Looking over here in the book
of 1 Timothy. We're gonna read here in verse
17. We looked at this to some extent
last week. Let me back up and go read in
verse 15. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now unto the king
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and
glory forever and ever, amen. This charge I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. holding faith
and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwreck. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now we had looked at the cause
for why the Lord brought Paul out of darkness and into the
light. And it wasn't anything to do
with Paul. But it was all due to the purpose
of Almighty God. And one thing that we need to
have clearly stamped in our mind is that God does all things for
His glory. Now, men don't like that, because
they want God to do what they want Him to do. They want God
to be like they want Him to be. And they will look at calamities
and things that happen in the earth, and they will say, well,
that's not right. That shouldn't have occurred.
I'd rather it been this way. You know, if I was God, I'd have
done this. Well, you couldn't be God. You won't ever be God. because he is a singular entity. And he will do according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And he will elicit from those whom he is pleased to give
grace to see these things, to fall upon their faces and worship
him. The Lord will be worshiped. He
will be worshiped. And he will be gladly worshiped
by those whom he's pleased to give the gift of worship. What a privilege that is, because
a lot of people have no consideration of worshiping God. They have
no thought towards it. It never enters their mind. Now, it's a common thing for
men to speak about praying, But most praying that men do in general,
most of the praying that's done by men in general, is simply
trying to get God to do something for them. I mean, isn't that
what most of the time most people think of is prayer? Well, so
and so's sick, well, let's pray. We'll ask the Lord to heal them.
I'm not telling you don't ask the Lord to heal somebody. I'm
not saying you should never ask God because He's a kind and generous
God and He's pleased to grant the petitions of His people.
So surely we do, but that's not prayer. Supplication is not essentially
prayer. that is making petitions, that's
not prayer. It is a sort of prayer. But the
Lord defined prayer when the disciples asked him, how do we
pray? And he began like this. He said,
our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And you can never truly pray.
if you do not begin with that understanding, that He is to
be hallowed. He's worthy to be praised. Our
mind, may the Lord give us a mind to be ready to worship Him, and
then to make our petitions known unto Him. But Paul says this
is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation.
That is, this is such a grand truth that all men ought to just
embrace it. I mean, it's just a glorious
thing that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
Now, the problem is that the majority of people don't think
of themselves as sinners. Now, most people know they've
done bad things. I mean, people know that they
haven't always done what's good, but the biggest error that men
have in the thing that the Lord upbraided the Pharisees about
more than any other thing was that their consideration of themselves
as having some righteousness. Now see that, a man, men think
of sin as being something you can look at, you know, something,
somebody that, you know, drinks a certain thing, or does a certain
thing, or says something, or all of these things. And surely
there are sins that can be defined in such as that. The knowledge of being a sinner
is not about the things that we have done. It's about who
we are, what we are, and knowing that it is our bent towards sin. As much so as it is the sin,
the sin is a terrible thing. You see, when Adam, when he ate
of that fruit in rebellion against the Lord, He sinned against the
Lord. But the greater sin that Adam
had was his entertainment of that. That he would have no more
regard to what the Lord said than to do those things. The act of sin is certainly a
terrible thing. But it is rather the consideration
of what we are before the Lord and knowing that we have no righteousness. In fact, Isaiah wrote it like
this. He said, all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before the Lord. Now he didn't say all of
our sins, did he? Now surely all of our sins are
indeed filthy rags before God. But he said our righteousnesses.
And that's what Paul went on to say. He said, I count all
these things but done. He said, nothing that I have
done in my life is of worth to bring me into a place of acceptance
with the Lord. Can't be done. And that's what
he says here, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Now there were two men on the
cross that hung beside the Lord, one on the right and one on the
left. And both of them, if you had been there and you had seen
them and saw the crimes they were convicted of, you'd have
said, these men are great sinners. But there was only one of them
that was really a sinner. One of them had done some bad
stuff, but one of them was a sinner. And what he did was he said,
Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Because you see, he came to a
place by the grace of God to see who Christ was. And the sight
of who Christ was humbled his heart. Because he was just like
the other one at one time, mocking the Lord. And so the Lord Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. those that have no righteousness
of their own. How be it for this cause? Now,
he's been talking about, you know, the fact that the Lord
brought him out of darkness into light, and he said, this is the
reason that I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering. He said the Lord would demonstrate
the richness of His mercy and kindness to sinners. He said
Christ came into the world to save sinners, and here is the
cause for which I was brought out, that the Lord might show
a pattern, that He might show His longsuffering, because think
of it, who among those who were present in that day would be
more unlikely a candidate for the mercy of God than the Apostle
Paul. He was Saul at that time, breathing
out threatenings and slaughters, a Pharisee, desiring to kill
Christians. Had it in his heart, was on the
way to Damascus to kill Christians. But God, who's rich in mercy, because it pleased him to show
a pattern, see? He showed mercy to the Apostle
Paul, the most unlikely character to be found praising the Lord. Because not many days before,
he had been holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen to
death. Oh, the mercy of God. Who can plumb its depths? Who can consider it? How broad
is his mercy? How deep it is? How high it is? It encompasses all things. And
he came to save sinners. And he said, this is a, he might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Now what is it to believe on
the Lord? Is it just to say something?
I mean, you could ask most people I would venture to say, probably
say, I believe in Jesus Christ. I mean, in our neck of the woods
anyway. I mean, maybe other places they
might not have that thought, but most people in this area,
they would say, oh yes, I believe in Christ. Well, what is it to
believe in Christ? Well, to believe in Christ is
to cast one's total care about him. I mean, to say, Lord, save
me or I'll perish. I mean, I'm done for. You see, a lot of people, they
want to cover all the bases, and so they want to join up with
the church or something so that, well, I'm a member of this, I'm
a member of that, and I'm in, I made my decision, and the preacher
said that if a man called on the name of the Lord, he'd be
saved. Well, I called on the name of the Lord, so I'm saved,
I'm in, I got it. But see, that's not to believe. I did all those things, but I
didn't believe. Now, I can't ever remember a time. Maybe I'll
be honest with you. I can't ever remember a time
in my life when I didn't have some consideration towards God. I mean, I was raised in those
things. Those things were put into my
mind. And there was a certain measure of fear toward God. But
I didn't believe on it. Because it was just kind of one
of those things. It was over here, it was on the
side, you know? It was like, well, we need to
take care of that, see? You need to get that taken care
of. In fact, I've heard preachers say, well, you need to get this
taken care of, you know, in your life. You need to come and believe,
and get your name written down, and buddy, you'll be in the Lamb's
Book of Life, and that's it. And then it doesn't make a difference
what else happens. Well, that's not to believe.
to believe is to be brought to a place where you don't have
any other choice. See, Peter said to the Lord, Lord, when
the Lord said, will you also go away? He said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Lord, we need you. That Gentile woman that came
down to the feet of Christ, who had a daughter that was vexed
with the devil, And she said, Lord, heal my daughter. And he said, what do I got to
do with you, woman? He said, don't you know that
I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? He said, is the children's food
fit to be fed to the dogs? She said, you're right. I have no reason I have no grounds
upon which to expect that you should give me anything." But
she said, Lord, even the dogs, even the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. You see a sinner's desires are
just even the crumbs that fall from the master's table. He's
got to have something. He needs something. Yes, a sinner,
as I have said many times, and of course Joseph Hart was blessed
to write these words, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost
has made him so. Because only the Lord can teach
a man that he's a sinner. I can tell you you're a sinner
and you might even agree with me. But there's a big difference
about what happens when the Spirit of God teaches a man that he's
a sinner. because then he has no hope.
See, a sinner is somebody that has no hope except that God might
show him mercy. And so what is it to believe
on him? It is to flee to Christ. It is to cling to Christ. It
is to hope in Christ. It is to be satisfied with no
other but Christ. See, that's what it is to believe.
That's what the Lord, or Philip, as Brother Al pointed out this
morning on the road to, or on the Ethiopian, when he asked
him, he said, well, you know, I want to be baptized. And Philip
said, well, if you believe, you can be baptized. He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, did he just believe
the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God? No. He believed
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the Spirit gave him
an understanding to know that if Jesus Christ was the Son of
God, he was the one who was this one spoken of in Isaiah who had
paid for his sin. Oh, what a glorious thing it
was. Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God. Now there's four adjectives there
that can be applied to no other. Immortal, he alone hath immortality. Now it is a popular notion that
men have an immortal soul. Now I know that this runs afoul
of some people, but you will not find that taught in the scriptures,
in my estimation. Men are dead in trespasses and
sins. The only way that a man has immortality
is to be given immortality by the spirit of the living God.
As the Lord is pleased to give a man eternal life. That's what
immortality is. Men don't have immortality. Men,
by the grace of God, can possess immortality, according to the
gift of God. But that immortality rests in
Christ. That's the only place that a
man might gain immortality, is from him who has immortality. He's eternal. What does that
mean? Well, it just means, you know, people talk about eternity
past and eternity future. Well, those, that's really not
a consideration of what eternity, because that's a consideration
of time. If you think of something in the past, or you think of
something in the future, that's not eternal. Eternal is eternal. The Lord said to, Moses, he spoke
of his eternality. He said, I am that I am. He says, I am the self-existent
one. And that's who he is. He is eternal. That is, he has no beginning,
he has no end. Now you can tell me you understand
that, and I'll tell you you don't. Because we're not meant to understand
that. You see, the thing that separates between men and God
is the fact that He's eternal and we're not. We're created
beings. He's not. Oh, what a glorious
thing it is to think on the eternality of God. Immortal. Invisible. Well, didn't the Lord Jesus Christ
come and walk among men? Yes, he did. But you see, he's
invisible in the sense that he could not be seen except by the
mercy of God to show himself to us. It would be impossible
for a man to ever climb up into the heavens and find out God
or see him there. But according to his mercy, he
has come down and traveled among us. He's walked among us. And
we can see him. The only manner in which a man
might ever see God is in the face of Jesus Christ. Because
he is invisible apart from his condescension to us. The only wise God can't be any
other kind. All wisdom resides in him. And
to him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. And so those
are a pretty high standard that Paul has set here. And he says,
this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy. What charge? That
preach that gospel. He said, this is what I've sent
you to do by the grace of God. I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou
by them mightest war good warfare. Now, what does he mean, the prophecies
which went before on him? Well, I believe it has to do
with the fact that the apostle Paul, as an apostle, bestowed
upon Timothy these gifts. Now the prophecies that went
upon Timothy could only be bestowed by those to whom the Lord gave
that ability to bestow those prophecies. Now you remember
when he talked to his disciples, he said that whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven. Now I don't believe that's something
that passed down. I believe that's something that
was for the apostles and the apostolic age and to whomever
they were, by the grace of God, given power to bestow, which
Paul said that he said, you have these things by the laying on
of my hands, speaking to Timothy. And the Lord did give that, but
I don't think that's something that can be conferred today.
Now there's a lot of people that run around and they claim that
they can confer power upon you by their hand. You know, you'll
see them doing their big theatric thing and they'll sweep their
hand and people fall out. I don't know what that is. But
I'll tell you this, it's not the power of Almighty God in
the magnification of Jesus Christ. But it's a sideshow. It's just
something, you know, that makes men think they've really seen
something. Listen, when men see the Lord, they'll never be the
same. I mean, if you'd have ever asked
Isaiah, Isaiah was a prophet of God, but I guarantee you this,
that Isaiah was never the same after what he wrote about in
the sixth chapter. He said, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. And he was overwhelmed by that.
And he could never be the same again. And so it is when the
Lord is pleased to bring a man to a place of that understanding
and that blessing, he'll never be the same again. And so he
said, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that
thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Now what is the warfare? weapons of our warfare are not
carnal. We're not sent into the world
to shoot people. Now, you know, you're hearing
all these people, and this is the same stuff that's happened
over in times past, talking about, you know, well, we got to get
our guns, and we're going all, you know, they put Trump in jail,
and now we're going, you know, don't get rid of your guns, because
we're going to have to fight them. Well, brethren, we're not
called to fight such battles as that. I don't like some of
the stuff that happens in the world. I think some of it is
just wickedness, no doubt about it, but the Lord never sent us
to fight with carnal weapons. Our warfare is not carnal, but
it's mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. May the Lord
give us such a mind. If men would spend as much time
in prayer as they do marching and carrying on, I believe things
would be different. Or could be, according to the
purpose of God. Holding faith and a good conscience. Now, what is a good conscience?
A good conscience is that which believes what it says, or what
one says. You can't have a good conscience
and then be doing something else or be going contrary to it. A
good conscience is that which says, I mean, a person who has
a good conscience towards Christ, he's the same today as he's gonna
be tomorrow. He's not fickle. He's not following
Christ one day and not following him the next. But he has a good
conscience toward God. which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwrecked." You see, some people entertain
many notions about what the faith is, about what the gospel is. And they swerve, remember we
talked about that earlier, they swerve out of the path. They
get to one side or the other. and they miss the very central
theme of the gospel, which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And so if we ever are going one way or the other, see, if you
get all wrapped up in prophecy, and there's people that just
go hog wild on this stuff, and they think they know something,
and they don't know anything. I mean, most of the prophetic
stuff that is spouted out is people just talking about stuff
they really don't know. They want you to think they know,
and they might think they know it, but they don't know it. for
only the Lord. The testimony of Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy. If you have somebody teaching
prophecy and his central theme in teaching prophecy is not to
bring you back to Jesus Christ and Him crucified at every turn,
it is not the prophecy which is spoken of in the scriptures.
We're not sent into the world to unfold profound mysteries. The Lord's already unfolded the
most profound mystery that there could be, that Jesus Christ would
come and dwell among men. I mean, that's the grandest mystery
that's ever been. Which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwrecked. Now there are some who, just
like that seed that falls on the stony ground, And it springs
up with joy for a season. But then, because it has no root,
it fades away. And some have made shipwreck
because they swerved away from the gospel. They were entertained. They had no good conscience towards
these things, but it was just something. And they were having
itching ears. They wanted to hear some new
thing. You know, they got tired of the same old thing. I often
say, I mean, I don't have anything really to tell people other than
one thing. I mean, that's the only thing
I know. We don't know a whole lot, brethren,
but we do know this, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners,
that he died on Calvary's cross to redeem his people, and that
everyone for whom he died shall inherit eternal life. We know
that. And we can't move from one way
to the other, because I'm afraid of getting off into the wrong
thing. Not interested in anything else. And then he gives an example
of Hymenaeus and Alexander, who evidently were two men who had
swerved. They had left the faith. They
had turned aside. Now, let me say this. Because
we read about those that have turned aside, and when you see
someone turn aside, that doesn't mean that they are eternally
damned. Okay? Because the Lord may use
sometimes a swerving to bring a man to the place where he realizes
where the road is. You realize that? I mean, if
you're riding down the road and you swerve and you get off in
the ditch, and your car's bumping along there, what's it tell you?
The road's over there. You know, I need to get back
on the road. And so I believe that in many cases, and perhaps
even in this, I don't know. But Paul says something that
we find at one other place in the scripture when he speaks
to the Corinthians, as delivering someone unsafe. Now again, I
think that this is an apostolic. I don't think that this, now
the concept that he's setting forth here may be continued on
in the sense that we are to be, if a brother's overtaken in a
fault, we're supposed to go to that brother and we're supposed
to point out his fault to him. But what he's speaking about
here is something a little more drastic than that, even as it
was with this man in Corinth. it delivered him up to Satan.
Now I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I know that I
wouldn't want to be in that case. But so he says, I've delivered
them that they might learn not to blaspheme. Now we know that
the young man who he spoke of that he delivered unto Satan
in Corinth, we know that he came back, did he not? He repented.
And perhaps Hymenaeus and Alexander repented. Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world. Now I know Demas is often
presented as one who's a total apostate. I'm not 100% sure of
that. He might have been. But he might
have been someone whom the Lord was pleased to draw back to himself. So we need to be mindful, dear
brethren, that we're each one prone to error. I mean, error
is our middle name. And we can get out of the road,
and we can swerve. But you see, that's why we come
together as brethren. When somebody swerves, we're
supposed to steer them back. And may the Lord help us. And
may He, as we look at this with Hymenius and Alexander, that
they may learn not to blaspheme. Perhaps they did. Because what
is blasphemy? It's speaking against. The truth
of God. Now a lot of people blaspheme
that don't even realize it. But blasphemy is attributing
weakness to God, number one. And what do we have today but
a weak God that is proclaimed across this land. One who's trying
to do something that he just can't quite do. He wants to do
it. I mean, they tell us, well, he just wants to save everybody,
but he can't. You know, he just got to sit
back and wait, hoping somebody will come. Oh, dear brethren,
the Lord's hand's not shortened that it cannot save. He's the
Savior of sinners. and he's in the process of saving
sinners. He's calling them out. He said,
my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. And he says, and I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. Oh, what a glorious
thing. Now, is it that they did something
that caused them to get eternal life? No, he says, I give them
eternal life. Why? Because they are my sheep. Oh, to be found among the sheep
of the Lord's pasture. What a glorious place that is,
dear brother. And even, even if the Lord should
bring us to a place of swerving out of the road, By His grace,
if we belong to Him, He will sustain us and bring us back. Now, nobody's saying it's a good
thing when somebody swerves out of the road. Terrible thing.
Something we ought to avoid with all due diligence. But even in the midst of failure,
God will get glory in the midst of His people. Who swerved more
out of the road than David did? I mean, he swore pretty heavy,
did he not? I mean, he got completely off
in the ditch. Going the other way, he got turned
around. But the mercy of God was greater
than the sin of David. He is full of mercy. May we be
those that call upon his name.