came in a little later. I want you to have 2 Peter under
your thumb and then Romans 13. Take a Peter 1 and Romans 13. What does it mean to love? I mean it's a simple question that
we all ask throughout our lives, something that we ponder over
and over again in different seasons. What does it mean to love our
spouse, to love our children? What does it mean for our children
to love us? What does it mean for us to love our neighbor?
What does it mean for the Lord to love us and for us to love
him? And so on and so forth. And the good thing is, is that
in the New Testament instruction to the people of Christ, we get
the answers to that. And it's a manifold. It's not
like this. Some people say, well, if I die for somebody, that's
the only way to love them. No, no. And really, even if we
do die for someone, which is an incredible sacrifice and an
act of love, it's not redemptive love, right? It's not what Christ
did. We can't die as Christ died,
because our death is deserved. Christ's was not. It was a substitute
that paid for something that life might be ours to embrace.
guaranteed. And you might know that as Timothy
has written, has received this letter written by Paul, it is
a letter of love. It is a letter that is motivated
by love. It is a letter that speaks in the context of love. It is a letter that was for this
young elder to understand loving pastoral oversight. then lovingly
give that instruction to the church and patiently and lovingly
oversee that instruction as it plays itself out, sometimes painstakingly. And so for us today, we are here
today not to recapitulate all the theological things that make
us excited, but we're here today to be instructed by God himself
through the writing of the apostles that we've already heard in 1st
Timothy, 2nd Peter, chapter one, that what were breathed out by
God, carried along. And Paul's going to say the same
thing to Timothy in the second letter. So we're not here to
be theologians this morning. We're not here to parse the arguments. and to establish credibility
amongst men because of our understanding of these great things. We're
here this morning to be taught and trained to do the things
commanded of us in the Bible because of love. Because of love. And I find it
very odd because when I say things like that according to scripture,
I'm a legalist. And then when I emphasize the
gospel of free and sovereign grace, I'm an antinomian. According to the naysayers. Who
at all times, in every ways, when they speak that way, are
unloving, thus unchristlike, thus should not be paid attention
to. One of my greatest sins is that I really pay too much attention
to godless behavior. Thinking that I can correct it
by encouraging alternate behavior. And the scripture says there's
a baseline through which right behavior will come, and that
is the simple disciplines of assembly, prayer, reading, hearing,
and oversight. Simply. No other. So that if
we expect anything else from God without those things, we're
really just spitting in the wind. There's nothing else left to
receive if those are not in their proper place. So here we are,
week 24, segueing a little bit deeper into this instruction
that Paul gives Timothy, where he says in chapter 2 of 1 Timothy,
first of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving
be made. I'm going to emphasize what we've
already learned for all types of people. All classes of people, all races
of people, all genders of people, all sexes of people, And the
list goes on. However you want to divide, whatever
divisions that the culture makes, we are to pray for all types
of people. Powerful people, mean people, ugly people, skinny people,
fat people, strong people, weak people, sick people, healthy
people, lovable people, unlovable people, scoundrels and good guys
all alike. We're to pray for all types of
people. And specifically, Paul makes
mention of something here. He says, let me just illustrate
it this way. For instance, I want you to pray
for kings. And I want you to pray for all
the people in high positions. Now, that's easy, right? That's
easy in our culture because, you know, National Day of Prayer,
we pray. There were some very good prayers
that took place this past National Day of Prayer. Good stuff. But I've seen some
of the prayers that we pray for kings and people in high places.
I've heard how these attitudes sometimes come across where Christians
pray, but they pray not according to the scripture, but according
to the flesh, and they pray, oh, God, destroy that king. Yeah. Oh, Lord, cause him to bust his
lip on the bathtub this morning. Break out his tooth that he may
know you are God. I mean, come on, folks. And of course I'm
being silly. I've literally sat underneath
a pastor before as a guest teacher who prayed that the owner of
the property on which the church parking lot existed would die
if he did not give the property to them. And it's sort of like Scooby
Doo. You know, that's what I heard in my head. There's always a
cartoon in my head, I'm sorry. It's not a cartoon, it's comedy.
I'm constantly suppressing it, so you have to forgive me. That's
what I heard. I'm like, this is crazy. That was in 2009, by the way,
just a few miles up the road. Why? That's not the instruction
here. And what we've come across now
is that this instruction for the elders of the church to command
of the church to be in the practice of praying for kings. Now who was the king? This is
where it gets interesting. Nero. Okay, historians, raise your
hand if Nero was a good guy. No hands. Raise your hand if
Nero got along with Christians. No hands. Oh, Nero was a bad
guy. Nero hated Christians. Nero hated
everybody. Nero was a lunatic. Nero used
to set people on fire just to watch them burn if they were
in the faith. Paul dare command the elders of his church to pray
for that man? I'll pray for him, all right.
