1 Timothy chapter 6. Begin reading in verse 12. It says, fight the good fight
of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight
of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show. who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality,
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no
man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. Charge them that are rich
in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things
to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in
store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that
they may lay hold on eternal life. O Timothy, keep that which
is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and
oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing
have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. Now he gives Timothy quite a
charge. telling him to fight the good
fight of faith, laying hold on eternal life, whereunto thou
art also called. Now, that's a glorious privilege,
to be called of God. And a lot of times, that truth
is minimized, or I could say watered down, in the thoughts
and minds of people as they consider that the gospel calls all men. Now there is a sense in which
we can definitely say that there is a gospel call that goes out. the gospel to be preached to
all men. We don't go into the world and
try to find out who the elect are and then go to them with
the gospel. But we call men to hear. We press upon men to hear. Oh, why will you die, O house
of Israel? But there is a calling which
is an effectual call. That is it accomplishes what
it set out to do. Now I've often illustrated this
as when I was a young lad and I would hear my mother call me
and I didn't pay much attention to it. And she might call me again and
I didn't pay much attention to it. But when she said, Michael
Anthony McInnis, come here. That was an effectual call. I
knew that I had used up all my, you know, excuses or whatever
and it was time to go. And that is the call that Paul's
speaking to Timothy about here. Now, Paul knew about that call to
some extent, that general call. As the Lord said to him, I believe
the Lord had dealt with Saul of Tarsus before he called him
on the road to Damascus. Because he said, Saul, isn't
it hard for you to kick against the pricks? And of course I understand,
I don't know this for a fact, but I understand that the prick
that is speaking about there is a goad that they used when
they would be using oxen in the field to keep them going. They would have a sharp stick
and they would poke them in the back of the leg and that would
make the ox or the mule or whatever go along. Kind of like we would
use a hot shot on hogs to make them move where we want them
to go. And so evidently the Lord had pricked Saul. at some point in time, maybe
on a constant basis. I don't know. I mean, the life
of the Apostle Paul is somewhat of a mystery before we see him
here on the road to Damascus. And we don't know, really. I've read some things and different
opinions that people have that it's even possible that as a
very young man that he was had seen some of the things that
the Lord Jesus had done in his life, because he was a young
man sitting under the feet of Gamaliel. And certainly as his
age would indicate, being an adult man at this time, he was
probably about the same age as Peter and the rest of the disciples.
So he evidently or possibly had some, his paths had sometimes
crossed with the Lord Jesus Christ, but that's all speculation. It
does not really matter, but I just use it to illustrate the fact
that there's a calling that the Lord does unto men that's not
at that point in time an effectual call. It is unto an effectual
call. But there is a calling that comes
from the Lord that just cannot be refused. It doesn't make any
difference which way a man may turn or what he might do or what
he might think. When that call from Almighty
God comes to a man, he will come. That's what the Lord said, did
he not? He said, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they
follow me. The Lord calls His sheep by name,
and they follow Him. And that's what He says to Timothy
here, whereunto thou art called. This is what the Lord called
you to do. He didn't call you to go and do what you wanted
to do. As a carnal man, He called you
to lay hold on eternal life. Now, did Timothy have the ability
to do that? Of course not. He didn't have
the ability to lay hold on eternal life, but the Lord called him
to it, and the Lord made the way that he might do so, did
he not? I mean, just like those on the
day of Pentecost, 3,000 souls were added to the church. Those,
they were called, and the Lord made the way for them. He gave
them faith to believe. He gave them the light. of the
gospel through the lips of Peter. And they believed. And so it
is. Lay hold on eternal life. And
we exhort God's people, lay hold on eternal life. Because we desire
to lay hold on eternal life, do we not? We're not trying to
tell God's people to do something they don't want to do. I mean,
we want to lay hold on eternal life. Paul said, oh, that I might
know him and the power of his resurrection. We want him. And
so that is that work of that calling. And he says, not only
have you been called, but he said, you have professed a good
profession before many witnesses. You've made this thing open.
