a couple of pages back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 and then I'm also going to be in Philippians chapter
4 a little bit today to show you a consistency of what Paul
is expressing here. When we think about our culture
as it relates to how we esteem others, it's very It doesn't,
it doesn't take us long rather to go and find a person in this
world that we would say, I love that person. We appreciate that
person. And then we can take it a step
further and say, okay, not only that locally or intimately or
personally, but we can find people that we've never met that we
don't even know, but we're aware of because maybe they're famous
or popular. We like that politician. Or not. Or we like this musician. Or
we like this movie star. Or we like this, now we have
a whole new genre of popularity called influencer. We got an
influencer. Influencer. We're all influencers. And the more people that listen,
the less influence we really do have, you know. But we can go also to spiritual
things. And we can say, oh, my pastor.
Oh, my grandfather. Oh, my daddy. My auntie. My granddad. My grandma. My whoever. Oh, so and so. Doctor so and
so. Reverend so and so. Theologian
so and so. the author so-and-so and we could
just start to talk and collaborate and we can spend our entire lives
esteeming others for what they have accomplished to such a degree
that we can put Christ right underneath it all and drown him out. You see that's the problem. We
all have a little bit of an ego And sometimes our ego is driven
by who we love, who we admire, who we appreciate. Now, these
things are normative, right? It's what we do. We're not going
to stand here and go, stop having an ego. Okay. Stop breathing. All right. Don't be hungry. I mean, it just doesn't work
that way. But what we are gonna stand here to do is be reminded
of the context from which Paul writes. The very nature of why
the Bible is given to us is so that we may see and know the
Lord divinely through the revelation that he's given. And then, as
importantly, we learn what he has shown us through the scriptures
about how he handles and how he teaches and how he organizes
and how he equips his people. And yet it's so easy to just
say, I'll listen to what James has to say. Well, I'm gonna tell
you this morning, because it's outside my normal safety net
of flipping back into the different passages, you're going to have
to test this, you see. Because not everything that we
learn from God is specifically spelled out or explicitly spelled
out in the context of a particular passage of scripture. Now I know
that may sound contradictory to what I have been teaching
you, but until we get the first part, we can't really move to
the second part. If this is true, then therefore this logically
makes good sense. If this is true, then How do
we know that that's what Paul's talking about here? Because we
have this over here to show us and to prove us. It's the same
language, it's the same problem, it's the same issue, it's the
same teaching. Beloved, we've got to stop looking at the Bible
as a list of rules and regulations to live by and start looking
at the Bible as it was intended to be understood, which is a
catalog and a historical record of the revelation of God and
how His people live and are taught. so that we may learn and glean
not just the theological things of the doctrines of Christ. You
understand the doctrines of Christ by definition, that word, that
term means the teachings of Christ. So the apostles, when they say,
I charge you to do this, that's
Christ teaching, that's the doctrines of Christ. And we don't conflate
the gospel with good works, we know better. But yet we're so
afraid because of so many popular ideas and we're so afraid of
offending other folks in the context that we esteem because
we hold them to high esteem that we're fearful of speaking truthfully
about the things of the Bible. We're fearful of asking questions
because we're fearful of judgment. We're fearful because we'd rather
be told what to think than to decipher what's good thinking. But yet we're all familiar with
what? Be a Berean. You know the story of the Bereans?
You know what that is? You see in Luke's writing, the
Acts of the Apostles, and we see Paul, and he goes to Berea,
the city, the town, the place, the region, whatever it is. And
the people there, the Bereans, Listened to what Paul had to
say and like okay, we shall pay close attention. We shall listen.
