I want you to think about that
for a second in a contemplative way. I want you to think about
God desiring something. And then I want you to recognize
that when God desires something, it is completely different than
when we desire something. Number one, all that God desires
is good, righteous, holy, perfect, and pleasing to himself, although
we desire it's not. Even if we're confused and even
if we think that what we desire is good and pleasing and everything,
sometimes there are motives that we don't even understand. We
also need to understand that God is not longing for anything.
He is satisfied and self-sufficient. He is the self-existent one.
He is the eternal one. No one has to give God anything
for Him to be complete. He is forever and eternally always
joyful within Himself and loves Himself with all the fullness
of all things at all times, thus not needing anything outside
of Himself whatsoever. So when He created the world,
it was that He would show and reveal Himself in His self-sufficiency
to a people that He would create for His purpose, and He did so
by the command of His Word. And He still does it today. He
commands, through His Word, the gospel of free and sovereign
grace. He commands the truth of Christ. He commands the story
of the good report of the God-man who came to earth, who created
a womb in which He was born, from which He was born, and lived
in the world among His people and among His enemies, all of
which are His creation, that He may do with them as He pleases,
so that His Word would be fulfilled, eternally decreed, to save a
people for Himself in Christ Jesus. the Messiah, the Holy
and the Anointed One of God. Now these are things that take
a lifetime of contemplation to really start to see and to cherish. And even we who have studied
for years and years and years the Scripture, even from being
reminded of these things, put us in a place of awe in which
we are unable to shake ourselves from. The world around us becomes
less important. As a matter of fact, the ins
and outs of the mundane almost become idolatrous. in the light
of the glory of all that God has revealed through his word.
But our culture has done something different to answer that void,
to think, well, my life is a waste, so let me do something. So the
culture has taught us to be active in certain aspects of certain
ways of ministry as unto the Lord, and beloved, the Bible
doesn't prescribe these things. The world would say we're looking
for warriors for Jesus. The scripture says we're looking
for people to lay down their lives. The world would say, speak
up, be bold. The scripture would say, shut
up and take it. Probably shouldn't have said
shut up, should I? Scripture says be quiet and take
it. Yeah, that's a bad word for my
kids when they were little too, sorry. The world would say, you better
straighten these people out, and the Bible says, until the
log is completely gone from your eye, leave the speck alone. There is a huge problem in our
world today, even amongst true believers. Now, we know that
the evangelical cults of the world produce false converts
because they have a false gospel. They have a man-centered response
to an offer that God has given, and that's nonsense. It's demonic.
It is not the teaching of Scripture. The Bible teaches that God has
saved a people, that the finished work of Christ is salvation,
and that faith granted by the Holy Spirit, God Himself, is
the only way that a person can rest in the sufficiency of Christ's
work. And then, we come to the place
of seeing the Scripture taught to the church. And we've come to a day where
Because of history, I think people have just decided to create their
own ministries, their own gospels, their own iterations of Jesus's. And I'm not even talking about
the error, I'm talking about the true Christ doctrinally as
taught from the Bible, but then to apply him to the life of the
believer in a wrong way. I think people have come to create
what pastors should be. and it's not to be professionals. People have decided what the
church should look like, but yet it's not found in the pages
of Scripture. People have decided they have
the wisdom to do what they think God wants them to do because
they know that they're right. And beloved, the very nature
of those expressions in our own heart, even when we cover it
and drown that expression with the greatest of humility, is
wicked before God. Think about the first century
church. Think about what they knew and what they had and what
it cost them. See, prosperity in our world
today, my brother said before church, there are people that
across the world that live in hovels. But yeah, we wouldn't
have stains on the carpet. Now I got to replace that rug.
Got to replace that chair, there's a tear in it. We're bougie folks. That's the
new phrase, you know. We're posh. And we're spoiled. And I think that's bled into
our culture. And even those who aren't posh
and spoiled and bougie, they humble brag in their poverty. They humbly express, oh, I just
have nothing. I've given it up for Christ.
Folks, people who say, I've given it up for Christ, have not given
it up for Christ. People who say, I'm the leader of the church,
or I know the truth, don't know the truth, and they're not leading
anybody. They're commanding a platform. They're demanding recognition. And it's ego. It's egotistical. And I don't want to bog down
on that because it's not, it doesn't matter, but I want you
to see it, beloved, that the sin of the flesh of our humanity
is deceiving. We don't see it. Since I was
six years old, I've done illusions, magic arts, magic tricks, party
favors. It's all deception. That's the
point of it, it's deception. It's like, watch this, and I'm
doing something way down here. It's making you look somewhere
else and then you convert that into sales and you can sell cars
and air conditionings and anything else you want. It's about deception. People
don't know until they know. Well, beloved, when we're engaged
in these types of ideologies, when our minds are focused in
certain ways that we are stomping our proverbial humble feet in
the face of God as if we are His new corrective sword, we
are absolutely deceived. Those who believe that they are
making changes for the better in God's kingdom by not following
the Scripture are liars and are of Satan, period, all the time. Now have you ever been of Satan? I have. Satan uses believers. Why? Because our flesh is tempted.
He dangles it out there. He provides opportunity for us
to consider our own way. And then we don't believe the
commands of God. We don't believe the promises
of Scripture. And we walk into our own wisdom. And I'm going
to show us what that looks like today and what it calls us. And
this is not new. We all know it. But we're deceived
to our own trials in it. And what happens when ego causes
trials which eradicates peace? Then we become victims. Then
it's someone else's fault. If that person had said this
to me in a different way, I wouldn't have become angry. No, you're
angry because you're a sinner. And thank God that you're not
going to be judged for eternal life on how well your anger was
managed. Because whether you ever express
it or not, if it's in your heart, you're still guilty. And if you've
ever expressed it, that guilt will remain unless someone else
pays for it. Jesus the Christ, the Holy Anointed
One of God. And then a positive righteousness
will never be yours if it doesn't come from another. From Jesus. So we understand the good report
of Christ. We wait for the day of glorification,
we wait for the day of God speaking to us and then our whole countenance,
our whole person, our whole essence will be recreated in the image
of Christ sinless and immutable. Not divine, that's a big difference,
but perfect. having been awarded that, bequeathed
that as adopted children, not because of who we are and what
we've done and how well we've done, even by the power of God,
but because Christ alone was given, we were given to Him and
He died in our place and His righteousness was credited to
our account. This is the only gospel. There
is no other. And so when we make judgments
and when we allow ourselves to get bogged down into these thoughts
and thinking, we are not submitting to God's Word. And beloved, the new mind can
hear and know and submit to God's Word. Perfectly? Absolutely not. Even when we are perfectly following
it in some season, there is still a hint of sinfulness in the context
of our following. So we're not measured by that.