See, that's what, in one sense, that's what the testimony of
baptism is. It is a witness of a good confession. I mean a man makes profession
of his faith with his mouth and it's seen by that thing that
he sets forth. And he walks in obedience to
the Lord as the Lord calls him. You have professed a good profession
before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight
of God who quickeneth all things. God gives life to all things
that have life. Now some men would think that
God gives life to all men, and He does give natural life to
all things that have natural life. But He gives spiritual
life to those whom He's pleased to call. And so it is that he
quickeneth all things. There's nothing quickened apart
from God. There's no man that has natural
life without the life-giving power of God, and there's no
man that has spiritual life apart from that same power to grant
unto them that life that they might live. Because death is
a sentence that's passed on all men. And all men are dead in
trespasses and sins. They're not just dying in the
flesh, but they're dead in trespasses and sins. Except the Lord should
quicken them and bring them to life. As he said to Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And so it is. Thou art called unto eternal
life. And you've witnessed a good confession. even as the one who
quickneth all things, the Lord Jesus Christ, who stood before
Pontius Pilate and witnessed a good confession. Now what did he witness a good
confession? He witnessed a good confession
as to who he was. Pilate said, well, they say you're
a king. And he said, you say I'm a king.
He said, this is what I am. He says, I'm one who has come
to tell you of God. He says, I am. I am that one
sent from God. Pilate said, well, don't you
know that I have power to put you to death? He said, you don't
have any power at all, except that we're given. He says, I
have power. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine a Jewish man
standing before the most powerful man on earth, as far as he was
concerned at that time, I mean, as far as the power of earthly
governments go, and telling him face to face, he says, you don't
have any power at all. He says, I have the power. He says, I have the power to
lay down my life and to take it up again. Now that's a glorious
thing. You know, Isaac Watts in his
hymn, he said, I'm trying to think of the whole verse. Anyway,
the phrase in the hymn says, when God, the mighty maker, died
for man and the creature's sin, That's a puzzling thing, is it
not? I mean, how can God die? It's not reasonable to men to
think such a thing is, but yet we know that it's true, do we
not? The mighty maker, the God of heaven and earth, did indeed
die, but he did also live. And you know, these things, men
try to explain them. It's like they often try to explain
the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
How do you explain that? It can't be explained by men
because it's not meant to be explained. It's not meant to
be understood. He's meant to be worshiped. I mean, that's what he said.
We see those things revealed in the scripture, but we don't
understand how that can be. I've read all the books. I know
what people say about it. I know the reasons they give
and all these things, and it's supposed to sound so true until
you really get to thinking and you realize, well, I don't know
anything about that. I thought I did. And some people's
willing to put other people to death. Because he might have
a different view of that than they do. But suffice it to say
that God is God. And he will be worshiped. And
he mentioned, he proved that before Pontius Pilate as he witnessed
a good confession. Now what is our confession unto
men? That there is a God in heaven. And he rules in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and there's none
that can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And
he is that one who has sent his son into the world to die for
sinners. And everyone for whom he died
shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. We confess
that we're sinners. That's our confession, is it
not? I mean, what else do we have to confess, even as John Newton was asked on his
dying bed, what are the things that you remember that give you
hope in this time? He says, I can't remember but
two things. He said, what a great sinner
I am, but what a great Savior Christ is. Brother, that's all
that you need to know. I mean, you don't need to know
anything else. If you know that, then you're a blessed person.
I mean, if you really know that. Because that's the essence of
the truth of God as he delivers it to men. That we might witness
before men those facts that men cannot save themselves. That
they have no ability or power to do anything to deliver themselves
out of the sin and death that they're in. but oh, what a mighty
savior he is that saves to the uttermost all that call upon
his name. What a glorious one he is. And
brethren, you know, that's to witness a good confession. But
for men, and we will, as Joshua told the people there, he says,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That's a good
confession. We're going to do it. Now we
know we don't have the power to do it, but with all that's
within us at the moment in time, when we mouth those words, we
mean that. He meant that. Did his house follow the Lord?
No. There were some among some of
those that Brother Al was telling us about there in the book of
Judges, no doubt. Some of his offspring. But you
see, he witnessed a good confession. that thou keep this commandment
without spot, unrebukable, blameless that is, and without
spot, that you don't go and mix the gospel with something else.
