Now this epistle is addressed
to Timothy, to my son Timothy. He wrote two letters to Timothy,
but also all the scriptures are written for our learning, for
our admonition, for our instruction. Though he's addressed this to
Timothy, but it's addressed to believers, you know. He wrote
three letters while he was in Rome, in the Roman prison, and
Timothy was down there with him, and Colossians says, me and Timothy,
and Philippians says, me and Timothy. So Timothy went down
to Rome to spend some time with Paul before he was called, and
they took, you know, they crucified, murdered him, you know, cut his
head off. And it was written when Paul
was in prison at Rome, I don't know if you all remember in the
book of Acts, when they just kept charging him and charging
him, he stood his ground, stood his ground, and they wanted to
send him back to Jerusalem, have him stand before all the Jews.
And he knowed if he went down there, they would kill him. So
he said he appealed to Caesar, because he is a Roman citizen. And sure enough, he stood before
Caesar, And Caesar found him guilty of heresy, of being of
a sect called the Nazarenes, and killed him, killed him. He became a martyr for Christ.
And it was just a short time before he died that this epistle
was written. And he joined Paul down there
in Rome. And Paul meant for this letter
to stir Timothy up. to be faithful in the ministry,
be faithful to what God called him to do, to encourage him to
suffer, and suffer patiently, and to warn him against false
teachers. There was already false teachers
among the churches and among the people at that time, already
false teachers. And there'd be a whole lot more
arise afterwards, which we'll find and see later. But here's
the first verse. He said, Paul, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ. You know, this is a special office
that God gave just certain people. You know, when the apostles all
died, there was no more apostles. When our Lord Jesus, in Luke
chapter six, went up into a mountain, he called unto him 12 disciples,
and he called them, called them apostles. That's with a special
calling, special gifts, and special ministries. They could do things
that nobody else could do. And so Paul was an apostle of
Jesus Christ, and it was intended for all believers, not just for
Timothy. Paul, of course, Timothy knew
that Paul was an apostle. So why did he call Paul an apostle? Well, and I'll tell you why he's
an apostle of. He was called of Jesus Christ to be an apostle.
Special calling, special office. And if you hear anybody call
themselves an apostle now, you can mark it down, they're lying.
They are lying. God gave these men special, special
gifts. Peter could walk by and just
walk, his shadow would fall on people and God would heal them
just with his shadow. Paul was bitten by a viper one
time, a deadly viper. You're generally dead within
five or six minutes after it bites you. Deadly viper. He was putting some wood on the
fire and the viper come out and bit him. And everybody's standing
around, whoa, whoa, this man's gonna die. He's got by with murder,
he's got by with some awful sin or crime, and now God's gonna
get him anyway. He just shook it off. Just shook
it off, and they watched and watched him. Oh my, what's going
on? And then this man was laying on his deathbed. Deathbed. And Paul laid hands on him and
raised him up. So these men had gifts that nobody's
had since and nobody had before. These are special things that
God done for his people. And now I'll tell you what, all
these faith healers and stuff now, if they're gonna be faith
healers, the first place they ought to start is a hospital.
That's the first place they ought to go. That's where sick people
are. That's where people need help.
And if these fellas really had the ability to make people well,
and make people feel better, and heal people, they ought to
start in hospitals, and especially start in children's wards. Start
in babies' wards, start with children. But I tell you what,
that just goes to show you how despicable them fellas are. You know, I tell you what, you
bring in the money, and we'll get in line, I'll fix you up.
But oh my. Paul knew, Timothy knew Paul
was an apostle, but for the sake of others who would read this
epistle, that's why he lays claim to an office that is a special,
special office. And then look what he says, by
the will of God. You know, this is one thing that
not only is he an apostle by the will of God, but we're children
of God by the will of God. We're saved and regenerated by
the will of God. It was the will of God that gave
Christ. It was the will of God that sent
the gospel. It was the will of God that was
carried out today in this world. And so Paul said an apostle by
the will of God. Who else was it gonna be an apostle
by? He said by the will of God. And
so here he is, he says, he said, it wasn't man that called me.