Bust out his tooth on the bathtub, God, get him. I mean, you know.
No, what does Paul say for the church to pray about a really
dirty, rotten scoundrel? And I'm making it very benign,
y'all, for the sake of the children in the room. The culture in which we live
today cannot hold a candle to the debauchery of the first century
Nero. Cannot touch the immorality that existed publicly and presently
and forwardly and openly and acceptably. What other adverb
can I put in there in first century Nero? Not one. We look like the Pharisees in
comparison as a culture today. to the culture of first century
Nero. And if you want to learn it, do it on your own. Do not
let minor children watch over your shoulder. It is not fit
for their conscience. Apostles pray for them. Pray
for this man, pray for him and for others like him. And what are we to pray? Father,
I pray for the king who kills my family. I pray that I may
live a life of peace with him. I pray that I may be dignified
as your child before this king and that we may be at peace.
You know what Paul's teaching and then also teaching the church
to pray for is that we could live such a life as believers
that we're not on the radar of Nero. That's what Paul's asking. Stay out of his eyesight. Stay
out of his way. Because Paul will remind the
Romans in 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. Okay, beloved, you are subject
to this man. He is your king. He rules over
you. Not my king, not my president,
not my governor. Tell it to God. For there is no authority except
from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.
You see, but we have a problem in our country because our constitution
establishes us as the rulers of our own domain by the people
for the people. Our ruling documents restrict
the powers of our king so that he's not a king. but it's a democratic
republic. It's not we hold the sword. We
give the sword to those we put in power and when those people
are put in power it is because God has established them therefore.
Not as punishment. God wasn't punishing the church
of the first century because they didn't do things right or
they didn't have the right political party or they didn't have the
right bumper sticker or they didn't do the right thing in
the context of their legalities or their morals or their ethics.
Well, what about the judges and the king? Folks, we are not ancient
Israel. That's a very small number of
people under a very short period of time that display, just like
creation, God separating a people for Himself who, even when they
have all the knowledge of righteousness, cannot obtain it without His
mercy. And on their best of days, they're
guilty of sin. Politics and grace. Where do they collide? How do
we walk in this? And I would love to get into
some reform political theory and and some philosophy because
it's a hobby horse of mine, but I'll stay away from it because
it's not beneficial. But if you want to talk about
that kind of stuff sometime when I have nothing else to do, bring
it on because it's awesome discussion with coffee. But for the rest
of us, it's not important. And I know that yeah, but's in
our minds. Yeah, but look what's happening in the world. Hallelujah,
sovereign God. Look what's going on over here.
If we don't do this, my people who were called by my name, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yes, we all know what's wrong
with the world. And much more was wrong with
the world in the days of Paul than that is wrong with the world
today. And in some way, if we look at
the consequences of it, they're the same. It's the same. But we've forsaken the commands
of Christ to live a peaceful life by being triggered by our
kingship, our personal kingship, thinking that we have a voice
in the context of a sovereign situation. And that God somehow,
through, I don't know, maybe it was after maps and it fell
out. You know, you got the Bible, you got maps, and then something
out there, and it fell out. But I'll show you the instruction
of how we're supposed to engage in politics. There it is. I saw
a black hole. Because it's a never-ending battle.
Now that doesn't mean that God doesn't call Christians into
leadership, into politics. It doesn't mean that you may
have a specific thing that is dear to you, that you may have
a specific platform or something that you focus on that engages
your vote as an American citizen. It doesn't even mean that you
might be at odds in your conscience to consider that someone may
differ from you. But these things are irrelevant
in the body of Christ. Because so many times and through
so many places, not every place, but many places in the country,
we consider the Bible Belt to be godly. But there's nothing
about the godliness of the Bible Belt. The reason they call it
the Bible Belt is because it's choking people. It's too tight. And that's not historically accurate,
but it's my take on it. We've all got a Bible and it's
big and we're beating people over the head with it because
they're not like us. And it's the same thing the Pharisees
did with the very word of God to the very word of God when
he walked on two legs on the earth. They beat him over the
head with his own word. The devil did the same thing
in the wilderness with Jesus Christ. but I'm not God the Son,
so neither are you, and we are not wise enough to see that sometimes,
but beloved, we are living in a historical tradition of idolatry,
and we're not at peace. When we're triggered by certain
things, when we're up in arms by certain things, it's an indicator
of something that's important to us. And we should pay attention
to it. We should work through it. We should filter our passions
through the sovereignty of God and his word and instruction
to our lives. And those emotions, while they may inform us of what
is important to us, they cannot make us act outside the confines
of God's word. Let me say that again in a different
way. Though we will see how we feel, those feelings shouldn't
make us disobey the Lord. So when I want to, I haven't
said this in a while, punch something in the throat, I have to just
simmer down because Christ says I shouldn't. Because that's not
love. And I'm not the sword bearer. in the context of government,
so I must abstain from that type of attitude. So here in this first century,
Paul's saying, teach the church to pray that we may lead a peaceful
life with these people who are destroying our lives. Pray for
them in a way that we would lead a quiet life. I mean, if you would admit to
the world that you're a gossip or a busybody, just stand up.
