First Timothy, and we'll read
there beginning in verse one, chapter one. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior, and Lord
Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son, in
the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and
Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give
heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather
than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. Now the end
of the commandment, or the purpose of the commandment, is charity
out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned,
from which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling,
desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what
they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that the law is good,
if a man use it lawfully. knowing this that the law was
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine. according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I
thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was
before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained
mercy, because I did it in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant, with faith and love, which is in Christ
Jesus. 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 Paul begins his letter here
to Timothy, with terms of great endearment, as he says unto Timothy,
my own son in the faith. And of course, Paul being an
apostle and having the gifts of an apostle had a special relationship unto
Timothy in that the gifts that Timothy had were passed to him
from the apostle, he said, by the laying on of my hands. Now
I might pause there for a moment to say that that particular gift
does not exist anymore. I believe it passed away with
the apostles. That is the passing of gifts
to another. It was a special, specific gift
that was given to the apostles that they might do things that
were specifically for that time, that age, and that purpose. But Timothy was a man who was,
we might say, the second generation. Paul was his father in the faith. That is, he taught him the truth
of God. Although, Timothy was a young
man who was raised by godly parents. What a blessing that is. You
know, I've often said that we cannot pass those things that
we believe on to our children. we would desire to teach them
and lead them in the right way. And well, we should. But the
reality is that apart from the grace of God, they shall go their
way and they shall unfortunately in many cases disregard those
things that they have been taught. But one thing that they will
never be able to depart from is the example and faith of their
parents before them. You know, if you train up a child
in the way he shall go, when he is old he will not depart
from it. Now that doesn't mean that he won't stray away from
that or that he will always believe those things, but he can never,
to his dying day, deny the fact that his parents believed the
truth of God. and said it before him, whether
he ever agrees with it or not, or ever accepts it as being the
truth of God. And so it does, it is incumbent
upon parents to be a godly example unto their children, and to walk
before them as those who believe, if indeed we do. And your children
will never forget that. whether they ever agree with
it or not. They might be mad at you till the day of their
passing, but they'll never be able to say, well, my mom and
my daddy did not believe because that testimony sat before them.
And Paul set that testimony before Timothy. He gave him an example. He didn't just say you ought
to do these things and then go off and do something else. He
demonstrated what it was that Timothy was to do. But Paul says
he was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our
Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an apostle. Timothy could
not say that, nor could any of those that came after him, because
the apostles were those who were appointed by God. They were witnesses
of his resurrection. They were taught specifically
by him. They were called specifically
by him. And so we see that in the Apostle
Paul, though he was one, as he said, testified in later times,
that he was one born out of due time. Now, he did not witness
the resurrected Christ at the same time that the other apostles
did, but he did witness the resurrected Christ, first off on the road
to Damascus, and then later on when the Lord taught him in the
wilderness, where he said he didn't receive the things that
he learned from men, but he received them straight from the teaching
of the Lord. Now that's a mysterious thing,
and it's not, you know, we say we are taught of God, and surely
we are, because any man who ever has learned anything has received
it, if it's true, he has received it from the Lord. That's true
by revelation. But yet we have had earthly teachers
and the Lord has sent earthly teachers to us to help us in
the way. And so he has ordained that there
be those that would be teachers and helpers of men. But he was an apostle and throughout
his life he had to That was a point that was always
brought up to him. You know, that was those that
were enemies of the gospel often said, well, he's not really one
of the apostles. But he was behind none, even
of the chiefest of the apostles. And so we, the Lord raised Paul
up, as he says in this chapter, for a purpose, that he might
show forth a pattern of long-suffering which should hereafter believe
on him to life everlasting. And so the Lord specifically
called Paul for a specific purpose, even as he does all men. But
he called Paul to be, I would say, I don't know if these would
be a good terminology, but he is the architect of the gospel
in the scriptures as far as the practical preaching of it to
the saints. Now the gospels, as they are
recorded as the acts of The Lord, in the Gospels, they serve to
set the framework and foundation, but the Lord used Paul as a wise
master builder, that he might come along. And most of the New
Testament, most of the things that we read in the Scripture,
come from the hands of Paul. We don't say that to exalt Paul. If he was here, he would say,
you know, that's nothing. He says, I'm nothing. And, you
know, if he, being the chiefest of the apostles, as I believe
he was, if he would tell us, that he would receive no accolades
from it, then we need to be always mindful that we're not in the
process of giving accolades unto any other, nor those that would
be in those positions to receive accolades as though they had
done something. Because we know nothing as we
ought to know, as he said. When we have learned everything
that we can learn, we still are far way off from knowing the
whole truth, even though we know that the truth is in Christ.
And yet he is daily teaching us. You know, the scripture says
that there are some who are ever learning and never able to come
to a knowledge of the truth. Now we are ever learning, but
by the grace of God we are coming to a knowledge of the truth daily,
even though we know the truth. Yet we are always coming to the
truth, because we desire the truth, because the truth is that
which is limitless. You can never know all of the
truth. Now you can know the one in whom
all the truth resides, but you can't ever know all the truth.