And we see here, Paul, let's read the first two questions
again. First two, oh, not questions. First two sentences of this letter
again. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by, and I'm gonna emphasize this today, by command of God our
Savior and of the anointed Jesus, our hope. To Timothy, my true
child in the faith. grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Now here's what I want
to emphasize, and there's still two or three more things that
need to be pulled out of that so that we grasp the reason,
the occasion, the power, and the authority of the letter that
he's written, not just this one, but the second letter that he
wrote to Timothy. Beloved, these are important teachings, and
they're highly practical. Let me say that again. They're
important teachings, and they're highly practical. We sometimes
hear the accusation of antinomianism. It's absurd. It's absurd, but yet people who
refuse the instruction of scripture are indeed antinomian. What does
that mean? They don't think they have to
obey anything. They're not gonna be held accountable to any instruction.
They're not gonna be disciplined or corrected under any circumstance. And I think it's a majority of
professing believers. I think people get upset. It's
funny how they can counsel others to be patient, to be kind, and
to submit to the Scripture, but then when things don't go their
way, they just leave like little babies. And I don't mean to mock,
but I am done playing games with God and with His people. The
church will be pure by the sovereignty of God. And we will be a people for His
glory, by His grace. No boasting. No boasting. But see, sometimes we fear the
scripture, don't we? I like how knuckleheaded, nonsense
people. I've never feared the scripture. You are a liar. You
are a liar. We'll look at how liars we are
sometimes. But Paul is an apostle, not by the call, also by the
call, but how was that call? I mean, did God offer Paul an
apostleship? that he met him on the road to
Damascus and said, hey, come up here and water your horse
and let's have a discussion. You know, I've been looking for
a guy like you. You got all the right things. Your resume's good.
I mean, you don't have any bad stuff in your closet. Nobody's
gonna cancel you. You know, you got a lot of stuff
going for you, Paul, and I could use a man... Are you in the business
of changing careers? You want to leave Judaism and
come into the new creation, the new covenant, the new kingdom?
You want to understand what I'm working toward? I need a right-hand
man. No, God didn't need a right-hand
man. He needed a man He could crush and destroy and put into
slavery. to be despised by the world and
even those who loved him and who supposedly worship the same
God as he so that he could bring to his elect Gentile people the
gospel. And that's Paul's life. God commanded Paul to go and
Paul went. He had no choice. God commanded
Paul to see and his eyes were opened and he could not unsee.
And the irony behind that and the perfection as we've gone
through John's gospel, we see that what physical blindness
is as it relates to spiritual blindness, God did the opposite
for Paul. Paul could see with his eyes, but he couldn't see
in the spirit. And so God blinded his eyes as
a message, as a miracle, as a testimony. But he opened his true eyes to
see Christ for who he was. Paul to be an apostle by the
command of God. And if you notice here, Apostle
of Christ, the Holy One of God named Jesus by the command of
God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope. So we see a
Trinitarian formula here. We see that Jesus Christ is Savior. God is Savior. Jesus Christ is
God. This is assumed. See, some people
get messed up with the terminology of the Trinity. People get messed
up with theological terms. Beloved, we just have to get
to the root of what people are trying to say, and then we affirm
or deny that what they're saying is biblical, and then we walk
patiently with them according to the commands of God to work
these things out with simplicity and unity. And there is no recourse
when correction is given. No recourse at all. None. Anyone who would say otherwise
is wrong according to the commands of Christ. So we need to emphasize
here that Paul, as I've already said in the very first sermon,
this is sermon four of this letter, the very first sermon that Paul
is speaking as Christ's ambassador, as the one sent from God, his
ambassador. Christ sent from the Father,
now he is sent from Christ. So when Paul writes this, let
us go on record to say we are reading the letter to Timothy
from Jesus. written by Paul. Because what
Paul instructs in his letters, he holds with such power and
authority to say, I am telling you, God is commanding of you
to hear these things. And beloved, when God commands
to His people, those who have ears to hear, they hear. That
is why biblical correction, loving discipline, and patient teaching
always is to be measured by people's response to the simple and gentle
instruction of the Word of God. And those who do not respond
to follow the Word of God, but usurp it and do their own way
and justify their sin and their actions by their own fear, which
is never of God, their own passion, which is not something God gives,
zeal, which is worthless without truth, assumption, which is murder
and gossip, These things are wrong. Why are we saying all
this? Because we know what this world is. And the world and a
bunch of people who claim to be in the gospel, who claim to
be purchased by the blood of Christ, are living as if they
are pagan idolaters because they don't listen to the Scripture.
What cult that's a Christian cult, there's air quotes there
for those of you who might listen to this later. I'm not saying
they're Christians. Good gosh. Listen to what the
context is. What Christian cult that uses the scripture that
we use doesn't take pieces and parts of it and abuse it, twist
it, and make it to say what they want it to say to fit their already
predetermined ideological bend toward what they're trying to
prove. You can do anything, but you know what happens when you
read context? All that goes out the window.
You know what happens when you have to obey what's commanded
of us in the New Testament despite what you think and feel? All
that goes out the window because the promises of God are powerful. Brother Trey read this morning
in Romans 1, I'm not ashamed of the good report of God, for
it is the power of God unto salvation. Paul was an apostle by the command
of God. He had no choice. God's vessel
to take the Gentiles the gospel. And he was directly appointed
and empowered and affirmed and authorized by Jesus alone. I mean you can go to all the
other letters, Galatians 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians
and you can see where Paul says that he is appointed and sent
by Jesus himself. Now some people claim that today.