I mean, you know, have you ever been in a place like that? No,
I'm just joking. Stay back now. Because, you know, some of us,
we're more inclined to do that because we like information.
We like to chat it up. It's interesting. It's why tabloids
and magazines have sold for so long. If nobody cared about the
gossip, they'd rot on the shelves. But we do, we care about it.
And what's more gossipy than all the negative nillies and
the garbage coming out of our political landscape? What's more
juicy than feeling like the sky is falling when we're not even
under the sky that's supposedly falling? And yet, if we were to be dealing
with it in the context of every time something was wrong, then
the Bible would instruct us to do it. Now, I hear the voices
in my head. I shouldn't have said that out
loud. I hear them now. Yeah, but Titus, call them out. Paul says to Ephesus, but tell
them, tell the world about all this evil. No, it's instruction
to the church, and Titus is an elder given instruction on how
to deal with church discipline. So I have to pay close attention
to that because I sort of am in the same role, right? But it's not written to every
individual Christian in the world. 1 Timothy is written not to every
individual Christian in the world. It's written to one individual
elder in Ephesus over 2,000 years ago, to which the instruction
then applies to every elder of Christ in the world forever. So that the church then can be
instructed and the beauty of it is that there's no hidden
knowledge. We're not special people. Y'all can read the instruction
manual too. You go to that young doctor and he's back there in
the back looking up whatever's going on with you. You can buy those books.
You can know that you're dying from 73 simultaneous diseases
by just going to WebMD. Just get the gender right. Or
you brothers might have ovarian cancer. I mean, you know, you
never know. Don't go there, unless you're
just wanting a trip down horror lane. So here we are, dignified
in every way, because we are to pray in this way, to live
this way, because this is what pleases the Lord. Let's see,
here's another little voice in my head. Is it impossible to please God
without faith? Absolutely. But there's a context in what
that means in Hebrews about pleasing God and what Paul is meaning
here to Timothy about pleasing God. There is a sense in which
we know that the gospel, free, sovereign, this gracious, amazing,
finished work of salvation applied only to the elect of Christ, is an unchangeable, immutable,
eternal promise. that we have been granted. How
do I know? We believe. That's faith. We rest in the work of Christ,
in his person, in his teaching. And so we are pleasing to God
because we are clothed in a righteousness not of our own. But here, what
Paul is saying is about what is pleasurable to God in the
context of the conduct of the church. And we can act like idiots
and we can live in sinfulness, but it does not please the Lord.
It doesn't mean we're condemned, Romans 6, 7 and 8, right? There
is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, even though,
see the Lord agrees, even though, it's perfect timing. We talked about that this morning,
we set that up, yeah. Even though, We will sin, we do sin, even
when we try hard, we're still in sin because by nature we're
sinners. And that word, by the way, in
Ephesians 2, by nature, some of us were talking about this,
means by birth. We are found in our father Adam and all of
his progeny and we're walking through the centuries, sinners
subject by birth to the wrath, that is the anger of God because
God is holy and He hates sin. He has to hate sin if He's completely
different. And in His holiness is His righteousness,
etc., etc., etc. That is who He is. That is what
He is. And we could talk about that forever. But this is good
and it's pleasing in the sight of God our Savior. Because when
we pray for those people who destroy us, when we pray for
those leaders who try to overcome us, and we pray for the circumstances
of our culture that the Lord would work in it. We pray what?
Most importantly, we talked about last week, that His will is done. We want Your will, Father, to
be done, and so His will is being displayed and exposed every second
of time. That which is taking place is
the will of the father for his purposes. And even when it is
extremely, it is the extreme antithesis of what is good and
pleasing in our understanding of where it's going. It is always
good for the beloved because God causes, according to Romans. Paul's teaching to the Romans,
all things to work together for good for his people. As we'd see in the Old Testament,
what man intended for evil, God intended for good. What was the
context there? When Joseph's brothers hated
him, lied about him, sold him into slavery, brought back his
bloody jacket and told his daddy he was dead, put him in prison, and then Joseph ended up becoming
their savior. You see the parallel of the gospel
there? Beloved, this understanding of
grace, this understanding of how we should approach even the
most vile of people to our Father is directly related to the depth
of our understanding of the grace of God for us. God has elect people who are
monsters, like Paul. You know why Paul had such a
sympathetic heart toward Nero? because they were the same person.