But he is presently teaching us by the grace of God. And then
he says, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope. Now that's not too different. individuals. These are terminologies
that get you in trouble sometimes with some of the great theologians
who know all the answers to these things. But he's not speaking
about two individual persons, but he says God our Savior and
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking God our Savior
is the Lord Jesus Christ, is he not? I mean there's a oneness
there that we should not be ashamed of. Now there are denominations
that they build a big deal about the oneness doctrine. You've
heard all of that and we don't espouse such a thing because
they don't have any understanding of who Christ is. You know, they
would claim to, but they don't. But He is God. And He is that
one who has come down as our Savior from the heavens and where
He has returned to the right hand of God. That is, He's seated
on the throne of the majesty on high. He's the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. And we have no way of knowing
God apart from knowing Jesus Christ. And what a pleasure and
what a privilege it is to the sons of God that we might know
Him and the power of His resurrection. You know, the devils know Him. but they don't know him like
he's pleased to reveal himself to his people. See, they know
who he is in majesty and glory. They know that he is their master,
but they don't know him intimately in the sense that they love him.
And that's the work that the Lord does in his people. That's
what sets his people apart from all of those who gain understanding
and wisdom or whatever from reading the scriptures. A man can read
the scriptures and know them frontwards and backwards. and
yet have no love for the one of whom scripture speak. But
the work of the Spirit of God in the people of God is teach
them to know him, to love him, and to desire to walk in his
way. And then he says this, the Lord
Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Now, that word hope, we don't
usually use the word hope. Usually when men speak about
hope, they're talking about something that they desire to happen, but
they're not sure if it will. You know, they hope it will.
I mean, like, we hope that one day we're gonna make a bunch
of money and, you know, we'll have everything that we need.
We hope that, but we don't really expect that probably to happen.
You know, that's just a pie in the sky by and by. And some people
accuse Christians of having such a hope. Unfortunately, some who
call themselves Christians do have such a type of hope as that.
They hope that it'll be so. They hope that these things will
turn out in their behalf. But that's not what Paul's speaking
about here. He said our hope is Jesus Christ. He is our hope. In other words, he is the one
in whom our expect and anticipation waits. Now we've not received
it yet, so we still yet hope. We're looking for it, but we
yet believe it, and we anticipate it. We believe that he's coming
again. We anticipate that. We're not,
well, you know, he might. No, we have that as our hope. It's that thing that is, it gives
us strength. in the course of our journey.
He is our hope. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame but hold Him in on Jesus' name. And so he writes unto Timothy,
my own son in the faith, as we've already mentioned. And then he
says three things, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father
and Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, all men in a measure, all
men in the earth are recipients of the mercy of God in a measure. Now, God is mercy. God is the definition of mercy.
And yet, mercy is sovereignly dispensed. He said, I will show
mercy to whom I will show mercy. Now, mercy can't really be any
other way. The mercy of God cannot be set
forth and given to men on the basis of something they have
done. because then it would cease to be mercy. It would simply
be the fulfilling of a debt. I mean, if the Lord said, now
I'll do this for you if you'll do this, and a man says, well,
I did it, so now I want what's coming to me, that wouldn't be
mercy. But mercy is that which is bestowed sovereignly. It's
applied sovereignly. And the avenue through which
it's applied, which all men are not recipients of, is the grace
of God. Now grace is unmerited favor.
Now all men, all men do receive mercy because if it were not
so, all men would be, their life would be snuffed out before it
even began. I mean, you know, a man doesn't
deserve anything. Now we, we, our constitution
it says that God has endowed men with these unalienable rights. And in the flesh, in the realm
of the flesh, as far as keeping from other men to do this, this
is correct. In other words, you don't have
the right to keep another man from the pursuit of life, liberty,
and happiness. That's not in your realm, and
that's what the writers of the Constitution were saying. But
men don't have inalienable rights when it comes to God. They don't
have any bargaining power. They don't have any standing.
They're creatures. And he has created one vessel
under honor and another under dishonor. So it's a foolish thing
when men get saying, well, that wouldn't be fair because there's
no grounds upon which they can say that. No basis. God is God. And he has done all
things well. And he's done all things according
to the good pleasure as well. And he has shown grace unto his
people. We are the recipients of grace
if we know him. How else would we have ever come
to know the mercy of God? How could we have ever understood
it? Now, vast are the numbers of men that receive mercy, but
few are those that ever have any understanding of it in the
sense of how it could be. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who called his
pain? Oh, that's what grace is. Grace is
the bestowal of a gift that a man not only did not deserve, but
had done everything in his power to go contrary to it. Not only did he bite the hand
that fed him, but he constantly bit the hand that fed him. It's one thing if a dog bites
you one time. You kind of kick him and whatever
and hope he learns his lesson. But you know a dog that just
keeps coming back and biting you every time. You come out
the door pretty soon, you'll get enough of that, won't you?
Well, see, God's grace, It's just like the man that has a
dog that bites him every day, but he keeps feeding the dog.
And he keeps caring for the dog because he loves him. And that
is the bestowal of God's grace. Grace, mercy, and peace. The
Lord said, and we sang about it a moment ago, my peace I leave
unto you. Not as the world giveth peace.
Men think that if Chairman Xi or whatever his name is and Mr. Putin and all of the United Nations,
if they can all come together and sign a treaty and just do
away with war, oh, we can all be at peace. Well, that won't
ever happen because the Lord said that there'd be wars and
rumors of wars till the time of the end. So it's a pint dream
to think that there will be such an agreement, that there will.
So there'll never be that kind of peace in the earth. But that's
not the peace that we long for. See, the peace that we long for
is that which only the Lord can give a man a desire for. And
he said, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth,
give unto you. Men get peace by looking at art,
or listening to music. You know, you can listen to certain
music, and in the flesh it might cause you to relax and take your
mind off all your troubles. Men seek peace by drinking alcohol,
in many cases, or taking drugs, you know, and doing all sorts
of things to alter their mind, and they think, well, now I'm
at peace. But the peace of God is that which passes understanding.
It's not that which men have any comprehension of until such
time as the Lord is pleased to teach them. And of course only
as a man is made to understand himself to be a sinner can the
application of this peace to his mind ever become that which
he has any appreciation for. Because a man that doesn't know
himself to be a sinner, he's already at peace, isn't he? He's
not worried about anything. He's going through his life and
he doesn't care, you know, what God's doing or anything else. But when the Lord convinces a
man of sin, then he's in a terrible state. He needs something. Remember in Pilgrim's Progress
when Christian, when the conviction of the Lord came upon him. And
he realized he was in the city of destruction. And he ran forth,
and the people said, don't worry, everything's gonna be all right.
But he put his hands upon his ears and he ran forth and he
said, life, life, eternal life. And he couldn't have any peace
until he got to Calvary. And the burden that was on his
back rolled away. That's peace. I remember when
I was just a little child, we used to sing a song, at the cross,
at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of
my heart rolled away. It was there, they said by faith,
but that was how we learned the song, I always sing it, but it
was there by grace that I received my sight, and now I'm happy all
the day. Oh, what a blessing. to know
that the Lord is that one who grants peace. And he grants peace
to those who need peace. If a man doesn't need peace,
he's not going to ever receive it. If a man doesn't know himself,
if he thinks he's already at peace with God through some activity
of his own, or he thinks that somehow or other through meditation
or some Eastern transcendentalism or some other means of whereby
he can gain his peace through his own effort, he'll never understand
or have any knowledge of this peace that is spoken of here. But we have this peace from God
our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and we don't want any other
kind. Now see, when a man comes to know Christ as the Savior,
he's not looking for another one. There's people that try
every kind of religion that there is because they think they'll
find one maybe that's better than the other one. But the man
that comes to Christ and is taught by Christ and given the peace
of Christ, he's not looking anymore. I mean, he found it. He's where
he wants to be. He's not, now that's not to say
that there are not people who come and claim to embrace the
Christianity and then turn away and follow no more of the Lord,
for surely there are. But they just give evidence of
the fact that they have never known the peace of God that passes
understanding, that is found in one place in Jesus Christ. Our Lord. And He is our Lord. I remember when I was growing
up, they used to talk about coming and getting saved. Now you can
come down here and you can get saved. And then, later on, if
you really want to, you know, get on, move on up to the next
level, you'll make Him Lord. Now that sounded pretty good.
Because you know a man could just come get saved and then
he could just go on about his life and do whatever he wanted
to, but he was in. And he didn't have to worry about
anything. And then, you know, later on,
maybe if he was feeling kind of up one Sunday or something,
he might come and rededicate his life or whatever. But dear brethren, salvation,
And the work of God in the soul of a man first recognizes that
he's Lord. What was the first thing that
Paul said on the road to Damascus? He said, who art thou, Lord? Because he knew that whoever
that was that was speaking to him was the Lord. And so it is that He is our Lord. Jesus Christ is the Lord. He's the Lord of all of those
whom He saves. He's the Lord of all of those
whom He gives eternal life. He is their Lord. They're not
looking for another. They're not having some question
in their mind as to whether or not they ought to follow Him.
He said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. Why do they follow him? Because
they know that he is the Lord. Now we're going to stop right
there. This book, one of my favorite
books, is a glorious testimony to the
work in Paul's life and the charge that he's given to timothy primarily
but to all of god's people through that uh... to walk as good soldiers
of jesus christ to be those that don't just say we're the followers
of christ but manifest now as as uh... brother uh... thomas
pointed out there this morning we can't manifest those things
apart from the grace of god If Christ is our hope, he who
is our hope is that same one that causes these things to be
manifest in us according to the good pleasure of his will. And
he gives to every man a measure of faith according as he sees
fit. And you know, all of God's people,
we're not cookie cutters. I mean, we're not cut out with
a cookie cutter. We're not all exactly alike. We don't all think
alike. But we do come to a place where
we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. I mean, we're brought
by the grace of God to embrace Christ as the Lord of glory. And apart from that, we have
no salvation at all.