This is one of the travesties of our day is that men who claim
to preach the gospel don't do it without spot. Because they
got other stuff that they got to add in there. I mean, you
know, they got a, most of them's beggars. Begging for money to
help them do what they're gonna do. Brethren, God doesn't need
the money of men. He blesses men to be able to
do things with their money unto the glory of God, but the Lord
doesn't stand ready, standing up here in heaven wondering if
you're gonna send them some money so that somebody can go and preach
the gospel. He'll send whom He will, and
He'll provide for them as He sees fit. He doesn't need anything. Oh, what a glorious God He is. So we don't preach the gospel
with other things added to it. There's nothing, the gospel is
the gospel. It's good news to sinners. It's
good news to those that know themselves deep in debt. Without
spot, unrebukable. Nothing you can say. You know,
as Paul, as he stood before the Corinthians, he said, you know,
he says, I determined to provide for myself and not to be, you
know, come to you asking you for something. He told the Ephesian
elders. He said, I've given you an example
by my own hand. He says, I want it to be without
spot, unrebukable, blameless. I mean, oh, that we might live
our lives in such fashion, even as he's pressing this upon Timothy, to
be in an unrebukable way. That men can't say behind our
backs, well, he didn't really believe what he said. Yes, we
believe what we said, and we'll stand on it. By the grace of
God, that they'll keep this commandment. What commandment? All the commandments.
What is it? I mean, if you went through the
scripture and you found a commandment in there, which one can you disregard? I mean, what can you say? Oh,
well, that don't apply to us. We don't have, we don't need
to do what God said. No, whatever God said to do,
do it with all your might. that now keep this commandment
without spot on her pupil until the appearing of our lord jesus
christ say this is a temporary situation this world is not our home we're
passing through if we're we're in a temporary body and older you get the more you
realize how temporary it is i mean You think about the men in the
Bible that lived, Methuselah lived 900 years. Can you imagine? Can I imagine if I'm in the shape
I'm in at 71 years old, what am I gonna, if I'm gonna age
continually as I have in the last 70 years, what would I be
in 900 years? Oh, this is temporary, and thankfully
it is. Because you know, 900 years is
a long time, isn't it? But you know what? He died. It doesn't matter if you live
900 years. It's still temporary. But, it's until the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now he said something to his
disciples. He said, if I go, I will come again. Now I don't know all of the prophecies
that some people tell us are not fulfilled. My consideration
is that the prophecies that are spoken of in the scripture have
all been fulfilled in Christ. Now there may be some things
yet to occur in the earth that may have been spoken of in some
way in the scriptures. I don't know. I'll leave that
to men smarter than me. I don't know. The Lord hasn't
shown me that. But I know this. The Lord has shown me that Jesus
Christ will come again to the earth in the same body in which
he left it. Now I know that to be true. He
said it, and he said these words, and this wraps it up. If you
don't believe it, this wraps it up. Because if you don't believe
this, then you don't believe anything he said. He said, if
it were not so, I would have told you. Now either he's a deceiver,
or he's coming again. I don't believe he's a deceiver.
I believe he's the way, the truth, and the life, that no man comes
to the Father by him, and he is coming again. And the scripture
says he's coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that
know not God. Oh, I don't know what that time
will be like. I don't have any understanding
of it. It causes me to tremble every
time I read that. But I know that it's so. But
it is until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
in his times. Now who, you don't have any time. You
ever thought about that? That you don't have a time, you
don't have a minute. Not a minute do you own, not
a minute do you control. in this world. It's His time.
And in His times, see we often say, and the saints cry out,
and the scripture says, you know, they say, oh Lord, how long?