I certified that the gospel I was taught was taught by Jesus Christ. It wasn't by his own will. He
had no personal merit that made him have this office. But God
separated him from his mother's womb and called him by his grace
and made him an apostle. He said, I've chosen you to do
certain things. You're going to stand before
kings. You're going to stand before men. You're going to preach
the gospel. I've chosen you for this. I've
chosen you for this. And that's exactly what, and
then he says, listen to this. Judd and I spent a little time
today, and we looked this little word up, this word according
to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. Read some
things by Robert Hawker, and this is what he said. According
to the promise of life. He said, life is a promise. Eternal life is a promise. You
know when God made the first promise? When he cursed the serpent. He said, I'm going to put enmity
between thee and the woman's seed. And you're going to bruise
his heel, but he's going to crush your head. And that was the first
promise. That was the first promise of
life by someone else. And I tell you what, God, He
says, by the promise of Jesus Christ. And here's the thing
about it. Eternal life is a gift. And it
comes by the Lord Jesus Christ. And secondly, not only is it
a promise, it's something that you can't earn. You can't get
it by work. You can't get it by law. It's
by grace. It's a gift of grace. It's a
gift that God gives us by his blessed grace. We could not give
ourselves life. And God promised life, and that's
what's so wonderful about the gospel. We can tell anybody under
any circumstance at any time, God promised life in his blessed
Son. If you have his Son, then you'll
have life. He that hath the Son hath eternal
life. He that hath not the Son of God
don't have life. That's what he said. Don't have
it. Don't have it. Oh, not law, not
works. And then look what he said in
verse two. To Timothy, look what he calls
him, my dearly beloved son. Over in the first chapter of
chapter one, first letter, he says, to my own son in the faith. Here he calls him his dearly,
dearly beloved son. Now he wasn't Paul's son by nature. He was Paul's son because Paul
begot him by the gospel. Paul loved him just like he loved,
there was his son to him. He began him by the gospel. He
grew up with Paul. He grew as a young man and he
grew up under Paul's ministry. Paul was his teacher of him.
Paul taught him the gospel. Paul taught him the doctrine
of God. And so here he was, and I'll tell you, he had so much
affection for Timothy and Timothy had such great affection for
him. And then he says, to my dearly beloved son." You know,
here's the thing about it. When God, through the scriptures,
God's children is often called that. Paul told the Galatians,
he says, my little children, I travail in birth. So he called
them in, and John, how many times did John's gospel over in 1 John
say this? My little children, my little
children. And that's why they call them
children. And so many different places it calls them that. But
here he calls him as my dearly beloved son. I love you. Calls him a beloved son. Look
what he wants God to do for him. And this is what we ought to
pray. If you don't have anything else to pray for and you pray
for somebody and say, God, give them grace. Oh, give Timothy
grace. Give him mercy. Oh Lord, give
my dearly beloved son mercy. And give him peace. Give him
peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of conscience. Please give
him peace. And I tell you what, the only
place you can get it is from God the Father and from His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a blessed thing to pray
for people, ain't it? Next time you pray, if you think
of somebody, say that, Lord, give them grace. Give them grace,
mercy, and peace. And oh my, that's a wonderful
threefold prayer. We could pray for one another
every time we pray. And then look what he says in
verse three. I thank God, I thank God. And that's what I try to
do every time I approach the Lord. I try to come with a thankful
heart, a thankful heart, and I know you do too. I thank God
that we are so much to be thankful for. Oh my, thankful for life,
thankful for what God's done for us, what God does for us,
and what God's gonna do for us. I thank God, and look what he
says here, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience,
with a pure conscience. When he says, I worship the God
and I serve the God of my forefathers. Who in the world is he talking
about? He's talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's talking
about his forefathers. He's talking about the men that
God chose, men that God taught the gospel, men that believed
God and were saved according to God's promise and God's power
in Christ. And he says, oh, I served God
and I worshiped God in the spirit of my forefathers. And they did
it with a clear conscience, that's what he says, with a pure conscience. A pure conscience. Now I'll tell
you something that Paul did not claim. I'll tell you something
that the apostle didn't claim and nobody else claimed this.
He wasn't claiming to be without sin. He wasn't claiming to be
with a conscience that was always pure. He mentioned one time,
my conscience is void of offense, void of offense. But he wasn't
claiming to be without sin or having a conscience, a pure conscience.
But this is where he got his clear conscience at, and where
he get a pure conscience at, the same way you and I do, by
the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, and by the blood
of Christ who purged us from our sins. And that's the only
place you can get a pure conscience, is knowing that Christ's blood
sprinkled your conscience from dead works, and the blood of
Christ, he said, he by himself purged our sins. Now, I'll tell
you what, when you know your sins are gone, there's no condemnation
in Christ, then your conscience will not bother you. It's got
nothing to bother you about. Your sins are gone. If you ain't got no sin, you
know your conscience, you'll have a pure conscience. And oh
my. But he knew he was without sin
because of the blood of Christ and sprinkling and purging of
the blood of Christ, that he was without sin before God Almighty. And I tell you what, and because
of that, he loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He sought only the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he preached the truth, he
preached the gospel, he preached in sincerity and honesty. And
he'd done it for the eternal good of those who listened to
him. He wasn't in, he said, I've covered in no man's silver, no
man's gold, or no man's apparel. He said, I never did ask for
anything from anybody. And so when he comes down to
face God, he said, I'm clear of the conscience of men, and
I'm clear of my conscience before God. And oh my, then he, look
what he says there. And then the last part of verse
three, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in
my prayers day and night. When I pray during the day and
when I pray at night, I always mention you, I always remember
you, I always remember you. And I'm ever mindful of you,
that's what he's telling Timothy. And here's the thing, you know,
when God lays somebody on your heart, like he did Paul with
Timothy here, you're talking about a blessing. You're talking
about an encouragement. And a good, good indication that
God's in you is when you have a burden for somebody, or you
thank somebody, and then when you remember them, you always
remember them before the throne of grace. When you go over them,
you say, Lord, them's your children, and you bring them before the
throne of grace. And without ceasing, without ceasing, he
said, every time I go to pray, I remember you, Timothy. I remember
you. Who do you remember Him to? God.
The love of Christ and the ministry that God gave Him. He said, oh
my, and you're talking about a blessing. And I tell you what,
to pray for one another is a mark of grace in a soul's heart. And
I, you know, I don't pray near, near, near like I should. Oh
my, my prayer life is awful. But when Paul thought of Timothy,
he gave thanks for him and prayed for him. And you know that's
a mark, oh my goodness, that's a mark of having a wonderful
relationship with somebody. You know, this is what, I want
you to look with me over here in 1 Thessalonians. Go right
back to your left, right before Timothy, 1 Thessalonians 5. I
want you to look at this with me. You know, in everything give
thanks. Look what he said here in verse 17, 1 Thessalonians
5, 17. Pray without ceasing. Now how
do you pray without ceasing? That means that you have a desire
to always, always have access to the Lord. Because there's
none of us could pray without ceasing. So this also means this,
don't never stop praying. There's people you know that
give up on praying. They say, well, God ain't answering
my prayers. God ain't doing this, God ain't doing that. So when
he says, pray without ceasing, do not, do not quit praying. You know, and that means don't
never stop praying. And there's people that do that.
They feel, what's the use? What's the use? Well, don't never
be that way. You pray, and you always pray. And that's what he's telling
us. And in everything, when you pray, in everything, everything,
sickness, health, wealth, poverty, old age, young age, new birth,
old folks going home to be with Christ. For everything gives
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. That's God's will for us. There again, there's the will
of God. And oh, let's look what he says
down here now in verse four. He said, you know great design
to see thee being mindful of thy tears that I may be filled
with joy When Paul left Timothy and left Ephesus, I don't know
if you all remember that not in Acts chapter 20 Where Paul
said I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God
and he said he was going up to Jerusalem gonna go up there for
the Passover and And for the feast, and anyway, he got ready
to go and when he was leaving, they tried to get him not to
go, but everybody fell down on their knees and all the people
gathered around him and they all began to weep. They were
all sad, and they all began to cry, because Paul, they said,
you'll never see my face again. And so they all cried, and Timothy
cried, and all the people in Ephesus just wept over Paul. And they said, why do you make
me sad, weeping like this, is what he said. So he left Timothy
in Ephesus to continue the work that he had started down there.
And there was great sadness and many, many tears, but now Timothy,
Timothy, look what he says, I greatly desire to see you. And he left
him at Ephesus for the purpose of fulfilling, you know, carrying
on the ministry that Paul started. But Paul said, I want to see
you. Paul was in Rome. Paul was in prison. Paul was
in jail. And I tell you, it took him almost
two years to get from West where they took him up there. And he
was on a whole army of soldiers and men carried him up there,
watched him, and like he was going to be the awfulest fellow
there ever was. But he said, Timothy, I want to see you. Come
up to Rome. Please, come up to Rome. He said,
I need you there. And he said, and when I see you,
he said, look what he said, when I see you, I remember your tears,
I remember you weeping over me, I remember your sadness, but
I desire to see you that when I do look at you and I see you,
my heart's gonna be full of joy. Gonna be full of joy. That's
what's gonna happen. Oh my, can you imagine when Paul's
sitting there and Timothy goes up to Rome and Paul's sitting
there and he's in his A place where they got him confined and
they said, somebody here to see you, who is it? They opened the
door and there's Timothy. Oh, you can just imagine how
joyful he would have got. He would have got so happy. Oh,
there's my son Timothy, he's come to see me. He's come to
visit me. And oh my, then look what he
says. I desire to see you, I'm mindful
of your tears that I may be filled with joy. And then he says, when
I call to remembrance, he said, you know, he said, Paul, he's
using his memory here a lot. When I remember things, and that's
what he's talking about, he said, I remember some things. He said,
when I call to remembrance, the unfeigned faith that is in you,
when I remember the faith that God gave you, The faith, and
when he's talking about the faith here, we call ourselves grace
believers. We call ourselves believers of
sovereign grace, free grace. And people call it Calvinism,
call it whatever they want to, but this is the thing, that our
faith, what we call our faith is called sovereign grace. We
believe in God Almighty who is sovereign. We believe in unconditional
election. We believe that man is dead in
trespasses and sins and God's the only one that can give him
life. and that God effectually calls his people. After Christ
died for them, Christ had to redeem them, and when Christ
redeemed them, the Holy Spirit comes and brings the gospel to
them, effectually calls them, and when he calls them, he's
gonna see that they've got, from the day they're saved to the
day they're in the glory, God's the one responsible for them,
and that's what we call the faith. And Paul says that faith that's
in you, he's not talking about the faith that just believes.
He's talking about the faith of the doctrines of the gospel.
He's talking about what he actually believed about God, about Christ,
about salvation and sin. So he said all that faith in
you that was, and that word unfeigned means without hypocrisy. No falseness
about it. No insincerity about it. And then look what he goes on
to say. These folks, this is such a blessing that was dwelt
first in my grandmother Lois. Your grandmother's the first
believer in the whole family. Your grandmother. Anna, you're
a grandmother. Then your kids. And your grandkids,
and that's what he said here, dwelt in your grandmother Lois
first. And like you, Joyce, grandmother
dwelt in you first, and here's what goes on. And then it got
in your mother, Lois. Your mother, Timothy, your mother,
your grandmother's first believer, then your mother's a believer,
and then you got it. They taught you the gospel, they
believed you, they prayed for you, and they witnessed to you.
And I'll tell you, he started out with granny, started out
with his mama, then to him. Only God can do something like
that. Huh? Only God can do something
like that. He said, when I remember these
things, when I remember them, ah, what a blessing it is to
me that you believe, that you believe, your grandmother believed,
and your mother believed. They were believers. They were
believers. And I tell you what, you're talking
about a family that God so blessed here, gave them special, special
grace and blessed grace and oh, how thanksgiving that he was
for these people here. And I tell you what, Paul uses
this as an encouragement, stir up Timothy to the exercise and
grace that God gave him. And this is the same thing, you
know, when he said, here's what David, This is where he was when
he called a remembrance here. But David sat down before the
Lord, and the first thing out of his mouth was said, Who am
I, O Lord? Who am I, O Lord? And what is
my house that you've brought me to hitherto? And that's no
doubt how his grandmother, Laura, said, Who am I? And no wonder his mother Eunice
Potter said, who am I, Lord, that you'd do this for? And then
when they sang Timothy, said, Lord, who am I that you'd do
this for? Three generations, three generations. Oh, well, then look in verse
six. And here again, you know, here's
a remembrance, remembrance, remembrance. Wherefore, I want to remind you
of this. I want you to remember this,
Timothy. That God gave you a gift. I laid my hands on you and God
gave you a gift. Gave you a powerful gift. A gift of preaching the gospel.
The gift of understanding the scriptures. The gift of faith.
The gift of life. God gave you all these wonderful
gifts and put you in the ministry. And I want to remind you that
you stir up that gift that's in you. Stir it up. Don't just be indolent. Don't be careless and don't be listless. Stir up that gift that's
in you. Stir it up. Stir it up. And I tell you, God, you know,
when he laid hands on him, Paul says, you got to stir up that
gift. by the putting on of my hands. You know, this is a, if
a person's got a gift, whether to teach or to preach or to pray
or to give or do anything else among the saints, that's a gift
and you got to use that gift and exercise that gift. You know,
you'll talk yourself out of it if you ain't careful. And that's
why Paul says, I want you to remember that gift that you've
got. And don't just sit around twiddling
your thumbs. You got a work to do. Get up
and get at it. That's what he's talking about. And I tell you
what, he was abundantly blessed. And I know the scripture says,
to whom much given, much is required. And this verse of scripture right
here, that verse seven, back when I used to, when I first
come to Tennessee, I was still a very, very sick man. I was
so sick for so many years. and torment. My mind was tormented,
my soul was tormented. I was in bad shape for a long
time. Last time I was in the hospital,
I was in there for almost six months. Dreaded the night to
come, and then when I got in the night, I dreaded the day
to come. I was there for, oh it was just awful shape. When
I got down here, I wasn't much better. But this verse of scripture
right here, It helped me no matter what I was going through, and
when I'd have this agonizing fear, tormenting fear, and didn't
know whether I was up or down, but I was reading the Bible all
the time, and it said this verse of scripture right here helped
me so much, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear.
