance. He’s talking about Jesus. First, king of the earth, and then his heavenly brilliance. Look what he says. He said, Jesus is the blessed and only sovereign. Jesus is the only sovereign, the only ruler. We could say the only court official. It can mean that as well. Now why does Paul say it like that? Is Paul blind to the fact that the world is full kings and of officials and of people in courts? Is Paul blind? Paul is not blind at all.

    What he is saying is that the Lord Jesus Christ has come and He has done what He has intended. He has died, He has risen from the dead, and He has gone to be with His Father, that is, ascending to be with Him. He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and there He rules.

    The Lord Jesus reigns. And there is no ruler like the Lord Jesus. There is none. For all of the other rulers are human. And this one is God. Surely we must understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is king before he comes into the world. Before he comes into the world, he is creator Lord. He is providential sustainer of all things. He is king.

    But with Jesus’s death and all the things that I just mentioned that come after that, He enters into a new role of kingship, where he is dust of the earth, ruling as God, because he’s fully God, and he is fully resurrected humanity. And he is different then than all other rulers, all other court officials. He rules heaven and earth, the unseen and the seen world. He rules them all. He is ruler of angels. He is ruler of the animal kingdom. He is ruler of every single thing. There is nothing that he is not the ruler of. There is no part of this earth where he needs to take back a portion of it. It is all his. And that does not even compare.

    Other magistrates, I should say, governmental officials do not even compare with the lasting reign of the incarnate resurrected ruler of heaven and earth. All of the kingdoms of earth are as a passing fad compared to the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom rule. All of the kingdoms of the earth go the way of bell-bottoms and lava lamps and Rubik’s cubes and 8-track players. They just are passing away compared with the lasting reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Theirs is as a passing, fading glory, but the Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom is as an expanding glory.

    Does Isaiah not tell us that of the increase of his government, there will be no end. His government will continue to increase throughout eternity. So we could say, compared with all the other sovereigns of the world, he is the only sovereign. Because theirs is so small, it does not count. He is king of all the earth, then. He is, as the Greek says, king of those kinging. King of those reigning. He is lord of those lording.

    All who would be rulers. passing away. Other kings are often deposed. Someone who is close to them comes along and works their way up and might assassinate that person and push them out and make themselves the king. Think of Julius Caesar, those words that cut to the heart. He says, et tu, Brute. You too, Brutus. I can’t believe you would be one of them who would seek to get rid of me, to depose me, to assassinate me.

    But there is none of that going on in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ’s kingdom cannot be deposed. And because of that, Paul must praise God because He is the eternal King, the only one. But we also must think of and talk of His heavenly brilliance, which is the second half, the second portion of this doxology. Jesus only has immortality. That is what Paul is putting before us. As he says, he alone possesses immortality. Just pause on that for a moment. Jesus alone possesses immortality. You might think of what your Bible says and you might say, well, I have immortality in one sense.

    I mean, God has made me a living soul. And part of that is I’m going to live forever, whether in heaven or hell. I will live forever. There are no living souls that God has put his image into, namely mankind, humankind. There are none that will pass away and cease to exist. All will continue to exist. So we can say, well, I have immortality. Does not, is Paul making too much of a case for this? Well, It is true that we have immortality, and really angels do too. They’re not going to be destroyed.

    But when we compare our immortality that we’ve been given by grace through faith, it does not compare with the immortality of the Lord Jesus Christ. His immortality is an immortality of creator. and ours is an immortality of creature. John tells us in the fourth verse of his gospel, in him was life. In Jesus was life. In the Father is life, and in the Son is life, and they have life eternal. from eternity past, eternity future, they have life eternal, even in the realm in which there is no time. And Jesus Christ comes into this world, and as he tells dear one in John chapter 11, he tells one who is heartbroken, He tells Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus Christ, who is always immortal life, enters into human flesh, dies and is raised, and now He is immortal, resurrection, glorious life.

    Paul, how can we not desire to praise God with Paul because of this? He says that Jesus Christ is hidden. Now usually, young people, if you want to find a good place to hide, where do you hide if your friends are trying to look for you? You hide in the dark. You find a place that’s dark and secluded where they will not find you.

    That’s not the way that the Lord Jesus in His glory is hidden. No. We can say that someone could be hidden in plain sight, but that’s different. The Lord Jesus in His glory is hidden in plain light. If you were to look upon Jesus’ glory, you would not be able to see His glory because of the brightness of it. Young people, if you were to look into the sun directly, and I don’t recommend that you do, you would not be able to do it for very long, and if you do, it could be damaging to your eyes. God is so glorious, the Lord Jesus is so glorious, that if you would look at Him, You would not be able to see him because of the brilliance, the brightness of his light and his glory, but we are able to see him in his human nature, and we shall see him in his human nature, and that’s why Paul praises him.

    And so he heaps upon him honor and eternal dominion, and he says, amen and amen. But as I asked at the outset, why is it that both of these are placed where they are? There are no accidents in where God places what he wants to have placed in his word, and there are no accidents in Paul’s writing either.

    What we must understand is that if our hearts do not beat for His first coming and His saving of His people, then our hearts will not beat for Him when He comes. For all mankind, no one will enter into heaven whose heart has not already been there. As believers in Christ, our hearts do not beat as the drumbeat which is headed for a cliff that is about to be ended, about to be finished as it gets closer and closer to the last beat. As believers in Christ who have been redeemed, doxology is the rhythm of our heartbeat. Why does Paul place these doxologies where they are? Because we love God’s first coming in Christ and we love His second coming.

    Does Timothy not know that the Lord Jesus is King? Yes, Timothy knows it. He’s a preacher of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So why does Timothy need to be reminded? Why does Paul remind him of these things? Over 300 years ago, a preacher named Cotton Mather said what I’m about to read. He says, the great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men. Isn’t that what the preacher is seeking to do? Timothy is a preacher. Paul understands this. He says, he’s saying, I must implant this great design, this intention of restoring the throne of dominion and glory of God in Timothy’s heart, in his soul, so that he might In turn, give it to the people who need it as well.

    That is exactly what preaching is. Preaching is proclaiming the kingdom of our God. So it is with that thought that we turn to think of those words that we got from Isaiah. It’s a text about preaching, where he says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. It’s talking about preachers. And what do they say?

    Your God reigns. Your God reigns. The promises that were given to Abraham by the Father are fulfilled in Christ, the true seed. And we have been blessed because of it. And he has been enthroned in glory so that we can say, our God reigns. Our God reigns.

    And we will see him as John has seen him. For John sees. In the book of Revelation, on His robe and on His thigh, Jesus has a name written. And what is it? King of kings and Lord of lords. Your God reigns. Does He reign in your heart? May we say it together. Our God reigns. Say it together. Our God reigns. Amen. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Appearing of Our Lord

    The Appearing of Our Lord

    About this sermon

    Paul charges Timothy to keep the commandment until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about at the proper time. Christ has two appearings: his first coming in humiliation, ending in his exaltation, and his second coming in glory. Believers live between the two and look for him as the bride in the Song of Solomon longs for her beloved. On that day the last will be first and believers will share in judging the world. Until then, they keep their confession unstained.

    More sermons from 1 Timothy · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Our second reading will be just dipping into one verse, 1 Timothy 1-7, and lastly 1 Timothy 6, 14 through 16. And we will have 14b and 15a as our target verses for this day. Assuming we are all there, Song of Solomon 2, starting with verse 7. I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or by the hinds of the field, that you do not arouse or awaken love until she pleases. Listen, my beloved.

    Behold, he is coming, climbing on the mountains, leaping on the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he is standing behind our wall. He is looking through the windows. He is peering through the lattice. My beloved responded and said to me, Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along.

    For behold, the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land. The time has arrived for pruning the vines, and the voice of the turtle dove has been heard in our land. The fig tree has ripened its figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.

    Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. Oh, my dove. in the clefts of the rock, in the secret place of the steep pathway. Let me see your form. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your form is lovely. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyards while our vineyards are in blossom. Pardon me, one more. My beloved is mine, and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies.

    Let’s turn to 1 Timothy 1.17. Paul gives praise to God. He erupts in praise to God, saying, Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

    1 Timothy 6.14 You keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To him be glory and eternal dominion. Amen.

    Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would send the Lord Jesus Christ in your time, in the time that you plan. We ask, oh Father, that you would give us grace. Give us your truth in the meantime. Give us all of which we stand in need. In Jesus’ name, amen.

    You may have noticed that I skipped a few words. Not by accident. That was on purpose. Sometimes you come across a word or so in your Bible, and it is italicized in some versions. That is because that word is not necessarily there in the Greek, but it is implied. Certainly it’s good to read the implied word but occasionally it is good to read the word as it is in its most literal way. Either way, both would be true.

    Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you this day Do you love the Lord’s appearing? Does the very thought of your Savior coming back excite your heart and fill your mind with joy and with grandeur? In Song of Songs, the bride looks forward to the coming of her beloved. She says, behold, He comes, and He does come. He comes as a gazelle. He comes as a young stag. He comes in power, but He comes in grace. Equally, the church of Jesus Christ looks forward to the day when the bridegroom will come. When that one will come who will come in power, and in grace, in an unmatched power and grace.

    Do you long for that day? Are you looking forward to that day? I hope you are. But in the meantime, from our context with this these verses tell us is that we must long for that day, but continue to profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess Him until that day, and confess a pure Christ, the one who is revealed to us in the scriptures of the Old and of the New Testament. Continue to do that fight, the good fight, until that day.

    That is what our text is telling us. Are you ready for the appearing of our Lord? Or as it says in the Greek, are you ready for the epiphany of the Lord? The word epiphany has worked its way into our English language, and an epiphany is oftentimes thought of just as an idea that comes to us out of the blue. I had an epiphany. I realized that I need to do this, this, and this. But in the old time, in Greek, 2,000 years ago, it was an appearing. Jesus Christ has two epiphanies, according to God’s word. He has a first epiphany and a second epiphany. His first coming, he comes in humiliation glory, and he will come again in exalted resurrection glory.

    Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ are not ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will be shocked on that day, the day in which they are shown to have known things about God. Indeed, they have known the true God, but they were suppressing it in unrighteousness. For those who are in Christ, for those who know Him, that will not be a day of terror.

    That will be the greatest day of our existence. It will be glorious beyond our understanding. But only for those who have loved His coming, loved His appearing, loved His cross, and loved His resurrection. That day will be the beginning of the eternal Sabbath. That will be the day of the Spirit. But to understand His second coming, we must understand a little bit about His first coming. That we might have informed minds so that our hearts would cry out to God about this. As I said, His first coming is in humiliation glory.

    In one sense, we could say there was little that was significant about the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginnings of His life. He was not born in a palace. He was born in a little humble place, in a humble town, and laid in a humble bed, a manger. Very humble beginnings for this one. We could even say humiliating for Him. He lived a life of means that were very low. He was not extravagant. He seems to have had access to all the things that were necessary, at least for the majority of his life. Food, clothing, but certainly not extravagant. but his humiliation, birth, and life were but preparation for his humiliation of death.

    His death is a glorious, but amazing, humiliating time in which the Lord Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross He did so that He might bring glory to His Father, that He might make His Father’s name to be known throughout all of the nations. He died on that cross. He suffered on that cross in great ways. Jesus Christ suffered on that cross at the hands of men and at the hands of God. And he suffered more than the accumulated sufferings of all mankind together. Surely we suffer, but not as much as the Lord Jesus Christ.

    He suffered greatly. It is one thing to be abandoned by man. How much more to be abandoned by his heavenly father, the one in whom he had eternal community, eternal communion, and joy. And there was a separation that he would cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He comes in glory in his humiliation, but he is resurrected.

    The Lord Jesus Christ came to life And He gave and continues to give eternal life to His people, to the ones that He has set His love upon, to average sinners, and to horrible sinners, and to the king of sinners, the chief of sinners. God, by His grace, bestows life upon the Apostle Paul. And in 1 Timothy 1, Paul is just amazed at how God has been so gracious to him, that of all people, this persecutor, this blasphemer, would be not only saved, but that he would be an example of God’s grace for the church of Ephesus, which this is written to, but all the churches that Paul wrote to and ministered to, but also he is an example to us of God’s amazing grace that God saves sinners, even the most vile of sinners. And we reach a point in 1 Timothy chapter 1 where Paul just praises God.

    It’s as if he just erupts into ecstatic praise. Now it’s a controlled praise. It is fenced in by the parameters of God’s Word and of who He is. But he just praises God. He says, now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. In the Greek, there is no verb there. It’s supplied by your English translators. It’s implied.

    And he just says, the king eternal, just praise be to him. Another implied verse or an implied word that he gives. but God is at the center of that praise. God’s first coming in Christ was in humiliation and eventual exaltation on the third day so that he might save his people. John 3, 17, surely the Apostle Paul would love these words and concur with them.

    For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Isn’t that amazing? God would look down upon sinners and say, I’m not going to send my son in there simply to just out and out condemn the whole world. I am going to send my son to save sinners and to show my grace and to show that they ought not to look for ways that they can measure up to me. They cannot. They are all sinners, and if I do not intervene, they will all be lost for eternity.

    But the Lord Jesus Christ enters into time and space to save that which was lost. That is His first coming. But what are we to know? What are we to think of His second coming, His second epiphany? We live, as it were, between the times. Between the times of His first coming and of His second coming. And the time to come is a time of consummate resurrection glory. many important events are going to take place on that day. And I want you to know what sort of events, not all of them, we’re not going to seek to be exhaustive, but what I want you to look forward to that day with knowledge and with understanding that you might not be surprised on that great day.

    On that day, all of the people in the graves will come out. They will be resurrected. They will be raised. Believers and non-believers, there is a unity to the complex set of events that is going to happen that day. We do not believe that Jesus Christ is going to bring certain people out of the grave at one time and then a number of years later bring a number of another number of people out of the grave. John says in 525, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. Every single person who has ever lived and died will be brought back to life in that day. The focus of the majority of God’s word is upon the resurrection of the saints, but all people will be raised. They will be resurrected on that day.

    It does not matter if someone’s grave is presently in the ground. Or, if they are in the sea, they will be raised, all people, on the same day, the saved and the unsaved. Every person who is alive though, who has not died at that time, everyone who is alive at that time, will be changed. As 1 Corinthians 15 says, in the flash, in the twinkling of an eye, we will all be changed. We will be fitted for eternity. That is what is going to happen on that day. All people will come back to life. That’s not it. Greater things than the resurrection will happen in that day. Christ will appear from heaven in that day.