Because it does seem that things drag on at a slow pace, just
like a young child thinks of the things of his life. You know,
he has a birthday, and he's waiting for the next one, and it just
don't seem like it's ever gonna come. He's longing for it. Well, in that same way, God's
people long for the coming of the Lord, to have in all ages. I mean, Abraham didn't, the scripture
says, I mean, of all the Old Testament saints, said these
didn't receive the promise. But they confessed that they
were strangers, sojourners in the earth, and that they looked
for a city, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
And you see, that's what we're looking. We're looking unto Him
who shall come again, which in His times, when it pleases Him. I don't know when it's gonna
be. Now, you listen to somebody's
radio and TV preachers, they can tell you when it's gonna
be. I can't. Well, I can. I can tell you when it's gonna
be. It's gonna be in His time. Now, when that is, I don't know. But in His times, He will show,
that is, He'll demonstrate it. He'll manifest it. Who is the
blessed and only potentate. Now, there's a lot of kings in
the earth, is there not? I mean, have been for years.
And every one of them that gets in a place of power thinks he's
it. I mean, even these little podunk
kings over in these small countries and stuff. Think of old, what's
his name over there in North Korea. I mean, he thinks he's
it, doesn't he? I mean, he thinks the world's
revolving around what he's saying and doing. He's important. He's like Nebuchadnezzar. I mean,
he thought he was, and Nebuchadnezzar would have swallowed him up in
a heartbeat. I mean, he wouldn't be anything
standing before Nebuchadnezzar. with the power Nebuchadnezzar
had, but he was nothing, and the Lord showed him that he had
no power. He brought him down, and in his
own times, he says, he will show who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords. Now, you know, there's
a word there, the blessed and only potentate. Now, I would
venture to say that most people believe in God as far as believing
there is a God. I mean, there's a few people
that claim they don't, but I don't honestly believe they do. According
to the scripture, it's been shown to them that there is in all
the things that he's done. So they can't really deny it,
but they might be some. But most people would confess
that there is a God. But it's only by the grace of
God that a man is brought to the place where he associates
this word with God, the blessed and only potentate. See, we're
glad that he's God. We rejoice that he's God. He
is the blessed God. Just like this is the gospel
of the glory of the blessed God. You see, a man can see everything
about God by nature, except one thing, he cannot see the glory
of God. Because the glory of God is revealed
in the face of who? Jesus Christ, as the Lord of
lords, King of kings, the blessed and only potentate. And that's
been made known unto his people, but in his times he will show
all men that he is indeed that one who's to be worshiped. And
at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess. All the world shall give glory
unto him. He's the blessed and only potentate. He is the only king, the king
of kings and the Lord of lords. Who only, now listen to this
word. This can be controversial, but I don't think it's controversial
because I think that I've never seen any evidence otherwise. Says who only, now we know what
the word only means. It means there's not anybody
else. Who only hath immortality? Now I know that it is a common
thought, and I don't want to get off into philosophy and all
these things, and I know some of these things can cause people
consternation, but I'm just saying, when I read the scripture, and
it says, who only hath immortality, that leads me to the understanding
that nobody else has immortality. Now you can call it whatever
you will or whatever, but he's eternal. He said he inhabited
eternity. That's the thing as he goes on
to say here that separates between God and men is the eternal nature
of God. You're not eternal. You had a
beginning. And except by the grace of God,
you'll have an end. Who only hath immortality? I
know that it is a popular thing, and it is even entertained by
many who believe the Bible, and I'm not trying to be controversial
about it, who say that men are immortal, and they're gonna live
on somewhere. Well, I don't know that I find
that in the scripture. Again, the Lord made man a living
soul. But the Lord also told Adam,
in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And he
did not die. His body did not die. But he
died, according to what Scripture says. So, you know, I don't know. And all I'm saying is this. That
men are finite creatures. They're made from the dust of
the ground, and to the dust they shall return. Apart from the
grace of God, they'll stay in the dirt. Now, I've said enough about that,
and I don't want to stir up too much trouble. But anyway, because
this is not about men, because it's speaking about God. And
it don't matter what you believe about men, whether you think
they got an immortal soul or whatever you think about them,
that really is immaterial, because this is the one thing that we
know for an absolute fact that is true. that he has immortality. And he dwells in the light to
which no man can approach. Now most men think they can just
talk to God anytime they get ready. They think they can just
know God. Everybody thinks something about
God, don't they? I mean, most people I said that
believed in God, they believe something about him. I mean,
they think they can know him. They think they can lay down
at night and talk to him. Scripture doesn't indicate that
to be true. To whom no man can approach.