They hated Christians with the exact same tenacity. They didn't
care whether these people and their children lived or died,
they just wanted them out of the way. And that's not my interpretation,
that's Paul's confession. He calls himself the chief of
sinners. Beloved, there's never been a man, according to their
own confession, that's ever been grossly as gross a hater and
a bigot as Paul from Tarsus. But God has his elect even in
the great people of the world, the kings, the high places. God
has elect that look like Nero and God has elect that look like
stinky shepherds in the middle of nowhere. God has elect who are spiritual
elites and self-righteous arrogant people like Paul. And he has elect amongst people
who don't know the truth if it slapped them in the face and
they live and serve false idols and worship false gods like the
Samaritans, like the Assyrians. like the
Egyptians and all the other shins and ins of the Old Testament.
Because God has his elect people from all nations, from all tribes,
from all tongues. And beloved, we are going to
be together forever in this new creation with our Lord and Savior
as its life. It is good and pleasing in the
sight of God our Savior for us to live a quiet, dignified,
peaceful, godly life in every way. That's every facet. It's why the cults are so empowered
in today's culture. Knock on your door. Yes, I'd
like to talk to you about peace. Isn't that what we want? But yet the so-called Christian
church of our culture has no peace. We say Christ is peace. We say our God is sovereign and
is the peace bringer. But we are all busy about trying
to bring the peace without peace. We're running our mouths, tweeting
about it, talking about it, gossiping about it, calling about it, frustrating
about it, sharing about it, and it does nothing. So that we can
get other people in our echo chamber to get upset about it
with us and we're all screaming about it together. What do you
call that? A mob. And not in the organized sense. Why stick this here? Why in the
world would Paul, in the midst of having false teachers causing
people's relationships to go sideways, why would he put this
in the midst of that? Because that's the point. What
are we supposed to do, Paul? These people are going crazy.
Are you praying for them? Your brother, Alexander, who
started all this junk with his brother? Are you praying for them? Or are you trying to get things
done for God? Are you trusting in the Lord?
Last time I heard, the scripture says that nothing's going to
change God's plans. That God is sovereign over whether
a bird flies from one side of the state to the other. Or whether
a man moves from Timbuktu to Tallahassee. He's sovereign over it. So where's
our peace? The reason we don't have peace is because we fill
our lives up sometimes with fear. We fill our lives up sometimes
with everything but the peace of Christ. Whatever is lovely,
whatever is noble, whatever is peaceful. Whatever is beautiful. Whatever is encouraging. Think
on these things, Paul tells the church. Fill your life with these things. And beloved, we do the exact
opposite when it comes to political things. He says, lead a quiet life. And when we look at the instructions
of the Bible, we see this over and over and over again. All
the New Testament letters, the same Nero was in charge. Yeah. The same administration,
the same horror, the same problems, the same wickedness in the world,
but not one time. Now, correct me if I'm wrong,
because I can miss things. I'm not saying I'm the expert
in every word in the Bible. I'm not the expert in three words
in the Bible, much less every word. But I may be wrong, so
afterward you can tell me that I'm wrong if I'm wrong, but I
have not found anywhere in any of the New Testament writings
where any of the apostles have instructed any of the pastors
or the churches to concern themselves with political issues. And yet, in the midst of it all,
they were being killed, arrested, harassed, maligned, gossiped,
destroyed, their properties being seized, burned as instruments
of illumination, and yet it wasn't on the radar
of the appointed apostles of Christ. Does that mean that we turn a
blind eye to things that are needs? No. John's already given
us that. Paul, of course, has told us
that. James has told us that. We see that if our brother has
a need, and sometimes that need is advocacy, but we're advocating
for him or her, our brother or sister. We're not charging the gates
of hell with a water pistol, per se. Let's put out the fire. A water pistol in my day was
different than what y'all got. I mean, it was the little things
you bloop, bloop, bloop in the toilet, and you put the little
stopper in, and you got like nine squirts, and they went this
far. Yes, we filled them up in the toilet. It was much easier.
The back, not the bowl. Get out of here. But no, this is where we need
to come to terms with the culture in which we live. And what's
important, we are to address things as needs arise. And yes,
it's okay to have an opinion. It's okay to have a stand. It's
okay to stand on the side of rightness. But if we think that everybody
else is gonna follow suit, then that's insanity. And the minute we start making
a political platform God's platform, we've lost it. The gospel's gone. Christ has been reduced to a
policy. Because at the end of the day,
if it's required of us, it's required of my brothers in Somalia. And boy, they've got a mess over
there. An entire country is run by warlords. What you gonna do? Let's go. No, that's not it.
This is not the way it works. We pray. What are you going to
do? Teach them to pray. Paul would
even tell the church of Corinth, if there are any of you who are
slaves, if you can get free and obtain your freedom, by all means
do it. But most of all, be content in
the station in which you stand because, what? It's not ultimate. The church will take care of
you. And we see Paul talking to Philemon,
don't we? Philemon is taught by Paul, Onesimus
may be yours legally, but he's your brother and you do not own
him. And when he shows back up, he's not your slave anymore.
You better treat him just like you treat me, the apostle. What? Now back up a couple of hundred
years and see how that tobacco would come out the pipes of the
revolutionary folks. See, have a look in the middle
of the 19th century. See, the birth of the Southern
Baptist Convention. American church history is my
thing, y'all, but I keep it to myself. There's nothing really
positive about it. Except that God's sovereign over
all of it. quiet, godly, dignified life.
I don't think I finished talking about Romans. Whoever resists the authorities,
Romans 13.2, resists what God has appointed. Yeah, but the
Constitution says I can. What Constitution do we believe? This one? or the Lord's. And those who resist will incur
judgment. I know it's different, and I've got a lot of peers in
the academic circles, and this is a really fun conversation.
But I also have a lot of ex-friends who think it's demonic for even
suggesting anything but overthrowing the government. And that if, you know, if I'm
not a alt-right, right-wing, red-blooded, which I guess we're
all red-blooded, what have you, then I'm demon-possessed. I'm not lying. God help the libertarians. Sorry, guy. Anyway, might be
two or three of them. God help the constitutionalists.
God help the person that goes, I can't do with this. My wife's
dying of cancer. I could care less who's in the
White House. You see, it's not ultimate. For rules are not a terror to
good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the
one who is in authority? In other words, do you want to
not be afraid? Then do what is good. and you'll receive His
approval for He is God's servant for your good. But if you do
wrong, be afraid. For God, I'm going to impose,
God has not given him the sword to bear in vain. For he is the servant of God
and avenger who carries out God's wrath among the wrongdoer. Therefore,
one must be in subjection to the governing authorities, not
only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
So pay your taxes. That's the very next thing out
of his mouth. And there's a whole generation. Yes, constitutionally,
we can debate that. We can look and see where the
laws and the freedoms collide in liberty. but it is what it
is, and so do it. Give to Caesar that which is
Caesar's, because you owe it to him. You
owe honor to the President of the United States, no matter
who sits there. You owe prayer. You owe respect. You owe simplicity
and quietness. That's what we do. But that's not the culture we
live in, is it? I mean, there are websites now for the last
four sitting presidents that, meme-worthy. I mean, stuff that's like, oh
my gosh, this is classic. This is gold, you know? From
a comedy standpoint, gold is the, there's no such thing as
platinum. That just don't sound right. This is platinum, I mean,
that's bougie. Gold. You know, gold is fine. If it's
not gold, it's garbage, so there's the scale. And there's some stuff that's
comedic gold, there's some stuff that's satirical, that's just like,
it pulls my string. See, that's my thing, instead
of trying to become aggressive, I just like to laugh at it all,
but is that not the same? And it's one of those things
where we go, oh, I'm such a wicked person, well, And it doesn't
bother me sometimes, right? And then that makes us feel even
more guilty. And then other people go, did you hear that? He's not
even sad over his sin. Did you hear you gossip and murder
Busy Bozzie? You don't even know you have
sin. I mean, you know, meme that. So it's a tit for tat, it's constantly
something else, it's constantly another way of dividing when
the scripture commands us to come together under the prescription
of the apostles' teaching that we hold fast to the gospel, we
correct each other with gentleness and patience and long-suffering,
kindness, enduring even evil, trusting in the Lord. and to
give honor to whom it's owed, to give respect to whom it's
owed, give money to whom it's owed, give taxes to whom it's
owed. And then the very next thing
in Romans 13 verse 8 says this, owe no one anything except to
love each other. And he's talking to the church
now. Hear the little voices. Well,
that's only my brothers. Now, we've already established
you've got to love your not brothers and sisters too. But by all means, we love the
brothers and the sisters. How do we determine our brother,
whoever says they believe in the gospel? Simply. What about their theology? Your
theology is not going to get you into heaven. And you can learn good theology
and you can learn bad theology, and I'm willing to bet you that
in some situations I could be persuasive enough to make you
think that the bad theology is the good theology. and not me,
someone else. Building an argument that's true
is not the point. Is it valid? Can I walk you up
to the water that's no water and tell you there's water? Yes.
