Why don't we just begin by going
back into 1st Timothy and just reading this so we can get something
of the understanding of what the Holy Spirit was leading the
Apostle Paul to write to Timothy. And of course this is instructions
from an elder, an apostle, an evangelist, Timothy's father
in the faith. It's instructions to a young
man who's been given the extraordinary responsibility of being the pastor
of the church in Ephesus. And it's just full of wonderful
instruction and it's full of glorious gospel truths. I want to just begin in verse
11. But he says, But thou, O man
of God, flee these things. Let's go back and see what has
to be fled. is to flee in verse 5, perverse
disputings of men of corrupt mind, destitute of the truth. Supposing that gain is godliness. Supposing that your gain in anything
is godliness. And Timothy is instructed about
godliness over and over again. And let me just say at the outset,
godliness is living as if God really is God. And we'll see
that as we go on. It's living in the presence of
and laying hold of God as God is revealed in the Scriptures.
We have that glorious description of Him as the Blessed and Only
Potentate, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Who only has immortality,
dwelling in light. It's living in the presence of
that God and laying hold of that God. That's eternal life, is
being in His presence, is knowing Him. And so they think that gain is
godliness. We all think that gain is godliness,
don't we? We all think that somehow I can
progress a little bit and I can get myself a little bit more
acceptable to God and a little bit less wicked in this world. I pray that God, as He only can
do, opens our eyes to see that if we're sinners, we're sinners
in the sense of sinners in Romans chapter 7. And you go and read
Romans chapter 7, Paul 7, I want to do good. Sin is right there
with me all the time. Everything, everything in the
flesh of man is corrupted all the time. We're always in need
of a saviour all the time. We don't get any less in need
of a saviour because we do what we think is good. But, listen
to what he goes on to say, he says, from such withdrawal thyself,
but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain that we carry nothing
out. And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil. which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, this is our passage,
but thou, man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness. What's righteousness? It's a
who is righteousness, isn't it? The only righteousness we have.
That's why the psalmist says, I'll speak of your righteousness
and yours only. It's the righteousness that we
are made to be in the presence of God through the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We are made the righteousness
of God. You piss you up to Christ. Godliness,
it means reverence, it means to be reverential in the presence
of this God who is coming to be described. Faith, love, patience
and meekness. Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life. Whereunto thou art called. If
you want to know what the fight is, go and read Romans 7 or Galatians
5. The flesh lusts against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh and you cannot do the things
that you would do. and she would wish to do them.
I give you charge in the sight of God who quickeneth. That means He makes alive, causes
to be alive all things. All of His people are made alive
by Him. And it's only when we have life
do we then have love and faith and patience and meekness. You
must be born again, the Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus.
You must be born again. You cannot even see what the
Kingdom of God is unless you're born again. And you cannot enter
the Kingdom of God unless you're born again. Don't you love the
fact that he does quicken dead sinners? quickeneth all things,
and this is the passage that has struck me this last week,
who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. When you think
of all the good confessions that there were of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the good confession, the creation declares the glories
of God. He spoke this creation into existence,
our glorious Saviour. All the scriptures spoke of Him. There were witnesses, witnesses
from Genesis 1.1. There are witnesses all the way
through until the end of his life bearing witness of him.
And yet the Holy Spirit has chosen this one to be highlighted and
this one to be declared to be a good profession. They are all
good if they speak of him who alone is good. But listen to
it. Who quickeneth all things and
before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good
confession, that thou keepest this commandment without spot,
unrebukable, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which in his times he shall show. In his times, don't
you love the fact that he chooses a time to show, and he reveals
who he is. He shall show who is the blessed
and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who
only has immortality dwelling in the light, which no man can
approach unto, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be
honor, What a glorious, glorious description
of our God. What a glorious description of
all those who are in Him. You keep this commandment, you
lay hold of, you fight the good, verse 12, you fight the good
fight of faith. That word faith is a noun, it's
not your doing, it's describing the object of our faith. You
lay hold of eternal life, you fight the good fight. In verse
11, you flee these things, you follow after. How do you follow
someone? You keep your eyes on them. It's
the only possible way. You can never follow them, isn't
it? If you've lost sight of them,
you can't follow them any longer. You know what it's like. You
who have had children have lost them. And you follow after them. And if you can't see them, do you see the picture that he's
saying? How do you follow after the Lord Jesus Christ? all the
time. You follow after, you follow
after, and you follow after righteousness, you follow after godliness, you
follow after faith, and faith there is a noun again, it's a
description of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. In love and patience
and meekness, we love Him. God's children love Him. Why? Who begins the love? Where does
the love come from? We love Him because He first
loved us. The Lord Jesus Christ typified
glorious patience and meekness in the presence of these people.
