we are indeed a blessed people.
And were it not for the mercy of God, none of us would have
arisen this morning. None of us would have safely
driven here. None of us would have the privilege
to hear the Word of God declared, the praises of God's Son, and
the fellowship of God's people. You know, a lot of these things
we often take for granted and we just think, well, they're
just activities that we go through. But except for the mercy of God,
we'd have no desire whatsoever to worship Him. What a gift of mercy and kindness. We've been looking in the book
of 1 Timothy, and I want to finish up the fourth chapter. As Paul has been teaching Timothy,
or actually exhorting Timothy of things that he had already
taught him, And yet, you know, though we
have been taught, I've been hearing the Bible ever since I was, before
I can remember. Some of the things stuck and
some things didn't, and most of it as I was a kid. I had no interest or thought
toward it, but yet the Lord implanted some of the things that I was
confronted with, even in those early days when I had no desire
towards Him, yet He planted those things within me. And I thank
God for that. That's a great privilege. to
be raised in a home where the word of God is believed and followed. And of course we all, we realize
in saying that how far short of following the word of God
any of us are. And we have no thoughts that we have in some
way been obedient in all things. As Brother Al Ably pointed out,
the Lord is not interested in partial obedience. Now religious
men consider that their deeds are somehow acceptable and pleasing
in the sight of the Lord because of their intent. It's a good
thing to have good intentions. but good intentions are not worth
anything in the kingdom of god the lord doesn't grade on the
curve he accepts perfection and uh... that would be a very disheartening
thing for a man to learn if he did not also learn that there
was one who did indeed keep the things of god perfectly and has
imputed his righteousness to his people so that they stand
before the throne of God, not in their own righteousness, which
would be no righteousness at all, but they stand there clothed
in his righteousness. And that is our hope. That's
our expectation. That's the only reason why we
believe that we can stand before Almighty God. Who can stand in
His presence? Who can abide the day of His
coming? Now, the religious men, they think they can, because
they think they can plead their case. Well, Lord, I did this,
and I did that, and I treated my neighbor fine, you know, and
I always tried to do the right thing, and all of those ideas
that religious men have. But the Lord, in His mercy, comes
to his people and he teaches them at some point in time in
their life that they have no righteousness at all before him,
that they're sinners. And the gospel is for sinners.
The gospel's not for the righteous. The Lord Jesus said, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I believe
that all sinners will be saved. All men are not sinners. All
men have sinned. But there's a difference in having
sin than being a sinner. You know, a sinner, as Joseph
Hart wrote in one of his hymns, a sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. Because it's only as the Lord
convinces a man that he has no righteousness whatsoever. See,
that's why the harlots and the publicans, the Lord said, went
into the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. Because they knew
they were unrighteous. They knew they had nothing to
claim before Almighty God. But the Pharisees, they thought
they did. I mean, they kept the law. They read the scriptures. They
carried them with them. They had little boxes on their
arms and on their forehead with scriptures in them. I mean, they
were holy men. They had men announce their coming
as they came down the street. The holy man of God is coming.
And they were revered by all the people. The Lord said, you're
a generation of vipers, and you're of your father, the devil, because
not the righteous that Christ came to call, but sinners. And
so it is that as you read through all of Paul's writings, that
permeates everything that he says. You will never, if you
understand and read, take any time. Now if you pull a verse
out here or there, you might build a case for things that
men do. But when you look at the whole
and the totality of the message of the Apostle Paul, he pointed
out very clearly that it's not what these hands have done. that
can cleanse my guilty soul. Nothing that I can bring unto
the Lord is of any value to him. But we are exhorted in the word
of God to walk according to those things that he has taught us.
