So back to verse 21, for all
seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. He's talking about specific things
there. It's not just rhetoric. He's
writing in the context of the church being cared for. how that
there was no one that he could send to them that would naturally
or by their very nature, by the new nature, by the nature of
Christ in their heart, care for their soul. Because the only
way any of us is going to care for anybody else is by grace,
by Christ in us. And so this has got to be our
first thought here, to seek the things which are Jesus Christ's
is to be concerned for his people. That's on the very surface in
our text. But there are specific things
about that even, concerned that the gospel is being preached
and heard. When the Lord said to Simon, if you love me, feed
my sheep. There's just one thing that sheep
can be sustained on, that they crave and love, and it gives
them life, and that's the bread and water of life. The Lord said,
my flesh and my blood are meat, and drink indeed. If the gospel
is not preached, you don't have a church. You don't have a church
by God's definition of assembly. Assembling in His name, assembling
to hear of Him, to glorify, worship, and to be fed. It's just a social
club or whatever, an entertainment center, whatever you want to
call it, but it's not God's church. The gospel is the heart of it.
I've been to places that, I've been in religion, it's been a
long time obviously, but, you know, they'll sing for 30 minutes
minimum, tell, you know, tear-jerking
stories for 15 minutes, and then sing for another 30 minutes trying
to talk people into making a decision of some kind, as if salvation's
decided by you and not God. The gospel, we sing one song
differently before we preach. It's not because I don't like
good music. It's because that's not what we're here for. A song
can prepare your heart, but it prepares your heart for what?
Spiritual things, the truth of Christ. It takes our minds off
of the world. puts our minds on things above. That's so that we can hear the
gospel with an open heart. Concerned primarily that the
gospel is preached. People talk about, well, our
church has a program for this and a ministry for that. I don't know who you're serving
in your ministry, but it ain't God unless you're preaching the
gospel. That's what he sent his people to do. And then concerned
that Christ is being followed. Concerned that then we know that
talks about be followers of Jesus Christ and that word means imitators
To be like him to want to be like him and to follow his example
Christ is not just an example. He's our Redeemer many think
of him as just an example. Well You know he taught us how
to live. No he taught us how to die to
self He taught us how to... He said, if you find your life,
you're going to lose it. That's not what religion is talking
about when they say it teaches us how to live. Live a life more
abundant. You don't need a more abundant
life. You need life in Him. You need true life, spiritual
life. And our life is to be what we call our life. I've got to
live my life, you know. Well, that's death. That's death
is what that is. So concern that Christ is being
followed, that the things that accompany salvation are evident
in the people of the church. That's part of what Paul was
talking about. Then there's always a concern specifically that error
and discord are not creeping in. Because wherever there's
error, there'll be discord. Because if it's a church at all,
if it's not even a church in any sense of the true word, then
everybody will agree on heresy. But if it's a church and there's
error, then there's going to be discord. Can't happen. Can't happen. How many times
in Paul's letters did he say, get rid of them, throw them out. It's got to be dealt with. There's
no concourse with Christ and Belal. They've got to be shunned. They've got to be, if somebody's
just stirring up discord with questioning the gospel or whatever,
this is not, this is not a debate. It's what God said. You know,
if you like what God said, by his grace, then you'll You'll
want to hear it. If not, then you're going to
want to make up stuff and say, well, you know, twist the scriptures
and say it says this, it don't say that. It don't say that salvation
is by the will of man. It specifically says it's not
of him that will it, nor of him that run it, but God will show
it mercy. So you see what I mean. Error
is going to cause discord and I've witnessed it. And that's always a That's always
a concern, isn't it? Paul had that concern all the
time. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing, beware. Be vigilant,
be sober, be vigilant. Try the spirits, whether they
are of God, try them. Try them against the truth, gospel. Concerned that none of the things
that Paul warns about, there's a lot of other things he warns
about in his letters. So there's a concern that none
of those things are creeping into the church. That's what
he's talking about, the care. To care for the churches is to,
as he often does, to warn and exhort and to witness whether
these things need to be confronted such as
carnal behavior. The Corinthian church was rebuked
over and over by Paul for, he said, you act like lost people. Are you not carnal and behave
as men? In other words, as men who don't
know God. There's warning throughout Paul's
letters and in the revelation in the scriptures about lackadaisical
attitudes towards the things of God. Lukewarmness. The Lord said, you've left your
first love. That's a danger. If you're going
to care for the church, that's got to be a concern. That's got
to be a concern. If you seek the things that are
Christ's, and not just your own things.
That's going to be part of it now. There's such a tendency
to. And what was it that choked out
the sea that? That landed on the stony ground,
it was the cares or concerns of this world. That's where lukewarmness
comes in when the things of the world begin to take precedent
over the things of God. And that happens in here. It's
not a question of anything other than that. Everything
else will spring from your heart if you love the Lord and your
Christ is truly all. And that'll show. That'll be
your way of life rather than just a doctrine. Carnal behavior,
lackadaisical attitude, Pride and division. How many times
has Paul warned? Don't think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now if you received it, why do you boast as if you
didn't receive it? As if you accomplished it or
came up with it or it was some quality in yourself?
A gift of God. A lot of works lest any man should
boast. pride and division, and by pride
cometh division. You remember that scripture?
I just misquoted it, by the way. In Proverbs, it's not by pride
cometh division. It's only by pride cometh division. That's the scripture. Only. It's not justified. Division is never in the scripture
justified among brethren. There's no concord between, there's
no fellowship between light and darkness, but there's no division
in the light. There's no division in the body of Christ. False doctrine we talked about
already. It'll creep in now and he's sending these people. He
sent, he said, I'm gonna send Timothy to you. I've already
sent this other fellow, what was his name? Paphroditus. I
sent him, you think about that. And really all of this is included
in the first thing I mentioned, the gospel being preached. How do you get rid of heresy?
How do you get rid of darkness? By shining a light in it. Not
by talking about the darkness. Let's don't describe the darkness
and talk about how dark it is. Let's shine the light of Christ
in darkness. God give us grace now, because
it's our tendency to dwell in the darkness. We need his grace constantly.
You and me. How do you get rid of division? What's our common bond? What
unites us? Christ. We're His body. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one hope of our calling. So it all goes back to the gospel,
all of that. How do you get rid of any of
this? Discord. Carnal behavior. Do you think people are deterred
from sinning by somebody preaching on sin? That's proven false,
is it not? It's the love of Christ which
constraineth us, not to henceforth live for ourselves, but for Him. The love of Christ, not the whip
of the law, So it's all included in that
preaching the gospel. 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Profitable
for doctrine, for reproof. Reproof of our pride. Reproof
of our division, of our discord. Reproof of our carnality. Reproof
for our concerns with the things of this world. Reproof for our
lack of days if you see Christ if somebody preaches Christ if
somebody if God gives us the grace To lift him up your hearts
will be drawn to him and away from this world Every time For correction for instruction
in righteousness You want to know how to be righteous in the
sight of God? The whip of the law is not going to do that,
except that it drives you to Christ, who is acceptance with God. If we are
not seeking the things which are Jesus Christ, then we are
seeking our own things. Remember again, there's just
two choices in the text. That's because there's just two,
period. It's him or us. In the garden, it was him or
us. As you sit there today, it's him or you. Somebody's God. Somebody's worthy. The only thing that will overcome
and eclipse the selfishness of sinners is to fall in love with
the Son of God. Only His love will constrain
us. In verse 22 in our text, you know the proof of him, he's
referring to Timothy in the context, you know the proof of Timothy
that as a son with a father he had served with me in the gospel. As Timothy's aforementioned there
in the context. The one thing I want us to see
here in this verse, we can talk about Timothy's life and his
grandmother and taught him the scriptures but
I just want us to see two things today about this. Two words in
that verse 22. Proof and served. Served. The proof of a man in
regard to this matter of caring for the things that are Christ's
is not in words. It's not in good intentions. The evidence of whether or not
someone cares in the sense of our text is service. And that
word means submission and obedience. Service is the opposite of pride
and rebellion. It's submission and obedience. That's the proof now. Faith without
words. Dad, faith works. We're saved by faith without
works, but the faith that God gives works. So much confusion about that
now. So much confusion about that. We'll be bragging on our works
if we're not careful. Verse 23 and 24 together. Him, therefore, I hope to send
presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. But
I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. And
what I want us to see here now is what I mentioned a minute
ago, and it's in conjunction with the next verse. We see something
vital to the caring for the sheep. It's the presence, it's the example,
it's the exhortations, it's the leadership of someone dedicated
and mature in the gospel and in spiritual things. Again, look
at the next verse, verse 25. Yet I supposed it necessary to
send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor
and fellow soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered
to my wants. Now Paul wants to send Timothy,
He does send Epaphroditus and he wants to come visit himself
as soon as he's able to do it. If God grants him the ability to do that. You think
about that. That's a lot of care for the
church in the form of teaching, guidance, leadership. Just as we have churches that
we fellowship with that don't have pastoring. There's a few
now that don't have pastors. They don't have that leadership
in place. But what do we do? We send somebody. Send Timothy. Send a papyrus. That's necessary. And that's not ideal, but it's
necessary. We do it constantly. We do it
regularly. And for the very same reason,
the care of that church Leadership in the church is necessary. It's not a luxury. I've witnessed
firsthand the dire consequence of the absence of leadership
in a church. A godly leader, a leader that
knows the gospel by God's grace and preaches the gospel. And what the world calls a leader
is not the same thing that God does. You know what God calls his leaders?
Servants. A leader in this world is somebody
with a big personality that's got forceful personality and
all of the qualities that you can think of in a so-called leader. Look, the Lord chose fishermen. Some of y'all would say, I don't
even know how to fish. I'm not a fisherman, but I like
to try. But you see what I'm saying?
He just fit, he just, nobody's. No degree, no education. You know what passes for leadership
in this world is just being firm. And as I said, kind of overbearing,
kind of most people lead by fear in this world. There's going
to be, I'm going to fire you, you know, you don't straighten
up and things like that. It's not that way in God's church.