Meekness doesn't mean weakness. Meekness is acknowledging who
you are and who God is and whose you are in God's presence. which in his times, verse 15,
when it pleased God. Don't you love Paul's declaration
of his salvation? When it pleased God, when it
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb. You can
imagine Paul going back and contemplating those extraordinary events when
he was on the riding high on his horse on his way to Damascus
and all of a sudden he knows what it is. was brighter than the noonday
sun, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him. He, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's worm, in his times, he shall show. Don't you love that? He shall
show. Every single one of his children
shall be shown. They'll be given evidence. They'll
be shown. What will they be shown? Who
is the blessed and only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. We love reading those verses
in Revelation, which describe the glory of our great God and
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and the Holy Spirit, he
is wanting us to be reminded that in the presence of Pilate
and against all of those people who stood opposed to him and
stood in judgment of him, our God reigns. He was the one that
was in charge of all of those events. And in their judgment
of him, they were being exposed themselves, weren't they? They
were being exposed for what they were. Revelation 19, we love
reading don't we? Our great Saviour goes out and
rides triumphantly. Verse 16, He has on His vesture
and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Verse 13 says, And He was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word
of God. It's when heaven's opened, isn't
it, in Revelation 19? That's what he's saying to Timothy,
isn't he? He's saying that this comes a
time when heaven will be opened, as it is in Revelation 19, 11. And I saw heaven open, and behold
a white horse, and he that sat on him was called Faithful and
True, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. And his
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns,
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And
he was closed in that vesture, dipped in blood. We have an awesome,
awesome God. And that's what Paul is reminding
Timothy of and reminding us of. That we are in the presence of
that awesome, awesome God. And we will be in the presence
of that awesome, awesome God. And he, is finishing, in a sense,
his instructions to Symanthe, and he says, you lay hold of
him. You fight the good fight of faith. I love, when you think about
fighting, I love the, turn with me back into Genesis. I think it's in Genesis 32. Jacob wrestles with an angel. What is it to lay hold on eternal
life? This description gives us such
a glorious picture of what it is to lay hold as Genesis chapter
32 and starting in verse 24. Turn there with me and we'll
see what the wrestling is and what the good fight of faith
is. And Jacob was left alone. You know what's happened. He's
heading back and Esau has planned in his mind to kill him. So he
sends a peace offering of herds and flocks and then he sends
his wives and his concubines and all his children over the
creek and he stays behind. No wonder his name means All
that it does mean is duplicitous, schemer, contriver. Anyway, Jacob
was left alone and there wrestled a man with him. How do you fight
the good fight of faith? He's got to come and wrestle
with you. The man is the Lord Jesus Christ. Man wrestled with
him a man until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that
he had prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of
his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him. And he said, let me go, for the
day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is
thy name? And he said to Jacob, he had
to confess who he was. I'm a scheming, deceiving, lying
scoundrel. And he said, thy name shall no
more, shall be no more, called no more Jacob, but Israel, for
thou as a prince hast thou, for as a prince hast thou power with
God and with men and hath prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said,
tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore is it
that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And
Jacob called the name of that place Peniel. For I have seen
God face to face, and my life is preserved. That's salvation,
is to see God and have your life preserved. And he halted on his thigh. It doesn't look like Jacob won,
does it? The Lord just touched the hole
of his thigh and Jacob hobbled for the rest of his life. But
that's what it is to fight the good fight of faith. That's what
it is to lay hold on eternal life. It's to lay hold of the
Lord Jesus Christ and say, I won't let you go unless you bless me.
It's to wrestle with him and wrestle with him. It's in that context that our
blessed Holy Spirit causes us to see that what we're reading
in John Chapter 18 is a good confession, the good confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ before Pilate. And as I said earlier,
you can think of so many places where the Lord Jesus Christ made
a good confession. He made a good confession in
the temple. He made a good confession in
the synagogue. He made a good confession on the Sea of Galilee.
He made a good confession when he raised Everything about his
life is a good confession. But these particular four things
that are highlighted here in John Chapter 18 and 19 are what
the Holy Spirit describes as a good confession. And we're
going to look at them a bit more in the following weeks, but I
just want to look at them in overview this morning. If you
can turn with me back to John Chapter 18, and I want us to
see it in light of what we have just been looking at out of 1
Timothy Chapter 1. So let's begin in verse 33 of
John chapter 18. This is the first confession
that the Lord Jesus Christ makes. And all of this, if you go back
to verse 32, all of this is in light of the fact that the saying
of Jesus might be fulfilled. He is no victim here. He is not
seeking our pity. He is the reigning sovereign
ruler that is declared before us throughout the scriptures,
in particular in 1 Timothy 6. Pilate entered into the judgment
hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the King
of the Jews? And this is the first answer
that the Lord Jesus Christ gave him. Jesus answered him, Sayest
thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it unto thee? Is your understanding of who
the Lord Jesus Christ is, is it something that in the words
of 1 Timothy chapter 6, is it something that God has shown
you because God has made you alive, or is it something that
you're just holding on to because other people, and maybe multitudes
of other people, believe it? God's children will be made to
stand alone before this world, if need be, in their profession
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they have been, as He promised,
taught of Him. They have been born again. They
have life from above, and that life is a life that reveals.
It's revealing who they are as sinners, and it's revealing who
He is as a glorious, reigning, sovereign King. We have but one
testimony, haven't we, for what we believe. Thus saith the word
of God. And we don't need anything else,
and we don't want anything else. We just want to say, this is
what God says. This is what God says about God.
This is what God says about me. This is what God says about how
He, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious God,
can be the mediator and the saviour of sinners and how He saves sinners.
And of course, if you think about it in light of 1 Timothy Chapter 1, how many,
many, many people who would claim to be Christians would find it
horrifying to contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ in these terms,
isn't it? He is the only Potentate. That
means that there is no other Potentate, and your will is not
a Potentate. So that writes off everyone who
thinks that there is some sense in which man has a free will.
It writes off any notion of the fact that salvation somehow is
an offer that God makes for men to take. He's the only Potentate. He's going to show these things
to you. Sayest thou this thing of thyself,
or did others tell it? He's the only pertentator. He's the King of Kings. Paul,
on that Damascus road, had absolutely no doubt about a few things that
were just fundamentally clear. His first question in Acts chapter
9 is, Who are you, Lord? After all of his religion and
all of his moral living and all of his righteousness that he
said that he had before the law, blameless he was. He didn't have
the foggiest notion of who God was. And the Lord Jesus Christ
appeared to him in that glorious light and all of a sudden Paul
knew that there was a God and he didn't know who God was. Paul
knew that he was a sinner. Paul didn't know immediately
that this was God's salvation. I'm sure at the beginning he
thought, this is it for me, this is it for me, here I am. Trying
my level best to destroy him and I can't get to him. The only
thing I can do is destroy his church. He saw that he is the
blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
He alone has immortality and he dwells in light which no man
can approach unto. The only possible way you can
come into this light is for him who is the light to come to you
and shine the light of the glory of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ in your hearts. And he's the one that has honour,
and he's the one that has power everlasting. The Lord Jesus Christ
is saying, this is the confession, isn't it? Our confession, our
confession, and the true confession of all God's people comes directly
from God, and it's not second-hand. Second-hand faith is no faith
at all. Let's go down to the next one
and we'll Lord willing come back and look at these a little bit
in more detail later on. But the next one he says in verse
Pilate answered and says, verse 35, Am I adieu? Thine own nation
and chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou
done? There's a great article in our
bulletin that contrasts the what hast thou done of the Pilate's
question of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's question of Eve
in the garden. That's exactly the same words.
What have you done? What have you done? But here's
the answer. Here's the confession of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, my kingdom, my kingdom
is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world,
then would my servants fight? My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom, I love what it says
in the original. And God speaks very fine English,
but I love what it says. It says, the kingdom of me. He
says, the kingdom of me is not of this world. If the kingdom
of me were of this world, then would my servants fight that
I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is the kingdom
of me not from hence. The kingdom of God. The Kingdom
of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we saw in 1 Timothy 6,
He has to show and He has to give life and He has to reveal
that He's the King of this Kingdom. Romans 14 and 17 is lovely, isn't
it? For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's not about our doing,
it's about Him doing, isn't it? As he said to Nicodemus, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. No one who is not born again
has the foggiest notion of the kingdom of God. We might as well
be speaking Swahili to them. They'd have no idea. Until the
Lord gives people birth, they don't know the kingdom of God.
And the kingdom of God is a person. That's a person, the kingdom
of me. In the Lord Jesus Christ the
Kingdom of Heaven came to earth and dwelt among us. that the Holy Spirit gives the
Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. The Lord Jesus Christ, this King,
is God Almighty in human flesh. The Kingdom. He came as a King. He came as a King. He was declared from heaven to
be a King. A king with a kingdom. A king
who reigns and rules over all things for the sake of that kingdom. The only potentate. Lord of lords
and king of kings. My kingdom is not of this world. You can't look for the things
of this world to try and establish the kingdom of God. You cannot
establish the kingdom of God with the things of this world.
It's a spiritual kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom with
a spiritual rule and a spiritual reign over all the physical things
for the spiritual good of all of his people. It's a king who
keeps his people. Simon and Jenny were with Owen
the other day, and I recommend any of you, if you have time,
to go and see him. But there's a man who most of
us think we would long want to live, think we're eternal already. But Owen, is as close to heaven
as the rest of us, but it's a very living reality and it's just
wonderful to be in his presence and hear him speaking such sweet
things about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who has kept him all that time? Who has kept him? What happened? to Arlen all those years ago
when Henry Mayan came and preached the gospel. God in judgment had
sent Billy Graham to half the Australian population, went to
see Billy Graham and got lied to about God and lied to about
themselves and lied to about salvation. Henry Mayan came to
this and he went to Tumut. What an amazing God! He sent
Henry Mayan all the way from America to Tumut. Most Australians wouldn't have
the foggiest notion where Tumut was. into a little old hall in
Chernobyl. And there Henry Mahan preached
the gospel to Owen, and he opened his eyes and he gave him life.
And he showed him these things, and he kept on showing him these
things, and he's held him. He's held him in his arms, and
he's taken him through the most extraordinary trials in religion.
He's been kicked out of religion. And the Lord has been faithful
to him. What a king! What a king! And everyone who stands opposed
to this king will find that they are fighting One who they ought
to be bowing to. The subjects of this kingdom
are revealed. Let's go to the next passage
in John Chapter 18 and he reveals the subjects of this kingdom.
My kingdom is not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born. This is the purpose of me being
here. And for this cause came I into the world, that I should
bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Don't you love that? The Lord
Jesus Christ is confessing these are the subjects of the kingdom.
I'm a king and these are the people of this kingdom. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. In John chapter 8 these
Pharisees are standing before the Lord Jesus Christ here and
hurling these accusations at him. He declared as plainly as
you possibly could to those people. He said, you're of your father
the devil. you cannot hear my words and he says in verse 45
and because I tell you the truth you believe me not Because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not, the subjects of the kingdom hear the voice,
they hear the shepherd's voice of John chapter 10, they hear
him calling them personally, like Lazarus out of a tomb. He calls them to himself. To go back to John Chapter 17,
they that are of the truth, they are the ones that in John Chapter
17, he says, I've manifested, it's exactly what's being said
in 1 Timothy Chapter 6, I've shown, I've manifested, thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, John 17
verse 6, thine they were. And thou gavest them me, and
they have kept thy word. They have guarded. They have
heard the word of God, and they have guarded it as a special,
special treasure. And now they have known. These same people have known.
They've heard my word. They've been manifested to them. They have known. that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. I have a kingdom,
and I like kingdom rules. For I have given them the words
which thou gavest me. Does he give? If he gives, you've
got it. And if you haven't got it, he
hasn't given it. Ask, ask. I have given them the words which
thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known
surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. That's his description of his
people, all that the Father giveth me. They are one, they're made
perfect in one. Every one that is of the truth
heareth my words. Everyone that is of the truth,
heareth my voice. I wonder what the voice of the
Lord Jesus Christ is like. In our day, he speaks through
the preaching of the gospel. There'll come a time when there'll
be a glorious shout from heaven and we'll all hear that remarkable
voice. And there's one more answer that
the Lord Jesus Christ gave, one more confession, and you turn
with me down to chapter 19, verse 11. Let's go back to verse 10. Pilate saith unto him, speakest
thou not unto me, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify
thee and have power to release thee? Pilate, you wonder what's
happened to these people. Within maybe a very short time,
some of these people stood in the very presence of God Almighty
and saw Him in all of His extraordinary glory and splendor. There's a
lot of words that men have said. which will seem to be just so
extraordinarily deceitful, isn't it? Jesus answered. Then Pilate
said unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not
that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release
thee? This is his answer. Thou couldest have no power at
all against me. There is no power against the
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, unless, except it were
given thee from above. You have no power. The heavens
do rule. Nebuchadnezzar learnt that, didn't
he? You do as you please. God does as he pleases in the
armies and even among the inhabitants of the earth. and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Our God reigns over
all. Our God reigns and wonderfully,
wonderfully, wonderfully so he reigns in all of the events of
this execution of him, in all of the betrayal. Also, he's the
one who is the judge He says, therefore, he that delivered
me unto thee hath the greater sin. Pilate had a mile of sin. Pilate had a mile of sin. But Caiaphas and Annas and the
members of the Sanhedrin had greater sin. In heaven there
are no degrees of reward. has one crown, and that crown
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone in heaven is equidistant
from the throne of God. Everyone in heaven is equally
loved, equally blessed in the presence of God Almighty. And
hell has degrees of punishment because God is just. God is just. Who's going to execute that judgment?
Who's going to cast these people into hell? The Lord Jesus Christ. And perfect justice will be done
at the cross, and perfect justice will be done in hell. And the
Lord Jesus Christ determines all. He has power. Amen. May we, like Timothy, flee a
whole lot of things and lay hold of eternal life.