Well, I've been sent by Jesus. I haven't been sent by Jesus.
I've been called by God. I've been called by the Father.
I've been called into the work of the ministry. And Lord, He
knows that I have tried to quit for 20-something years. I've
tried to get away. I've tried to stop, but I cannot
do it. I cannot do it. I cannot do it. You cannot quit
the church and you cannot quit the scripture if you were born
of God. Now you may have a season. You may have a Jonah moment.
Jonah was scared of the Word of God. He ran and ran and ran
and ran and ran. Why? Because he wanted his outcome,
not God's outcome. He did not want to go preach
the good report to the Ninevites. He wanted to preach justice. And God said, I don't care what
you want to preach. My commandment is go preach the good report.
Preach grace to the Ninevites. You don't know these people.
I'm not, I don't want to see them. You know, for some of the
people in the world who hope to God certain people aren't
in heaven, they don't have to worry about it. They won't be
there to see them. Now I know that's a broad assumption and
it's a really silly thing because all of us are going, oh no, I
feel that way. Listen, it is not how we feel that determines
our eternal life. But I just want you to think
about that for a second. If we really hope someone is condemned,
then there's something wrong with our understanding of grace.
And most importantly, we're gonna give God credit for we being
who we are, but we're pretty close to Lucifer in that context,
and none of us are as beautiful as he is. None of us are as beautiful
as Lucifer. The fallen angel, the devil,
Satan, El Satan, Diablo, whatever it might be, whatever language
you want to speak, the enemy, the hater of God's glory. Paul,
by the command of Christ, was sent by Christ, and so Paul,
by the command of Christ, was sent to write these letters to
Timothy. The first century church didn't walk around with a Bible. I want you to think about it
for a second. The first century church, the members of the church
did not walk around with letters. They did not walk around with
the Old Testament. They did not walk around with all of these
books. Number one, all the New Testament
wasn't finished. Number two, you couldn't afford that. And
then most people couldn't even read it. So that shows that when we see
the New Testament written, it's written to the church and it's
written as letters, even the gospel accounts are letters,
written so that the elders and the overseers, same thing, elders
and overseers of the churches, of the congregations, of the
assemblies, of the families, would get together and they would
read aloud these things and then they would instruct them in it.
That's what we do today. The problem is, is that we have
access to not just the scripture which very few people actually
read. Now let's just be honest. Very few people actually read
the Bible. We don't read it. We look at
it, we carry it around, we move it from table to chair, from
car to church, but most of us don't actually read it. We just
utilize it as a tool. And then some people who say,
well, I'm a student of scripture, they're not reading it either. The Bible
is their index where they put their thumbs while they parse
all the other knowledge concerning theological things that are in
the world. Well, I got, and brothers and sisters, I got thousands
of books and I've gotten rid of thousands of books and I got
more thousands of books that I'm shoving in other places,
these boxes back here. I mean, you know, I'm a bit at
the point where I don't want to have a book burning, but if
I get cold, What's more important? The scripture. I promise you. All the years
of counsel and discussion and talking, I can tell who reads
the scripture and who doesn't read the scripture. I can tell,
because the power of God, through His word, instructs us, and most
importantly, the Spirit of God tempers us in the context of
grace, in the context of the gospel, when we are actively
disciplined to be in the Bible. And so most of the problems that
we have in our lives, especially in our relationships, are because
we are not obedient to what the scripture teaches us to do. Paul is an apostle by the command
of God to write this letter to Timothy, sent by Christ, directly
appointed. He also says in 1 Corinthians
that he's an eyewitness to these things. He's an eyewitness to
the accounts. The scripture teaches us, as we heard this morning
in Romans 1, that he is the bearer of God's revelation.
He writes that which God has revealed. And beloved, he is a co-leader
in the churches of Christ. He has authority by God alone
to command the church to do certain things. I'm going to say that
again. Paul and the other apostles have
authority by God alone to command the church to do certain things.
Then Paul says in several places, especially to the church of Corinth,
anyone who does not do what I say in relation to dealing with relationship
issues, peace, love, patience, calmness, quietness, simplicity,
and obedience. He says, do not consider them
a brother. What does that mean? That they're
lost? No. It doesn't mean they're unconverted. He's just saying,
you don't have time to play with people who don't play by the
rules. Put them aside. Put them in time out until they
get with the program. But what do we think? I know
how to fix this. Folks, I'm telling you, if I've said it once, I've
said it a thousand times, people love to hear gospel preaching,
but they don't want to be shepherded in God's Word. We don't want
to be told that what we are and what we are doing and how we're
thinking is unbiblical. We don't want to be told. We're
scared to death for somebody to tell us what to do. But yet,
even if Jesus himself would just stand here and tell some of us
what to do, we probably would ignore it by Tuesday morning.
Because the apostle Paul is writing scripture and he's telling us
what to do this morning. And some of us might ignore it
before lunch. The command of God. These apostles, Paul was responsible for taking the gospel and for
teaching the churches. And then he charges Timothy,
an elder, so therefore he charges me and Dave Barnes and Jesse
Bates, who are the elders of this flock, to do the same. Not as apostles, but to submit
to him, thus submitting to the Lord. And when we don't do that, Time
out. Time out. And Paul talks about
how we consider a man to be worthy of time out versus worthy to
stand in the pulpit. Is it because of who I am and
the life that I live and all the kind of stuff? Well, it's
part of it, but majority of it is that I'm qualified in Christ.
And we strive, as we'll see, to do that which God has commanded
us, not what my education has taught me. And for those of you
who know me and care to ever ask, you'll know that if I could,
I'd give it all back. I'd take all that money back. The command of God, spoken and
established, by which we have grace, intimate, loving, kind
mercy which establishes peace. From God who commands the apostles
to be the apostles, from God who commands the apostles to
write letters, from God who commands the world and everything in it
to be as it is, from God who commands and He gives grace to
His people, from God who commands that we are at peace. This letter is written to the
true child of Paul in the faith. True child. I can't wait to talk
about that in a couple of weeks. True child. See, sometimes we want to say,
well, I know what that means. And then we have this whole list
of laws that we've established. A true child looks like this. When simply taught, the scripture
says a true child is one who has been given to Christ. A true
child has been adopted by God. A true child has been loved forever.