We're easily led, beloved. Even Christians, even the beloved
of God, even born again people. We can all be led. We can all
be led astray to strange teachings. We can all be led astray to ignore
what we've heard in the Bible where it says, you know, you
just stay together and work through it because that's the picture
of Christ. Yet human beings refuse to do
what they should do. Because that's who we are. And
beloved, we're about to get into a political whirlwind as a country. It's going to be everywhere.
I wanted to bet you that Sesame Street and the Smurfs or whatever
cartoon still on television, I bet there's going to be political
ads written into those things. There's going to be something
going on because everybody now has an agenda. What is our agenda
as the church? Oh, it's easy. Soledeo Gloria. What does that even mean? To
God be the glory alone. And how is God glorified amongst
the church? That we live a dignified, peaceful, quiet life amongst
our enemies, amongst the leaders of our culture, and amongst each
other. and we endure and we're patient
and we're quiet. That's why Timothy is going to
be instructed in just a couple of paragraphs. He's gonna tell
what overseers are supposed to be doing and he's gonna exemplify
the qualifications to be the member of a church in which an
elder must personify, must illustrate, must live out, must keep watch
over. And then he's going to give some
instruction about young men and young women and what they're
supposed to be doing with all their zeal, passion and ignorance
and knowledge. They're supposed to be quiet. supposed to be quiet and submissive
and gentle and learn and learn and learn and learn. And it's
not about the stuff in our heads. It's about learning to keep our
mouths in the right seat and learning that our zeal is not
God sent. Learning that our triggers are
not the Holy Spirit, it's the flesh. How do we know? When people
leave the church, they're in the flesh. When people divide the body,
they're in the flesh. I don't care what it's over.
When the elders of the church look to the Bible and say, we're
going to sit down, we're going to be quiet, we're going to learn
and we're going to listen and we're going to hear each other
out. And you go, no, I'm not. They are the sinner. They are
the one who loses all voice. They are Alexander and Hymenaeus
refusing to do what is right. And that's not manipulation,
is it? For those of you with more than one child at the house,
or cousins, or you've ever been in a room, you've ever been a
preschool teacher, Lord help you. You could have five children
and five problems simultaneously. And when you have children living
in the same household who don't want to get along with one another,
you don't just throw one out the window. It's only been a few months.
There's this kid across the street. This new family moved in on the
corner. She's got seven boys. And the youngest, he's a trip. He's out there in his little
Hot Wheel Jeep, battery-powered deal. His hat was turned around
backwards, and he's all up down the road, trying to cross the
highway and stuff. And I'm going to town, and I
come back, and he's not in the Jeep anymore. Because I think
he got in trouble for trying to drive down a major highway
with his toy, and he was insulted by that idea, so he decides,
I'm out of here. So he's got his little backpack,
his hat turned around forward, and he's got a wheeled piece
of luggage walking down the street. He's gone. He's out. Moving. Gets to the end of the block,
comes around, goes back inside. Changed his mind. That's human
nature. I'm not going to deal with this.
I'm not going to put up with this. I'm not going to have this. I'm not
going to listen to this. I'm not going to obey anything. I'm not
going to do what's right because everything's coming down and
I'm going to tear it all up. It's time to go. Beloved, we can't
deal with that. That's God's people. We cannot let politics do that
to us. We cannot let theological differences
do that to us. The division doesn't come because
of differences of ideas, opinions, or even ignorances. The differences
come is when we ostracize other with our hatred, with our lack
of prayer, with our insistence on being the voice that has the
answer. So I think, wow, if I just read
this and say, pray for kings, pray for president, and don't
expand on it a little bit more, am I doing justice to the church
as a teacher, you see? Because I'm willing to bet you
that Timothy, when this was read to the congregations, to the
large congregation of Ephesus, that somebody said, you mean
to tell me I gotta pray for Nero? He burned my daddy on a fire.
I'm not praying for that man. Yes,
you have to pray for that man. You need to live a peace. No,
man, look at me and I got 12 brothers and we have got the
artillery. We don't take this man out. No,
you're not. You don't pray for him. Be quiet,
young man. Sit on the front row and be quiet. So we see this instruction. The
one who loves another person has fulfilled the law. For the
commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder,
you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and other commandments are summed
up in this word. You shall love your neighbor
as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love
is the fulfillment of the law. Now, the beauty of it is that even when we do it well,
it doesn't justify us before the Father, does it? So you see,
this instruction comes on top of the foundation, atop the foundation
of the gospel, of the good report of Christ's work. We are saved
from the wrath of God through Christ. Therefore, we need to
live in a manner accordingly. And I would say, I'm going to
get my F in debate real quick. 95% of the people who have problems
in their lives in the context of the local church are living
in direct disobedience to the simple commands of loving one
another. And it goes both ways. When people
don't love us, what are we supposed to do? We're supposed to love
them anyway. What does that mean? Feel nice about them? You ain't
got to feel nice. Did the cross feel nice? Was that a vacation from heaven?
No, it's literally, by definition, hell. The wrath of God. In more ways than we could ever
understand, the judgment of God, the justice and the righteousness
of God poured out on righteousness itself. That's just baffling,
you know? It's baffling. It doesn't compute
except in sovereignty, except in the divine realm, in the economy
of grace. And it's the only way that works.
But Jesus speaks a word, doesn't he? Father, forgive them. So the
apostles don't teach the church to do anything in regard to that.
There's no retaliatory mindset. There's no up-in-arms attitude
politically on all the things that were going on during that
time and the pain that was causing so many different people groups.
The beauty about America, though, is that we do have the voice.
We do. It's not illegal to say, this is a call foul. It's not
illegal to vote your conscience. It's not illegal to speak. It's
not illegal to stand with a group of people and peacefully protest. Peacefully protest. Without handcuffs, ropes, smoke
bombs, Molotov cocktails, guillotines, bus fires. I mean, you know,
I lived in the East Bay. I've seen it. People from Oregon
come down and burn our city and then leave. Look what they did.
Now look what you did. That's not peaceful. We have
a right to peaceful protest, but it's not ultimate. And we don't organize it from
here. And we don't insist upon others in the body of Christ
sharing our zeal. Because what's more important?
Your protest or my prayers for the circumstances? Which has
greater effect? I hope I don't have to answer
that for you. So it's not instructed, the apostles
didn't do it. Well, you know, Paul refused
to go out the back door because that was his right. Just like
if I just go home and there's somebody searching my house without
a warrant. Hey, I'm calling my lawyer. I have that right. It's not ultimate,
but I have that right, I'm going to exercise it. And why was Paul
insistent upon not being hidden after he was beaten as a Roman
citizen? Because he wanted people to see that it didn't matter
your citizenship. That to bear the name of Christ
destroyed the bonds of law. And it didn't matter. You think
it was fair and just that John was exiled and imprisoned? You
think it was fair that Paul was crucified, that Peter was crucified?
You think it was fair? No, it's not fair at all. It's
not just it's unjust. Just like it wasn't just for
Christ to die as a guilty person when he was innocent without
sin, yet it was just because he was a substitute, according
to the promise of the covenant of God before the world began.
So Jesus then spoke not a word in his defense. Why? Because
he was subjecting himself to the will of the Father, which
was the eternal purpose of God in all things, that the Christ
took on flesh to what? To stand in the place of his
people. That's where our peace comes
from. That's where our peace comes from. And so what we're
supposed to be about is really exemplifying that piece, going
into a mindset every single day of what does it mean to live
out my Christian faith. Beloved, it doesn't mean to be
an activist. Christians can be activists.
That's great. I'm an advocate. I've advocated for many people,
but I'm not out there on the news. But for the hundred or so people
that I've advocated for through the years, nobody knows me, nobody
knows them, but they know that a Christian brother stood in
their place and helped them. That's the bigger thing, isn't
it? But what's the day-to-day? I
read it out of 2 Peter chapter 1. I read the whole chapter at
the beginning of the service. God has called us and His divine
power is granted to all of us everything that pertains to life
and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own
glory and excellence. His own glory, His own exposure,
His own excellence, His own power. Jesus the Christ, His own example
to walk this world being hated. Yes, Jesus got in the face of
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Yes, Jesus turned over the tables,
but He's God. And he fulfilled prophecy. And
last time I looked, none of our names are in the prophet's mouths. I sure wish I were. Because I
have the zeal and the stupidity and the mouth to set things on
fire. And then I read the book of James. That's why I'm often too slow
to say anything. I'd rather leave it be for a
little while to watch rather than just run right in there
with my water pistol. The very precious and great promises
of Christ. Are guaranteed and granted because
of who he is. And through Him, we have become
partakers of the divine nature. And that means that we are counted
righteous as He is righteous. So we have escaped the wrath
of God. And because of this, go to 2
Peter 1, verse 5. Listen to these things. For this
very reason, the gospel of free and sovereign grace, for this
very reason, Make every effort. See, this
is not theological thing. This is not a faith thing, although
it is by faith. We are not going to fulfill this.