He said, whoever will be your leaders, let him be your servant. Let him be your servant. That's
not just rhetoric. And who I want you to have confidence
in, obviously there's an earthly, you know, but even that, you
think about that. Do you trust me to preach the
gospel to you? Why? I suspect you've probably verified
that what I'm preaching to you is the gospel. It's not me you
trust, it's Him. It's not me you look up to, it's
Him. You don't see, you don't have
confidence in me, you have it in Him. You see the difference
between this world? I want a leader in this world,
by the way. That's not a bad thing. I want a leader in this
world that I can have some confidence in. But in spiritual things,
our confidence is not in a man. It's necessary, though, to have
a servant that leads by the preaching and the qualifications. There is leadership by example,
but that example is a bowing, not a coercion. When God said, I'll give you
pastors according to my heart, that's because sheep without
a pastor What's a flock of sheep without
a pastor? It's it's it's dinner for the
wolves. That's what it is The wolves
are still going to try to creep in even with the pastor But David
was a pretty good pastor in an earthly sense wasn't he he killed
a bear. They wanted to eat the sheep
And spiritual things that's what we're here for By God's grace and ability and
just the truth the powerful truth of God and We kill wolves, we
drive off wolves. And the wolves are not just at
the door in the church. They say the wolf is always at
the door. It's not just at the door, it's
in the door. It's inside the door, it's in
our heart. Look what kind of men, again, that are to be sent
in verse 25. He's my brother. You know, a lot of people have
the positions they have in the hierarchy of this world's false
church because of, because it's my cousin or my uncle or my,
you know, father-in-law's cousin's grandson, you know. He's talking
about my brother in Christ. He's my brother in Christ. And companion in labor. He doesn't
just talk a good game. Fellow soldier, a soldier is
willing to die for what he does, isn't he? There's good evidence
that he may well die. That's what a soldier is. But
it's worth it. It's worth it. And your messenger. John the Baptist said, I'm just
a voice. crying in the wilderness. Verse 26, let's read the rest
of the chapter and just make a comment or two. For he longed
after you all and was full of heaviness because you'd heard
that he'd been sick. They obviously loved this man.
He loved them. For indeed he was sick now and
to death. But God had mercy on him, and you know, can you say
this about anybody? When God had mercy on them, he
had mercy on me. Isn't that the truth? When he had mercy on my children,
he had mercy on me that day. That woman of Canaan, she said,
God, Lord, have mercy on me, my daughter. My daughter has
a problem. I sent him. the more carefully that when
you see him you may rejoice and that I may be even less sorrowful.
Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness. Beautiful
are the feet of them that come with tidings of peace and grace
from God. And hold such in reputation,
do we not, these men who come to preach the gospel to us, My heroes definitely don't have
capes. My heroes are those that, like
these men that come preach to us, they're sold out. They're
sold out. Because for the work of Christ,
the work of Christ, he was nigh unto death, disregarding his
life. Paul said that, too. I cannot
knock my life dear to me, and neither did Epaphroditus. The heart that cares is seen
in action. You see the tenderness of heart
that he had toward the people in this church, but also he was about the work of Christ
because of that. The heart caused something. It
wasn't just a feeling. It wasn't just companionship. It wasn't just well wishes. The
heart that he had toward them is evident in the text, but also
he did something about it. The heart always does what's in it. You know, sometimes the work
of Christ, it mentions the work of Christ, the work of Christ.
If you're gonna do the work of Christ, how many times have I
said this? You're gonna have to find out what he's doing.
He ain't doing what religion's doing, I'll tell you that. He's
not begging people to do something for him. He's in the business
of doing something for sinners. And he does it this way. The
work of Christ looks like sometimes a man standing behind a pulpit.
Sometimes the work of Christ looks like a man pulling weeds
out of a garden like that one on the side of our building.
Sometimes it looks like somebody at their day job sitting at a
desk or selling a product or sweating in the sun so that they
can put a check in that box that sits at the back of the church. And I want to be somebody. I
have an ambition. I want to be someone and I want
you to be someone who can be held in reputation. See that
there? Hold such in reputation. Hold
who? Servants. Servants. Not big shots. I want to be held in reputation,
not for being a big shot. I want you to be held in reputation,
not for being a huge personality or attractive in some way, or
even being talented. How much talent do you think
Simon Peter had? The Lord had to overcome everything
about him to make him a preacher. He had to overcome everything
about him. But for serving, for submitting,
for obeying, for regarding not my life, Verse 30, for the work of Christ. For the work of Christ. In closing,
let me just quote this passage from Mark 8, 34. When the Lord
Jesus called the people unto Him with His disciples also,
a large crowd, and His disciples were among them, He said unto
them, Whosoever will come after Me. And I think that's probably... Don't you imagine coming after
Him is kind of like The end all, be all. Not coming after him or coming after him. That's the
two. Whosoever will come after me,
let him deny himself. I want you and I to be had in
reputation for not having any reputation. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Crosses have one purpose. People
die on them. People brutally, openly die on
them. That's what a cross is for. Take
it up and follow me. Whosoever will save his life
shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his
life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Is that
complicated? Does anybody have any questions
about what that means? For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Let's pray.