A true child has his sins paid for. A true child is at peace
with God. And the list goes on and on.
And because we are true children, therefore walk in a manner, therefore
put away malice, therefore do not slander, therefore do not
steal, therefore Be patient. Therefore, do not forsake the
assembly. Therefore, don't be haughty and
selfish. Therefore, don't be greedy. You
see? The command of God is spoken. Therefore, the command of God
is established. How do you have faith? Because God commanded
it. How has the grace of God been
given to you? Because God commanded it. How did He command that? By what means? Through the Word.
By what foundation is he able to do such things? By the blood
of Christ, by the death of Christ, by the one who has given his
life as a ransom for his people. What must I do? Hear the word
of the Lord. How can I do that? Paul tells
the Romans, by the power of God through the words of Christ,
he will give those he deems as he sees Ephesians 1, by the counsel
of his own will, ears to hear it. Because there's not a human
being in the world that has ever lived who could not follow a
prescription. There's not a human being in the world without a
little bit of training who can't follow a map. There's not a human
being in the world, and I know this is hyperbole, folks. I don't
need your insistence on precision in those contexts. But, because
I can see some of your faces. Let me have my time. There's not a human being in
the world that can't be taught to behave in a certain manner. There's not a human being in
the world that can't be taught linguistically how to operate with his mouth,
how to work with his hands. There's very little talent in
the world. There's a lot of learning. It's not talent that we play
instruments, it's practice. Years and years of hours of professors
and practice. You know how it is. You may have
a natural inclination toward this. I mean, what is an inclination?
An interest or an agility. It doesn't make you good at it.
But beloved, we have professional Christians in our world. We have
professional theologians. We have professional sovereign
grace believers. We have people who have fit the
mold that they are so far from Christ. Because they don't listen
to Scripture. They don't hear the commands
of God. And when Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, He includes
the writing of the apostles. His voice, no matter the subject
matter, is His voice. We don't get to pick and choose
how we decipher what we hear and what we listen to. Those
who the Spirit of God is teaching. Now, do we always submit to it? No, but we know we're disobeying. Those who don't know they're
disobeying are deceived. The Spirit of God, why? The Spirit
of God works and teaches according to the commands of God. According
to the Scripture. According to the New Testament
letters written to the New Testament church. The New Testament wasn't
written to a group of lost people. It's not evangelistic. We're
evangelistic. Can you get the Gospel out of
the Gospels? Yeah, there it is, the story of Christ and what
He's accomplished. And those were written so that
they might have a good report to show, hey, what's all this
about this Jesus stuff? Just read this. That's why I
tell people to read the Gospel of John. Read it. It is your
evangelism tool. Don't go to Romans. Romans is
a discipleship tool for people who have grown up in a pagan
mindset. People who have grown up in a
worldly culture. People who think, well, how can
I be saved? How can I be Christ? How can
I belong to God when I've ignored all these teachings for so long?
I need to catch up. Paul's like, you don't need to
catch up. God called you. You're just as much a child of God,
you Roman pagan, you dirty old idolater, as the idolatrous Pharisees. Me. You see, that's Paul's comparison. That's why God ordained Paul
to be a Pharisee for the first part of his life. So that he
would have the testimony of grace rather than works. So the command of God is spoken
and established. The command of God is taught
to us by the Spirit of God. And then what do we do as human
beings? We rebel against it. That's the
whole point. I mean, we've been through Hebrews. We've been through
a lot of letters. We went through Genesis. But,
you know, as we go through Genesis some more over next year, we're
going to see. God promised. People heard it.
And then they just ignored it. They rebelled against it. How did they rebel against it?
They didn't believe it. They wouldn't believe it. Some
of us would haughtily say, well, man, if I saw God do what He
did in Egypt, man, I'd never doubt. Yes, we would. We'd doubt
as soon as we tasted manna and realized that spicy bread
in Egypt was a lot better to our mouths, to our flesh. Jesus
fed 5,000 men plus their wives and children. with a sack lunch. And then they gathered up 12
baskets of leftovers so that none would be wasted, none would
be lost. Symbolically. And yet, these people followed,
Jesus vanished from among them and they followed the disciples
down to the boats and God caused a storm to bring the boat from
Capernaum over to the shore so that they could get in the boats
and they could come over to Capernaum and see Jesus. And the first
question is, how did you get here? When did you get here?
And Jesus says, you're not coming after me. You want me to do another
magic trick. You want me to do another miracle.
You want me to do another feeding. This isn't the JC buffet. Don't
labor for the bread that perishes. Labor for the bread that endures
your eternal life. Fine then, we'll do that. Where is it? Right
here, he says. I'm that bread. Well, if you're the bread, then
show us the manna. If you're the bread, then where's
the Ark of the Covenant? I want to see it. Prove it. He could have pulled
that Ark out of his ear, and they still wouldn't have believed.
Why? Because only when the Spirit of God teaches does it overcome
rebellion. And beloved, this is my sin. This is my sin. That I think
I can convince somebody else to listen and to adhere to the
Word of God. I never literally say that to myself, but the way
I operate and the way I worry and the way I labor and the way
I do, I think that there is some way that God might use me to
cause somebody else to actually see and to obey. And I'm talking
about believers in the context of loving discipleship. I'm not
talking about unbelievers now, but I used to feel that way too.
That's rebellion. But then God, by His command,
corrects through the Word. He corrects the church through
the Word. And He corrects the church through
the Church, through the teaching of His Word. So the commands
of God corrects us and puts us back on the right focus concerning
the promises of God. See, Paul is assuming, because
he knows, because he taught him, that Timothy understands all
this. mercy, grace, and hope from our Lord, the command of
God, our Father, the Savior, Christ Jesus, our hope. And Paul
loves that verbiage about Christ being our hope. Hope is a noun there. Christ
is the hope. So he assumes, and he's resting
in this, beloved, so that he would be reminded by God the
Spirit Listen, that Timothy will be reminded by God the Spirit
every time he read these letters and every time his scribes copied
them and read them to other churches, that the churches and the elders
of those churches will be reminded that what is about to be written
is Christ writing to his elders of his churches and that he alone
has the power to bring peace, hope, and mercy. And that's why
Timothy commands... I mean, Paul commands Timothy.