And even if we did, we wouldn't be justified because of it. We
are justified because Christ stood in our place. We are justified
because God the Father has declared us so. We are justified because
He has granted us faith. We are justified and so on and
so forth. We know the logical order of salvation. It's not the theological order,
it's the logical order. For this very reason, make every
effort to supplement your faith with virtue. And supplement virtue
with knowledge. And supplement knowledge, here's
the biggie, with self-control. So, you know, psychology 101,
we hear words and they produce mental images in our head and
ideas. However it is you think. I think
in words, not pictures. It's always a discourse in there,
sometimes a mob. And then those things create
feelings, don't they? And those feelings inform our
lives, our decisions, and our actions. That's why in defense
training, one of the things that you teach young students is just
the basics of structure, of self-control. You don't show them the indicator
of aggression. If you see a man's nostril flare out, punch him
in the nose. I mean, you know, dude could just got a gnat up
there and boop, now his nose is broke. There's a context in which we
learn discipline, we wait, we pause, we respond in a way that
is befitting the circumstances. And the circumstances of a Christ-filled
person is to be patient and gentle and long-suffering and quiet
and dignified. Self-control. Supplement self-control
with steadfastness. Don't move. Don't be wishy-washy.
Don't be excited over here and dull over here and, you know,
passionate over here and angry over here and just find a center.
Don't run around thinking God's called you to all these different
things when God's called us to this first. And after years of
good gospel discipline, then God will grow us into understanding
how we are influencing those around us. We're not influential when we're
out of control. We're not influential when our
zeal produces immediate impact without knowledge and wisdom.
Though we influence people, It's not intentional and it's
often not good. Steadfastness with godliness. Supplement godliness, I don't
have to explain what that is, with brotherly affection. And supplement brotherly
affection with love. Love is an action in every sense
of the word and in every New Testament iteration. It is what
is done. It is not how you feel. Love
is the action that opposes the feelings. I'm upset. I will be quiet. I will stay put. I will serve. That's love. You imagine spitting
in the face of God Can you imagine taking God by the beard and pulling
it from the root? Can you imagine mocking God to
his face? I'm a Marvel fanatic since I
was like seven. All these movies, I know these
stories already. They're getting them wrong. Every origin story is about somebody
hurting something. And they get great power and
they get vengeance and they get justice. Christ got justice for somebody else. What The mind of God must have
been able to rightly do and think and exercise in action when someone
did that to him. Would have made a great hero
movie. Even if he did die, coming out
of the tomb unto vengeance. What a story. Talk about Easter,
everybody would be celebrating Easter. That's the B.C. comics. Jesus
comes out of the tomb. That's some bad stuff right there.
You know what he did? He laser beamed all those guards.
He said, let there be none. And they all vanished. I mean,
you know. That's not what he did. He said not a word in his
defense. Would God been just and being
anger? Angry and in his anger, Destroying them all? Yes. Beloved, He didn't destroy us. He destroyed His Son for us so that we can understand that
God's anger does not burn for us. I think Brother Trey read out
of Revelation a couple of weeks ago, the Christ that shall come
again is one of justice. And he will receive his recompense.
And it will be good. But he laid down his life. And in that quality. We see love
and the love of God only there. Peter then says in closing, for
if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep
you from being ineffective. They keep you from being unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. God hasn't called us to take
up swords against doctrines and kingdoms and neighbors. God's called us to lay down our
lives in love. And that's what we must do, beloved.
And what Paul is going to tell Timothy to teach the church from
this point forward is what that love looks like and what an orderly
life looks like. Whoever lacks these qualities
is so nearsighted, Peter says, that he cannot see it all, having forgotten the grace of
God. Is that the lost person? No.
Beloved, saved people lose sight when they're not disciplined
to hear and to do the scripture. Christ never lost sight of his
mission and his purpose to love his people at the cost of himself. Let us learn Let us learn and
live accordingly. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for the
gospel of grace. We thank you, Lord. For our family
of faith. Lord, we pray again and again
and again for those who hurt us, those that we hurt. We pray
for reconciliation. We pray for peace amongst the
people of the world who hate you. We pray for peace with those
who rule over us and govern us. We pray that we would be a people
of peace. A people of dignity. A people of humility and submission. And most of all, when we are,
we are submissive to you. So, Lord, as we leave this place
today, we thank you that you love us and that you're patient
with us, so continue to grow us. Continue to remind us of
your eternal love for us and that we have no fear of condemnation,
but Father, show us your discipline. Help to groom us. to settle us
down and to give us peace in our hearts and minds, that our
mouths may follow suit and that our lives may be in a place of
rest. So that we may glorify you as
we instruct others peacefully and gently and patiently, whether
it take ten years or ten days or ten minutes. Let us just be
instruments of your gospel in the lives of each other and in
the lives of the world. among whom your elect live this very
moment, that through our lives and evangelism you would call
them to faith. And we pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen.