I'd like to begin a series of
messages, and this morning we're going to do an introduction to
them. And I'd like to ask you to turn in your Bibles to Acts
chapter 8. The series of messages that I'll
be bringing will be titled, Gleanings from 1 Timothy. But we're going to begin by setting
the table for this study, these messages in Timothy, by looking
at a little bit of some of the other scriptures. We'll get to
Timothy today, but just a couple of verses of it. The phrase,
expository preaching, came up this last week with me. And I've
been considering what it means to preach in this manner. Expository
is nothing more than a word that says to speak with intent of
explaining or describing a certain point. In fact, this is exactly
what we do in our Bible studies. We've been going through the
book of Matthew looking at the different points where our Lord
is referring to his disciples and what they're learning. Our
Bible studies, we're in a series right now on Peter and how he
became the one who wrote those two epistles that we see in the
Bible, 1st and 2nd Peter. I mentioned it this morning,
Peter didn't get called and immediately start writing. He had to learn
the things of Christ, just as you and I had to learn the things
of Christ. These men, these apostles, these
men who were sent of God, who were chosen by God to preach
His gospel, they had to learn the same things that you and
I have to learn. Peter, in his walk with the Lord, when we began
with that very thing where the Lord was going by the seaside
and called Peter, had to learn certain things. And going through the book of
Matthew on an expository point, in an expository way,
making each and everything in there that we can see about Peter,
looking at it word by word in some cases. Today, we only looked
at two verses. Actually, no, we only looked
at one verse today. Last week, we only looked at two verses.
Week before that, we looked at eight verses. But that's what
expository preaching is. You take a book, and you Expound
on that book and what it says. It's describing or explaining
a certain point. Verse by verse we look for jewels
that our Lord has in store for His sheep. And of course anything
He reveals of Himself is our jewel. So we search the scriptures
in search of Him from which is eternal life. In Luke 24-27 we
read where our Lord had been speaking to two men on the road
to Emmaus. They had been wondering, after
the death of Christ, what had happened? How could we have put
all of our trust in this one who is now dead? And our Lord
came to them. He said, what are you guys talking
about? And they went on to explain it
to him. And after a little while, the Lord finally, He revealed
Himself who He was to the men. He revealed Himself by what?
Expounding from the Scriptures. Teaching from the Scriptures
the things regarding Him. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets. He, our Lord, expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the thing concerning Himself. I've
spent the last few months randomly selecting from the Scriptures
a message here or a message there. Whatever the Lord... I would
consider what the Lord would have me to preach on. I would
pray about it. He would lead me somewhere in
the Scriptures, and then I would sit down at the type, and I would
just start typing out, and the Lord would give me what He wanted
me to teach on. Even though I was randomly going
throughout the Scriptures at different points, I was still
preaching the same thing. I was expounding an explanation
or a point to make. And the point is always the same.
It never gets any different. It's going to be the same today,
and Lord willing, it's going to be the same next week. It's
the same point that Pastor Gene has brought to this very pulpit
for 37 years. Christ Jesus and Him crucified. The Lord Himself expounded on
these very things concerning Himself. This is the message
that God uses to call His sheep, to save His sheep, and to keep
His sheep. Practical godly living calls
nothing. I'm going to say that again.
Practical godly living calls nothing. There's no hope in that. Practical godliness is not going
to save you. Going out and doing the better
things in life that you're supposed to be doing because you think
that that's better is not going to save you. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who saved us. And if you start looking to flesh,
you know what's going to happen? It's going to puff you up. I
make fun of the people who stand before the crowd to say, see,
I don't smoke anymore. I quit smoking. So it's whatever
date you want to say it is. See, I don't walk in the world
of sin anymore. I walk in the world of righteousness
now. The Lord, He made an offer to
me, and I accepted His offer back in 1992, and now I'm much
better than I was then. That's what happens when you
start looking to flesh. And don't tell me it won't happen
to you if you start doing that, because I know it will. We're
flesh and we're weak, and we will fall into that trap. That's why the message that Paul
says, Christ and Him crucified, and that alone. That is what
saves people. That is what keeps people. That
is what calls people out of the darkness. And when we think of
Christ and Him crucified, there's no room for flesh, because that's
all there is to it. I don't know about you folks,
but that's all I need. Everything else is as dung and unworthy
to be even thought of. Practical godly living calls
nothing. It saves nothing and it keeps
nothing. Now don't get me wrong. Practical
godliness is important. Please do not misunderstand.
We love our Lord and we truly desire to walk the life of godliness. To walk in holiness, to be a
beacon of light to those of this world. But our walk is not what
we take any confidence in. God, help me never to stand before
you and say, see how I am? See how confident you can be
in yourself now because you're just like that? No. Our confidence
is in our Lord. That's our only hope. Men turn
from something and they start to see a righteousness in themselves. And the next thing you know,
it's no longer Christ that one needs. No, it's all about me.
In Matthew 6, verse 1, we read, Take heed. That's our Lord talking
to each and every one of us. Take heed. Take heed that you
do not your alms before men. to be seen of them. Now why would
you think the Lord would say, take heed in that? Why shouldn't
I tell Frank over here about all the money I give to the church,
and why shouldn't I tell Sarah all this stuff about how we feed
the poor every Saturday, we go down to the homeless shelter
and we do this. Why shouldn't I tell them about all this good
stuff I do? Our Lord says, otherwise you
have no reward of your father which is in heaven. You want
to go brag about what you're doing to somebody? Our Father
will not give you reward for that. Therefore when thou doest thine
alms, he goes on to say, do not sound a trumpet before thee as
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets. I can't help but think of the
Catholic pope in that very situation. And I know I talk a lot about
how that is a beacon of men, dressed all up in their nice,
righteous clothing and walking around like they're more righteous
than the next. As hypocrites do in the synagogues
and the streets, that they may have glory of men Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward." God, keep me from that kind of reward because that's
a reward of hell. That's what sin is. The reward
of sin is hell, damnation, condemnation, separation from God. He goes
on to say in verse 3, But when thou doest alms, let not thy
left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Don't let this hand know what
this hand is doing. That thine alms may be in secret,
and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee
openly. You see, our Lord knows our weaknesses,
and that's what he's saying here to us. When you start looking
at your left hand, you're going to start thinking that you're
better than you are. And that's not the point at all.
I'm no better than I was before, except for the fact that I have
the Lord Jesus Christ living in me now. I have a heart that no longer
shakes its fist at Him, but looks to Him and wants to hear more
about Jesus. More about what He's done for
me. Folks, we do not speak of our
good deeds, but the deeds of Him who gave Himself for us.
That's what I want to tell people about. How can I tell a sinner, one
who's come into the church for the first time, to hear about
Jesus? How can I stand before one and
tell them, well, you know what we do here at Rescue? We all
get together on Saturday night and go down to the homeless shelter
and feed the homeless. Friday evening we get together
and we go do this, or we take all the money, 10% of all of
our money. How is that to save a sinner? Well, those people
do a lot of good stuff. They must feel pretty good about
themselves there, wouldn't you think? We do not speak of our good deeds,
but the deeds of Him who gave Himself for our sins. There is
plenty of instructions on what and how we should walk in this
life, right here in this book. And as we go through the Word,
all the Word, the whole counsel of God, we will see the walk
that we should be walking. But that will not be the focus
of a message if a preacher is a preacher of God. Preachers
of God preach one thing. They preach Christ and Him crucified. The law is no more than a schoolmaster. That's what Scripture tells us.
It's there to show us our need of Christ. Look at this example
our Lord gives right here in Acts 8, beginning at verse 26.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and
go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
unto Gaza, which is in the desert. Take up your things, Philip,
and go out into the desert. out into the wasteland where
there is nothing. And he, Philip, arose and went.
And behold, a man of Ethiopia and a eunuch of great authority
under Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, who had a charge of all her treasure
and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting
in his chariot. He read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran
thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and
said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How
can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip
that he should come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened
he not his mouth." Isaiah 53, 7 and 8. In his humiliation,
his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself or some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him. Good works? No. He preached grace. He preached Jesus. Philip preached Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2,
2, he says, for I'm determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why would Paul say that? Paul
wasn't unaccustomed to giving instructions on how to live. Paul was very clear in James
and in Timothy on how we should be walking, very instructive
about it. But that was not the message
that Paul preached. Paul preached the message of
Christ and Him crucified. Folks, I do not encourage you
to walk... I do encourage you to walk as children of light.
The book of James is very instructive on a godly walk. But as we read
in chapter 2, faith is what drives our works. Turn over to James
if you would for just a moment. It's just a few pages to the
right there. Just past Timothy. Right behind Hebrews. Faith is what drives our works. Look at chapter 2 verse 19 with
me, if you would please. Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. This is important. This is important
that we understand what the Lord just told us here. Many in the
world, folks, say that they know the Lord Jesus Christ, but they
don't know who the true and living God is. Many in this very world
that we walk in right now, you go down the street here and there's
at least five churches within two miles that say, we know who
Jesus is. We believe Jesus. And then they
go about doing the works of the flesh to prove that they know
who Jesus is. The devils know who Jesus is,
and they tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the
scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God? Ye see then how that by works
a man is justified, and not by faith only? Likewise also Rahab
the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers,
and had sent them out another way. For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Our actions as we walk through
this life reflect what we believe, folks. I don't want to get off on the difference between liberalism
and conservatism. But the difference
between those who are liberal in this country right now is
very clear from those who are conservative. Why? Because of the way they walk. You and I walk by faith. Our
faith is in Christ Jesus the Lord. That is our walk. And because
our faith is in Him, God will lead us to the good works that
He wants us to do. That's what this is saying. You
can't have faith and say, oh yeah, I believe He's Jesus. I
believe that He's the God of all things. I believe that He's
sovereign of all things. But you can't do that. There are no buts. He is God over everything. He
rules over everything. And that's what this is talking
about. Those who know that, you and I who know that, will reflect
that in the way we live. Let me give you an example of
that with my son. My son sees John for who he is. I spend a lot of my time talking
to him. He knows that my faith is in
my Savior. Because I tell him that all the
time. I act like that all the time. I'm not this holier-than-thou
person acting like I'm some kind of a good works person. My son
knows that I have faith, but that faith is in Christ Jesus
the Lord. It's not in the flesh. It's not
in what I do. It's in Him. And when He sees
me make a mistake, when He sees the mistakes that I might make,
He sees my faith put in my Savior. This is what Cheryl talked about
with her daughter. Our faith is in our Savior. It's
not in what we have done in the world. It's not what our past
is. It's in Him and what He has done. Now look over at verse 18 of
that very same Scripture. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me Thy faith without Thy
works, and I will show Thee my faith by my works." Yes, believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ is a work. But it's a work that's a gift
of God. Faith is a gift. It's not something
that you can conjure up. It's not something that I can
buy or earn. Our Lord gives that to us in
that faith in our Savior. That faith in what He has done.
I'm going to heaven not because of anything you see me do on
this earth, but because what He has done on this earth. And
what He has done alone. Our actions as we walk through
this life reflect what we believe. Abraham believed the promises
of God and he acted upon them. He didn't take his son up to
get crucified, to offer him up as an offering on that mountain
because he thought that was the right thing to do. He believed
God when God said to Abraham, the seed from thy loins, when
he promised the son that His seed would come from His side,
He knew that He would raise Him up from the dead again. He believed
God. That's the same belief you and
I have right now. I'm saved because I believe God. You're saved because you believe
God, not because of anything you're doing. People want to take this book
of James and they say, see, this is the rule of life right here.
You need to start doing this and doing that and doing this.
Well, that's what the Galatians did. That's exactly what we're
learning about in the Friday night Bible study with Don Fortner
in his book. Judaizers had crept into the
church and tried to say, well, yeah, Jesus is this and Jesus,
yeah, yeah, you're saved by that. But to prove that, We have to
circumcise you. To prove that you're saved, you
folks need to start feeding the poor. I should just say the same
thing, right? Is there any difference in that?
To prove that you're saved, I want you to come up here right now
and make a decision for Jesus. That's the same thing as getting
circumcised. And that doesn't save anybody. Abraham believed the promises
of God and he acted upon that faith. When our Lord gives us
the gift of faith to believe in Him, all these other things
will follow as a result. Scripture tells us that whosoever
believeth, whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall
have everlasting life. This is always the message. Grace,
grace, grace. It was grace that brought salvation
to man. It was grace that shed His blood
on that cross. It is grace that keeps us right
now, all the way my Savior leads me. Now I brought all this before
you just now, as an introduction to this series of messages that
I want to preach from Timothy. Turn over to Timothy, if you
would, please. Chapter 1. I want you to understand as we
go through this book, and I don't know exactly every verse that
we're going to look at. To be quite honest with you,
I'm going through it. I sit down and I pray to the
Lord, what would you have me tell your people? What can I
say from these verses today that will comfort your children? What stuff can I bring, can I
expound from Your Word that will bring peace to Your people who
walk in the valley of the shadow of death? And that's what this
is all about here. That's what these churches down the way here
are. They're the valley of the shadow of death. They require
works from men. And our Lord will say, depart
from Me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. What can I say to you this morning? to expound the jewels of Christ. Jesus Christ is the only jewel
worth looking for. We will look at these two books
in a cursory fashion, meaning sometimes that we will spend
our time on one, sometimes we'll spend our time with two or more
verses, or possibly even a section of verses. We may even skip one
or two, but each and every look that we spend over these next
Few weeks, months, years, each and every look, I hope and pray the Lord will
give me the ability to look for Christ. I want to see where my Lord speaks
of His love for His people. I want to see where my Lord teaches
to look to Him as my Savior. I want to see the grace that
He bestows upon me, a sinner deserving of His wrath, but a
recipient of His mercy. My heart burns with great love
for the One who first loved me when I hear about Him. More about
Jesus would I know, more of His love to others show, more of
His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1 and
2. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope, unto Timothy my own son in the faith, grace,
mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Now let's give a little bit of
history here, and I'm going to bring this to you through the
writings of Henry Mahan. Henry Mahan wrote this. He says,
Timothy, to whom this epistle is written, was known for his
early interest in and acquaintance with the scripture. His mother,
who was a Jewish woman, and his father a Greek, a Greek man,
which is the reason why we which is the reason why he's not circumcised
in his infancy. The mention of this is made in
the second epistle, which we'll come to at another time. His
mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois are spoken of as believers. And we are also told of his knowledge
of the scriptures from a child. Paul met him at Lystra and chose
him to be his companion to assist him in the spread of the gospel.
knowing that it would be disagreeable for this half-Jewish, half-Greek
person, Paul circumcised him, becoming all things to all that
he might gain some. Paul sent Timothy to several
places, and now he was in Ephesus, where he was told to abide for
a while in this epistle, and Paul instructs both Timothy and
the church in many important matters. That's why I took you
through all that first introduction there. I wanted you to see what
the Lord tells us about godly living. We're going to see some
of that in this book too. But I want to remind you that
it's not our godly living that keeps us close to Christ. It's
Christ who keeps us close to Him by leading us through that
godly living. Now, in Timothy 1.1, if Paul
had been writing to Timothy only, it would have been unnecessary
to call attention to his apostolic office. Timothy knew who he was.
But he does that, and Paul mentions the fact that he is an apostle,
so that all who read this book will know the authority that
God gave him. People who were going to listen
to Timothy preach to them needed to know that Paul had sent him,
an apostle had sent him to speak these very things. Apostle of
Christ, who is the office and the commandment of God our Savior.
No man makes himself an apostle. Paul owes his apostleship to
the Father and the Son. The title, God our Savior, belongs
both to the Father and to the Son, for the Father loved us
and the Son gave the Son to us to redeem us. The father does nothing except
through the son. And he's the one who made Paul
an apostle. He calls Christ our hope in this
very first verse. He is not only the author of
a good hope for salvation and eternal life, his righteousness
and sacrifices are not only the means of a good hope and his
promise is the foundation of good hope, but Christ himself
is our hope. He is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification and redemption. We can read about that in 1 Corinthians
1.30. We do not trust a plan, but a
person. We do not merely give mental
assent to the facts, but we receive a person. Secondly, Timothy was
not related to Paul according to the flesh, but the relationship
was spiritual. I call you brothers and sisters.
My sister Cheryl is in great pain right now. My brother Garrett
and his wife Katie with great joy being married. I feel for both because you're
my family. I feel the pain that our brother
Mike Loveless goes through because he has to get up. And he can
hardly get out of his seat at times. I feel for my brother Bill who
couldn't speak for such a long time. I feel the joy for our brother
Bill back there who gets to go on a vacation in a couple of
weeks. That's a great joy. That's something that's shared
not just to brag, but so that I can joy with him. That's what
family is. That's what Paul is talking about
here. Timothy may not be of his blood, but he is his brother
spiritually. Paul was not related according
to the flesh, but the relationship was spiritual. He calls him his
son because of his age, because of his deep affection for him,
because he's instructed Timothy in the doctrine of faith, and
because as a faithful son, Timothy has served with Paul in the ministry
of the Gospel. This is Paul's usual salutation
where he says these things, may grace, mercy, and peace from
our God and Father Jesus Christ our Lord be unto you. May you
have a fresh discovery, is what he's saying, of His love, and
of His free favor, and of His increase of grace, and the gifts
of His Spirit. May you have a fresh application
of the pardoning mercy that God has through His Son, the Lord
Jesus. May you have peace of heart and
conscience through the blood of Christ. End of quote. This is the desire for all of
God's preachers. I wish that you can have more
grace, that you may have more mercy, and that you may have
more peace. I can tell you this, and I can
tell you this from experience, there is no peace in what you
will see in the mirror. There never will be. The only peace we can have is in our Savior. The people of God see throughout
Scripture the flesh is weak. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We look to our great God, Jesus
Christ our Lord, He is our only hope. He's the one that I take
comfort in. He's the one that I can count
on. His promises are true and sure, and He will keep me singing
the words, just a closer walk with Thee. Let it be, Lord, let it be. And as I go about through this
life singing those words, I know that it is well with my soul.
Do you? Do you know that it's well with
your soul? If your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ it is well
with your soul. Will you stand with me?