That's why Timothy is commanded to be peaceful. To be patient,
to be gentle, to be calm. Be it against the exhortation,
look at verse 3 right here. As I urged you when I was going
to Macedonia, he says, remain in Ephesus. And I want to just
go ahead and say he commanded Timothy to go to Ephesus, okay? Or to stay at Ephesus. So that
you may charge. Timothy had no judicial power. But charge. You may call people
to not teach different doctrines. That you may call people, you
may command people. Let's just do this, let's just
do this. This is a month from now. We probably won't get here
for another four weeks. But let's just put it in the perspective
of what's happening here with this authority. I commanded you
to remain at Ephesus so that you may command certain persons
not to teach any different doctrine nor devote themselves to myths
and English genealogies which promote speculations rather than
the stewardship from God that is by faith. Why would He do that? The aim
of our charge is love. The aim of our charge, beloved,
love, the command of God given to His people in love is effective
unto faith. and faith in the gospel includes
and establishes the premise that the Word of God in its whole
counsel is sufficient for our hope and our peace and our joy.
It is sufficient to be the divine power of God, not only to our
salvation, but to our life together as individuals and collectively
as the family of faith. I hope to God Almighty that men,
so-called men of God, do not treat their marriage the way
they treat the body of Christ. Because the marriage will end,
the body will not. It's a mockery. Paul talks about
that, doesn't he? This isn't the McDonald's on
West Street and the McDonald's over on Universal. That McDonald's
over there has cleaner bathrooms. I'm going to go and do. Beloved,
this is nonsense. We don't get to decide what we
listen to and what we do and say that we're submitting to
the Lord. And that being said, the point
is, is that Paul's going to teach Timothy about not only how elders
should oversee and what their authority is by the commands
of God, but he's going to show Timothy what he must, as elders,
do to teach other men who must also be elders how they are to
command the church in matters of doctrine, reconciliation,
sin, peace, love, and the authority of Scripture. Paul should have
started with 2 Timothy 3 at 1 Timothy 1, for all Scripture is breathed
out by God. Beloved, he did. By the command of God our Savior and Jesus Christ our hope. Everybody can find a Jesus that
satisfies their inner demon. Everybody can find a Jesus that
they can sit in their closet by themselves with like-minded
people who love isolation. But the scripture calls for a
Jesus that actually does miracles in the context of relationships
who have no affinity outside the gospel. The scripture calls
that God can command reconciliation in impossible circumstances.
The Scripture says that God can take a marriage that is destroyed
and bring it back together because that's the picture of God taking
what has been destroyed by man's rebellion and putting them in
Christ. They have no choice in the matter. So people who claim to be in
Christ can't be part of a church family if they're not willing
to submit to the Scripture. Because the Scripture is the
whole point of being in the church. And that's what He's going to
teach. My true child in the faith. This is an undercurrent of the
fact that Timothy's going to listen to the commands of God
through Timothy. And when we test these things,
when we put this to the test, what I'm saying, don't take my
word for it, just listen. Read Timothy. You can't get all
this from these first two verses, but you can get all this by reading
these two letters. And as we unpack it, just as the apostles
write introductions, As we unpack it over the next year, we'll
start to see these things come to light. Put it to the test.
Write these things down and then check them. But don't check them
by Googling things. Don't check them by going to
a YouTube channel. Don't check them by calling your friend. Don't
check them by going to the Synod records of history. Don't check
them by going to a commentary. Check them by just reading the
Bible. And what is the test of the command
of God? What is it that we know that God's Scripture, that the
Word of God will actually establish the parameters and the joy and
the hope of life? Not just in salvation, but in
life together. Because God has caused faith. God has given faith
to His people. God has caused us to believe
in both redemption and instruction. Because believe it or not, faith
that, quote, saves is not a list of precepts. Faith that saves
is knowing God's promises are true and resting in them. Then, because they're true, the
commands of Scripture then on how we live together and serve
and do are also not... What does John say? They're not
a burden to us. It's not a burden. That's why we don't do small
groups and children's ministry and all those other kinds. I
mean, if any of y'all want to do some of that kind of stuff, jump
on it. But it's not going to be a church thing. The elders
aren't called to create that stuff. We're not supposed to
be about making you busy because we haven't gotten the first commandment
down, nor have we gotten the second commandment down. We haven't
gotten the New Testament under our belts enough to where we're
intimate enough to actually serve one another, thus serve Christ.
as we should. So it's going to be a lifelong
practice. A lifelong practice. And as we
age and generations die out, the perpetuity of the body of
Christ, known as Grace Through Church, will continue in that
same manner. And by His mercy, we will continue to see people
live a loving, sacrificial, sometimes controversial life together as
a family. that He will be glorified and
praised because of His glorious grace and mercy through the writing
of the Word of God, that the instruction was not burdensome. It's not a burden to sit down
and love somebody when the gospel is at the center of it. We find hope when we read the
Bible, and if we don't find hope in the practice of the commands
of Scripture, then we lie and we don't practice the truth. We've received mercy and we've
obtained peace from God the Father. Look at that. We talked about
grace last week and the week before, and we could talk about
mercy and peace, but we know what peace is. We know that ultimately
what Paul is talking about is that peace between us and God. It's like if you get upset, and
I've seen this happen before. I won't say where or when, because
people will know what I'm talking about, some of us. But I've seen
someone get upset, storm out of a building, get in their car,
and donut a person's yard up really bad, and then drive off. Real mature. And it didn't happen at my house
because that person's not dead. But anyway, that's a joke, but I'm
being honest. I'd be upset if you messed my
grass up. I've only got this much, so. The rest of it's dirt. But you know, that's tough. And
what do you do? I mean, and then you get halfway
down the road. I mean, this guy gets halfway down the road and,
oh, what have I done? I've acted like a fool. I've acted like a child. But
this person said something to me and it offended me and he
sinned against me. He said something about my mama
and I just couldn't handle it. I was either going to punch him
or tear up his grass. So I tore up his grass and I spun off.