I'd read that, and I'd say, this spirit of fear, God didn't give
it to me. It has to be mine. It has to belong to me. It has
to be something short about me. See, but then you know as you
grow in grace and as you learn, God has not given us the spirit
of fear. And this word fear means cowardliness,
being timid. And he said, oh my, he said,
God not given us the spirit of fear. No, no, no, no. We're not going to work and do
what we do out of fear. No, no, we don't fear men. What
in the world are men going to do to us? Huh? We don't fear persecution. Our
Lord said, blessed is he who is persecuted for Christ's sake.
We don't fear failure because you can't fail when you're preaching
the gospel. You cannot fail when you're preaching
the gospel. You can't fail when you're dealing
with the scriptures. It's an impossibility to fail.
Now, some of you say, well, how can that be? Now, I can fail,
but the gospel don't fail and the word of God don't fail. And
if I stay true to that, I'm not a failure. The gospel's not a failure. It's
been a blessing to you right here tonight. It's an encouragement
to you and an uplifting to you. It's light to your eyes. It's
wealth to your heart. It's food for your soul. And
that's why I tell you what, we don't fear failure. We don't
fear devils. Christ undefeated him. But God
has given his preachers and his people not the spirit of fear,
but of power. Power. Where do you get this
power at? From God? From the Holy Spirit? Huh? The power of the Spirit. And I tell you, He gives us the
power of the Holy Spirit to do God's work, whatever it may be.
Zechariah said this, he said, it's not by power, not by might,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. By my Spirit, saith the Lord.
You know, and then it says He gave him the Spirit of power.
Power to stand. Power to be true. Power to believe
God. Power to come, no matter what's
going on, to believe the gospel. And power to pray for one another. Power. And then look what else
he said. And of love. Oh my. He'd given them spirit
of love. Oh my, what a gift, giving us
the spirit of love. You know who he gave us first
a spirit for? Spirit of love for God Almighty,
God himself. We have a great love for the
Lord Jesus Christ. We got a great love for his church. We have a spirit of love for
his church. We have a spirit of love for all men because when
we get an opportunity to preach to them, we want to preach the
gospel and the grace of God. And I tell you, people who've
got this spirit of love and this spirit of power and don't have
the spirit of fear, I tell you something about them, they don't
seek their own. They don't seek their own, no, no. They don't
seek their own welfare, their ease, but they'd rather, they
want more than anything else to bring glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ. and be an encouragement to those
that you preach to and those that you come in contact with.
And then it says, he gave us a sound mind. What's a sound
mind mean? Now boy, that's something that
I really wanted for a long time, and I'm still not certain I got
it. Still, you know. But anyway,
he'd given us a sound mind. That word sound mind, the same
thing as self-discipline or self-control. That's the same thing. A sound
mind. A mind that understands, that
clearly understands that you got to keep that you can't just
give in to your flesh. You know, you got a sound mind.
And that means self-discipline, self-control. And when you got
self-discipline, got this sound mind, and you got a sound mind
concerning the gospel and the things of Christ, you know what
it'll do? It'll make you very, very cautious,
and in your conduct and in your behavior,
under all circumstances. And I tell you what, when people
are of a sound mind and their convictions are according to
the scriptures and they got principles according to the Bible, you know
what they'll do? They'll stand fast in the gospel. They'll stand fast in Christ. They'll do it. They'll do it. Lord, our Lord and our God, in
the blessed, blessed, blessed name of your Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, the one we sing about tonight,
the lover of our souls. Father, we thank you that you
let us meet here tonight. Thank you for the liberty. Thank
you for the blessing of your word. It blesses my heart and
encourages me. And I thank you for the freedom
of thought, Thank you for these dear saints who've come out here
tonight. God bless them. Lord, strengthen them in their
bodies. And Lord, those who are not with us, again, we pray for
them. Bring glory to yourself through all of us for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen.