everybody if you will let's open
the first timothy chapter one and if you want to hold your
finger there you can go ahead and open the second timothy chapter
one that'll be our text but i want to read first timothy chapter
one first Titus' message is a good greeting
and reminder. I often read Titus and the letters
to Timothy. It's good for me and encourages
me, and I thought that'd be an encouragement for you, too. 1
Timothy 1 says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment
of God, our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, peace from
God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I turn over there to
2 Timothy, a few pages, 2 Timothy 1.1. 2 Timothy 1.1 says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by
the will of God, according to the promise of life, which is
in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved
son, grace, mercy. and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord. Both of these start out in this,
it's so easy for us, and that's why I like going through books.
Whenever we start one, we gotta start at the beginning. So it's
easy to read over those things. Paul, comma, and Apostle, comma,
we can learn a lot from that. Hello, Apostle Paul. He said,
you stop calling me that. My name's Paul. Call me Paul. Lord gave me that name, Paul.
It's good, you call me Paul. Lot we can learn there, but he
begins both of these letters to Timothy. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, and there in 1st Timothy he says, by the commandment
of God. Here in 2nd Timothy it says,
by the will of God. Isn't that beautiful to you? God's will is a command. If he wills it, it's gonna come
to pass. That's good. He says, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope in 1st Timothy, In 2nd Timothy
it says, "...according to the promise of life which is in Christ
Jesus." He is our life. He is our hope. A person is our
expected end. There in 2nd Timothy 1 verse
2. to Timothy, my dearly beloved
son." Why did Paul call Timothy his son? Timothy's dad was a
Greek. He was a Gentile. His mom was
a Jew, and his grandmother was, but his dad wasn't. That's why
he had to be circumcised. But why would Paul call him his
son? Well, in 1 Timothy, he says, I'm Timothy, my own son in the
faith. He was Paul's son in the faith. Paul was older than him. He was physically older than
him. He was spiritually older than him. And he preached to
Timothy and to his family, and he loved Timothy. And we still
have that today. Did you know that? There's still
babes in Christ, and there's still young people in Christ,
and there's still old people in Christ. Most of the babes
think they're old, and most of the old consider themselves babes. That's in the faith, isn't it?
That's a family. That's a family. How's your family doing? The
people you love carnally in this world, you said, that's my family.
I'm related to them. Do you know what's going on in
their lives? Do you talk to them? Do you eat food with them? Do
you have them over to the house? I ain't trying to get in my answer
questions. That should be a north-south. Yes, of course I know them. That's
my family. Sometimes friends, we call them family, don't we?
They come over to my house. I bought some stuff in case one
of my friends comes over this week. It's there in the refrigerator.
Just for him. How much more so the family of
God? I love them. Really, how they doing? Why I
ain't talk to them in six months? Well, maybe you ought to get
a hold of them. Send them a letter. Call them. That's what Brother
Moose wrote an article this week in his bulletin about his daughter
becoming his sister. He prayed for her as a small
child, and one day, the Lord saved his daughter. And that
was his physical daughter, but that relationship's gonna stop.
She won't be his physical daughter for eternity. We won't be made
anew. We'll be made like Christ to
be in him. We're his body, but that will forever be his sister.
She's a child of God, just like him. They have the same father,
don't they? What is the thing Paul wants
for young Timothy? Same for all believers. This
is to Timothy, but this is to us too, isn't it? If we care
enough to hear him, I care. I care for you. I want this for
you. God, make your glory known to
your people. Awaken them. Give them ears to
hear. Verse two, to Timothy, my dearly
beloved son, grace, mercy, peace from God, the Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord. What does he want for Timothy?
How does he greet him? Grace to you. mercy to you, peace
to you. I can't give those things. I
can't give peace. I can't grant mercy. I can't
bestow grace. I can't do that. I'm just a sinner
saved by grace. I'm no different than anybody
else. I've got a different job, a different calling, but I'm
no different than anybody else. God has to do that. He's the
source of those. What do those words mean? I hope our little
people remember these as you grow older. You may forget me,
but remember this. What's grace? It's getting what
you do not deserve. You get something. You don't
deserve that. You didn't earn it. You didn't pay for it. It
wasn't something special about you that makes you any different
than anybody else. We call that unmerited favor, but that's as
it concerns us. That grace, it was merited. It was bought, it was paid for,
and the price was steeped. Christ obtained that for us. But for us, we didn't obtain
anything. We receive it. It's given to
us. Grace, as far as we're concerned,
is getting what you do not deserve. Mercy, that's not getting what
you do deserve. If we're honest, if God makes
us honest before him, A double L, all, all born of Adam deserve
eternal damnation and he's right to do so. When the Lord starts
working in somebody, they'll start taking God's side against
themselves instead of defending themselves and wishing and wanting
and hoping and pretty pleasing. They'll start saying, he's right,
he's right. Mercy, not getting what you do
deserve. And you know, it's a great grace
to be made to know we need mercy. That's a work of God, for us
to cry out to ask him for mercy. He said, I'd like to show mercy. Will a man come ask him? No,
they won't. They'll find a God that they
like, something that suits them of their own making, of their
own mind, and they're taking strong arm or gang up on, that
ain't a God. That's a figment of your imagination.
That's something you can whittle out of wood. This is God. And
if he makes somebody cry at him for mercy, that's because you
say, we need it. I've done something wrong. It ain't just that. Why? Because I am wrong. That's good news. If I could
find sinners, sinners are gonna hear this. If I could get out
on the airways, if I could find them in the streets, if I could find
them in the ballpark, if somebody had offended a holy God that
can't have anything unclean in his presence, and they said,
be merciful. Did Judas cry out that? He said, well, I got caught up
in doing something wrong. What if he had cried out for
mercy? And won't, he can't. If he could,
he wouldn't. God has to do this. This is his
doing. And if the Lord makes us, if he's gracious to us, and
makes us cry out for mercy to him, if he'd be pleased to do
this, be gracious to a sinner, that we're the noun, not a verb,
we're the noun sin, and we cry for mercy, that leads to the
third thing, peace. All of mankind cries, peace,
peace. Well, there is no peace, because they're giving you something
to do. I'm done. You look at that law, surrender. I'm finished. He came to complete
the law and he says, it's finished. And we cry, it will be merciful
to me. And he's gracious and we have peace. See how that works?
I think this will be helpful to you. Turn over Philippians
four, four, or Philippians four. Back a few books there. Philippians
four. Look here in verse three. Philippians
4, verse 3. Paul writes that church of Philippi,
I like this wording, I started a verse early. Philippians 4,
3. And I entreat thee also, true
yoke-fellow. True yoke-fellow. Who's the yoke-fellow? We don't call each other that,
do we? Oh, we have fellowship. Do we have yoke-ship? Yoke-fellow,
take my yoke upon you. You have the same yoke on you,
ain't it? To be even unequally yoked is a bad thing? I entreat
thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored
with me in the gospel. That's a good command. There's
some women that labor in this gospel. Help them. Help them. With Clement also, and with other
my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. These
are children of God. Go help them. Well, what's a good way
to help them? Verse four, rejoice in the Lord
always. Again, I say rejoice. Always,
in all things, give thanks. That ain't easy, but it's good. Rejoice in the Lord. Let your
moderation, let your gentleness be known unto all men. The Lord's
at hand. Don't be carried around with
wild emotions, either sad or happy or too many things. We
have emotions. But Lord, steal us and let us
go through this world knowing you're on your throne. And let
the people around us know that. Amen. Verse six, be careful for
nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. Get you a pencil
out and just start writing down all the good things the Lord's
done for you. That's right, if you're angry,
you young men. If it comes time, you just get
fighting mad. And if you ain't mad enough to
bare a knuckle box, you ain't mad. But if you get mad, you
go get you a punching bag and just punch it till your arms
are tired. And all of a sudden, you ain't as mad as you thought you
were. If you get sad, if you get overwhelmed with this world,
sit down and just start thinking all the good things the Lord
gave you. Pencils, oxygen, paper. salvation,
his son, his blood, redemption, righteousness. You'll wear your
hand out. There ain't enough paper on earth.
It's a good thing. Think on these things. Verse
nine, those things which ye have both learned, you've learned
this, and received, it's in your heart, and heard, And you've
seen. You've seen all those things
in me, Paul said. You've watched me do this, comma,
do them. You've seen this, you've heard
it, you've received it, you've learned it. Now do it. Don't
just talk about it on Sundays and Wednesdays. Do it. Think on the good things. Look
at what the Lord's done. And the God of peace shall be
with you. He has to walk in us for us to
do it, but we ask him, don't we? Do we ask him? That's what
Paul said in a few different places, didn't he? These are
all nice things. People can write them down in their doctrines
or statements of faith. Do them. Do them. Love don't just sit
around and talk about love. Love does something, don't it?
There was a man, that's good instruction, Paul's God's apostle,
and he's telling these people that. There was a man I had in
high school as a teacher, and he was just in great shape, and
his hair was always perfect, and he always showed up on time,
and he always had his work ready. And he said, if you young men,
I went to all boys' high school, he said, if you young men, you
want to be a man, be like me. And I thought, that arrogant,
big-headed. That man cared for us. He was
a man. He said, as far as we're concerned,
he said he was going to do something. He did everything he could to
do it. He was a good example for us. Boston, now you've seen
all this and you've heard all this and times of trial and trouble,
now do it. Do it. Don't just talk about it. Back
in our text there in 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy, look at verse one again.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according
to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy,
my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Lord. And he says, I thank God. Timothy,
I thank God, whom I serve for my forefathers with a pure conscience,
I thank God that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in
my prayers day and night. I thank God I remember you, Timothy.
Verse four, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of
thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. He's happy to be around. You know, that's a product of
being in the family of God. A desire to be with them. Praying for them. remembering
them and thankful to God for making it so. That's what family's
thankful for family, ain't ya? I'm thankful for those that rejoice
with me. When I see these things are beautiful
and I see eyes light up and I see frowns turn upside down, I'm
thankful to God because he did that. I'm thankful. Those that
labor with me, those that pray with me, those that pray for
me, thank you. Thank you. Some of y'all let
me know it. I pray God gave you a message this weekend. Thank
you, I pray so too. Paul told him, said, you pray
for me. Getting hate mail and everything
else, I just assume not over. Old brother Barnard was told
that one time. He got through preaching and a fella said, God,
you preach as a monster. And old brother Barnard said,
get ready to meet a monster. You think it's bad what I'm saying?
You about to meet him in person, in a vapor, the blink of an eye.
And it said, Timothy cried. He said, I was mindful of thy
tears. Paul left Timothy. He went down to Ephesus, and
he trained him up some, and tried to help him get started. And
he said, I got to go. And he went to Rome to write
these letters. He's in prison out there while he's writing
to Timothy. He said, you come see me. Whenever I left, you cried.
It was painful. It was heavy. And it's not that.
Something that's ill, it's just out of love, isn't it? Out of
love, one for another. I'm gonna miss you. Well, there
in verse five, he said, Paul's thinking about that unfeigned
faith in Timothy and his mother and his grandmother. He's just
thinking of that whole family. And that's a blessed family,
isn't it? Three generations of believers. What a blessing, what a blessing. But what does that mean though,
unfeigned? Is that unfeigned faith? It's in you, it's in your
mother and your grandmother, it's the same. That means genuine,
unfeigned faith, sincere. What's that do? Believes God.
That ain't fancy, is it? That's what he says, that's right.
He said so. That's what I was telling some
folks the other day. I said, there's times I get so down and so out and
so full of unbelief. And I think, what if I leave
this world and it's just nothing? I'm gonna be ashamed. I'm gonna
be ashamed, ain't I? The commitment, moving my family
and everything we've started doing or stopped doing or whatever
we could for the furtherance of this gospel, I'm gonna be
embarrassed. And I thought of his word, and he said, those
who believe in me, you ain't gonna be ashamed. They will not
be ashamed. I said, well, that's good enough
for me. I won't be ashamed. Let's get back to it. Let's get
back to work and things we ought to do. It means believe in God. Unfeigned is genuine and sincere
is what it means. It's not full of pomp, and it's
not full of circumstance. It's not full of flowery, fake
language. and churchy sayings, it's true
and it's steady. Unfeigned faith is day or night,
it's right there. I thought of like wedding bells,
just common wedding bells, from this day forward. I may not have
believed you yesterday, Lord, but make me believe today and
from this day forward, from this day forward, for better or worse,
especially for the better. That's so easy to forget, amen.
So the Lord has to send us the worst so he'll wake us up, we'll
remember him during the better. for better or worse, richer or
poorer, in sickness or health, till death till we are reunited.
Different ending, isn't it? Verse six, wherefore I put thee
in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is
in thee by the putting on of my hands. Timothy had that gift
of God in him, and Paul says, I'm gonna put you in remembrance.
He's one of the Lord's remembrancers, remember? He said, I'm gonna
do that to stir up that gift that's in you. Peter talks about
that, putting us in remembrance in another epistle, and stirring
up our pure minds. Jews said this in Jude 1.5, I
will therefore put you in remembrance. Though ye once knew this, how
that the Lord, having saved the people of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that believed not." Lord saved his
people. Remember that? He brought us
out. Now there was plagues and there was death and there was
all kinds of things going on that didn't seem pleasant. He
saved his people. He used all of that. What gift
is to be remembered? What gifts to start up? And I
thought, what's the gifts of the Lord? Gift of life. He's gave
us life. Do we thank Him? Is that interesting
to us? Does it make us rejoice? Romans
6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. Remember that? But the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He came
to this earth, He gave us life. He's everlasting life. We deserve
the wages. That's what you earn, isn't it?
You go to a job and you earn wages. That's your doing. Now
you owe me. I ain't ashamed to go get a paycheck.
I worked for that. What about sin? Well, that's
what we was working for that, wasn't we? We need mercy. And
he was merciful in the gift of God's eternal life, the gift
of faith. We believe him. Ephesians 2 says,
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's what? It's the gift of God. Remember that, Timothy? I remember
that, don't you? He gave us life. He gave us faith
to believe him. Grace is getting what we do not
deserve, that's a gift. Ephesians 3, 7 says, wherefore
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God,
given to me by the effectual working of his power. He's done
those things, he's been gracious to us, let us know his power. Do you know what else is a gift
of God? It's true, he says it, so I shouldn't be ashamed to,
but it's odd for me. Someone telling us about it. Did you know that's God's gift,
his ascension gift to his people? There's a man to come and tell
you. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts unto men. What
gifts did he give, Paul? In Ephesians 4.11, he gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers. That's ascension. The Lord gave
me a couple men throughout my life. I know many of them. He
put me under a faithful pastor that wasn't flowery and wasn't
fancy and didn't get up here and hum and change his voice
to say something. He said, this is what that word
says. And I thank God for him, just as Paul thanked God for
Timothy. He gave me a preacher, a pastor,
knit my heart together with him. And he fed me through him. Now
he's just a man. He's fallible. He made mistakes. And I don't
want to hear that. I want to dwell on those good
things, right? Those virtuous things. He preached
the gospel to me. For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. That's good for me and that's good for all my brethren.
Lord gave that gift, gave us life, gave us faith, gave us
his grace, gave us somebody to tell us about it. Where is that
from? Where are all his gifts from?
James 1 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lots, in whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. What's that mean? Will they go
away? There ain't even a shadow of
it going away. Not even. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He's given us life, given us
faith through his grace, gave us somebody to tell us about
it. He said, I ain't gonna take that away. I don't change. I
ain't like man. I change not. Now with that in
mind, okay? With that in mind, the last just,
you have to catch up. You have to go back and listen
to it when you get home. Verse seven. For God hath not given us a spirit
of fear. You afraid? Do you know what
tomorrow holds? I don't. And if we look ahead,
we get fear. Fearful, don't we? If we look back, we get regretful.
I look at my past, boy, I wish I'd have done a whole lot of
stuff different. I look to tomorrow and I get anxiety. I have fear.
I don't know what's gonna happen. God hath not given us a spirit
of fear, but of power. I'm strong. Yeah, how? Whose
power? His power. He's proved this over
and over to me. And of love, whose love? Because
I love him so much. My love's just wonderful. He
loved us. Because I'm faithful, because
he's faithful. He loved us first. We love him.
Boy, if we could learn about his love towards us, it's jaw-dropping. We'll have eternity to sing his
praises for it. That's what it is. He didn't
give us that spirit of fear. He gave us his spirit of power,
his doing, of love, his love, and of a sound mind. A sound
mind, that's your pure mind, that's your right mind. Looking
to Him, looking to this world, looking to the past, looking
to the future, looking to whatever's going on. That's not a sound
mind, you're crazy. We ain't right, as I said, used
to say, that they ain't right. We ain't right, this is the right
mind, this is the sound mind. That's being of our right minds,
silent, listening at the feet of Christ our Lord. I thought
that man in the tombs, You know how he'd come to Christ? You
know what kind of clothes he had on? None. He was naked. You
can't worship God that way. He did. God made him, didn't
he? He wasn't in his right mind.
He was naked. He's full of many demons. Legion was in him. And
the Lord came and he took all those out of him and put them
in swine and the pigs jumped off a cliff, didn't they? Word
about that traveled. And many came and they come to
see Jesus. And seeing him that was possessed with the devil
and had legions, he was sitting and clothed. Lord didn't leave
him naked, did he? And in his right mind, in his
right mind. Where? Sitting right there, quietly
listening to the Lord speak. That's being of a sound mind.
That's being of a pure mind. And they were afraid. They were
honored. They said, this is a terrible
work. We'll sit next hour. This is a reverend, awe-inspiring
work. Those people may have fun with
that man, I'm sure, that was in the tombs. But he wasn't ashamed. He wasn't ashamed. Look at verse
8. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of these things.
You're going to suffer affliction because you're not. It ain't gonna be a smooth road.
You ain't gonna have nothing but good smelling flowers and
cartwheels the rest of your life. Affliction's gonna come because
of this work. And don't be afraid of his prisoner. Paul said, I'm
the Lord's prisoner. Wasn't he in Romans a prisoner?
He said, this is the Lord's prison. The Lord put me here. He was
in jail. Do you get that? We don't think
these things through sometimes. If our pastor went to jail, should
we stick with him? I don't know, man. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. A good chunk of the New Testament
is wrote by a man in jail. Do you know that? He's on house
arrest. Don't be ashamed of that. Don't
be ashamed of our brethren. But be thou a partaker of the
affliction of the gospel according to the power of God. There will
be afflictions. There will be afflictions. Now
be a partaker. be a partaker. Lord, what that
one fella that was lame, and they said, will you be made whole?
You've got it easy. Everybody's coming to you and
they're bringing stuff. You don't have to go nowhere. You're outside
that gate sitting there begging for homes like another fella,
ain't you? You're getting everything you need right here. You're going
to start walking. You ready? You're going to get
afflicted. You're going to get some bumps and bruises, and your
family's going to hate you, and your loved ones are going to
hate you. You're going to say, I can't say those things. I can't talk
the way you talk. My God's not your God. That's
not who God is. And they'll cut your eyes out
because of that. Will you be made whole? Some
seed lands on a path, and the birds come in and eat it up,
don't they? Some seed lands in the stony places, and it shoots
up, and we all think, whoa, look here, what's growing? And then
trouble or persecution because of the word comes, and it withers
away. Some on thorns. Grows up, but
gets choked out because of this world, doesn't it? Paul says,
be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Is that our doing? Is that I'm a good little boy
and I'm going to be a good servant and that's me doing it? No. According
to the power of God. According to the power of God.
He's going to do it. Now, do we ask him? I want to be a good servant.
I want to be faithful to the end. I want to tell the truth. He has to do that, and I'm gonna
ask Him to. He's been faithful so far, and
I ask Him to continue being faithful with me from here out, don't
you? Verse nine, who hath saved us and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works. I learned this in science
class. Do you know what work is? It's the expenditure of energy
to accomplish a task or to present an outcome. You're doing something
to make something else happen. You get that? There's gonna be
a change. This was here, and for this to do something else
or be something else, energy has to be expelled. That's work. But according to his own purpose
and grace, which is given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. This is just good questions. Men of old have asked, and I
ask in this day, and I hope people keep asking. We read this verse,
2 Timothy 1.9. And somebody says, well, I'm
a Christian or I'm saved or I'm a believer or whatever. Okay.
Well, let's define our terms. Who saved who? God's word says
he saved us. Well, who called who? The Lord
just knocking on your heart and you went to the door and answered,
you called back to him. You're the one that went to look
at it. I started going to every church
there was. I was looking for God. It says he called us. Should we make light of that?
It says unholy calling. Spirit of God did that. Holy
Ghost did that. Drew us to him. And he said,
seek my face. And like David said, I'm gonna
seek your face. Your face shall I seek? Yes,
sir. Yes, sir. Not according to our
works. Who did the work? Who made the
change? Who affected with energy the
outcome? I was dead in trespasses and
sins. Dead people don't do nothing. other than just be a victim of
gravity and rot, that's it. Whose work? Was it all your diligent
studying? No, it was the Lord's, wasn't
it? If you're saved, did God do it on purpose? Did he? It says, but according
to his own purpose and grace. Who was gracious? Did you grace
him with your presence or did he grace you with his? that according
to his own purpose and grace. Where did that covenant of grace
take place? Was it after you repented? Was it whenever you
was baptized? Was it after you started believing that's when
you were saved? Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Long before I would come on the
scene. I was still an enemy with him. I was still in my sin. He shed
his blood, that lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
This is signed, sealed, and delivered. I'm yours. That song takes a
different meaning when you know the Lord, don't it? I'm his.
It's done. He said it's finished. I believe
him. That's a gift, isn't it? What am I going to add to it?
Thank him and just tell people what the good things the Lord's
done for you. He had done for me according to my sins. God's
gracious. He's been merciful. Your life's
in shambles. Well, it feels like it some days,
but He did this on purpose. On purpose for His glory. And
for His, that's what we care about. That's for our good. Verse 10. but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel." He's taught us these things. "'Whereunto I am appointed
a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For
the witch cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I
am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed.'" And I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. Let's pray together. Father, put a new creation in
your people that commits all to Christ, to his person and
his work. Great, great day that he willingly
laid down his life for us. And he bought us and justified
us, redeemed us, set us apart, made us the righteousness of
God in him. Oh, make us thankful. Make us
dwell on these things. When the afflictions come because
of the word, because your gospel and providence comes, that's
your power in your hand. Put us in our right minds at
the feet of Christ, clothed in his righteousness. Thank you
for this hour, Lord. Bless the word as you promised
you will. It's because of our King, our
Lord, we ask these things. Amen. Back at 1030.