And I noticed there as Brother Al was reading and he read this,
the Lord said, my covenant will I not break because this is what
I'm going to do. And that's the glorious part
of the gospel of God's sovereign grace, is it's not a message
about what men can do to get right with God, but it's a message
about what God has done to make his people acceptable in his
sight as they stand before the law condemned as sinners. Now
in one sense we can say that the Lord has always been pleased
with those people that he chose in Christ. But they have been
born into this world as sinners. And he's not pleased with sin,
but he made provision in the satisfaction of the law through
Jesus Christ, and that's our hope as we stand here before
you, and we have no other. See, some men say, well, I have
hope in Christ, but, no, if you ever add a but to that, then
you've messed up the whole thing, because there's no ifs, ands,
or buts, it's Christ. Paul said it best when he wrote
to the Colossians. He said, Christ is all and in
all. There's nothing else. There's
no hope. There's no expectation. He said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father
but by me. There's none other name given
under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. See, the Lord's
people must be saved. They shall be saved, they must
be saved, they will be saved. Those are glorious thoughts.
And so he says to Timothy, these things command and teach. Now
what was it? He told him to teach. He told
him to teach the gospel, the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ
and nothing else. These things command and teach.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the
believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith,
in purity. "'Til I come, give attendance
to reading, "'to exhortation, to doctrine. "'Neglect not the
gift that is in thee, "'which was given thee by prophecy, "'with
the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. "'Meditate upon
these things. "'Give thyself wholly to them,
"'that thy profiting may appear to all. "'Take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine. "'Continue in them, for in doing
this, "'thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.'"
Now, we'll start with the last phrase there, since it's there. Now that sounds kind of different
than what I said, doesn't it? But you have to understand that
every time that the word save is used in the scripture, it's
not talking about eternal salvation. I mean, we read just earlier
in this book about that women would be saved in childbearing.
Now, does that mean that there's some kind of eternal benefit
to childbearing? Not at all. And he's not saying
here to Timothy that you're going to save yourself through some
activity that you're doing. But he does teach the fact that
the adherence to the word of God is a delivering power unto
the sons of God. I mean, how often has the word
of God been a comfort to us in a time of deadness? How often have those things which
the Lord is pleased to bring to our mind and heart been a
deliverance unto us? And so he says to Timothy, as
he says, you know, continue in these things, because this is
your deliverance. You see, the Lord said that the
soul that draws back, he'd have no pleasure in him. He said if
a man puts his hand to the plow, and looking back, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. In other words, we're not called
upon to look upon the things that are behind us and the things
that we have done, but to look unto Christ. We're ever looking
forward unto Him. Yes, we're unworthy, but you
see, that's the whole purpose of the self-examination that's
in the scripture. Examine yourself to see if you
be in the faith. Now, the lesson there is not
examine yourselves and then come away saying, man, I'm doing great.
No, the purpose of examination is so that we might be reminded
what we are by nature. Examine yourself to see if you
be in the faith, because those that are in the faith are those
whose confidence and trust is solely in Jesus Christ, nothing
else. Christ in him crucified. So he
says, let no man despise thy youth. Now this is interesting
to think about. And the consideration of youth
in times past quite a bit different than what we do. We think of
youth as being like teenagers. But it was considered in these
times that youth actually continued up until probably about the age
of 40. Because they understood that men are pretty idiotic. up until that age, actually.
I mean, it's really, I remember a fellow saying one time to me,
says that men don't get a brain until they get to be 25. And
that's probably true. Some don't get one even further
out than that. But you know, so Paul speaking to Timothy,
And keep in mind that Timothy is no spring chicken, as we might
consider it. I mean, he became a disciple. I don't claim to have all of
this knowledge about these things, I've never, but Bible scholars
that have studied and made timelines of these things are pretty much
a consensus that Timothy was about 16 years old when he met
up with the Apostle Paul, or at least whenever he began his
journey with the Apostle Paul. Now it would seem from some of
the things that Paul has written, that probably that Timothy sat
under the ministry of the Apostle Paul, and it was under the ministry
of the Apostle Paul that the Lord called Timothy out. And
so Timothy was raised by a believing mother and grandmother. They
were those that studied the scripture. They were in the faith. They
were those that believed. And so Timothy was about 16 years
old when he began to follow along with the Apostle Paul. And this
particular book, according to the consensus of thought, was
written about A.D. 55, which that would mean that
Paul, or that Timothy, if he was 16 at the time he came along
with the Apostle Paul, which would have been about A.D. 39,
that he would be about 35 years old. And so that doesn't really
make any difference, but I just want to put it in perspective.
He was no kid, you know, and given this placed and standing
among the saints of God as an elder to lead the flock of God,
he was no kid. He was a young man in their consideration
of things. And so he says, let no man, he said, let no man despise our
youth. Now, how could he keep men from
despising his youth? That's what he's instructing
him in. He says, act according to those things that you know,
that the gospel says, and be an example unto the believers.
Because that's what all of those who would lead the flock of God
would call, not as being lords over God's heritage. Now some
preachers, and I'll use that term loosely, Some preachers
think that they're called to ride herd on the people of God. But that's not at all what we're
called to do. We're called to be examples unto the flock. You know, how do you best lead
men by setting an example for them? You don't lead men by telling
them what to do and then going out and doing something else.
And so he says to Paul, don't let anybody despise your youth
because they would consider you a young man. Don't do things
that would give men reason to say. We can't believe what he's
got to say, because look at him. So we must be mindful of our
conduct. But he said, be thou an example
of the believers in word. What you say. Our speech belies who we are. When you hear somebody, and we
hear it plenty today, speaking with a foul mouth and just ungodly
things that men say, we pretty much have an idea of their character,
do we not? I mean, the Lord said that you
could tell, you know, a fountain didn't bring forth bad water
and good water. It's either good or it's bad.
And so we know these things. We can see them. He said, be
an example in words. Speak those things which are
edifying. He said, in conversation, that
is in your way of life. Now, we think of the word conversation
as how we're talking among one another. Well, it is, but it
has more to do with the manner of life that we live, that men
might see us and that they might, as Peter spoke about, they might
find us to be faultless before men. And of course, none of us
are faultless. But, you know, Peter said, you
know, if you get arrested, he said, don't let it be getting
arrested for doing some evil deed. I mean, if you get arrested,
no shame in being arrested for the glory of God if you should
stand and be judged for those things that you declare, which
many of them were in that day. It could possibly turn out to
be that way in our day. I mean, you know, if you look
around us and you see this woke culture that is getting a grip
on people like I've never seen anything in my life. I never
thought people would be so idiotic and stupid. I mean, you know,
so they can't tell what a woman is. I mean, how? You know, how
ridiculous is something like that? And yet we're supposed
to sit back and say, well, you know, they're right. And the
sad thing is that many are carried right along with it, and they
won't embrace that idea. I mean, the Lord, you know, these
things are foolish. And one day, I can see it very
plainly. It might not happen in my lifetime,
but it will definitely happen, I believe, that those who would
declare the truth of God will be ostracized. It will become a crime. In fact,
in some countries it's already a crime to speak about certain
things that, you know, are going on. You can't say certain pronouns
or this, that, or the other, some ridiculous stuff like that. You know, on the one hand, we're
not concerned with what goes on in this world. It is, it's
the world. It's what it is. I mean, we can't
change it. And the Lord never sent us into
the world to change the world. See, he didn't send us to go
down and picket things and carry on about all these things. There's
wickedness in the world. But we declare the word of God
and we stand true to it. And if the need be to speak out
against certain things, we do so. But the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, to the casting down of imaginations, the thoughts
and intents of the heart. See, that's the place where God
is pleased to send his truth. He said, be an example in charity,
that is in love. You know, in love. Demonstrate
your love. And you know, sometimes that
may involve acts of what we would call charity. You know, that
word charity, we usually think of it as giving money to something.
Sometimes true charity might involve charity, as we think
of it. And you know, we don't need to
be misers. I mean, we've been given those
things, that material goods, not so that we might expend it
upon our own lusts, but so that we might benefit the brethren,
and that we might do good in the world. So he says to Timothy
that, be so in charity, in spirit. That is, in heart. Not just in word. See, sometimes people want, they
like to be taught the Scripture because they like to know what
it is. But knowing the Word of God without having the Spirit
of God to guide you in the Word is really of very little use. I'm not gonna say that a man
can't have some profit in knowing what the Word of God says. I
believe everybody, believers or not believers, ought to read
the Bible. It's certainly not gonna hurt
you to do so. You know, there was a time in
our culture when it was pretty common that the Bible was read.
I remember when I first started the school, every day when school
started, I mean, they read the Bible. Now, some people didn't
like that. I guess as time went on, I don't
know why. I mean, tell me something that's
in this book that you wouldn't want to know. I'd want to know
it. And so it is, he says, in spirit,
that is in heart, mind, as you walk and teach the word of God,
he said, let these things be in your spirit, in faith, believing, holding on to that. Now, I believe
on the one hand that it's impossible for God's people not to have
faith. I mean, Peter said it, he said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? That's the words of eternal life. I mean, we don't have anywhere
else we can go. But yet, we're exhorted to have faith, and we
encourage one another to have faith, because as we're faced
with various problems and things, When we say to one another, have
faith, we're not thinking that they're going to have enough
faith to do them any good. See, a lot of people think, well,
if you have enough faith, you can move mountains, you can do
anything. That's not what the scripture's
speaking about when it's talking about having faith. Where is
our faith? It's in Christ. I mean, we don't
have any other faith. Do you have any other faith than
that? No, that's the only faith I know of. It's the only faith
I'm interested in. May the Lord give us such a faith.
Impurity. Purity of mind and heart. Desiring to walk uprightly. Impurity in faith. Till I come,
give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Now
those are interesting things for Paul to teach Timothy, to
tell Timothy, give attendance to reading. Now, I think that
that could be translated as study to reading. Of course, they didn't
have much other way of studying than reading in their day. I
mean, we have all kinds of things. I mean, you can listen to the
Bible on a headphone or through a speaker. I mean, you can, there are many
things. You can watch things on the television. But reading I believe, even as
we understand what reading is, reading is a good thing. Now,
he don't mean reading, you know, the classics. I mean, I guess
there's a place for what they call classics. But the only classic
I'm interested in is right here. I mean, this is the best classic
that there is. You talk about a classic, I mean,
all these other classics fade away. They ought not to call
them classics. of the Word of God. So he's speaking
about studying the Word of God. He said give attendance to reading,
to exhortation. What is exhortation? Exhortation
is stirring up the people of God to walk in the things that
they're taught. Now, the Lord said there in the
passage that Brother Al read earlier, that the reason that
we are to walk in his way is because we remember what he has
done for us. He said, remember who brought
you out of darkness and into the light. And so we exhort one
another in that fashion. What are you doing walking over
here in this timid fashion when the Lord has made you more than
conquerors in Christ? An exhortation is reckoning yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. That's an exhortation. Because
it's not make-believe. Now some people would think of
it as a make-believe situation. Well, you know, just make out
like this is true. No, it is true. So what are we
doing? Walking in those things that
we know we've been delivered from. How foolish is that? To
exhortation. Because, you know, the Word of
God which is delivered to God's people, if it's without exhortation,
then it is lacking in the usefulness that it is sent for. So we exhort
men, we exhort men to believe the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ
did. He said, come, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's an exhortation.
Now it's an exhortation that's specifically designed for specific
people. He didn't just blanketly say,
everybody come. Now that's kind of about what
if you listen to most so-called gospel preachers today, it's
just, come, everybody come. No, that's not what he said.
He said, all you that labor and are heavy laden, those of you
who are bowed down with sin, that you know yourself to be
without any help or hope, come unto me and I will give you rest. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I'll
know I is cast out. What a glorious thought. And
so the exhortation is come. If you know yourself to be a
sinner, come. If you know yourself to be without
help, come. If you know yourself to need
a Savior, come. See, that's an exhortation unto
the people of God. And then he said, to doctrine,
teaching. Now, that's often the thing that's
maligned by some. Oh, we're not interested in doctrine.
Well, brethren, if you're not interested in doctrine, then
you're not interested in Christ. I mean, Christ is our doctrine,
is it not? I mean, that's the, we believe
the teachings of, see, Christ was a teacher. And if you despise
doctrine, you despise the words of Christ, because he came teaching
the word of God. And this book is not simply doctrine,
but it is filled with doctrine, the teachings of Christ. Those
things from the beginning to the end, what can you leave out?
And so, give, take, heed unto doctrine. Doctrine's important. See, some people think that you
can just kind of hedge around and not ever really say the truth,
and it's going to be all right. But we must be playing with the
truth. I remember one time hearing a story about I believe it was Rolf Barnard,
but it might have been John Reisinger. I don't remember who it was,
but they had been preaching and preaching straightforward doctrine. And some of it wasn't very much
received by the people. And so they had a big get-together. The people in the church, they
wanted to ask some questions. They wanted to find out. And
so this one gentleman, or the preacher, whoever it was, he
stood up and he read the ninth chapter of Romans. Now, if you
want to separate the wheat from the chaff, read the ninth chapter
of Romans. Well, he read the ninth chapter
of Romans. And a man stood up and said,
I don't believe one word of what the preacher said. He said, well
all I did was read the scripture. And he said another man stood
up and he said, well don't God give every man a chance to be
saved? And he said that was the end
of the question because whenever he says salvation, not by chance. Now see that kind of answers
it all, does it not? Salvation not by chance. Salvation's
by the design of Almighty God. He knows them that are his. And
he calls unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Take heed unto doctrine. It might sound good unto men
to tell everybody, well, the Lord Jesus Christ died for everybody's
sins. Well, even as a young child,
I wondered how that could be true. If Christ died for everybody's
sins, then everybody would be saved, would it not? And I can
tell you this, I can come closer to being a universalist and believing
that Jesus Christ died for all men without exception and all
men's sins are satisfied than I can believing that Jesus Christ
died for all men and some men perish. Now you tell me how it
can be that Jesus Christ can pay the price for sin and a man
yet perish in a sin that's been taken care of. It can't happen.
So Jesus Christ died for the sins of his people, those whom
he chose in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
And I know there's plenty of people in the world that have
great problems with that. There's a lot of people call
themselves Christians that they just bow up in anger every time
that you mention that truth. But you cannot take it out of
the Word of God. It's what the Word of God says.
And it sounds good, and it's supposedly that you're demonstrating
love for everybody, you know, when you're saying Christ died
for everybody. But actually you're not, because
you're telling some men a lie. Christ did not die for all men.
But he died specifically to pay the sin debt of those people
that he chose in Christ from before the foundation of the
world. Some people say that's hard doctrine. I say it's glorious
doctrine. Because if it's not so, then
who can be saved? Because you can't save yourself.
And you sure can't take care of your own sin. And surely the
Lord's not waiting for you to help Him do something. See, that's
what men think. Well, the Lord's waiting. And
you've got to help Him out. I mean, you've got to do something
to help the Lord. No, brother. If the Lord needs
help, then He's not God. He's an absolute God, and He
saves men to the uttermost. See, when the scripture says
that He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us, that means He got it. Now, if He got
it, it belongs to Him, doesn't it? And if He obtained redemption
for us, who's the us? Is it for some people that won't
ever have it? How foolish is that? I mean,
the Lord saves His people. He saves those that call upon
His name. See, there's no difference in
those people. Some people kind of think, well,
what about if a man, he's seeking the Lord and he's calling upon
the Lord's name and it turns out he's not one of the elect?
Well, that can't happen. But if I die with mercy's salt,
when I, the king, have tried, this word of die, delightful
thought, is sinner, never died. Because, you see, those that
call upon the name of the Lord prove themselves to be the children
of God. And those that do not, they have
no concern about it. See, you can't make a man have
concern for his soul. He thinks he's foolish. You can't
cause him to believe Only the Lord can. But you know the glorious
thing is that He does. Me and Brother Tim were talking
yesterday about this. And that is, I mean, you know
the question is not why doesn't the Lord save everybody? The
question is why does He save anybody? I mean, that's the question. If you ever get that question
planted firmly in your mind, then you won't have any problem
with, you know, wondering why he's saying, oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
is my Savior's love to me. I'm gonna stop there. Not through,
but that's a good place to stop. Christ is the Savior of sinners.
And he causes those whom he's pleased to save to desire to
confess him before men. And that's a glorious thing,
when a man is moved by the Spirit of God to confess Christ before
men.