to finish this chapter today and there are a few statements
in the verses that we'll continue with here that I would like to
clarify and then we'll get to the heart of the study. Last time we were here we looked
at the beginning of verse 14 where it says neglect not the
gift. Neglect not the gift. We looked at the gift of the
calling to preach. And we looked at the fact that
the gift is the subject matter that we preach. It is a gift
to have this calling to preach, and it is the gift that we preach. The gift of Christ, the gift
of grace, the gift of mercy, in the unspeakable gift of the
cross. That is our message, the gift,
the grace of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Verse 14 says,
neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee
by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, Give
thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.
Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them,
for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that
hear thee. Now let me clarify some of what
that's saying. Verse 14 says, neglect not the
gift, that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy. It is through the preaching or
the prophesying of the gospel that the gift is revealed to
men and women. Faith, faith in Christ, who is
the gift. Faith to believe on Christ, that
comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God. But another
way to look at that statement is it says in first Timothy 1,
18, there's a reference. You don't have to turn, but there's
a reference to first Timothy 1, 18. And it says that it was
prophesied of Timothy that he would receive the gift of this
calling. It was predicted that Timothy
would be a preacher of the gospel. And I believe quite often that's
the case. When God calls a man, I believe
God notifies everybody around that man. I really do. To the point that
the man is usually the last one to know. Everybody else knows
it. Everybody else is convinced of it. Before the man knows it
and before the man is convinced of it. The man usually feels,
if it's a true calling of God, I strongly believe that the man
feels uncertainty. The man feels fear. He's, you
know, I just don't know. I don't know. I'm unworthy. I'm insufficient. Well, that's right. And that's
good. That's a good, that humility,
that fear, that's a good thing. Verse 14 says, neglect not the
gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the
laying on of the hands of the presbytery. The presbytery means
the elders. That's all that it means. And
the elders means those who have been called to handle the preaching
of God's word. That's what an elder is. Someone
who has been called to handle the preaching of God's word. Elders are not a special board
of decision makers. I know that's what everybody
thinks they are. They are not. They are not. Elders are those
who have been called to handle the preaching of God's word.
Now, whether they physically laid hands on Timothy or not,
I don't know. I mean, you see it says, you
know, laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, whether they
physically laid hands, I don't know. The apostles and the early
church, the early disciples, they were given miraculous gifts
for the confirming of the word. That's the reason Paul could
raise a man from the dead. and they could heal these diseases
and all of these things. It was so that the word would
be confirmed. This is not man's word, this
is God's word. And it's confirmed and those
gifts are over. So I don't know if they physically
laid hands on Timothy or not, but either way, that term is
used. We still use that term today
when we're talking about using someone, calling on someone for
any kind of service in the ministry. When I was first called to this
position of being a pastor, all of the pastors before me that
I looked to for leadership and for advice, most all of them
quoted 1 Timothy 5, 22 to me. Look at 1 Timothy 5, verse 22.
It says, Lay hands suddenly on no man. That's what everybody told me.
Here's what I'll tell you. When you get in that position of leadership
and authority to some degree, lay hands suddenly on no man. They weren't telling me to wait
a while before I started physically laying hands on people. That's
not what they were saying. They were saying, don't call
on anybody too quickly to do anything in the service of the
ministry. No matter who it is, no matter
if you've known the man for 20 minutes or 20 years, I've told
all of these men who have come, who I have known for years and
years and years, I've told all of them, I lay hands suddenly
on no man. Just so you know, I'm not gonna
call on you to preach. I won't call on you to read.
I won't call on you to pray. I won't call on you to sing.
I lay hands suddenly on no man. There's a lot of wisdom in that,
and I'm not gonna go into what all that is right now, but I
abide by that advice. It's a very slow, prayerful thing
with me. So, I lay hands suddenly on no
man. But here's the thing, if a man
has been laid hold of by God, once it becomes clear that the
Lord is calling a man into His service, laying hands on a man,
that man needs to dive in head first. Whatever God causes, anyone's
hand to do, that person, he or she, needs to do it with all
of his might. Chapter 4, verse 15 says, meditate
upon these things. Meditate upon these things. Paul
talking to Timothy about this issue of preaching. Meditate
upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them. that thy profiting, not in the
flesh, but in the spirit, that thy profiting may appear to all. It is clear whether a man is
committed to the service that he is called to or not. It's clear. If a man doesn't study, it's
clear. It just is. If a man is half
in the ministry and half out of the ministry, it's clear.
That ought to be a warning to me and everyone in this position.
Verse 16, he said, take heed unto thyself, commit yourself,
give yourself. If we're going to be half in
the ministry and half out of the ministry, it'd be better
for us if we were not in the ministry at all. Just don't be
in the ministry. If we're gonna half preach Christ,
it would be better for ourselves and everybody around us if no
one hears us at all. Verse 16, take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou
shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Do we have the
power to save anybody? Can I save myself or anybody
else? No. No. We do not have that power. But the gospel that we preach
does. The gospel that we preach does. This is the heart of what I wanted
to look at this morning. I wanted to define some of that
because When we, I've always looked at those statements and
wonder, what does that mean? Laying hands, Presbytery and
saving yourself and saving people. This is the heart of what I want
to look at. If God calls us to his ministry in any capacity,
the ministry of his saving gospel, seeing we have received this
ministry, If God calls us to his ministry in any capacity,
we need to commit ourselves to that ministry. And we may need
to make Jesus Christ and him crucified the centerpiece of
that ministry. If God calls us to preach, if
God calls us to teach, If God calls us to serve in any capacity,
some he calls to preach, some he calls to teach, some he calls
to be a treasurer or be a who knows what. If he calls us to
believe, all of his people are called to believe. That's a calling of God. If that is our calling from God,
if He calls us to be a believer in His ministry, what has God
called me to do? He's called me to be a believer in His ministry.
Then may He give us to that calling, truly give us to that calling.
May the ministry of the preaching, hearing, and believing of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ be all to us for the saving of
our souls. Now, Give me your ear for just
a minute, okay? Did God elect a people, yes or
no? Yes. Did Christ die for every one
of those people, yes or no? Yes. I'm gonna give you a clue
here. The answer to every question
is yes. Just in case anybody says no. Did Christ save every soul that
He died for? Yes or no? Yes. Did God elect the people? Yes.
Did Christ die for every one of them? Yes. Did Christ save
every soul He died for? Yes. All right. Is their place
eternally secure? Yes or no? Yes. Did he ordain a means of physically
applying that salvation to his people? Yes or no? Yes. Yes, he did. Is that means the
preaching, hearing, and believing of the gospel? Yes, it is. Yes, it is. If God is sovereign,
just think about this with me, okay? Let me just add a question. Is
God sovereign, yes or no? Yes. I mean, sovereign. If God is sovereign, why do we
preach? Did God elect a people, yes or
no? Did Christ die for those people,
yes or no? Did He save them, yes or no?
Is their place secure? Yes or no? Then why do we preach? What are we doing here? We can't
worship Him like we're going to. If He'll just call us all
to glory, we'll start worshiping Him. We sit here in our flesh. I stand up here behind this pulpit
in my flesh thinking, what in the world am I doing? Lord, get
my mind on what I'm supposed to say. You know what I'm talking about. Why do we preach? Here's my next question. Why
do we preach so much? Have you ever thought about that? Why don't we preach less and
go out there and do more? I'm being serious. Why do we stress over it? Did
God elect a people? Yes or no? Did Christ die for
them? Did He save them and is their
place secure? Yes or no? Then why do we stress
over it? Why is it so urgent? Why is it
so urgent? Here's the reason why. It's because
God said this is the means that he would use to quicken his people
to himself. God said this is the means. If Jesus Christ came to die,
why did he preach? Why was he a preacher? If this is his means, this is
where my hope is. This is where my all is. God
said he elected a people in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Therefore, our hope is in his election. Our hope is
in his election. Our hope is in the election that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is that God put me and
you in Christ. God chose us and put us in Christ.
That's where our hope is. I just hope God elected me. Okay? God said He redeemed His
people in Christ on the cross of Calvary. Therefore, our hope
is in His redemption. The redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. God said He quickens His people
by His Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And I don't know when he does that or how he does that, but
somehow through this, you know, you look at me, you're going
to see something foolish, the foolishness of preaching. And
he doesn't do it through foolish preaching, but he does it through
foolish men who he calls to preach his truth. But he said he quickens his people
through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore,
our hope is in this gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ and
him crucified. It's not my preaching that saves
anybody. Why don't we have Gabe get up
there and do it? Maybe they'll get saved. They won't. I promise
you. If anybody looks, we're about
to read a Psalm in a minute that says, don't put your trust in
princes, none of the sons of men. If anybody looks to me,
it's not gonna happen. Not that anybody would, but it's
not my preaching that saves anybody. It is not your hearing or your
bringing anybody to hear. If we hear it or bring people
to hear, you know, we get all proud of ourselves. I told somebody
to come and they came. That won't save anybody. But I will tell you this, if
salvation is here, inside this man right here, I will preach
Christ. It's not my preaching that saves
anybody. I can't save myself through my own preaching, but
if Christ has saved me, then I will preach Christ. you will hear Christ. I will
want to preach Christ, you will want to hear Christ. All of us
will believe on Christ. All of us will cast our all on
the Lord Jesus Christ. If I do not have a desire to
preach Jesus Christ and him crucified alone for all of our hope of
salvation, Salvation is not here. I'm going to say that again.
If I do not have a desire to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified
alone for all of our salvation, if I don't have that desire,
salvation is not here. You're not looking at a saved
man. And if you do not have a desire
to hear Jesus Christ and Him crucified alone for all of your
hope of salvation, Salvation in no other, nothing else. Him plus nobody. Salvation is not there. What we're doing right now is
we are worshiping God by His grace. We are worshiping God around
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
evidence of life. This is the evidence of life.
If it's done in the heart of sincerity and truth, where there
is no heart for this, there is no evidence of life. And I'm not just talking about
attending church. I'm talking about worshiping Jesus Christ
alone for who he is, for what he's done. Just going to church
is not the evidence of life. I heard of someone yesterday
who told another person, you know, I've got to get back in
church. If you do, it will mean nothing. If you're circumcised,
Christ profits you nothing. Loving Jesus Christ. Really loving Jesus Christ for
the sovereign God that he is not the weak helpless martyr
that he tried to be for the sovereign high and holy God that he is. Loving Jesus Christ, needing
Jesus Christ, desperately needing mercy in the blood of Jesus Christ. If you get down, if I could announce
one need in this life, I'll tell you what it is. I need mercy
in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. Hoping in Him. He is our hope. The fact that I am better now
than I was 10 years ago is not my hope. And it's a good thing
because I'm worse now than I was 10 years ago. Hoping in him,
trusting in him, trusting his word, looking to him, longing
for him. That's the evidence of life. That is the evidence of salvation. Men all over this city this morning,
I'm telling you all this because Paul, we've been in this for
a little while, Paul is stressing this to Timothy. Paul is stressing
this to Timothy. Men all over this city this morning
are standing in pulpits preaching something other than the work
and the glory of Jesus Christ crucified alone. Another way of salvation. You
know, people say, well, I preach Jesus and I preach right out
of the Bible and this and that. But the moment you add man to
it, you got another salvation going. You're preaching another
gospel, man's way of salvation, man's help in salvation, man's
decision, turning it back on man. Now, what are you going
to do with it? Okay. That's another way. Men all over this city are standing
in pulpits right now preaching something other than the work,
the finished work and the glory of Jesus Christ crucified. People
all over this city are content to sit there and listen to a
man preach something other than the work and the glory of Jesus
Christ and Him crucified alone. And what that evidence is, is
the man preaching is not saved. You realize how hard this is
sounding to man's ear, sounding to the flesh, how stark this
is? I was writing this thinking, do I have any idea how much flack
I'm going to get for this? How much kickback I'm going to
get from this? I will. Why am I telling people this?
Because it's the truth. Because this is the calling.
You take heed to yourself, Timothy. And you take heed to the doctrine.
Because if you don't, you're going to be damned and everybody
who hears you is going to be damned. That's what he's saying. That man who stands up and preaches
the works of man, the law for salvation, the deeds of the law,
that man is not, he doesn't know God. He doesn't know himself. He doesn't know that he's dead.
He doesn't know that he's wretched. He doesn't know that he's guilty.
He doesn't know that he's totally depraved, thinking he can do
something when he's nothing. And every soul so sadly that
is content to sit there and listen to that man preach something
other than Jesus Christ alone, the salvation that is only in
the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. That's the evidence of
a soul that does not know God. That's a soul that does not have
life yet. That's a soul that has not been
quickened to life yet. Lord, quicken us. Quicken us. I don't like this word, but I
have to say it. Hell is coming quickly. I don't like that word. People are messing around with
this thing. And Paul told Timothy right here,
it's time we stop messing around. We got to stop messing around.
Being flippant about true worship, being flippant about the true
gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, that's just not an option for
God's people. Well, we can compromise it. I like going over there because
they got better programs and their message is not Christ alone,
but that's not an option for God's people. The fear of the Lord in them
causes them to say, as for me and my house, we have to worship
the Lord and not man. Our Lord alone, Paul told Timothy,
preach this gospel, no other, no other. Now, I have a lot more
pages of notes because I was about to give you seven exhortations,
seven reasons for preaching the gospel. And it's just too late. So maybe next week, I'll give
you, that sounds like a good outline, seven reasons for preaching
the gospel. I don't know how to end right
now, other than to say, may God be true, every man a liar. Let's
worship Christ alone, okay? All right, you're dismissed.