You can't approach unto God. How are you going to come into
His presence? You can't without a mediator. You can't without an advocate.
You can't because He's unapproachable. He dwells in light to which no
man can approach. Whom no man hath seen. Now that's
a mysterious thing, is it not? No man has seen God in any time,
that's what the scripture says. And yet, and yet, Jesus Christ has come and dwelt
among men and we have seen him. And he said to Philip, he said,
Philip, if I've been so long with you and you haven't known
who I am, he said, he that hath seen me, has seen the Father. Because He's the image of the
invisible God. He's the image of the invisible
God. Now, you know, if you may have a real good, you know, way
to explain that, I don't. He's an invisible God and yet
He has appeared unto men as He saw fit in His own times. But no man can approach Him.
It's not up to men. It's not in their power. They
can't see Him. Never have seen Him, whom no
man hath seen, nor can see. His glory excels men so far that
you can't comprehend it. Think about it just for a moment.
You can't comprehend the concept of eternity at all. Oh, I know
you say, well, it goes on and on and on. But the only way you're
thinking about that is thinking about it in terms of time. Because
there ain't no time in eternity. And only God dwells there. See,
we're finite creatures. We had a beginning. And like
I said, we can have an end according to the purpose of God. Whom no
man hath seen nor can see. You can't see him. To whom be
power and honor ever and power everlasting. Amen. That's a good
place to say amen, I think, because I don't think what else can you
say? I mean, if that doesn't take your breath away to think
about that. I don't know, you know, all the
years that I was raised up, In church, I don't know if anybody
ever read that pastor's scripture to me. I guess they probably
did and I probably read it myself. But I know one time, my breath
was taken away first time I read to myself. You know, I thought
I knew. I was like Job. See, Job knew about God, didn't
he? I mean, he discussed God with all his friends. And his
friends, they told him their ideas, and they had it all figured
out. And Job was way ahead of them. But, see, there came a day when
the Lord said, Job, Job, here I am. And Job said, Lord, I have heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee,
and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Well, you
see, Job realized he didn't know anything. And brethren, if we
learn nothing else in our lives, I hope we learn this, we know
nothing as we ought to know. Now by the grace of God, He teaches
us many things. The Spirit of God is sent to
teach us anything, but you know when He has taught us everything,
we have to confess we don't know anything. I mean we, You know,
compared to the vastness and the glory of the Almighty God,
we're as a speck of dust, or less than a speck of dust. I
mean, he said the nations. Think about it. The congregated
peoples of the nations of the earth are as the dust of the
balance. In other words, when you come
to weigh something, and they used to have these scales where
they had a certain weight over here, and then they would balance
it out. Now, they didn't take a rag and
wipe the dust off of the little plate that was holding the stuff,
did they? Why? Didn't amount to anything. Well,
the nations of the earth are as the dust of the balance. They
don't amount to anything. How much less the individual
man? And what does the Lord say? Or
what does the scripture tell us? Lord, what is man that thou
art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou
didst bestow? We're awed at the grace of almighty
God that he would come down and dwell among such as we are. He made man lower than the angels. And see, that's another thing.
See, the realm of God's creation is so far beyond our thought.
Men look at what they see around and say, man, God created all
this, and he did. But think of what he created
that we don't have any idea about. I mean, you don't know anything
about the angels. And there's multitudes of them. I mean, you don't know anything
about the spiritual realm of things that took place, and that's
all stuff that God made in his own time. And you may never know
anything about it. People say, oh, well, when we
die, we'll know all things. No, you won't know all things,
because you can't know all things, because you're finite. You'll
never know all things. You'll know exactly what God
wants you to know. and you won't be lacking in anything that you
need to know. The Lord's gracious and kind,
and he's most surely demonstrated his graciousness and kindness
in sending his own son to die for sinners, did he not? Of course,
why did he? Why should he? I mean, he dwells
in the light to which no man can approach, and yet it pleased
God to redeem a people that he chose in Christ. out of this
sinful world, rebellious creatures every one, but a merciful God
who is the Savior of sinners. Thankfully, He has given us a
mind to see and know those things.