    And He will come with His mighty flaming angels and He will come in flaming fire. And Christ will separate the sheep from the goats. He will put the goats on His left side. he will say, depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. This will be a day of terror when people hear that final That final condemnation, that sentence that they will, in a sense, be in prison, in a horrible prison for the rest of eternity, because they did not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, because they opposed the gospel of Christ in their own hearts and surely in the hearts and minds of people all around this world. But that’s not all. for those sheep, for those whom He has set His love upon from eternity past, those whom He has rescued, those will be on the other side and they are seen as sheep.

    And He will say those words that I long to hear and I hope you long to hear them as well. Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And in that day, the saints of God will marvel at the sight of their Savior, for He will be glorious on that day. All saints, those who are justified by faith alone and not by any works that they have done, those will wonder at their God.

    But There are other things that will happen on that day, and I must say I’m not so sure of the sequence of events. I know what’s going to happen that day. But there are some things that are still a bit of a mystery to me, and we must not be surprised when they happen, but we don’t know what exactly will be the order of events that day. Because the Bible says that we will judge That is, believers will judge those who are sinners.

    Isn’t that strange? God can do it himself, but he’s going to bring us to do that. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 2 tells us that. And isn’t that interesting that God is going to bring his people in to do a part of the judging. Now we understand that God does not need that, he doesn’t need our counsel, he doesn’t need our advice, but in his own way, for His own reasons, He has decided that it will be that way. Equally so, we could talk about the preaching ministry.

    God does not need to do things as He has done, to put preachers, bumbling, stumbling preachers up before you, Sunday after Sunday, who seek to preach about God’s grace and His holiness and His justice. God could have done a way that would be much more effective. He could have had angels come down and be beamed and explain his words to us. He could have just spoken with a voice Sunday by Sunday. But in his grace, he has put shepherds in congregations and he has decided to use them.

    Equally so, he will use the saints to judge in that day I don’t know. Stay tuned. But it doesn’t stop there. We will also judge angels. Judge demons. That’s what we’re told. The same chapter. 1 Corinthians 6, 3. Do you not know that we are to judge angels? how much more than matters pertaining to this life. This is a mysterious text.

    We know that it’s true that on judgment day, you, if you’re trusting in Christ, will judge angels. I can imagine that we will probably have a case against them. Accusations will be made. And then we will have to, as part of the jury, Make a judgment. Isn’t that amazing? But praise God for whatever he ordains. Now understand that Paul is saying in that text, his main point is not, hey, guess what? Let me tell you something very interesting.

    We are going to judge angels. What he is saying is, you must be able in the church to judge rightly, not hypocritically, not rush to judgment. Do you not understand, Corinthians, that you’re going to judge angels? If you’re not able to be faithful in the little, which is judging in this realm and in this sphere, how can you be entrusted with angels to judge them? It’s just a minor point that he’s making. It’s subordinate to his main point. But we know that subordinate points are true, just like anything else God’s word says.

    On that day, martyrs will be vindicated. Throughout the church age, there have been many martyrs, brothers and sisters who died The fire? For the simple crime of believing that Jesus Christ is Lord. Believing that Jesus saves sinners through no works that they perform. Many of them, their closing moments, were standing in fire. There are others who, their closing moments, simply for the crime of professing the Lord Jesus Christ, They felt a blade upon their neck, and they were beheaded for their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

    On that day, those people will be vindicated. And in one strange sense, they will judge those who misjudged them. Those who are martyred, were martyred, will judge their former murderers. Stephen, that one who was stoned in Acts chapter 7, he will not be the one who is being judged in that day and the rocks thrown against him.

    He will be in a much better position against those who did those sorts of things, for those who did not repent and come to the Lord Jesus Christ and realize what great crime they had committed. And there will be another reversal. What I’m talking about is the reversals of the point of death for someone, and then the day of judgment, there will be a grand reversal.

    There will be a grand reversal for the Lord Jesus Christ and Pilate. You see, the kingdom of man stands in judgment over the Lord Jesus Christ. Pilate sits in the catbird seat thinking that he has power and that this country bumpkin who is the Lord Jesus Christ, this out of town man who has some rumors about him and some fame and maybe he’s able to do some magic tricks. These kinds of things were spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    What a great reversal that will be. when the one who stood in judgment of Christ will be judged that day. And there will be a reversal because Christ will be the one who is doing the judging on that day. This will be absolutely amazing to see. Does the Bible not tell us that the last will be first and the first will be last? Do you believe the Bible when it tells us this? It will be the case.

    And Paul, the apostle, at one time took the coats of those who martyred Stephen as one who judged them, judged Stephen rather. He undergoes a reversal himself because he is one of those who repents and comes to Christ. And he has martyred himself, probably under Caesar Nero. What a grand reversal that will be as well, when the tide is turned. That day will be a great day of comfort for the saints.

    We will be changed to sin no more. We will have no more failures. No more weaknesses. No more death. No more sin and struggling. The tears we have wept over death and over sin will be no more, because death will be no more. Jesus Christ has the victory now, and Jesus Christ will have the victory on that day. And God will wipe every tear from our eyes.

    How can we not love that day? We will see our Savior on that day. And we will wear a crown of righteousness on that day, a righteousness that is not earned by us, but is earned by Christ’s perfect life, imputed to us, given to us, His perfect sacrifice of death, imputed to us, so that it will be as if we have not sinned, and where we have sinned, that will be covered over And this is for those who fought the good fight, who fought against sin, and professed Christ by God’s grace.

    And for those who have an unstained profession, they have the commandment, which is professing Christ, believing in Christ. There, they have an unstained and unreproachable confession of Christ. all because of His grace. And we will see our Savior face to face. Do you long for that coming, brothers and sisters?

    We say with the Bride and Song of Solomon that our Beloved is coming, and He will come in glory. He says, He says to the bride, arise, my darling, my beautiful one. Let me hear your voice, your sweet voice. We will be raised, as he says to his church, to his bride, arise, beautiful one, my darling.

    I want to hear your voice. I don’t know about you, I love the singing in this church. But the singing on that day will make this singing pale in comparison. I cannot wait until we sing to our Savior that day when we say, as the church, when we respond to Him who said, speak, my darling, oh, beautiful one. I want to hear your voice. But there will be a yet more glorious song that day. And it won’t be sung by us. And it won’t be sung by the angels. It won’t be sung by the animals. It won’t be sung by the valleys and the mountains.

    For there is a yet more glorious song to be sung. And the singer of that song will be God Himself. A verse that I rest upon often and I’d encourage you to do so. God speaks about his church. Christ speaks about his church. Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord your God is in your midst. A mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. What a great day that will be when we sing to our Savior, and what a greater moment it will be when He sings and exalts over undeserving sinners, over His undeserving bride. What a great day that will be.

    We must continue to profess Christ and keep a pure, unstained profession until that day. Unstained by false doctrine and unstained by our lives and understand that Christ died for even our hypocrisy. O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, and the Lord will descend. Even so, even so, it is well with my soul. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Good Confession

    The Good Confession

    About this sermon

    Paul charges Timothy to keep the good confession, as Christ Jesus made the good confession before Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. For this purpose I was born, to bear witness to the truth.” Christ spoke the Father’s words with perfect purity, though he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Believers make their own confession of faith, not as elite Christians but as sinners who need a Savior. The doctrine confessed and the Christ confessed stand or fall together.

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    Sermon transcript

    Let us open God’s Word to a couple of portions, a couple of passages. First, John chapter 18, 33 through 38, and 19, 9 through 11. And then after that we will go to 1 Timothy 6, 13 to 14. I’ll actually read 12 to 14. It will help us out a little bit. Our first two readings are Jesus Christ in his trials before Pontius Pilate, when he spoke to this magistrate, this one who was a leader of people. First, let us read John 18, 33.

    Therefore, Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?

    Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king.

    For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? Chapter 19, verse nine through 11. And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you? And I have authority to crucify you. Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.

    Now turning to first Timothy six, 12 through 14, first Timothy six, 12 through 14, wherein What we just read about. Jesus discussing many things before Pontius Pilate. That is brought up in our passage. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. And you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired, inerrant word.

    Shall we pray? Most gracious God, we ask that we would have these truths written in our hearts, etched upon our minds. We ask that these words, that their meaning would be a part of who we are. We ask, O Father, that your word would be in our bones, that it would be in our marrow. Do your work in us this day, O Father. Cause us to know you and to exalt our Savior. Help us to prepare for that heavenly Sabbath eternity, which is ours by grace because of your love.

    In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. I would take for this morning a verse that we would meditate upon, and that would be outside of our target verses that we read, but one that we sang. I would take for our target, or rather for our meditation for this sermon, Psalm 12, verse 6. You may remember we sang Psalm 12 verse 6.

    Wonderful words. Jehovah’s words are words most pure. They are like silver tried in earthen furnace seven times that has been purified. God’s words are pure. We could say that there is a sense in which there is no purer substance in all the earth than God’s word.

    And we have a command given to us in 1 Timothy. What is that command? We read it in 1 Timothy 6, 14, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach. I’ll say that again because that is what is laid down upon us. Keep the commandment without stain or reproach. That is the imperative, the command that is given to us.

    Paul writes to Timothy, he must keep the commandment pure. And therefore, by virtue of this and by deduction, I must speak to myself. And I must speak to Pastor Knox and say that you must keep the commandment pure and undefiled. But also, that is something that we would be right to apply to the elders. You must keep the commandment pure and undefiled. But it’s something that we would also bring to all believers.

    This is not something that applies only to ministers. You, in the pews, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, must keep the commandment of God pure and undefiled. But you may ask, of which command do you speak? Paul doesn’t tell us, does he? He doesn’t tell us which command or which commandment we are to pay such great attention to that it is found undefiled, that it is found pure.

    Well, we will come to that shortly. We’ll come to that in just a little bit. We’ll examine what that command or that commandment is. But first, we must look at the context in which this command is found. The context is like a gold ring in which the diamond of this command is laid in a setting. Paul says that there are witnesses before Timothy to this command that he is going to give. And the witnesses that witness this are Those who raise the stakes above all others. For who are the witnesses of Paul giving this command to Timothy?

    They are none other than the Father and the Son. The Father, the creator of all things, and the Son, the creator of all things. These are the witnesses. And what does it say about the Father? The Father who gives life to all things. Do you understand how Paul is upping the ante, showing how glorious God is? This is the one who is laying this burden down upon you to keep the commandment pure. He is saying, God who gives life to all things. Do you understand the significance of a being who is able to give life? Isn’t that amazing? Just the concept, just the idea of a living being.

    Children, young people, I would ask you, how complex would you have to work with your Legos so that your Legos would eventually realize that they are Legos? How long would it take? How complex would it have to be? What if you had an eternity to do so? Is it possible that your Legos, or that your Tinker Toys, or whichever it may be, could eventually realize, we exist! We are Legos! There is no possibility. You have the most complex and the most infinite amount of time. It would never happen.

    Are you amazed at God’s ability? That he is able to make something say, I am me, I exist. And God has given me life. That’s who lays this commandment upon Timothy and on the pastors and elders, and upon all of us. But also, he says that Jesus Christ is a witness before this.

    Don’t let anyone tell you that Jesus Christ is not all-knowing, or Jesus Christ is a witness to what Paul is telling Timothy. And what is significant about Jesus Christ, or what is mentioned? What is mentioned is that Jesus Christ Himself, who was God over all, He made profession, or made a confession before Pilate. And He was not confessing His sin.

    Jesus Christ was speaking of glorious heavenly, amazing truths. And there he says, there Pilate says, what is truth? Is that not interesting? That Pilate asks, what is truth? Now I think he asks that in a mocking tone. What is truth? Trying to be a relativist. Trying to be like one, even in our day, who is a post-modernist, who does not believe in any sort of truth. What is truth? My dear Pilate, truth is being spoken before you.

    Jesus Christ speaks of His Kingdom, speaking of heavenly realities. And Jesus Christ is not speaking of some geographical national kingdom. He is talking about an international, but far greater than that, an inter-terrestrial kingdom. He’s saying that he is king of heaven and of earth. He is king of all things, as I said when I greeted you this morning, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is king over all the kingdoms and all the kings of the earth.

    What else does Jesus speak about before Pilate? He speaks of other truths. He speaks of Judas’ guilt. He also speaks of Pilate’s power, or Pilate’s lack of power. For Pilate would speak of the power that he supposedly thought he had. I have power to crucify you. And Jesus told him, you would have no power were it not given to you from above. Do you see Jesus? Jesus spoke the good confession before Pilate. In summary, Jesus spoke of his kingdom, of his birth, of his power. What is truth? Pilate, truth itself is standing before you. Are you able to recognize it?

    But I would like to refer you to what we sang and what I mentioned at the outset, that God’s words are words most pure. There is nothing purer than God’s words. The psalmist is taking earthly things, a furnace and fire and silver, But he’s speaking about heavenly things. He is speaking about God’s Word. He is using earthly things to speak of that which is beyond our understanding. But for God’s condescension, God’s coming down and lisping to us, speaking in words that we can understand. And when God speaks, His words are pure.

    They are undefiled. They are of most clean substance. We could put it in Johannine terms or in John’s terms. We could say that there is nothing in God that is darkness. God is light and there is no darkness in Him. So you understand Jesus speaks pure words. Jesus cannot lie. That is, there are things that God cannot do, and He is yet all-powerful. God cannot lie. He could not do it if He tried.

    Jesus speaks the Father’s words, and the Father’s words are pure and undefiled. Do you understand that the Trinity itself, when it speaks, each member speaks the words of the others, and they pour out words of utmost purity, like no water or no light could ever rival. Jesus Christ comes in the likeness of human flesh. It’s very important. Romans 8 3.

    He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was human. And if you would have looked at him, he would have looked like a sinner, like all of us. but it was only the likeness of such. He was one who was pure at his birth, had no original sin. We must understand that Jesus Christ, by virtue of his divinity, speaks pure words. And Jesus Christ, by virtue of his pure, cleansed, undefiled humanity, speaks pure words. Undefiled. So that the person of Christ, which is composed of his two natures, of his divine and his human, speaks words of clarity and of purity when he speaks to us. His speech is wholly unlike sinful man’s speech.

    You might think of that psalm that we read. What is the psalmist complaining about? What is he describing? Psalm 12. All the people around me are liars. Their words are defiled. That is the case, is it not? Do we not live among people with defiled words? And as we look at our own hearts, do we not see that it is true that out of the mouth, the abundance of the heart speaks our words? tell about our hearts that they are impure. But Jesus Christ is the faithful witness. That’s what Revelation 1 and 5 says. He is the faithful witness. Everything he says is true. That is the one who witnesses Timothy’s burden being laid upon him.

    But what is the commandment about which Paul speaks? As I said before, Paul does not use the word commandment. Understand, he doesn’t use the word commandment until 614. Now, usually when we read the Bible in context, if someone uses a word, and he seems to be referring to something, We might look earlier on, we might look afterwards, we might look earlier on especially and say, well, what does he mean by commandment? How are we to keep the commandment pure, unstained, undefiled? The problem is, We have no instance of that word, commandment.

    So you can imagine, this opens up the doors to much speculation in many people. He could be talking about a particular commandment that was mentioned to him. Some people would say that the commandment that was laid upon Timothy is the commandment or the commandments, just speaking of one apart for the whole. Some people would say that what he’s talking about is his ordination vows. That Paul would be saying, Timothy, remember the vows that you took, the commands that were given when the presbytery laid hands upon you and your gifts were shown When that happened, those commandments, you must keep those undefiled, you must keep those pure. And I think that’s a very good guess. Might just mention. Remember, once again, Friday night is a special night. Very, very special night.

    For we are going to see David Graves, the soon-to-be pastor of the church in Franklin, Pennsylvania, not far from Grove City. And many commands are going to be given to him. Commands are going to be laid down upon him. commands are going to be given to the congregation as well, I would invite you to come see that. Understand that we’re really going to probably hear three sermons that night, at least.

    It was only about a year ago that I was ordained and it was a special night and we had pretty much four sermons that night. And it was wonderful. Many of you were there and what a joy it was. And this will be the first man who will be ordained in this Presbytery after me. I’m no longer the newbie as of Friday.

    We understand that this is a very good guess that the commands that are given to Timothy are the ones that are given to him at his ordination. But I don’t think that that is it. The command that is given is the sum and substance of this letter, 1 Timothy. Is it not understandable that the men who were the rivals of Timothy in the city in which he ministered, they were men who had defiled lives and taught strange doctrines. They were defiling the commandment, which is the gospel. We do not look in 1 Timothy to find what Paul is talking about when he speaks of the command. So, where’s the proof? Where’s the proof that when Paul says the command, it is the sum and substance of this letter? The proof is in another one of Paul’s letters.

    If you would turn with me, if you’d like, to 1 Corinthians 14, 37. Don’t feel obligated to go there because I am going to be reading it. Paul has been talking about prophetic gifts. He has been speaking of tongues and prophecy, what it means when in the first century, God would make someone speak and the very words that would come out of his mouth or her mouth would be the word of God itself or this strange first century occurrence which was the speaking of tongues, wherein someone would be able to speak a language he had never ever studied, because the Holy Spirit would fall upon that person, and that person would speak in another language. 1 Corinthians 14, 37, Paul says this, if anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command. of the Lord. The things that I am writing to you are command of the Lord.”

    And so we see that there’s no mystery here. When Paul says to Timothy, you must keep the command pure, it is everything that Paul writes in this letter. But we would certainly be wrong to think that It does not apply to all of the rest of Paul’s letters, and all of the rest of the apostles’ letters, and the evangelist’s gospel, and also the book of Revelation. The commandment which we are to keep undefiled is all the whole of the deposit of inscripturated truth which the Holy Spirit has given us. The commandment is the whole of the Bible. Keep it and protect it. Keep it from being defiled. We also have discussion in verse 12 of Timothy’s profession or his confession of Christ. Let me just read that here. Fight the good fight.

    Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and you made the good confession, the presence of many. Again, there are people who think that certain parts of this are talking about his ordination exams, or his ordination vows rather, but that is not the case, because look, in verse 12, he is talking about eternal life. One does not enter into eternal life by taking ordination vows. We hope that the person has eternal life before they would take ordination vows. Not at all.

    This context is all speaking of making a confession of the Lord Jesus Christ publicly. coming before an assembly like this one or another church and saying, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I am undone. I am defiled in and of myself, and I cannot save myself. I am a sinner, and I need the Lord Jesus Christ. And some young people are at an age where they could do that. If they would say, I believe in Christ. Those people who come before the church do not come as the elite Christians who have reached a certain plane. They come as those who say, I am a sinner and I need a savior.

    There is a sense in which God saves his people through making a public confession of Christ. Now certainly it is the case that we are saved because God predestines us to be saved. We are saved because Jesus died for us. We are saved because Jesus rose again for us. We are saved because Jesus intercedes for us.

    Even when we, after having become believers, continue to sin, But there is also a sense in which. We are saved by making public profession of faith. Romans 10, 9 and 10 tells us, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

    We must confess Christ and say that we are His and that He is ours. We deserve death because of our sins, but He endured the cross in our place. The question must be asked though, how can we confess Christ when we are sinners? Did we not say that our hearts are defiled? Did we not say that our mouths demonstrate the uncleanliness of our hearts? Does not the Bible say, all men are liars? Did not the psalmist compare the words of the sinners in Psalm 12 with the words of God, which are words most pure? Yes, it did. And yes, it does. So how is it, we might ask, how is it that God would even honor our profession of faith because we are unclean? We might ask with Bildad, one of the friends of Job, one of the counselors of Job, one of the men who accused Job. Listen to what he says. It’s very pointed. Bildad in Job 25 verse 4.

    How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman? If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less man, that maggot and the son of man, that worm. understand what Bildad is saying.

    Not all the things that the accusers of Job say are wrong. Much of what they say is true. And many of the things that they say are just in the wrong context. You understand? There’s much truth in Job, even in his accusers. And this is a good question. How can man make a profession of faith? How can he be clean before God? Don’t you understand? He is a worm. He is as a maggot. And that is not a compliment.

    He says, how can man be cleansed or undefiled before God when He is born of woman. There is an understanding in our Old Testament, you read in the law, that there was cleansing that needed to be done after a birth, according to those old Levitical laws. There was a cleansing that needed to happen for the woman was defiled, was she not? And so was the person that comes out of her. How is it that one who is born out of uncleanness and begins to speak, speaking lies, how can he come before God and say, I believe in God and I need a savior?

    The way that it is possible is because of the fact that Christ did it for us. To understand that Christ with his virgin birth is undefiled. He had no sin and he confesses every time he speaks truth, pure undefiled truth. The lips of sinful men are defiled, but the lips of Christ are pure. Do you remember what happens in Isaiah’s call narrative, where Isaiah is called to be a prophet before God?

    He says, I am undone. Surely we can understand that. He is a sinner and he is in front of the pure God. But he says, I am unclean and I dwell among those of unclean lips. And what does the angel in the throne room of God do? He takes a coal from the fire and he touches it on Isaiah’s lips. Now understand that that is Isaiah’s calling to be a prophet.

    And we do not undergo that. God does not touch our lips with something so that every word that we speak will be prophetic. But it certainly is the case that God cleanses our defiled lips. And He makes atonement for us just as He did in Isaiah chapter 6. Cleansing His lips. Cleansing our lips because He has cleansed our hearts. That we might make a right confession of faith before men. That we might follow the One who made a confession before Pilate.

    And that we might keep the commandment clean and pure. So, keep the commandment. Pure, unstained, and without reproach. But you must understand this. There is an intimate link between three things. Those three things being our profession of faith, Christ’s confessing heavenly truths before Pilate, and our keeping clean, pure, and undefiled the words of Paul and the rest of the Bible. Don’t misunderstand me.

    I’m not saying that God’s Word can be made impure. Our lives or our doctrine do not make Word of God defiled. It is words most pure. What I am saying is that in the viewpoint of the world around us, is it not the case that a minister defiles the Word of God in the minds of the other people by teaching false doctrines and by living an immoral life as an unrepentant hypocrite.

    These three things go together so well. They hang together. I would ask you to think of a man. Think of a man who comes to you and says, I believe in Christ. This is good. And he says, Christ made a confession, a good, pure confession before Pilate, this is good. And then doctrinally he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the first created being of Jehovah.

    What would you think of that? I hope you would understand that the doctrine that he holds to are impure. Therefore, his understanding of Christ’s confession becomes impure and defiled. But more than that, the Christ that he confesses becomes defiled as well, does it not?

    These things stand or fall together. They hang or they drop together. If someone were to come to you and say, I believe in Christ, good. And he were to say, again, I believe that Jesus made a confession, a good confession before Pilate, that’s good. And he says then that after that, I believe that Jesus is our example and nothing more. We say, no, do you understand, sir, that these are defiled, all three of them now.

    Equally, it is the case of those who would be ministers of the gospel, who would be caught up in all kinds of worldliness. Think of many of the preachers on TV that preach a gospel of prosperity, that in this life I can have great prosperity if I would just confess with my lips prosperity into existence. it would come about.

    That is not a good confession. It defiles his understanding of Christ and it defiles the fact that he even professes faith in Christ. There are many things that undermine our confession of Christ and make the commandment impure, but they are primarily false doctrine and hypocritical, unrepentant life before the world.

    When we sin before the world, we must be quick to admit our wrongs. We must say, I am a sinner that needs grace. And we must keep the commandment pure by learning and knowing right and true doctrine. And I truly believe that ministers of the gospel must understand false doctrine as well.

    There are many who would give something, you’ve heard it in a sermon many, many times. You only need the word of God. Someone who examines currency only examines the legitimate currency. You ever heard that in a sermon? Talking about the Word of God, they’ll say, you only need to study the Word of God, don’t study anything false. Equally, people who print money and examine look at counterfeiters, they only look at true money, they don’t look at the false stuff.

    And I think that is a very bad thing to say. Pastors, ministers of the gospel must understand very well and study false doctrine so that they might explain and teach and preach against that which is false. And we must do that. It is a part of a pastor’s and of an elder’s keeping the commandment undefiled and unstained. And brothers and sisters, we in the pew keep it undefiled by knowing it, by learning it. I would have everyone here able to spot error a mile away because you know God’s word so well. We must keep the commandment unstained until Jesus comes back, lest we be found like that unworthy servant in Jesus’ parable who thought, my master delays, so I will eat and drink and beat the men servants and beat the female servants. It was not long before his master came.

    Equally so, we must keep the commandment of God. That is, the teaching of God. Every word that comes out of the mouth of our God, we must understand it and love it. Jesus speaks of everything I have commanded you, Matthew 28, 20. And Paul would write about the whole counsel of God. May we come to understand, know, and love everything that God has commanded, the whole council. And may we teach it to our children and to our grandchildren, to our friends and to our family. And may the commandment of God be undefiled from our lips and from our lives.

    God is a gracious God who forgives our sins. May that be the primary way that we understand God’s grace and keeping things impure by being quick to repent and slow to accuse. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that Jesus Christ went before us and spoke of pure heavenly things before that wicked magistrate which was Pilate.

    And we thank you that you have given us eternal life, that you have given us ability to be cleansed by you, and that salvation is all of grace, that your cleansing of us is of your grace and also Our profession of faith comes from lips that have been, in a sense, purified by Your Word. May we understand that when we make a confession of faith, it is pure when it is according to Your Word. We ask, O Father, that You would forgive our sins, for we have been as those men who would speak false things. But when we speak your word, we understand how pure you are.

    Help us to sing and to praise and to speak to one another with the words of Christ to build one another up in these things. In Jesus’ name, amen. Let us open in the blue to 419. 419 is, I need Thee, precious Jesus, for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need the cleansing fountain where I can always flee. The blood of Christ, most precious. The sinner’s perfect plea. Let us stand as we sing and close with 419.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Pastors Use Authority to Produce Love

    Pastors Use Authority to Produce Love

    About this sermon

    Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to charge certain men not to teach different doctrine, and the goal of that charge is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Pastors must use their authority to oppose teaching that harms the flock, yet doctrinal purity is not an end in itself; its aim is love. The law is good if used lawfully, avoiding both lawlessness and moralism. Sound doctrine cannot save anyone by itself. Only Christ saves, and he is offered to every hearer.

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    Sermon transcript

    Children or even an adult, who wrote that hymn? Who is Francis Scott Keyes? What else did he write? The words to the Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem. Our country and the churches in our country are in crisis today. And our country and our churches will not be changed and preserved unless they turn to the God that Francis Scott Key worshiped. Rush Limbaugh won’t save America. All the conservative talk show hosts in America will not save America. America won’t save America. Only Jesus Christ can save America.

    And that leads us to an issue, an issue today in our sermon is pastors use a thar to produce love, and I wanna thank publicly your pastors and elders for inviting me back to the pulpit. I consider it a privilege. If I come here anymore, I’ll be part of the congregation. It’s like a home away from home. And I wanna talk to you through the book of 1 Timothy as God gives me grace to come back. We talked about Timothy. We talked about the apostolic blessing, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. But we bemoan the state of America, if you’re at all sensitive.

    Some people say conservatism will save America, but conservatism without the cross of Jesus Christ won’t do anything. Any revolution that’s bloodless, That is, the blood of Jesus Christ will not be successful because the oppressed become the oppressors.

    And isn’t it true, administration can pass administration, and to be truthful, there’s not much difference to choose between them in terms of the poor policies that are put in place. Now, how do we work on this? Well, David Wells and others have pointed this out in their books, No Room for Truth, Truth in the Wasteland, Oz Guinness and others have pointed out. And I don’t know what your response is.

    This isn’t the sermon, I’m just warming up, okay? The answer, often in our circles, I think, is to go back to the early church, right? Let’s go back to the early church. You know, because for us in reform circles, they had pure doctrine. For charismatics, miracles were happening, okay? We all wanna go back to the early, are you sure you really wanna go back to the early church? Was it really ideal? Ananias and Sapphira. Now that might be impressive if somebody died here, you know, because they lied over their offerings. First OPC of Corinth. We know it was an OPC church, right? Because it was Orthodox, and they had elders, it was Presbyterian, so it was an Orthodox Presbyterian church.

    First, you know, Brent, I wouldn’t have told you, never take a call to First OPC of Corinth. That church had big problems, okay? Churches in Revelation, I’ll spit you out of my mouth. I wish you were hot or cold, but this lukewarmness. Now, one church there is really typical of the OPC, and that’s Ephesus. You know why? That’s the church that this letter of Timothy was written to. I just want to remind you, it was an OPC church. And of course, as an OPC church, it can tell a true apostle from a false apostle because of false doctrine. And that’s good and important. And God, Jesus Christ praises them, but he says something to them that’s at the core of this morning’s sermon.

    What was missing? Tell me, you wives. Your husbands are the guilty ones. It goes both ways. What? You lost your first love. You’re doctrinally pure, but you lost love. And that’s the theme of the sermon this morning. Pastors use their authority to produce love. Secondary cause, you know that. The Holy Spirit produces the love. But pastors use their authority to see this, okay? They use their authority to produce love. So enough for the introduction. Let’s look at this. Let’s read the intro and then the first 11 verses. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope. To Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord.

    As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation, rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge, or our command, is love, that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient. for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for sexually immoral men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to healthy doctrine in accordance with the glorious gospel of a blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

    Let’s pray. Lord God, we cannot accept this word and live it, for you’ve warned us not to be hearers only, but to be doers of the word. Nor can I preach it if you don’t send the Holy Spirit in a rich and full way. And so, Lord, we’re begging you like little birds that beg for their parents to give them food. We cannot save ourselves. We can’t sanctify ourselves. We can’t profit from this morning unless you bless us. But you’ve made promises, and we are pleading those promises for the sake of your great covenant name, for the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

    Amen. This letter is written, as we said, by Paul the Apostle. You know that Paul saw the Pharisee who stood there and saw Stephen killed, and he was given a yes. And he’s converted on the road to Damascus, the missionary journey, you know all that. We’ve talked a little bit about Timothy.

    And now, here we have a problem. Heaven, we have a problem, Paul is saying. We’ve got Ephesus over there, and there’s some funky guys teaching bad doctrine. Now, why is that bad? Because bad teaching leads to bad living. Bad living gets you in trouble with God, yea, verily, maybe even in hell.

    And so Paul is concerned about this church. Remember, Ephesus is where he spent three years, longer than any other stint as a missionary apostle. He set up that church. He was there. If you want to read this afternoon something encouraging, go read Acts 20 and see Paul’s summary of his ministry there when he was heading off to Jerusalem later. Remember? You know? And what a ministry. What a ministry. They wept. when he said, you’ll never see me face to face again. Some people cry when I leave town, but it’s for joy. For Paul, they loved this man because he laid down his life.

    Now, there’s trouble there, and so he’s sending Timothy. Now, if you remember, Timothy is a little timid. We’ll get to that later, OK, if we get to it, or read it yourself. And he’s sending Timothy to Ephesus because there’s problems. These bad teachers are teaching bad things, stirring them up, OK? First of all, pastors have to use their authority to oppose bad teaching because bad teaching, friends, can kill you. I don’t care whether it’s by the printed page or from Word FM or anywhere else you get on a Christian station, bad teaching leads to bad living, which leads to bad fruit. Not joy, love, joy, peace, patience.

    The opposite, the deeds of the flesh. So, Paul’s purpose in leaving Timothy there is to protect the sheep. Okay, look at verses three. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, Paul’s off again. Remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. Doctrine’s not something what you like.

    Friends, teaching is not, in this day and age, people move from church to church to church because they want to finally hear something that tickles their ears. And bad teaching leads to bad living. So, not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. Let me preach to the choir, not to the choir, but to the young pastor, okay? The worst thing in theology is innovation, okay? I never had a significant thought before I was converted, and I’ve never had an original one since.

    Praise be to God. Preach the word, okay? Because when you start away from the word, you start speculating. And let’s face it, we’re all kind of proud, aren’t we, like peacocks? And what we think, we think is right. I remember what Proverbs says, one man sounds really great until another one comes along and you hear the other side, right? That’s why we got wives, okay? We think we’re great, right? Best thing since sliced bread, then our wife shoots holes like Swiss cheese, you know, like, honey, did you ever think that, oh, no, I didn’t, okay. Bottom line is, when we start to speculate, we get in trouble, okay?

    Need to be like little kids. Christian doctrine is like this. The old days, the schools, way back in the old days. S. Weir Mitchell, Philadelphia. Remember those black? Some of you don’t know where I’m going. You’re too young. But the black ones with the white lines, the three white lines, and then the letter A, little a, b. You’re supposed to trace that, right? I have terrible handwriting. You know why? Never traced. Never copied.

    You see, Jesus is the original, and we need to copy him by the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t need to be original, and that’s what was happening. Now, you see, fruitless twisting of the Bible. I could go on and on, church history, then. Why do we have a Reformation? Because the church went off the tracks. Why do we have Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and et cetera, et cetera? Because people wander from this, they twist it. Bad teaching leads to bad fruit. I’ve said it enough times. Pastors have authority to step in and say, don’t teach that. So don’t be offended, okay? The idea of authority, I won’t camp on this long, but we live in an age that hates authority, right?

    Who are you? You put your pants on one leg at a time like I do. You pull the dress over the head just like I do. What gives you the right? Who died and left you, boss? Jesus. How about that? Paul gets sarcastic in 1 Corinthians. He says, hey, if there’s any other rules, I don’t know them. I’m an apostle. You Corinthians are coming up with stuff that’s new.

    Hey, stick with the word. And what is the purpose of that? Look at this next verse. The aim of our charge is what? Say it. Oh, come on. Together. One, two, three. Love. Okay. Thank you. Love. Okay? That’s the goal. Now, I want to say this again, because R1, I can say it to you. I’m Orthodox Presbyterian. I’m not an outsider. What’s the whole purpose of our being doctrinally pure? Love. Doctrinal purity is not an end in and of itself.

    That’s what he says to this church years later through John in Revelation. Ephesus, you can tell a false apostle, and I praise you for that. That’s Jesus saying, go on, OPC, knock out that heresy. And by the way, I won’t get on the rabbit trail. There’s stuff coming even into our denomination that I think is going to undermine our historic stand, but that’s another topic for another time. Pastors have to do that.

    But the reason that we do that is what? We want you to love what? God and other people. You understand that? That’s the whole reason to use authority, to teach the truth, because we want you to do what? We want you to be filled with love, joy, peace, patience. That’s the goal. Do you understand that? Now, where does that come from? It’s real clear. Look at the three. First of all, it comes out of a pure heart.

    You see, it’s only the gospel, as the Holy Spirit applies it to your heart, that cleanses your heart. Some of you covenant kids have perhaps still not come to Christ in the sense that you think your baptism is going to save you. Eh, wrong. Maybe you adults are the same. You think, well, I finally got doctrinal purity.

    But the point is, is your heart pure? Has the Holy Spirit, taken the blood of Jesus Christ and poured it over your inner being and taken away the pride, the self-sufficiency, the fear of the world, everything else, and centered you on Christ. Love can’t come out of an impure heart. And so you have to be born again. That’s another way of saying it. So you have a pure heart and what? What’s the second thing? A good conscience. What’s a good conscience? A good conscience is one that not only thinks the right thoughts, but it gets on your case.

    Hey, you’re doing what God told you to do. Oh, and by the way, your motive’s off. Switch the motive as well as the action. That person has castigated you and chewed you out and spit you in little pieces. And then you maybe say with Paul, God, I couldn’t have done it any other way because that’s what you told me to do, and I really think I did it for you. And it comforts you when other people are chewing you up and spitting you out in little pieces because you go, you know, God, I might be wrong, just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, I don’t know, and until I see you show me in the word, otherwise I’m not gonna stop doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

    See, a good conscience, and what? A sincere, an unfaked faith. It may not be a great faith, but it’s a faith in Christ. It’s a real faith. See, that’s what all this preaching and teaching is about. We want you to love God, and we want you to love other people out of a pure heart, a good conscience. and a sincere faith. That’s the whole point.

    Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding anything what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Again, I’m preaching to the sociopath here. Here’s one of my pet peeves. Stay off the internet. Stay out of theological chat rooms for at least five years.

    Love and shepherd these people, and then jump back in. There’s guys I can mention, people might even know who I’m referring. They’re out of the ministry and the OPC, in my opinion, because they had too high of an opinion of themselves, they started speculating, they got on the internet, and it killed them. Now, maybe that’s God’s way of flushing them out, keeping them out of the past. Good, but the bottom line is, stop speculating. Oversimplification for effect.

    Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Guess what? It doesn’t get better than that. Unless you’re like a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. So the point is that we’ve got to protect you so that you will be loving God loving other people, and vain speculations won’t help you.

    Now, he goes on and explains this. Look, now we know that the law is good. And that’s another whole sermon. I’m gonna be careful not to preach it. The law is good. The law is good. Let me say this, because in reformed circles anymore, the law has been bad-mouthed. And I’ll just be blunt. I’m not trying to use it as a Billy pulpit, but the reality is there’s a lot of people talking about the law now just like dispensationalists. The law is works.

    The law was never works. The law was always grace. The law was given after they were saved out of Egypt. Say, if you’re redeemed, this is how you live. The problem with the law is not that the law is bad or works-oriented. The problem is the law is the shadow and the husk, and Christ is the reality. And so the point is, now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. And you can use it legalistically, moralistically, understand that. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for just, but for the lawless and disobedient. So the bottom line is, people are not just in their own right.

    They’re justified by God. We’re lawless by nature. We are, the law is there for disobedient people. Remember that’s Paul’s whole argument in Romans. Why was the law added? Not because they didn’t know the law in the garden, but because they weren’t following it. And so just like our children, right? Sorry to pick on you kids, but I were one once too. Why do we have rules? Because by nature our children are what?

    Undisciplined, unruly, and lawless. And we set up the rules to help them to grow. So, but it consists of 10 commandments. Just go through this. It’s real clear. The law is not laid down for just, but the law is disputed for what? And it almost goes through from commandment one to the end. Look at that up here.

    For the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy profane, those who strike their fathers, fifth commandment, mothers, murderers, sexually immoral, who practice homosexuality, slavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to healthy doctrine. The law is healthy if you use it properly. If you take the law and try to use the law as a way of getting into heaven or getting points with God, you’re going to blow it. But if you use the law to point you to Christ and then as a thank you, God, because you’ve saved me, now I want to obey you.

    You know the difference between children, right? Children who do things to please you and children that just do it so they don’t get a licking, you know, or they do it because they want to get the car for the weekend. The point is, we love the law. And then he goes on to say, in accordance with what? The glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. The law and the gospel go hand in hand. They are not contradictory. So what is to say? The proper use of the Bible and living it out is the only way you can be protected from bad fruit. It’s the only way that you can produce good fruit.

    Now let me ask you an embarrassing question, and I’ll be the first one to confess. It’s been a long time since I’ve deliberately tried to memorize scripture. How many of you regularly try to remember scripture? See, only a handful of you. Thank you. Okay, that’s good. You know why? Go back to the Psalms. How can a young man, I guess an old one too, how can an old man cleanse his way? By giving heed to the word of God.

    So people who want to push bad doctrines, and, you know, there’s twin killers, friends, when it comes to the law, which simply means Torah, which simply in Hebrew means teaching. The law is not a means of salvation, it’s a teaching of the holy way. Okay, two problems. The spiritual blues brothers. Antinomianism, don’t give me rules, just give me Christ. Or moralism that says, give me the rules, I’ll follow them, and then I’ll be like a spiritual Jack Horner. I’ll put in my thumb, pull out a plum, and say, what a holy boy am I? Those are the opposites that really destroy the scriptures. Why? because the scriptures are the Holy Spirit’s tool. What did Jesus say in John 15?

    I’ll just leave you with this. If you love me, you will what? Keep my commandments. And if you keep my commandments, you will what? Abide in my love. the way I have kept the Father’s commandments and abide in his love. God initiates by saving you, but then you obey as a big thank you. And you parents kind of know this. When those kids finally get touched by the grace of God and they come up and they love you for who you are and not just what they give you. When God gives a new heart and that child becomes weaned. Remember Psalm 131? I quiet my heart. I don’t seek, David says, things too mighty for me. I quiet my heart like a weaned child is my soul within me.

    You know why? Because the unweaned child looks at mom and says, why? Milk! And oh boy, if little he or little she doesn’t get milk, what do they do? Scream, yell, and then, you know, if you’re breastfeeding, you may even go, ah! Because the kid clamps down. Because why? You’re the feed bag. But once that child is weaned, what begins to develop? A personal relationship between you and the child, right? You’re not just the milk and the changed diaper and the burping, you know? There’s interchange.

    And they make these nice little pictures, right, that will go in nobody’s museum, but they go up on your refrigerator. And friends, that’s what I’m going to sum up. The love that you come up with is never perfect toward God or others. But guess what? This is, I think this is true. There’s a metaphor for it. God takes our works done through the spirit for the sake of gratitude to Christ. And even though they’re not really good, I mean, you really don’t look an awful lot like Jesus Christ. If I could say this reverently, God puts it up on his refrigerator. And what’s God say?

    Have you seen my kid, Job? Hey, Satan, have you seen Job? Yeah, for nothing. He loves you because everything, take it away. So round one goes to God and Job, right? And what’s Satan say? Well, you can take anything from anybody, but you know, make them hurt physically, they’ll curse him.

    You have a testimony right here. Your pastor has gone through the stroke. He still loves Jesus, right? He’s gonna preach Jesus tonight. See, that’s what happens when God gives you a new heart. You love God for who he is, not just what he does. And finally, just to cap this off, Timothy and all pastors have this as a God-given trust with which I have been entrusted.

    I’ll just tell you one OPC story and then wrap up. The man who preached my ordination sermon was Bob Atwell. Some of you older people know Bob Atwell. Bob Atwell was notable for many things. I loved him. He embarrassed me into memorizing. I think I told you that before, the first catechism question. Scipione, this is at French Creek, in front of 180 junior high school kids. I’m coming out of a Baptist background, just got a convert in seminary. Scipione, what’s the chief end of man? It is indelibly burned in my brain. I have never tried to memorize it. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

    I can remember him saying that. I’ve never forgotten it since. I also remember a carré means in French, because I missed that in a French exam. It means square, okay? So I learn through mistakes. They’re burned indelibly in my mind, okay? Don’t waste your sins and mistakes, please. Learn from them.

    Bob Atwell tells the story of two people in his congregation that were not coming to church. And he went to visit them. And he told me, he sat down and he looked at me and said, I just have one question to ask you. He said, what is it? He says, you tell me what I’m supposed to tell Jesus when I have to give an account for where you are. He said, those people were back in church the next Sunday and they never missed after that. These men and your elders have a solemn responsibility. When that roll call is called, they will be asking them, where are your sheep?

    And now you know why God gives them authority, because that authority is given to them so that you will produce love out of a pure heart. And if you are pressed, dear friends, even if you’re a member baptized and you are part of Grace OPC, and they don’t see the fruit of the Spirit in your life, and they’ve come to the conclusion that you may not be converted, and I have buried people in an OP congregation that I will be very surprised if they’re in heaven, because they did not know the gospel. And so if they press you on this, don’t become defensive. They’re there to save you from hell. And they press you because they want you to have a pure heart. And if you have a pure heart, they want to know if you have a good conscience.

    Are you learning the word of God? And are you applying the word of God so that when you live your life, when you boys are tempted to look at pornography, when your girls are willing to compromise your Christian commitment because some good-looking dude sort of, you know, sways you and wiggles in front of you, you know, what are you going to do? And some of you who are challenged at work because you have pagans all around you and they take the name of the Lord in vain and you don’t say anything, they want you to have a good conscience that will keep you from falling into sin and fall in love more and more with Jesus Christ. Simply put, they want you to have an unhypocritical, straight-up, genuine faith. That’s why God gives pastors authority.

    So let me close by asking you, where are you this morning? I know that’s kind of a very pointed and personal question to ask in a upstanding OPC congregation, and it may not just be a visitor today. If I could get to Westminster Theological Seminary and not be converted, you could get to be a member of Grace OPC and not be converted.

    Or maybe you’re here as a visitor, just visiting. Are you outside of Christ? If you are, you’re lost. You need to come to Jesus Christ. Are you perhaps a visitor, because you’ve been drawn here by, you know, you hear that we have good doctrine, and we do, but you’re into all kinds of speculative theology?

    Theology won’t save you, friend. Only Christ will. See, Calvin didn’t die on the cross, did he? Athanasius, you know, really didn’t suffer the pangs of hell for you. It’s Jesus Christ. I’m pressing Christ up to your lips. Have you drunk of Christ? Have you eaten of him? Just as when you take communion, you physically eat the bread, you physically drink the juice, you know. and you assimilate by faith, have you taken in Jesus as your only hope in life and death? If you have a pure heart, a good conscience, a sincere faith.

    If you do, praise God. But let me ask this as a congregation. You were talking in Ezekiel today about the 40 days for individuals, 40 years for the group. Let’s speak to the whole congregation. What is Grace OPC’s love quotient? Do people come here and fall on their face and say God is in their midst? Not because they see miracles. If we could perform miracles, I would have healed Dan a long time ago.

    By the way, I always tell people this. I have no apostolic authority, so if I’m here preaching and you fall asleep and break your neck, you’re on your own. I won’t be able to raise you from the dead, so you better pay attention. I’m serious about this stuff. I told a man in counseling the other night, he’s not a Christian. He knows he’s not a Christian. I said, don’t die on me. I said, please don’t die before next week, because if you do, you’re going to hell.

    Now, Grace, do you love the truth? You defend it, praise God. This is an Ephesus church, I know that. But beyond that, have we lost our first love? I can’t say that. I don’t, I’m not here enough to know whether that love is intense, passionate for Jesus Christ. I’m not talking about slap happy and jump up and down. I’m talking about, will you lay down your life for other people? That’s the goal of pastoral authority and pure doctrine.

    Let me say to Dan, to Brent, the other elders, protect your sheep. Please ask them what they listen to on the radio, what they read. I know you do that, but keep after them. Don’t let them listen to, you know, I know they won’t go for Joel Olsteen. They’re a little too sophisticated for that. But you never know, you know. There could be somebody out there, you know, that they think’s a little flashier, okay? Protect the sheep. Use your authority to produce love.

    Remember the old rock song, what the world needs now is Is love more love? That’s what the world has too little of. Well, out of the mouths of babes, sucklings, and ignorant pagans, God ordains sometimes true statements. But the love that we need can only come from the blood of Christ, through a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

    Please embrace their authority and produce love. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this word. We thank you that right out of the chute, Paul is defending the sheep and telling Timothy to do that. But Lord, we can’t do that if we don’t understand the word and apply it properly. Please prevent me, the elders, from ever using the scriptures improperly. Lord, may we use the law lawfully. May we use the Bible biblically.

    And Lord, above all, may it produce fruit. the fruit of love. Lord, the more I’m around, the more I realize that pastors are in the, we’re farmers, we’re love farmers. We’re there to plow and to till and to plant and to harrow and to weed and to fertilize to see the fruit of the spirit born in your people. Lord, we confess that we can’t do it. But we thank you that we’ve got the word. Help us to use it properly. And may there be abundant fruit in this congregation and all the OP congregations. In fact, Lord, all those who love you in spirit and truth, would you bless the word and bless by the spirit’s power. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. Take your Bible — Bibles. Take your hymnals. Excuse me. That was a bad slip. 437. 437. 437. That’s okay. That’s an amen I love. As long as she doesn’t preach, I’m okay. 437. Christ of all my hopes, the ground.

    May that be our true song from our hearts. Let’s stand and sing this in closing, and then we’ll have the benediction and the closing hymn three. First two. you Christ alone, my hope, my crown, Christ the stream of all my joy, still in Thee may I be found, still for Thee my house employ, still for Thee my house employ. ♪ Let thy love my heart proclaim ♪ ♪ Keep thy fear before my sight ♪ ♪ Be my praise behind thy left hand ♪ ♪ Be my smile, my chief, be mine ♪ ♪ Be my smile, my chief, be mine ♪ May I prove it right to live.

    May I prove it right to live. ♪ Safely trusting in the high Lord ♪ ♪ Nothing shall harm the Lord ♪ ♪ Safely I shall pass the flood ♪ ♪ Safely reach Emmanuel’s power ♪ ♪ Safely reach Emmanuel’s power ♪ Let me know it came to die. Amen. Firmly trusting in thy blood, nothing shall my heart confound. Safely I shall pass the flood. Safely reach Emmanuel’s ground. Safely reach Emmanuel’s ground. May God bring every one of you safely to his heavenly joy. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever. Amen. From all the world below,

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Godliness with Contentment

    Godliness with Contentment

    About this sermon

    False teachers suppose that godliness is a means of gain, but Paul teaches that godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out; with food and clothing we will be content. Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and ruin, and the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which has led some away from the faith. Prosperity preaching still repeats the error. The great mystery of godliness is Christ himself, and contentment is found in knowing him.

    More sermons from 1 Timothy · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Now let us turn to 1 Timothy 3.16. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the Spirit, Excuse me. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Now, first, Timothy 6, 1 through 10. Pardon me, let’s start at three.

    If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions. and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, which suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it. If you have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

    But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. That ends the reading of God’s holy inspired word.

    May it be dear to us this day. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you that you promise to bless the reading of your word in the public worship service. We also thank you that you promise to bless the preaching of your word. We ask, oh Father, that it might be faithful to your word. We also ask that we might have hearts to hear and minds to understand. May your word sink deeply into us this day and may it be lodged in us. May it be even in our bones and in our marrow. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. I’m going to talk about a thing, at least in this introduction, that I would not normally talk about.

    How many planets are there? It seems that this is something that is up for debate. When I was young, we were told that there were nine planets. I think a lot of you were told that there were nine planets as well. Maybe some of you are a bit younger and you’re being told some rumor that there are eight planets. It seems that someone or something has received a demotion. Pluto has received a demotion. Well, how is that? It was in 2005 that a man found another planet.

    And that other planet happens to be bigger than Pluto, and it’s in our solar system. And so the news hit, and everywhere we saw, there are 10 planets. And now we have eight. It seems that this one, which is called Eris, is bigger than Pluto. And as a result of that, they said, well, maybe we should make this a planet. And then they said, well, No, we can’t have that because of the definition of what a planet is. So scientists argued, a planet is such and such, and it must be this big. And anyways, we have eight planets now by one definition. Or do we have 10 by another definition? Or do we have nine? I have to wonder, why am I talking about this?

    Well, because the Greeks understood the planets. I know that there is an idea that all of ancient people until Copernicus and Galileo believed that the world was flat and there were arguments about whether the sun goes around the earth or the earth around the sun.

    The reason I’m bringing this to you is that you might understand the concept of wandering. Paul talks about those who wander from the faith. That is the word that he uses in our target passage. People are wandering from the faith. And would you know, the word he uses is to planet. They have planeted away from the faith.

    Understand that I don’t think the ancient Greeks, if they were in our time, would listen to arguments about eight, nine, ten planets, or are there eight planets and then there are dwarf planets. Sorry, Pluto, you’re now a dwarf planet. It would not have anything to do with that.

    Those that wander, Those celestial spheres that wander are those that are planets in the Greek mind. That’s why Paul says they have wandered, they have planeted away. Now, it certainly is the case that a planet goes in a specific orbit and it maintains that, and that’s an ordered thing. So they don’t wander from their specific orbit, but They do wander when you compare them to the stars. The stars are fixed and they don’t move.

    And so we see Paul warning us. What does he say? Be content with what you have. Be content with heaven. and be content with godliness. And this will keep people from wandering from the faith. God’s will is that you would be content with the salvation that you have. Those who have not been content, he says, they pierce themselves. They end in ruin. What I want you to see is our passage is very, very simple.

    God is calling especially preachers. That’s very much the context here. And it’s especially warning against false teachers here. But that which is said is true of all of us. God desires that we be content in Him, that we would resolve our restlessness, that we would find our rest in Him and Him alone. That is our desire and that is His desire. We see the way that there are those who are preaching other doctrines.

    Paul is warning against false teachers. I had a discussion with someone recently, well, why do you bring up what false ideas that people have about biblical characters and things like that? Well, I think that we ought to warn against those things so that we might understand the truth. And Paul, I think he agrees with me, or I agree with Paul, that we ought to warn against those who are teaching false things, that there are teachers who love money, and they are not content with what they have because they don’t have the gospel.

    So they are not content with the riches that they have. A very wealthy man was asked, how much money is enough? And he said, A little bit more. They said, how much do you need? Just a little bit more to be happy. I just need a little bit more. Isn’t that the deceitfulness of riches that you just need a little bit more and then you can be happy. These preachers, these who are opposing Paul and opposing Timothy, these are us men who love money and they want just a little bit more. And so they are seeking it.

    God calls preachers to godliness. He calls all his people to godliness with contentment. And if you’ve been here in weeks past or in months past, we understand that godliness is not a list of things that you must do. Godliness is not, if you want to be godly, then you must wake up earlier and pray longer. and read your Bible more and be more holy. That’s not what godliness is. Godliness, I think, according to this epistle, but I think according to all of the gospels and to the epistles, is knowing Christ. That’s why we have this wonderful passage, and we keep coming back to it, because it is our confession.

    1 Timothy 3.16, it is a common confession. When he says it’s common, that does not mean that it’s boring. That means that we all confess this.

    That we confess that Jesus was revealed in the flesh. By understanding this, God makes me godly. He makes me more like Him. By understanding that Christ was raised from the dead, God makes me and you godly. And we must be content in that. The angels saw Him. Jesus Christ is proclaimed to all the nations, even in the apostolic age, in a sense. He was believed on, and He was raised up. He ascended into glory.

    You notice that this mystery of godliness is something that does not include us. It is something that includes Christ and his redemptive historical works. And only after that do we confess him and believe in him. And we are found to be those who are godly. And this is not a mystery.

    Paul says it is a mystery, and I’m not disagreeing with Paul. He says it is a mystery, but when Paul says mystery, he means revelation. We must understand this. There are those who would think that when Paul talks about mystery, he’s talking about secret religions, mystery religions that were present in the first century. And they had secret societies of a sort. We know just a little bit about them because we have portions of their writing.

    That’s not the mystery that Paul’s talking about. The mystery that Paul’s talking about is what was mysterious in ages past. The previous ages did not know Christ and Him crucified. He was only known to the Hebrew people. And even that, in bits and pieces, they didn’t fully understand Him.

    When Paul says mystery, he means the revelation of that which once was mysterious and now is a grand and glorious revelation of God’s light and of his power and of his fatherhood and of his sonship and of the Holy Spirit that opens our eyes that we might see God’s great acts.

    We have seen the revelation of the mystery, Romans 16, 25. Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel, Paul’s gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for ages past. He, but has now been disclosed through the prophetic writings, has been made to all nations.

    Belief in God’s great redemptive acts causes us to be found in Him, and we are found to be godly, and that begins the process of our sanctification, in a sense. We begin to be made conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are called to contentment in this. called to understand, to be mindful of the inexhaustible riches of the Lord Jesus Christ that you are partakers of. What Paul would have the people to understand, what I want you to understand is that if you are believing in Christ, then the difficulties or the poverty of the hardship of this life will all be a distant memory when we are with God in heaven and we enter into a new age, which will be an eternal age. When we are resurrected and we are with Christ, We will look back on those days, on these days really, and we will exalt and praise God for the joy He brought to us, and we will praise Him for the distant memory of the crosses we bore and the hardship of this time.

    Do you understand that you are the recipient of heavenly wealth that does not compare to this time and this age? You are right now recipients of that, and you will be recipients of that. With that in mind, Paul says, Be content with food and with clothing. That’s all we need. We will find our sufficiency in that because we have Christ who loved our soul and died for us and bled for us.

    Now this is not to say that a Christian should not work harder. This is not to say that if a promotion or a raise comes to us, or an opportunity to leave a job and go to another, or for more education if it might advance us, we’re not saying that we ought not to seek after those things.

    Surely, it is right to continue in those things. Those are good and those are right. It is right for us to be able to save up money for a difficult day or for a time when we are unable to work. All of these things are good. It is good to seek to make more. that we might give more, that we might provide our children with more, or whatever the case may be. There are so many reasons why it is good to have more.

    But what Paul is saying is being content with what we have so that we do not make money our God. See, that is the issue with these false teachers. If you would look at them, they would be teaching from the scriptures. But deep down inside, they do not know God, and they are not content with the God who wrote the scriptures. And so, they live as they do. They are not content with food and with clothing.

    These false teachers. love money so much that it ends in their destruction. Sometimes it ends in the destruction of their ministries. And sometimes it ends, tragically, in eternal destruction, which is something that we must be mindful of. Money, mammon, must not be an idol. It must not be the thing that we worship.

    It is a tool that we use, a tool that we have. Jesus Christ paid his taxes with real money. There was no need to counterfeit or anything like that. It was a tool for him. He did not make it his God. Christ is our God. The Father is our God. The Holy Spirit is our God. And Paul says this warning that Money or the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.

    That is what he says. And do you not know this to be true in your own life? And also in what you know about the world. You look at the world and you see that nation rises up and goes against nation, oftentimes for money, sometimes for other reasons. But oftentimes, there is a monetary basis for doing so. Kings are assassinated by those who are their loyal subjects, or so they thought. And that is for money. And they fall into these trappings, these temptations, these passions, and destruction is their end.

    That is the ministry of these people that Paul’s talking about. Paul sets up in 1 Timothy the ministry of those false teachers and the true ministry. And we must be mindful of those. The distinctions, the differences, And we hear Paul talking about his own ministry. I don’t think that he was one who was prone to begging to to bragging. But he is honest with his people. And look what he says.

    In Acts chapter 20, 33, we read, I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. That is to say, the other preachers certainly were desiring after those things, if we understand it in a First Timothy context. But all he desires is that these people might know Christ, that they might have the comfort and joy of Christ and him alone and might be content in that. For not having Christ is destruction and it is difficulty. Paul’s concern was not for their wealth.

    He didn’t care about that, how much more that they might know him. Acts chapter 20, 18, you yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s so much more important that he proclaim the gospel to everyone, to Jew and to Gentile.

    That covers all the bases. They must hear it. If they reject it, that’s on them. But that is the focus of the ministry. I did not shrink back. I preached, and I preached that you might know Christ. That’s what I desire as well. That is surely what Pastor Knox requires. That is also what your elders require, that you might partake of the preached word and love Christ and know him. But our times have seen those who did not have Paul’s understanding of ministry. There’s a preacher who is on TV, and his name is Benny Hinn.

    You know, I have a quotation from him. I’ve heard it many times. I’ve played it. You know what he says? This is a preacher of the gospel, and he says, I am sick and tired of hearing about gold in heaven. I’ve got to have it now, he says. This is tragic. I am glad for you to laugh at that, but I would like more so that your hearts would be gripped by how horrible that is. He’s gotta have it now.

    Not too long ago, there were major controversies. and major media hyped issues about preachers who had multi-million dollar ministries. And they were, it all came to a halt because of scandal, of prostitutes, and of lavish lifestyles. There’s a man who was caught in a number of things in the 1980s. Young people, you may not know this name, But surely those who remember the 80s do remember the name of Jim Baker, a man who was very well known at the time, had a TV show along with his wife. And when scandal broke, all kinds of rumors came out and the media jumped upon these things.

    Now, surely he was wrong in a number of ways, but the rumor was that in his house there were gold faucets and air-conditioned dog houses to be spoiled. Well, we have opportunity to know that that was somewhat media hype. You know, once things hit the media, it’s like rumors times three or times ten, but Though they did not have gold faucets, they did not. And though they did not have air-conditioned houses, they had chrome faucets, but the rumor began.

    And though they did not have air-conditioned dog houses, they had heated dog houses, and that was just because they kept the dogs in the garage in the wintertime to keep them warm. That is a recipe for disaster, so they put heaters in their dog houses.

    You understand the way that the public views a minister who destroys his ministry in these kinds of ways? It is tragic, because the name of that preacher will be dragged through the mud But people do not discern between the message and the messenger, and it is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ whose name is dragged through the mud as well. And this is a great tragedy.

    It’s not until Jim Baker went to jail that he gives testimony of the fact that there in my cell, began to read the Bible for the first time, not to just cherry pick verses here and there, but to read it in context and to understand what the writer intended when he wrote, not just my own reaction to it and taking it what I want from it and running with it. It is not until the end that he understood that he had proof texted, and he had preached about prosperity. That all you need to do is confess that you have money, and you will have it. You see, in this understanding, the modern TV preacher, faith is a force, and your words give power to that force. And if you speak into existence, money, it will speak, it will come into your life. That is what they believe.

    Tragic. Jim Baker says, the more I studied the Bible, however, I had to admit that the prosperity message did not line up with the tenor of scripture. My heart was crushed to think I led so many people astray. I was appalled that I could have been so wrong. And I was deeply grateful that God had not struck me dead as a false prophet. This man wrote this in a biography entitled, I Was Wrong.

    And even today, there are those who are preaching that what you need to do, this is on television all over, if you would give a sacrificial gift, and they’ll name a number, 100 or 500 or $1,000, a sacrificial gift, God will Multiply that. If you would just plant a seed of a thousand dollars, God will cause that to be blessed ten or a hundred or a thousand fold. And so many people unsuspectingly thinking that this is gospel truth. Fall for this.

    You see, the problem with those who are focused on money, why do I read that quote about Jim Baker not knowing his Bible till he gets to jail? Because I think it’s the case in many false preachers, but also, staying in our text, I think that is the case with the false teachers of Paul and Timothy’s age. They do not read God’s word in context.

    Another preacher says that he drives a Rolls Royce because Jesus would have done so. He says, to get you out of this malaise of thinking that Jesus and the disciples were poor, the Bible says that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. That’s the reason I drive a Rolls Royce. I’m following Jesus’ steps.

    Clearly, these people are not like Paul, with minds on things below and not things above. The true preacher, though, preaches good news, regardless of the audience, regardless of monetary issues at all. He desires to preach the gospel to those who will hear, and that is his focus. We read in Psalm 40, this passage, which I said is a passage about the Lord Jesus Christ, what preacher would not want to agree with what I’m about to read to you.

    Psalm 40, verse 9, I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. May every preacher desire that.

    I want you to know that God is faithful to his promises because he is faithful to his people because he has bound himself in a covenant to you and those who would preach otherwise. Those who would hold back and restrain their lips from preaching that good news and would preach about prosperity or preach any other false gospel.

    For those, they pierced themselves. Why did Paul use pierce themselves? Isn’t that strange? There’s not another place in the Bible that talks about piercing themselves, but it’s just simply a word for destruction. Because they’re not preaching the one who was pierced. They have wandered. They have planeted from the faith. God, His faithfulness is trustworthy. You know how trustworthy?

    It is so trustworthy that He has ordered the heavens as they are. And if He were to break His promises, He would also destroy the heavens as He has given them. But as He has made a covenant with them, and He has made a covenant with you. Listen to Jeremiah 31. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation forever before me.

    God says he will not allow his covenant nation to pass away And it is as sure as the planets. It is as sure as the sun and the stars. He is faithful to his promises. And you must understand that by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are that nation to whom he keeps those promises. And as we trust in Christ, he will cause us never to planet away. A cross does not drive as well as a Rolls Royce, but in the long term, it will get you much further.

    Let us pray. Our God in heaven, help us to be a contented people We have such great riches because we have you, O Lord. We ask, O Father, that you would help us to understand that though it seems as if sometimes we would be as those wanderers, that you have given us promises, that if we trust in your Son, that you have fixed us and that you hold us even as you hold the stars. We ask, oh Father, that none here would wander from the faith, that we would all receive the warnings, and that we would call about Christ. For only in him do we have true contentment. In his name we pray, amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Fight the Good Fight of Faith

    Fight the Good Fight of Faith

    About this sermon

    Paul charges Timothy, as a man of God, to flee the love of money and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. He is to fight the good fight of the faith and take hold of eternal life, to which he was called when he made the good confession before many witnesses. Christ Jesus made the good confession before Pontius Pilate. Believers who profess their faith, including a new member received that day, are called to the same lifelong fight, as many believers in hostile lands do at great cost.

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    Sermon transcript

    passages first of all to Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 and then we will turn to 1st Timothy 6 11 through 13 I know that the bulletin says 12 I thought it best to add one more verse 1 Timothy 6, 11 through 13. And in the middle of those, we will make a stop off at what I think is the center of the book, which is 1 Timothy 3, 16. 1 Timothy 3, 16. That will be the middle passage. Let us read then God’s word from Romans chapter 10, 9 and 10.

    Listen very closely. This is the Word of God. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

    1 Timothy 3.16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. God who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, now to the focus of our sermon of the day. 1 Timothy 6, 11-13 But flee from such things, you men of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

    Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.

    And we’ll end there. I would not normally end on the first half of a thought, but there’s a lot in that 13, so we’ll end with an incomplete sentence. But there is a complete thought there in 13. Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to confess the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess of what He has done, and to also hear our brother who made a confession of faith. We ask, oh Father, that this public preaching and singing and worshiping service would be also a public confession of our faith. For we believe that Jesus Christ has come and that he has been raised and that he is our Lord who has set up government in our hearts, but who rules the nations as well. We ask that you would be with us, oh Lord.

    In Jesus’ name, amen. Today is a blessed day and today is a joyful day. Why? Well, this is the Lord’s day. This is the market day of the soul. This is a joyful day. This is the day in which we are able to sit under the ministry of God’s Word and learn about our salvation, to be instructed about the Lord Jesus Christ.

    But our Lord adds blessing upon blessing today because we are able to partake of all these things, but we are also able to be the witnesses to a profession of faith. And we saw that today. We saw our brother, Mr. Sam Rainey, make a profession of faith, or a reaffirmation of faith. Questions were asked him, and he said, yes, I believe that. I believe that about the Word of God. I believe that about my sinfulness. I believe that about the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Today we are able to see what the Lord has done in one man’s life, and it reminds us of what the Lord has done and is continuing to do in all of our lives. It is about what He has done and what has the Lord done. The Lord has been crucified. The Lord has been raised and He has drawn us into Himself, drawn us unto Himself that we might be united with Him and might be partakers of His death and of His resurrection. And we have this passage that we read, verse 13, about the Lord Jesus who makes a profession or a confession or He gives testimony before Pontius Pilate. We know a fair amount about Pontius Pilate.

    He even makes it into one of the creeds of the church, the Apostles’ Creed, does he not? There he is, this man who seemed with some reluctance to stand before the Lord. He did not seem to want to convict him right away, but surely he stood before the Lord Jesus Christ, and he did challenge the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus gave a profession to him. He confessed. He gave testimony of who he was. Why was it that the Lord Jesus Christ had to come and give a profession or a confession?

    It’s because of the fact that Adam and Eve did not do so. You know the story of Adam and Eve where the serpent, the anti-Lord, comes into the paradise sanctuary, into the temple? which is the garden. And what does he do there? He tempts the woman. He comes to her first. And what does he say there? He tempts her and tries to get her to believe what he says.

    This is a very important thing because Eve knew better. She may not have known as well as Adam knew, but she knew better. She had been instructed. What should she have done? She should have given a profession of who God was. She should have confessed that right there. And she should have given testimony of what she had heard from God. She did not do that.

    And by beginning to think about it and consider what the anti-Lord said, that was undoing what the Lord had said in her mind and in her actions. She began to make herself the arbiter of truth. By making herself the arbiter of truth, no longer was God the one who would decide what truth was and what truth is. And that is why we are in the issues that we are in, the problems that we are in, the sin of the world, the rebellion, death, all of these things come because of Adam and his lack of doing what he ought to have done, which could have been stopped by Eve, could have been stopped by him. But because of that, the Lord Jesus Christ came and made profession. He bore witness of the truth.

    We read about the exchange of Jesus and Pontius Pilate in John chapter 18. Listen to this exchange between them. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me.

    What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king for this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.

    And everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Do you understand? Jesus Christ comes and He confesses. He proclaims who He is. And He proclaims who God is, His Father. He proclaims what heaven is about and what His kingdom is about. He makes a profession before Pontius Pilate. And then He brings us into it. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And that is what our brother Michael has done. He said, I am listening to the Lord’s voice. I am hearing Him. He made a profession about Himself, and now I am making a profession about Him as well.

    And it is interesting, as we read through God’s Word, We encounter the most glorious concept, which is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have spoken of it elsewhere and in past sermons. What I want you to understand is that that which happens to the Lord Jesus Christ in redemptive history is brought to bear upon us. later on. Do you understand what I mean by that? We’ve talked about Jesus being, enduring the cross, right?

    Being baptized by judgment. Equally so, we are baptized into Christ. He has been raised from the dead. The Bible says that you are raised from the dead because of that. I think it’s very clear that the Bible talks about the justification of the Lord Jesus Christ.

    His public declaration of His righteousness, which we read in 1 Timothy 3.16, that He was vindicated by the Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit is by the resurrection causing the Lord Jesus to be raised. And His resurrection is an open declaration of His righteousness. That’s what happens in redemptive history.

    But for you, you are by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ justified. The same is the case with adoption. I can show you many places that point to the fact, implicitly and explicitly, that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is His adoption. Are you believers in Christ? If so, then you have been adopted and you are able to cry out, Abba Father.

    And Jesus’ resurrection ultimately is His sanctification. Not that He was a sinner in the least, but He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, Romans 8, 3. And His resurrection was the putting off of this present evil age, though He was not a partaker of that. You understand the way that what happens in redemptive history God brings that to bear and causes these things to happen to us, his people.

    Oh, what about profession or confession? I hope it’s very clear to you that the Lord Jesus, in redemptive history, stood before Pontius Pilate and confessed many things. He talked about who he was and his father and the kingdom and the glory, many things he spoke of.

    And we, as believers in Christ, are called to be those who give a testimony and give a profession before those who are witnesses. And that is what we see here today. Paul also says some other things in the verses that we have read. Looking at 6.12, what does he say?

    He says, fight the good fight of Faith. Fight the good fight of faith. So what I want to say to our newest member, fight the good fight of faith. I want to reaffirm this to all of you. Fight the good fight of faith. Life as a believer is not easy. Life as a resurrected believer will be, I believe, by comparison, very easy and very wonderful. But this side of the resurrection, we have a fight on our hands.

    Now, you might think when we talk about fighting the good fight, that we are bringing about war words. We’re borrowing from the military list of words and we’re saying fight in that sort of way. Well, Paul uses that kind of language elsewhere, but when we read fight the good fight of faith, I’m not convinced that we have war words. We have rather sports words. If you were to go to 118, you would there find war words. Paul says there, wage the good warfare. This is war language borrowed from a military. Our words here, we have that which is more often used in sports. Surely in all of Paul’s use of this word has to do with sports.

    What does he mean then? What is he saying? What he’s saying is, fight the good fight like a boxer would. The Christian life is as a boxing match. That’s what he’s saying. It is that sort of struggle and that sort of training. The same might be said of a wrestling match. Wrestle the good wrestling match of the Christian life. The same word can be used in association with racing, with running. So we might say race the good race of the Christian life.

    That is what we might understand. I just want you to understand the particularities of the words that he’s saying, and so that we don’t get lost and start to think that he’s talking about declaring war. He certainly does that. He makes use of those kinds of metaphors and analogies, but here he is saying, fight the good fight like a boxer fights the good fight.

    Why is it a good fight? The reason that it is a good fight is because you are guaranteed the victory. Any athlete who seeks to compete is not guaranteed the victory, but we are guaranteed the victory in the Christian life at the resurrection. I want you to see then that this, though it is a fight, though it is a struggle, it is a good fight. It is not a bad fight. But now that we understand fight the good fight, we might ask ourselves, well, how are we to do that? How does one fight the good fight of faith?

    Well, Paul defines his terms, I think, in the second half of verse 12. Look what he says. Second half of verse 12. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Take hold of that eternal life to which you were called. And also, this eternal life that you partook of and that you take hold of is something that many witnesses see you do.

    Understand, one would not be fighting the good fight if he would not go to church and ever speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve known many people who would say, I don’t need to go to church. I can worship God at home. Maybe you know someone from school or from work who would say that. I can do that at home. I remember one time I had, I was listening to two non-Christians and one was saying that, I can worship at home. You know what the other non-Christian said to the other? He said, yeah, but you won’t. You know, that’s the case.

    If we didn’t have this kind of structure where we come as witnesses, we would not do it. Our lives are difficult to structure. Maybe some of us would, at least for a time, right? But we come here to hear a profession of faith. We come here to worship God. And if we did not do it as a corporate body, we would not be in the habit of doing it. And the habits surely would fall away. to simply do it on our own. One who would say, I don’t need to go to church, is not able to do what Paul is saying.

    That is, to fight the good fight, meaning to take hold of eternal life and the profession of the faith of that eternal life that you have received. Now Paul is talking about the calling, the effectual calling, which believers are recipients of. They call upon the Lord Jesus Christ because they have been foreordained to do so. And the fruit of that is being a part of the congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ wherever that may be. This may very well be in a worship context that Timothy is told to do this, to fight the good fight of faith and more so to make the profession of faith or to confess Christ. Many people do think that this is, that what Paul’s writing, he is talking about a worship context.

    But it’s interesting as you read these words, especially of 12, that there doesn’t seem to be an audience that is hostile to the gospel. But if you look at the verses preceding and the ones that come after 12, you see that there is much hostility in these verses. The verses that precede talk about those who are wealthy and are using that for gain, and using the ministry as a way to get wealthy, and they’re abusing that.

    But surely these are people who are not in favor of the true Christian faith. They are hostile to the gospel. We also have the hostile nature of Pontius Pilate when Jesus Christ stood before him. And so maybe the worship context is not what he is talking about.

    Maybe he’s talking about Timothy, telling Timothy, you must make a profession of faith in front of many witnesses who are hostile witnesses. Do you understand the difference? We have many here who are witnesses, who witness a profession of faith. But I don’t think there are any hostile witnesses here, those who are chomping at the bit and grinding their teeth that someone made a profession of faith today.

    But it may be the case that we separate things superficially as Americans and as those who live in the time in which we live, we are able to have a worship context little or no hostility. But the first century was not guaranteed that. Any corporate worship service like this one in the first century all the way till about 313 A.D. had the potential to have much hostility. That was for the whole church.

    And it is the case that there are many places in the world where it is very dangerous to make a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you understand that there are people today who when they come to make a profession of faith, They will die because of it in Muslim countries and in certain Islamic republics. Also, we would think of atheistic and communistic countries where what we have been able to freely watch and see done is something that has to be kept under wraps a little bit. We must never forget our brothers and sisters who are needing to make a profession of faith, and when they do so, they come under great danger for doing so.

    But whether there is hostility or lack of hostility, whether it’s before those who would be witnesses who would love what we’re doing or not, We are to fight the good fight of faith and we are to make the profession of faith and not shrink back from telling someone. I believe in the gospel. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been saved by him. Certainly not all are called to be evangelists or pastors, but when asked, to give a profession of faith whether there is hostility or whether there is not.

    But you might look at this passage and think it a little bit strange. Isn’t it a little bit strange that Paul is telling Timothy, take hold of eternal life. Doesn’t seem like Paul has things a little bit backwards, Wouldn’t you take hold of eternal life and then become a pastor? Timothy’s a pastor. Maybe Paul has put the cart before the horse and maybe he is thinking, Timothy’s not converted. Well, that’s not it at all.

    Paul does know that Timothy is a believer. He says in verse one, one, verse one, two, he tells him that he is his true son in the faith. Paul knows. Timothy is a believer. He is a minister of the gospel. The understanding is he is a believer. He has met the qualifications of chapter 3. So then why is it that he tells him to take hold of eternal life? Is he saying to get saved again? No. Paul here is not talking about a one-time thing.

    That might sound strange to us as well. There is a sense in which we partake of eternal life. We take it because God has given us the gift of faith and the gift of repentance. And we take eternal life and it’s ours because God has given it to us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ has died for it and he has secured it in his cross and in his resurrection.

    But This passage, and especially the verbal form that Paul uses, it is a timeless verbal way of speaking, not a one-time. What it is saying is, continually do this. Continually Fight the good fight of faith. Continually, this is where the verb is, continually take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.

    What Paul is saying is, not become a believer. He’s saying, because you are a believer, you must continually take hold of these things. Grab onto them. You must grab them because they are yours. He’s not saying, take what you do not already possess. What Paul is saying, grab on to that which you already have. Take hold of the righteousness of faith, which is yours in the gospel.

    Paul uses other types of ways of speaking like this, where he would say, don’t become something that you are not. He would say, be what you are in the gospel. Colossians 3, one through three. Whenever you think of Colossians 3 and the beginning of Colossians 3, that chapter, I want you to think, be what you are, not be what you are. are not.

    Right? Listen to the Apostle Paul as he writes, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. The implication is, you have been raised with Christ, therefore seek that which is above where Christ is.

    Be what you are. You are not of this world, therefore do not seek the things of this world. You are of the heavenly realm, therefore seek that which is yours. Seek that which is heavenly. Seek Christ. You understand the analogy here? Be what you are. Take hold of what you already have. Take hold of what you possess.

    What would you say of a married man who says, I have partaken of my wife. I have taken her to myself. I have held her. And so my job is done. That’s not how a relationship like that works. A husband will continually take his wife to himself, continually pulling her, receiving her, because he loves her. He holds her close. And he does so regularly. He does so continually.

    You might think, Take hold of your wife. I already have her. Yes, but you need to regularly and continually partake of her, holding her equally. You must regularly fight the good fight. That is to say, take hold of what is yours. And that is because it is by grace. And we must make the confession. the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we must meditate on the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a way of fighting the good fight. I know that life is sometimes hard.

    And some of you wonder, is the gospel real? Maybe in the deepest depths of your heart, Sometimes you are on high highs, you read a passage of the Word of God, you hear a sermon, and you are so high off of it, you are so grateful for what you have heard, and God has never seemed so close to you. And then there are low lows where you wonder, is God real? Is He true?

    That is the good fight that Paul is talking about. Not of doubting, but continually confessing the Lord Jesus Christ, continually making profession and meditating upon the confession of Christ. that you might not doubt. And when you struggle with doubt, to confess Him more and to meditate upon professing the Lord Jesus Christ.

    That is why it is so wonderful this passage which is the acme, the pinnacle, the high point, the mountain peak of the gospel that is found in 1 Timothy 3.16, the high point of the epistle 3.16. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. Jesus was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. The Lord Jesus Christ professed what is true.

    I take those as somewhat words that are synonymous. Confession and profession. Certainly they have their distinctions, but I’m taking them in this sermon as synonyms. We confess the Lord Jesus Christ And because of that, He gives us godliness. He gives us grace. And so, how would we be those who fight the good fight? I think He’s given it not only after the verse, and in the verse. but he’s given it to us before the verse, which is verse 11.

    He says, flee from these things. That’s worldly materialism and pastors who are in love with worldly materialism, not in love with the gospel. You, men of God, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. When I say this, I would not stand before you as one who could say that I have done these things right, but I would say to you that you can take these things and receive them continually.

    Because God has given you new obedience. God has given you new obedience. So you can continually take hold of righteousness, and of godliness, and of faith, and love, and perseverance, and gentleness. These are not things that are Not yours already. You have them in the same way that a spouse has his or her spouse, that a husband has a wife. But continually taking these things that you might not lose faith and that you might be strengthened by them. Brothers and sisters, in a world that is dark, and very sad and very grim, we must never cease to confess Christ publicly. We’re not called to preach, we’re not all called to teach, but given the opportunity. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. It doesn’t matter if people will listen or not. We don’t want to be bossy about it. But when asked, we say, I believe in Christ. He loved me. He died for me. He rose again for me.

    Because we understand that the Lord Jesus, who confessed truths, calls us to confess truth. Saying that everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. Jesus promises that he will save the people who are confessing him. This is not for those who are faking, not for those who will one day abandon the faith and show that they are not his, but those who struggle and fight to make profession of faith. And it is because of that we have His promises, and we can look to the promises of the gospel and hold on to them and understand that if we confess the Lord Jesus Christ, He will save us, as Romans said. If we believe in His resurrection, that He is going to save us. It’s not saying that He will not save those who are doubting. for we all go through our times of doubt. But he is going to save and has saved and does save those who are trusting in him.

    But I will end letting you know that Paul is not a hypocrite when he tells Timothy to do this. He is not one who would put a bondage or a burden upon Timothy that he would not take upon himself. Do you understand that Paul takes this upon himself and he says to himself, fight the good fight of faith. Because that passage right before he is going to die, I believe it’s right before he is going to die, it’s probably his last epistle. Second Timothy, chapter four. Turn with me there, where you see Paul, the non-hypocrite, says, I will fight the faith, and I have fought the faith.

    Paul is looking forward in Timothy’s life, and when he gets to the end of his life, he is looking back. What does he say? Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Why is he able to talk about the crown of righteousness and the Lord, the righteous judge, and what God is going to give him? It’s because of the preceding verse. He says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Paul’s fighting the good fight is forward-looking.

    It’s not simply about the here and now. It’s looking to the end of life when we will continue to profess the Lord Jesus Christ. And even while the body is passing away, we will proclaim the goodness of the Lord and what he has done for us. that we might look back and say, I have fought the good fight. I have continually partaken of, grabbed onto what was already mine. Righteousness and faith and perseverance and hope and all of these glorious things. The Lord Jesus confessed, professed, and today we profess Him. We proclaim Him who died for us and rose again. We fight the good fight. We fight the fight in which we are guaranteed victory. Let us pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Timothy, My True Child in the Faith

    Timothy, My True Child in the Faith

    About this sermon

    Paul calls Timothy “my true child in the faith,” and Timothy’s life is a model for believers. Raised in the faith by his mother and grandmother, timid by nature, he became Paul’s trusted coworker, a yokefellow who shared his labors and genuinely cared for the churches. The fruit of the Spirit and the character of the Beatitudes were seen in him. Grace, mercy, and peace from God transformed Timothy, and the same Spirit who dwelt in him forms believers today to lay down their lives for God’s glory.

    More sermons from 1 Timothy · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Not that I’m a Whitfield, but Whitfield never had to worry about recording devices or things like that. Our scripture reading is the same as this morning. It’s in the book of 1 Timothy. And there we looked at the second verse, the apostolic greeting. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Tonight we want to look at a few things about Timothy. I know you know a lot about the Apostle Paul. probably the best known person within scripture, maybe other than David, or of course the Lord Jesus Christ. But there’s a lot about Paul that you know and perhaps we can review. But then we want to look at the life of Timothy as a model of the kind of person that you ought to be. As we’ll see, Paul loved Timothy. Timothy, we can honestly say, was worth his weight in gold to Paul. Paul said, and we’ll read something about Timothy that said a few other people in the scripture, and by no one else, by Paul’s reckoning.

    So listen carefully, then, to this greeting and the letterhead to this letter of 1 Timothy. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope, to Timothy, my true child in faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord.

    Let’s pray. Father, we read of these people. We know about them. But Lord, the same Holy Spirit that dwelt in Paul and Timothy dwells in us, and you want to form in us, and you will form in us those fruits that are to your glory. So please, Lord, as we briefly reflect on Timothy, Paul’s true spiritual child, we pray, Lord, that we may think this week how we relate to one another in general and particularly to our pastors or our leaders. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.

    So you know a lot about Paul. And just real quickly, when I preached this at our church plant, I went through four sermons on Paul just to refresh people’s mind. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee taught under Gamaliel. His birth, his education, his law, his zeal, his self-righteousness that he reflects on in Philippians. And all of that went out the window. He said, I count it as dumb. I count it as refuge. I count it as nothing, garbage, compared to the excellency of Jesus Christ.

    And you know the story of Saul becoming Paul on the road to Damascus, where he’s going up to kill Christians. And you remember the trouble he had when he went down to Jerusalem. Remember, Barnabas had to get him in, right? They’re thinking, oh boy, this is the ultimate traitor here. Now he’s acting like he’s a Christian so he can get in here and get us and kill us. But Barnabas says, no, it’s the real deal. God’s done something to this man. And remember what Ananias was told. I’m going to show him how much he’s going to have to suffer for my sake and the gospel. And then his three missionary journeys and his imprisonment and his martyrdom. as at least church history says it.

    But Timothy, we may not know as much. And a sophisticated congregation, biblically sophisticated like this, probably knows a bit about Timothy. But our review may be helpful about his childhood, his character, and his relationship to Paul. And I think there’s things that we can reflect on that may help us to think about our relationships in terms of to the pastors or to the elders or to the leaders. Well, Timothy, you know, was, we’re told, had a, probably a Greek pagan father.

    Wasn’t probably converted. He wasn’t circumcised. He did have his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois were what? We’re told they’re believers. So this young man in his childhood was what? We’re told in section, you know the scriptures that you knew from childhood, okay?

    And I won’t go off on what we want to, the catechism and memorization of scripture, but that’s important. And I might say, you know, we talk about common grace and saving grace. Well, there’s covenant grace. It doesn’t guarantee that you’re saved being born into the covenant, but you know, it’s a great privilege. Right? Paul argues about that, doesn’t he, in Romans 1 and 2. Romans 1 is what? The pagans go to hell apart from Christ, right? And chapter 2, the Jews go to hell apart from Christ. And so then the question comes up, and Paul answers in chapter 3. He says, well, then what good is it to be a Jew? What good is it to be God’s covenant people?

    And he says, in every way. The first thing is they have the scriptures. And that’s Timothy’s life. He grew up with a mother and a grandmother who told him, in that time, of course, the Old Testament scriptures. And we know somewhere in there he was converted, and he knew the truth from youth, and God used it. So interestingly, just think about the contrast. Not for long, but I think it’s worth thinking about.

    Here’s Paul, who literally gets knocked off his horse, by the power of the risen Christ, blinding him. And here’s Timothy, no big spectacular conversion probably, just raised in a believing home, at least with a believing mom and grandmom, and God’s pleased to work in his heart. And here’s Paul, and they must be yin and yang, they’re very different. Paul’s an in-your-face, fiery guy, and Timothy needs to take a little bit of wine for his stomach’s sake, because he’s kind of, you know.

    I can see him saying, Paul, you left me down here in Ephesus. What am I supposed to do? Dan laughs at that. Anyone who’s been trained. I can remember sitting on steps at midnight saying to Jay Adams, what did I get myself into? What am I supposed to do? I have no idea what to say to these people or how to help them.

    You know, he had, here’s Paul, and here’s Timothy, and they team up. And it’s apparent. Paul comes through his city, and he says, I want Timothy to go with me. And so he has him circumcised. Now, Paul makes a stand. No circumcision for Gentiles. But since he has a Jewish mom, he says, look, We’re going to get you circumcised so that we’re not going to run into trouble. So here they are. But most important, what’s he like?

    Now, that’s dangerous when we kind of try to read things into scripture. We’re not to do eisegesis, read things in. You know, the latest psych information, people, I won’t even tell you who the heretic was I was just reading, but it frustrated me no ends because here’s all this pop psychology being read back into Jesus’ life. And I’m going, oy vey. You know, Jesus would roll over if he heard this. This is not the God of the Bible.

    But, you know, looking into his life, there’s things. He was teachable. I confer that from what? I can’t imagine him giving the raspberries to his mother and his grandmother going, nah, I’m not going to memorize the scripture. You know, he’s teachable, okay, and pliable and that sort of thing. We know in Acts 16 that he has a good reputation. When Paul comes back through, everybody speaks well of Timothy. Timothy is a wonderful young man. He loves the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the real deal.

    We know from 1 Timothy 4, and we can argue about this and we’ll get into it, he’s young. Don’t ask me how young. I don’t care. He’s young compared to what a normal pastor would be, okay? And some people argue he must have been in his 40s, you know, young. But whatever it was, he was young culturally at that point, and we know that Paul says, hey, look, Timothy, don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young.

    Now, how do you do that? Do you get in their face? No. You become what? An example. Every Christian character, Every trait, you know, may the Holy Spirit develop that in you so that really, in a sense, you are in everyone’s face, but in such a way as they can see the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, meekness, self-control. They can see the beatitudes.

    You’re poor in spirit. You mourn over your sin and the sins of others. You’re meek. You hunger and thirst after righteousness. You’re a merciful peacemaker who pure-heartedly, single-mindedly sticks at peacemaking even when you’re persecuted. You outdo everybody in the fruits of the spirit. We know he’s somewhat timid and fearful, isn’t he?

    Paul even says to one church, will you treat him right? I don’t have many guys like this. He doesn’t say it, but someone’s like, don’t scare him off. Now, Brett didn’t pay me to do this, or Mary Ann did this, but don’t scare off this young man, okay? I don’t know whether he’s timid or not, I don’t know him well enough or not, but treat him right, okay?

    Because, why, you know? Timothy, you know, publicly he may be okay, but privately he’s there, and I don’t, you know, what am I doing? You know, and he’s timid and somewhat fearful. 1 Corinthians 16, 1 Timothy 5, 2 Timothy 1, 2 Timothy 2, 2 Timothy 4, you get the picture.

    Paul mentions it many times, the implications are there. But the thing I want to focus briefly on tonight is he was precious to Paul. Paul, the apostle, appreciated this young man. This young man, again, was worth his weight in gold to Paul. Paul said, I don’t have many guys like this.

    So look at 1 Timothy 1, again, our text. To Timothy, my what? True child in the faith. Genuine. That’s what the words really mean. My beloved, genuine, loyal, And that’s the character. This Timothy is doggedly loyal to Paul. As we would say, he’d go to the mat, he would put his life on the line for the Apostle Paul.

    If you’ll turn or listen, Hebrews 13 says an interesting thing about his character. Hebrews 13, verse 23. Let me just read the context. I appeal to you, brothers, as the writer of Hebrews, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

    You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. So Timothy did time for the gospel. He was arrested. I’m assuming it’s the same Timothy. I mean, not too many Timothys. And obviously, he must have been known to the churches, so he didn’t have to say, oh, this particular Timothy. It’s Timothy did jail time. He was not afraid to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ.

    But particularly, particularly, listen to this. Turn over to Philippians chapter 2. And this is really the summary of his character, as I think it’s recorded for us kind of peripherally, and we pick it up as we read. Philippians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22. Well, 24, just read this section. Philippians chapter 2, starting with verse 19.

    I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon. so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, that’s a statement, I have no one like him, not Titus or these other guys, I have no one like him who will be what? Genuinely concerned for your welfare. They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father, he has served with me in the gospel.”

    Wow. I wonder if there’s anybody in the world that would say something like that about me. Isn’t that incredible? I have no one else like this guy. Why? Here’s the character that’s important for us to grasp. He will genuinely be concerned about your welfare. As timid as he is and everything else, he genuinely loves people. I don’t want to pit doctrinal accuracy against that. They have to go hand in glove. But let’s face it, and you know who they are. It’s not me. There are people out there sitting here that, you know, as much as you love Pastor Dan and Brent, you know, if you were in the hospital, you wouldn’t see them. Why? You’ve met them, right? Every time you meet them, you get this strange impression.

    They really mean what they say and they really care about me. You know, when they ask, they don’t just ask the question and then just go off. They look me in the eye and they wait for an answer. If I don’t come up with a good one, they ask me other questions. Until finally, you know, I come clean and, you know, I’ve been blessed. See, that’s Timothy. And as wonderful as Paul is, Paul was totally human, and he suffered. I can hardly keep from weeping when I read 2 Timothy. Remember how he ends, 2 Timothy? Hey, at my defense, guess what? You remember? Tell me.

    How many people stood with him? No one. This is the Apostle Paul. There’s no Christian groupies around. Nobody even wants to hang with him. He’s at his last defense. And Paul, who mentored Timothy, said what? I pray that it won’t be held against him. Wow. What a Christ-like response. And you see, that is the kind of character that was in Timothy. I have no one else like him who will be genuinely concerned about your welfare. Now do you know why Paul liked him? It wasn’t because he was a great speaker, had great jokes, whatever, you know, wonderful. It wasn’t powerful presence. This was a genuine guy who loved people and the Lord Jesus Christ and he loved Paul. Paul sent him all over the place, Rome, Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus. I mean, this guy bounced around all over the place, you see.

    And what was that relationship? He’s a spiritual son. Lois, Eunice, perhaps converted in Paul’s first missionary journey, and then they begin to teach him, and Paul comes through and teaches Timothy. He picks him, and he works with him, and he now becomes what?

    A yoke fellow. Now, I don’t know if this is accurate. When we say a yoke fellow, this is the picture I get. And I get this picture when Jesus uses those terms. He says what? Take my yoke upon you and learn of me because my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Now a yoke is what? It’s something that goes around an animal, an oxen particularly, right? And that’s attached to the wagon and it hauls the burden. And I always picture Christ when he says that with his head in the yoke of the law saying, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

    Christ is not asking you, beloved, to do anything that he didn’t do first. And in the same way, Paul says, this is my what? Yoke fellow. We served together. We suffered together in Rome, in Corinth, in Thessalonica, in Ephesus, at Philippi. You name it, Paul sent him there, and he suffered and served with Christ. So the final thing is to say, Timothy is a great encouragement to the Apostle Paul. A unique father-son relationship.

    Let me say this. You’ve heard the saying, haven’t you? Blood is thicker than water. Right, okay. What’s that mean? Your family relationship is the most important thing. Now let me flip that around. I think water should be more, should be thicker than blood. And what I mean by that is the water of baptism. Your spiritual family, we were talking the way over here, right? Millie and I, we were talking as we drove over, and she was mentioning some things. I won’t give you the details. She can if you want. But, you know, hey, why should I be near my physical family when my, what, spiritual family means more to me? You see?

    That’s the relationship that Paul had with Timothy. You see, and I would simply apply this very quickly. You and I need to have that character that Paul and Timothy had. A loyalty, a love for Jesus Christ, a love for his servants so that people would look at us. We need to have Timothy’s character to please God, of course. We need to have Timothy’s character to encourage our elders. Now again, you can say that, but in the discouragement and despondency of still struggling with the remnants of the stroke, Brent still learning the ropes of being a pastor, do they get encouragement from you?

    And just fill in the blank. Do they say, oh, there’s nobody like Sam. I have nobody else like him. He could say that to everybody at Grace, OPC, to everybody at Moon Township, over at Redeemer, anybody in the precinct. I mean, I have nobody in my congregation like, fill it in, man or woman. Why? Because of your character and your loyalty to them. See, blood is not thicker than water, although normally it is.

    I found that out in my first OP pastoring. step on one person’s toe, and the rest of the clan gets up in arms. That was interesting. That was in Harmony, New Jersey. There was this big clan over here, about 120-some people, all interrelated by marriage. And this other clan over here, about 75. And I thought, you know, boy, if they ever intermarried, it would be one big family. Well, I found out that there had been a divorce about six years before I got there. And actually, all had been interrelated. You know, and whatever I said over here, why’d you talk to my grandmother like that? So what do you mean when I talk like your grandmother like that? Da da da da da da da, you know? You know, that’s not the way it ought to be in the church.

    That’s the way it really is. And that’s where we get the saying, blood is thicker than water. And I found out that that blood relatives often became more significant than what the Bible said, you know, and people would protect their DUI cousin, you know, from the consequences legally and from the church because they wouldn’t repent. The water of baptism ought to be thicker than blood. I wonder, just simply, about myself too. I’m convicted by this sermon myself. Are there people that would say that about George Sipioni? There’s nobody like him. Yeah, he may be a little rough around the edges or anything, but man, there’s nobody that’ll be loyal to you for your Christian commitment like him, no one else will lay down their life like him.

    You see, that is the kind of relationship that Paul had with Timothy. And so, when Paul was dying, or soon to die for the faith, he writes to Timothy, and he tells him, hey, you know, everyone else left me. May God not hold that against them. But you know, Timothy was a soulmate.

    I trust that there’s relationships in this congregation that are like that. I think this is a key to relationships between elders and sheep, between older women and younger women, older men and younger men, all these things that we’re told in these pastoral epistles that ought to be going on in our churches. But it doesn’t happen unless there is that character been softened, by grace. So I end where I started this morning.

    Grace, mercy, and peace to you. Grace, mercy, and peace came to Timothy. God’s riches at Christ’s expense came to Timothy. It transformed him, and he became a Yoke fellow with Paul. Timothy also experienced mercy. May the eternal riches of Christ be yours. the covenant mercies of God, which will enable you not to protect yourself, but to lay down your life for God’s glory and for the good of your brothers and sisters in Christ, even when they step on your toes. And above all, the peace of God. that can allow you to be martyred. The powerful presence of the Prince of Peace may it ease and erase all crushing experiences. When you taste of that grace, you can be loyal to other people and be a spiritual child.

    For you older people, I plead with you to be mentors, not only to your own children, but take on some young Timothys. Love the OPC for having the Timothy conferences. That’s exciting to hear. But more than just a conference, they need an older man to take them aside and teach them how to love Christ and how to love others. May it be said to you or about you, I have no one else like you. because they will lay down their life. They have a genuine concern. I think above all, that’s what we need to learn from the life of Timothy and his relationship to the Apostle Paul. Again, the text is clear. The text is clear. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by commandment of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord.

    May you, may I, become Timothy’s so that again, someday we can be mentors like Paul. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we properly so, land down usually on the side of doctrine. And we can never, ever, ever cut corners there. But Lord, in our Reformed fellowships, we often forget how important friendships and human love and character are as they come from the Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray that we will take this implication from this introduction and see the depth of love between Paul and Timothy.

    And Lord, whatever side of the Rubicon we are in terms of age. May we desire to become spiritual fathers and mothers to younger people. And or, Lord, may we desire to have a Yolk Fellowship relationship with an older Christian. Lord, I think, and I want to thank you publicly, I think of Jay Adams and I think of Lou Grotenhaus, Lord, My sins are mine, my failures are mine. Lord, anything that is good has come from the mentoring from men like that and Bob Atwell. And so, Lord, may we all have, not just pastoral relations. But may all of us have these kind of accountability and relationships so that we have rich love for one another.

    Bind us together in prayer, bind us together in service, bind us together in love, we pray in Christ’s name, amen. Let’s take our hymnals and stand and sing our closing hymn. Jesus, the very thought of thee, receive God’s benediction. And then we will sing hymn 86, verse 3. Let’s stand together, sing in closing.

    Jesus, the very thought of thee. ♪ Jesus, the very thought of thee ♪ ♪ With sweetness fills my breast ♪ But sweeter for thy face to see, And in thy presence rest. can claim, nor can the memory find, a sweeter sound than thy blessed name, who saved your home and pride. Oh, To those who call, how kind thou art. Thou art good to those who seek. Thou art wise to those who find thou mist. ♪ Work the poor man and show the love of Jesus God ♪ ♪ It is not but this love one knows ♪ ♪ Jesus, our only joy, be there among us always ♪ People of God, receive God’s benediction. Now may the grace Mercy and peace of God, our Father, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the seven spirits be with you now and forever. Amen.

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