But what am I going to do? I can't go back. I can't go back. I can't do what's right. I don't know what to do. See
that tension there? And then the guy was like, You
know what John just did? You know what John just did?
You know what John... Facebook. You know what John just did? Look what
John just did. And then everybody, look here, look yonder, look
at this. Oh, I knew this John was a bad guy. Not, I called
his mama ugly and he tore up my grass in response. But then John comes and says,
you know what he said about my mama? Well, guess what everybody's
heard. We see the video, John. We know what you did. Let's talk
about this. See, that's what the Word of God will do. It doesn't
let us get off the hook. It doesn't let us take our sin
and put it on a table until somebody else's sin is made known. Beloved, there's no way possible. I mean, if there is a way possible
when sin happens in the body of Christ, if it's possible,
we should deal with it patiently and quietly. And promptly. And when it's dealt
with and people have stopped and ceased and come to terms
of submitting to the Word of God, whether everything's worked
out or not, we rejoice in unity. This is what Timothy's being
taught. This is what I'm being taught. And this is what I'm
going to be teaching to you. Remember, we were going to start
Timothy in March. We were going to start Timothy
in August. We were going to start Timothy,
but the Lord just kept pressing me to go into the Old Testament
for a while. How do you make peace with someone
that you just tore up their yard? How do you make peace with God
when we've done worse than tore up His yard, we tore up His name?
What are you going to do? You got no money, you can't replant
the sod. You can say, I'm sorry, but does
that fix the problem? Does it repair it? You can go back and actually
have a good relationship, but there's always that tore up yard every
time you're standing out there, and you're standing in the very
damaged scar of what we did. Beloved, there is nothing we
can do sometimes to create restitution. But there's always something
that can be done in the way of forgiveness between each other.
There's nothing we can do to make peace with God. And I've
heard preachers say that. I don't know when or where, but
I've heard people say that. Even if it was Russellites on
my door on Saturday mornings, they always say, you know how
to have peace with God, you know how to make peace with God. There's
nothing that makes peace with God except the blood of Jesus
Christ. So the blood of Jesus Christ makes peace with God.
How does the blood of Christ even apply to us as the believers,
as the church, as the elect? Because God granted it to us.
God gave us to Christ and He substituted Himself for us. This
is the good report. This is the message of redemption.
So we have peace with God. Therefore, we can strive and
have peace with one another if we believe the promises of God
found in Scripture, if we follow the prescriptions that are going
to be taught to us in these letters, if we are truly recipients of mercy
in our own hearts and minds, we will have peace. But when
we do not listen, to the instructions and the commands of God. When
we do not follow the instructions of the Scripture, but we take
our own ideas and we give them legs and we put fertilizer to
them and we double down on them, we feel hopeless, not at peace. And you know, to feel hopeless
as a believer is part of the sin nature? To feel fear as a believer
is part of our sin? to fear, to feel suspicion, paranoia, is all of the flesh. And I can argue psychologically
with almost perfect accuracy that it's egotistical and arrogant. Not me. It was hubris that caused Eve
and Adam to eat the fruit. It was hubris that caused Satan
to say in his heart, I look so good, I should stand up there
with God. And a majority of the angels
in heaven agreed in their hearts. And look at Lucifer. Why doesn't
he stand up there with God? Look at him. Gosh, he's so beautiful.
He's almost as beautiful as God. Hubris, that's arrogance. We
can't see it. Why? Because it's deception.
Bitterness, a root of deception. It's deception. And if God would
expose all the wickedness of our essence, at one time our
heads would pop. That's why inflection and constant
thinking about one's own standing in his own efforts before God.
Beloved, when we're born again, we are granted peace to know
that because of the blood of Christ, the wrath of God is satisfied
and the justice of God is done. There is no court for the believer. There is no trial for the elect. It's been done on the cross of
Christ. We do not listen and follow the
commands of Christ in the Scripture. We feel hopeless. And when we
do that, we lose the blessings of life, not eternal life. We're
talking in a practical sense here. Timothy's being taught
in a practical sense. As the Romans were taught in
the relationship portions from chapter 12 to the end in a practical
sense. Like Hebrews when Paul taught the Jews, the Christian
Jews, in the practical sense. There's a practical application
of life together. Otherwise we could just all stay
home and watch me by myself teach through an internet screen. That's
not intimacy. That's not growth. That's not
maturity. And that sure as heck isn't worship or ministry. But
for some people, it's all they can do. So we need to take the
extra effort for some of those as we're able to minister. But
we lose the blessings of life. We lose the joy and the peace
and the understanding and like Paul would say, the peace of
God that surpasses all understanding. What's the context of that statement?
In the midst of great personal, practical, pragmatic trials.
Suffering, hatred, bitterness, all these sinful things, all
these feelings and all these emotions. Beloved, we are never,
ever, ever to use our emotions to guide our understanding of
the truth or to live according to the truth. We don't listen, we live in fear. I mean, Jonah didn't listen.
He heard he was going to Nineveh, and Jonah, being a righteous
prophet by the grace of God, said, oh, I've been looking for
this. I've been waiting. Can't wait to get on Facebook
and smear those Ninevites. Can't wait to go out there and
yell to the rooftops, y'all come watch this fire. So he goes to
Nineveh. After what? Being scared to go
to Nineveh. Being scared to go to Nineveh.
Being scared to go to Nineveh. And God swallows him up and spits
him out on the shores of Nineveh. He said, well, while I'm here,
I might as well take my stank butt up there and at least I'll
get to see him burn. Why didn't he want to go to Nineveh?
He hated him. And then when God didn't burn
him, he was angry. Maybe I should preach Jonah. My OCD doesn't like that. Because I ponder so much for
weeks and weeks and weeks after I read it. Just ponder. What
if? What if? What if? And I don't do anything. I'm not productive. But we live
in fear. We don't listen to the Scripture.
We harbor bitterness. We harbor unforgiveness. Which
is our natural bend. We become apathetic, which is
hate. which is not love. We neglect
true worship, which is service to others. See, all of us think
this is worship. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me, me, me. True worship is loving
you. True worship is to serve each
other. And I said, well, how can I serve? Beloved, if you
can pray for us, if we can pray for one another by name, Because there's no amount of
ministry apart from prayer that'll ever do anything. But no ministry
at all with only prayer can do everything. When we don't listen to the Scripture,
we don't obey the Scripture, we literally reject the grace
of God through the assembly. It's not salvific. Why don't
you use that phrase? Well, that's the phrase. That's
what Paul says, grace of God be. to you in my writing, the
grace of God be with you in my departing of this letter. The
grace of God, the God's grace is effectually, what does that
mean? His mercy, kindness and love toward His people to grow
us, to mature us, to keep us at peace, to give us joy and
to help us worship and to serve one another for His namesake
is part of what He promised only in the body as it assembles together. You can't obtain it in any other
way. When we ignore it, we seek our
own way. We know what's right in our own eyes and we seek it,
but we're deceived to it. And then when we see somebody
else joyful in our circumstances because they are submitting to
the Scripture and God has granted them joy, we begrudge it. There's
nothing more demonic than seeing someone else's joy and wishing
they weren't joyful. Ever thought about that? How
can they be joyful when we're going through this? because Christ
has promised it to us. We weep with those who weep,
we rejoice with those who rejoice, but it doesn't have anything
to do with our joy that's found in Christ. Beloved, we can be
glad in the midst of great suffering. And when we begrudge others joy,
we then create our own narrative. We begin to teach as Paul will
teach. We begin to start talking about how things happened, or
how things happened to us, or how we treated other people,
or what really did, you know, they treated Paul like dirt.
Why? Because he held to the standard
of Christ's commands. And that's what elders will do. Otherwise, they're no longer
overseers. They're disqualified and they must stop serving the
church. People create their own narrative.
Then they lose sight of their purpose. Then they become more
important in their own eyes. You see? You hear the teachings
of Paul? And we shouldn't do that. We should never be more
important in our own eyes. What does that look like? I'm
not going to do this because I feel this way and this is...
What does the Bible say? The Scripture tells us to do
X, then we do X. And we're not considering, we
don't consider what we think, feel, or supposedly know, we
consider one another. We are to do what we're called
to do because of others, not ourselves. And when we do that, we literally
are justifying our sin. We ignore God's rebukes according
to Scripture. We ignore God's instruction. We ignore God's training in righteousness. Now where's that at, 2 Timothy?
A man of God will be profitable and successful in all his ways.
Preach the Word of God in season and out of season. He didn't
tell Timothy to become a psychologist. He didn't tell Timothy to become
a therapist. He didn't tell Timothy to learn how to be relative to
different situations and circumstances in the context of relationships.
He didn't tell Timothy to use what his grandmother Eunice had
taught him about dealing with difficult people. He wasn't told to preach a sermon
on reconciling differences in a post-millennial world. You can laugh at that, even if
you don't know what I mean. It's nonsense. It's a new book on
Audible this week. I mean, you know, it's changed
my life. No, it hasn't. We ignore it. And when we do
that, we're not believing God. Let's get to the root of it.
We're not believing God when we refuse to hear the instruction
on practical matters. Don't you question my faith.
No, God questions your faith. Oh, there he is. He's a PS guy.
He's a Lordshipper. No, I'm not. You bring that charge
all you want. Matter of fact, don't even bring
it. If you're not a part of our assembly in this place, I don't want to
hear from you. Because you got no warrant. You
got no biblical voice. What's the old cha-cha-pow? That's
not becoming of a pastor. Good. That's your version. Paul says, be quiet. That's his
version. Paul speaks by the authority
of Christ. Oh! So you're telling Jesus to shut up. I'm telling you serious, y'all.
And some of you are in circumstances like this, in your homes. Some
of you are in circumstances like this at your job. Some of you
are in circumstances like this in the very congregation. Some
of you are in circumstances like this in all sorts of different
relationships because of the faith, etc. But, beloved, if
you're not at peace, you need to sit still. If you're not content
with the way things are and willing to wait on the Lord, you need
to sit still and listen to the Scripture and love one another. Love your worst enemy and watch
the Lord do a change in your heart. And when you figure it out, come
tell me and then I'll try it. What can I do? I can pray for them.
That's about as far as I can go for some people. And as I
pray, then I learn to weep. And as I weep, then I feel guilty.
I'm not doing enough for people who hate me. Isn't that crazy? And then I mess up my obligations.
Well, now I've got to go do all this. And then I usurp my responsibilities.
And I have to be corrected there. The Christian life is about constant
correction and guidance in a state of peace, in the economy of grace. And when we don't listen to the
Scripture, we don't believe God. So if we don't believe God in
the simple things like reconciling differences, dealing with false
teachers, which is the first occasion that Paul deals with,
dealing with doctrinal errors, dealing with things like that,
if we can't trust the scripture for that, we're not trusting
the scripture to tell us that Christ is our propitiation and
our righteousness. I don't give a flip what you
say you believe. You don't believe it. You know
the truth, the facts, but it's not your truth. Beloved, we're going to live
as a people that believes in the Lord, believes in His promises. Paul understood this. He knew
his task and circumstances. I mean, read 2 Corinthians. Read
chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians. Read the acts of the apostles
and see what Paul went through. Paul, of all people, had reason
to fuss and complain and be upset. Yet he spent so little time dealing
with this stuff, he spent almost all of his time out of love for
the church. Please, I love you too much to
see you suffer without peace. Would you listen to what I'm
saying, he would write to the Galatians. You've been bewitched. He didn't go to them as unbelieving
pagans that needed to be railroaded out of town. They were the elect
of God, born of the Spirit. And they would be in trouble.
He tells Timothy about the same types of people. Because nothing
changes. It's the same thing. It's the
history of the church. It's the history of the world.
It's the history of humanity. This is what we're all about. Cain
will always be in the church. And all of us, remember, can
be like Cain. Christ is our Abel. Paul knew that there were many things that
could undermine his joy and progress in the ministry, but fear sometimes is the Scripture itself.
Sometimes we fear because we know what the Scripture teaches,
and our flesh wants to hold on to dear life, to the power that
we've been given with our fear. Tell me that's not ego. That's the whole point of a maniacal
person. If my fear gets you to come to
me and have intimacy, But it's not of Christ. It's
never, ever of Christ. People who have affinity and
fear are not of Christ in that fear. They're of the enemy. And they are the wreckers of
the homes of God's people. Sometimes we know that Scripture
is where we find our hope, yet we read it according to our own
whims. Sometimes we know it is how God
speaks to every circumstance, yet we seek out our own pretexts
to fit our own path. We know that the Word of God
is going to instruct us on peace and love and patience, yet we
labor over our worldly philosophies. We know that the Word of God
will devour our idols, and destroy our affinities with so-called
like-minded people who share our fears so we don't go there. And we avoid those who push us
back to the cross of Christ and then to the instruction of Christ
to His people. We avoid those who tell us what
needs to be said. Because we know that the Word
of God brings conviction unto life, and we know that the Word
of God brings conviction unto joy, yet we harbor resentment
when other people try to share that truth with us as if they're
being legalistic or busybodies. Paul was concerned not out of
fear for the church, but out of love. And he looked toward
the joy of unity, not in his own ideologies or wisdom, but
according to the promises of Christ. And he did so because,
as the Scripture would teach us in Romans chapter 4. As a
matter of fact, let's just read a few verses and close out of
Romans 4 and 5. Romans chapter 4, verses 13 For the promise of God to Abraham,
the word of God to Abraham, the command of God to Abraham, I
just want to put it in perspective, and his offspring, that he would
be the heir of the world did not come through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of
the law who are to be heirs, Faith is null and the promise
is void. So I want to end with this so we can see that we're
going to be insufficient in our submission to the Scripture.
That is why we continue to obey the simple things like being
together for the sake of the assembly that God in His promise
will give us the instruction we need. We don't gauge our eternal
life by how well we're living the Christian faith. We gauge
our eternal life by the finished work of Christ. For it is the
adherence of the law, if it is the adherence of the law, who
are to be heirs, faith is null, and the promise is void." It's not
a promise of grace, it's something you earn. Okay, you did all the
work, here's your pay. Well, if you do all the obedience
that's ever been commanded, you're still going to die, and you're
still going to be under the wrath of God. For the law brings wrath. Why? Because we're all guilty
before we ever sin of breaking it. But where there is no law,
there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith,
in order that the promise may rest on grace. Saving faith is
resting, sitting, not laboring. Resting. That the promise may
rest on grace and be guaranteed to all His offspring, not only
to the adherent of the law, but also to the one who shares the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written,
I've made you my father, a father of many nations in the presence
of God in whom we believe, he believed, who gives life to the
dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
I should have probably just preached this text today. I literally
did, but not reading it beforehand. And hope, he believed against
hope. that he should become the father
of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring
be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body,
which was as good as dead, since he was almost 100 years old,
or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the
promise of God. None of his unbelief in the promises
of God made him waver concerning the promise of God. He continued
to go back to the command and the promises of God. But he grew strong in his faith
as he gave glory to God in what mindset? Verse 21, fully convinced
that God was able to do what He promised. That is why His
faith was, quote, counted to Him as righteousness. But the
words counted to Him were not written for His sake alone, but
for ours also. It will be counted to us who
believe in Him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who
was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have
also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That means to see
God for all that He is. Not only that, but we also rejoice
in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to
us. Therefore, we listen to the commands of God with joy, and
they are not a burden, so that we may learn that even in our
suffering, we are joyful, knowing that all that we are experiencing
is for His sake, and for His glory, and for His purposes,
and ultimately unto our joy, which comes from our hope, in
His work. Not in our wisdom. Not in our ability to fix things.
but in His promises. And His promises seem too simple
and seem too passive, don't they? That's what irritates our flesh.
This is too passive. We're not going to follow the
Word of God because I want it done this way. I want to resolve
things like this. I want to move this way. I want
to have this. Beloved, we're weak, and we're
always going to be weak, and we're still weak. And the good
news is that for while we were still weak at the right time,
Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for
a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare
even to die. But God shows His love for us
in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been
justified by the blood of Christ, much more shall we be saved by
Him from the wrath of God. For while we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More
than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
to whom we now have received reconciliation. Beloved, when
we don't listen and obey the word of God in reconciling with
each other and even our enemies, we are spitting in the very reconciliation
of the blood of Christ shed on the cross of Calvary. We mock
it. So let us rest in His finished
work and let us strive to enter into reconciliation with one
another in this world as long as it is up to us. Isn't that
chapter 14, maybe 15? The same letter? And we can't make people change.
But if we rest in the promises of God and someone else doesn't
come into that promise, there's nothing else for us to do but
pray. The blood of Christ has given
us hope and peace and reconciled us to God the Father. And as
we take the Lord's table today, I pray that you would prepare
your hearts to joyfully receive these elements. Let's pray. We
thank you, Father, for the opportunity to worship and to hear your word. And Lord, how you would use a
man like me to speak the truth of your word. It's all of grace. For I suffer, as you know, and
as many of my friends here know, I suffer with great doubt and
worry and burden to the detriment of my health. And Father, as long as I work
on trying to overcome it myself, You continue to let me do it.
But Father, when You show me Your Scripture and You show me
the peace that comes through resting in what You have prescribed,
Lord, it is only then that my joy is complete. And so I pray
for us today. I pray for our church, for our
spiritual family, that we would be united in the Gospel, and
we would not be united in our problems or our discord, but
we would be united in unity of faith. We would be united in
the unity of grace, and that we would grow and rejoice, and
we would praise you as you work these things out for your purposes.
And Father, that we would pray for those who refuse it, and
not be bitter toward them, and not be stressed out. but to continue
to do that which we've been called to do for the sake of our own
joy and for the praise of Your name and Your glory as You work
these things through us. And as we take this table today,
Lord, let us remember, as we are commanded to do, the blood
and the body of Jesus Christ who has set us free from wrath
that we justly deserve, because Jesus Christ has satisfied it
for us. In His name we pray. Amen. It's
come.