We go agree. This is good This is great. And
then what does the Bible say about them, but they did not
just though believe Paul open mouth insert food open brain
insert information Accept it, but they searched the scriptures
not to try to catch him in error but to make sure that what he
was saying was correct according to the scripture. And as Peter
would say, that scripture is not given to us through all these
different means and humanistic philosophies and everyone's own
interpretation, but it is a divine gift. It is a divine record. It is a divine revelation. And
so, beloved, there may be some things in your understanding
that you're not quite grasping, and one of the reasons for that
is because we tend to go after the ones we like who can teach
us the best, or whom we esteem. And I'm not saying we shouldn't
esteem. If we go to, I'm gonna read out of 1 Thessalonians 5
a little bit today. It does say to honor those and
respect those who labor among you in the context of teaching,
to admonish you, My beloved, you know what? Verse
by verse teaching is important. Paul commands it. He commands
that the letters be read to the church. He commands that the
letters be read in your homes. So Christ commands it. But sometimes
we have to pause in the midst of the context of what we're
doing so that we can address something that's very important
so that we are able to see exactly what it is the Bible is trying
to show us and that's not an error. It's not personal interpretation. It's not trying to prove something
that's not in the Bible. And this is a lifelong journey,
beloved. I've been studying the Bible
for a very, very, very long time. A long time. In fact, half the
scripture that is in my memory is in the King James, because
that's what I grew up with. And when I say grew up with,
my personal Bible. Not someone else telling me anything. Because believe it or not, contrary
to popular thought, I did not grow up in church. We didn't grow up in church. But we were around the Scripture. And the Scripture is still sufficient. And Paul, with all this knowledge,
with all this understanding, with all this education, is someone
to be esteemed. So now we bring the point to
the point of today's point. We should esteem the apostles,
but we should esteem them not. because they point to Christ.
And their very teaching says to esteem Christ, not them. The
whole occasion of the first letter to the Corinthians is that Paul
is trying to establish in their minds that they are sinful and
selfish and self-serving because they are esteeming others more
important than others. And they're esteeming themselves
more important than others. And it is causing great division. And some of them were bragging,
well I studied under this person, I came to faith under this person.
You know how significant that is? That of the person who brought
you to the truth, none. Because if it pleased the Father,
He could have brought you to salvation through Balaam's ass. I have to use that phrase because
it's the only biblical fitting. Balaam's donkey for the children
to go in. That's what the King James Bible
says. That's it. It shocks our system.
What? Yes. Even the imagery of the latter
days, that even the rocks and the trees will cry out the revelation
of Christ. if it pleased the Father. But
what does it please the Father? To bring His people to the knowledge
of the truth. What is that truth? His name
is Jesus. He is the Christ. He is the God-man
in the world, died and rose to life, saving His people from
their sins. And the divine gift of faith
rests in him as the true Sabbath, as the God of creation, as the
savior of his people. And that is the foundation of
gospel belief. Then God does something amazing
through our growing. Sometimes when we're really,
really young and sometimes when we're really, really old. But
He teaches us when we are disciplined to study the Word of God. Not
study our popular, famous theologians. Our favorite pastors and preachers. Our favorite YouTube channels
or blogs. The scripture. And see, that's
what's wrong, is that we are all good at the fast food theology,
at the quick and easy, at the I need the answers. That's why
Q&A has always been so popular in my ministry. Because everybody
wants the answer. But the answer always must come
contextually. It's amazing, though, that the
number of questions that even I have answered, just personally,
And how many times, week after week after week, we get the same
type of question. Got a question yesterday, this
long question about the Trinity. Long question from the church
website, long. And I'm going, have we not answered
this? So I send it to a good buddy
who's an expert in that field and he goes, I've already answered
that God twice this month. Same question. I said, well good.
Forward the answer back to him and say, Tippins, ditto. We love the answers, but we don't
want to learn. And when we do want to learn,
we think that we're supposed to read the letter, go to bed,
wake up a genius and have it all. Listen, God will not show
you the depths of the truth. You cannot learn about election
until you study election. Let me say that again. You cannot
learn and understand election until you study election. You
cannot learn about sovereignty and understand sovereignty until
you study sovereignty. Because when we study the scriptures,
then we do what? We think about the scriptures,
and then the Holy Spirit, through the process of his people, when
we are humbly disciplined to seek after Christ, not the trivial
pursuit of his facts and figures, God will patiently teach us. And then what happens with that
teaching? Then we get some wild idea, and we think, because we're
thinking-type creatures, right? I mean, I've got a dog at home.
He's not, she's not thinking about anything, but instinctively
wondering, where am I going to show up with a bowl of food?
That's it. Food, food, food. He's not, you know, the food
that they gave me yesterday was a little bland compared to the food that I had
the day before. we think. And because we think,
we are susceptible to error. We are susceptible to opinions
that may or may not match up with what the Bible would then
teach and correct us in. So then God in His absolute amazing
mercy comes alongside us and not only through what we can
learn in our scripture, in the scripture alone, but we can also
together collectively share with one another what we're thinking
and how we're feeling and that we are patiently guided by the
Lord through His word to be directed to the truth and corrected in
our error. And that is why Paul sent this
letter to Timothy so that he could say these beloved brothers,
Hymenaeus and Alexander, for whom Christ threw his body into
the grave, are dividing the church through their crazy opinion,
which is the definition of heresy. And they've gone too far And
you need to charge the people who have followed their suit
to shush and settle down. Paul wanted it all to settle
down and then the Lord would teach them all. But we can't
make judgments on these people. Don't say you know anything about
Alexander. We don't know. And I'm not an apostle, but I
am an elder by the grace of God and the command of Christ and
the command of Paul and the affirmation of the church. You're not an
elder if you don't have a church. You're just a preacher. And a
preacher without oversight is just teaching something. Good. Teach. Great. That's awesome. But how would you feel if I were
19, never married, and doing a marriage seminar? Who's going to sign up for that?
The high schoolers? Yeah, I'm talking about marriage.
This guy knows what he's talking about. He's got a girlfriend.
He held her hand last week. Sent her roses, and she didn't
like the color. He's got conflict management skills. I don't want
to hear from that. I don't wanna go to the veterinarian
for my brain tumor. Smart guy, couldn't do it, brilliant. Beloved, we can't make judgments. Because
you know what judgments are? Final standings. Let me say that
again. A judgment is a final standing.
This is this. What is this? Is it a microphone? Can we prove it? By what evidence? By the science behind it. By
the historical facts and figures that show from the very first
time where these things were developed and designed and created,
we can say, okay, and then when we finally make that judgment,
we can say, this is what it is. It's not a Q-tip. It would not
even fit into my ear. It's not a Q-tip for a donkey.
It's not a Q-tip for an elephant. It's not a COVID test. It's a
microphone. We can make a judgment. That's
a final, final, unchangeable decree. Who can make judgments? The one who knows all things.
So when God makes judgments either declaratively in his word or
theologically through teaching, he has the right to do so. Christ
has the right to do so. When Christ made judgments and
gave the apostles the right to make judgments, he did so through
divine wisdom. And nobody else in the scripture
has ever been charged with the ability to make final judgments. But we do make discernment. We
do have discerning judgment. We do have these lightweight
things. So there's a manifold way in which the word and the
term can be used and understood. We need to understand that about
language. Language is living. It works according to the culture. It transforms based on the people
using the terms and what everybody's trying to say. My fluency in French wanes every
day that I don't speak it. So I've accidentally turned my
Alexa into French, so now it's going to sharpen me just a little
bit. So I'll know how to turn on white noise and play piano
music and hush and stop and quit. No, no, stop, stop. I mean, you
know, we'll get those words down. I did not say anything to you.
Siri will be the same way. But the more I, less separated,
and then I thought, well, you know what, I wanna look and listen
to some French. So I get online and I listen
to some French videos. Don't even know what they are,
and I'm thinking, I've watched French movies, it's different. The vernacular
of present day modern French, I would look like an idiot trying
to speak to these people in that language. My friends that live
in Quebec and speak Quebecois, We can write letters to one another,
but I can't understand a thing they say. And they don't understand
me, even when I speak English. It's a joke. What's the point?
Things change. Terms and definitions are organic,
and they change, and so when we make judgments, if I call
this a schwimme-diggy, and it's not what it is, but it's what
I've always called it, it's still true in the context in which
I came from. But because we are always in
our flesh a little bent toward the tendency to be right in our
own way, we are easily swayed to fall into the trap of what? Selfish, prideful, I know it
all. Well, if there was a man in the
Bible that knew it all, it was certainly Paul. And Paul has
a reason every time he writes a letter that he has to undergird
his authority with the expressions and with the teaching and the
recapitulation. That means to repeat himself
over and over again about the authority he has as an apostle
and that he was called as an apostle by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Why? Because he did not fit the definition
of an apostle in the first century. He fit not the definition. He
did not fit the criterion. He did not fit the definition.
He did not fit the expectation. He didn't fit it at all. So he
was not, according to the definition of the apostles, an apostle. Yet he became an apostle because
God declared him one. What was the definition? Well,
those who had spent time with the risen Lord and then sent
and commissioned to be his messengers. Paul wasn't part of that number,
was he? No, Paul was the guy on the other
side of the fence trying to destroy these people, trying to arrest
them, trying to put them in prison, trying to murder their families,
trying to upset the way because, believe it or not, the word Christian
was a pejorative term that labeled you as a nutcase, as a heretic. The word Christian meant you
were a heretic, blasphemer of God. What does it mean today? Got Jesus in my pocket. I don't
know what it means. Till I moved out west, I never
met anybody that would say that they weren't a Christian to some
degree. Because everybody down here was one. Just ask. So Paul, he had it going on. But then you know what? What
happens? Paul received mercy. Paul received mercy. And that's
where we are today. We're still talking about the grace of God. And Paul didn't come to this
amazing academic understanding of grace. Paul didn't study really,
really, really hard and then all of a sudden figure out that
all of his years of studying as a Pharisee resulted in his
resting faith, his security, his confidence that he might
be able to know now that he has eternal life because he's put
all the pieces together and he's finally seen it for what it really
needs to be. Ta-da, wrote 25 books, started
a YouTube channel. Now everybody that does exactly
as Paul does and thinks exactly as Paul thinks as a Christian,
nobody else is. That wasn't Paul's journey, was
it? As a matter of fact, Paul's journey was in the midst of all
of his absolutely superlative knowledge and understanding of
the prophets and everything that he did with the greatest of zeal
and perfection as he lived his life according to his own testimony
to the Philippians, blameless, according to the law. He was
persecuting the Christian church. He was persecuting those gathered.
He was persecuting and having arrested and destroyed and even
put to death those who followed Christ by faith. And now, whatever it was that
these guys were doing in Ephesus, they were upsetting the faith
of some. And they had not love. And Paul
had all right to be the big daddy. Like he even said to the Corinthians,
I need to come down there with a stick. Can you imagine? I've seen that
type of ministry before. Where the pastor had a stick.
In a, you know, metaphorical sense. And he was really skillful. Not necessarily hitting people
with it, but just sort of Putting it right out there. Like grandma
with that fly flap. She didn't have to swing it,
just hold it up. Just hold it up. Cross country
trips, I had a little thing that I cut off the edge of the rubber
floor mat called the tab. It even said it, tab, remove
before use. And I could just hold it up in
the car. We'd be about Texas and just
hold it up. driving from San Francisco, kids get a little
rowdy, just hold it up. It's like Moses parting the Red
Sea. All the noise went away. Just hold it up. And beloved,
that's not shepherding. That's fear mongering. That's
lording over people. And we in turn as recipients
of grace cannot be that way. Yet there is a time when authority
must be put in its proper place and that the authority that is
divine must be adhered to because it is what is good for our joy.
So when Paul would write a letter, that was authoritative. He would
even say in several times in some of his letters that those
who don't do what I tell you to do in this letter, regard
them not as a brother. That doesn't mean they're lost.
He means you don't live together in harmony. You ostracize them
and say, we're not gonna hang out anymore until you get this
straight. Why? Because that's the instruction. That's instruction. And so Paul had a reason to be
prideful, didn't he? He had a reason to boast. But what does he say? Look at verse 12. In accordance,
well, in verse 11, you know, you teach people to walk away,
to not do anything that's contrary to sound doctrine in accordance
with the gospel of glory, the blessed God, or the blessed God
with which I've been instructed. And then Paul says, I thank him.
I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord,
because he judged me faithful, appointing me to this service.
Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, insolent opponent,
but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. And verse 14, and the grace of
our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in
Christ Jesus. That's all we're going to do
today. We're going to expound on this reality. The text preaches
itself. We've heard it, you've read it,
and that's it. You see what he's teaching. Basically,
I'm a bad person, and I fought against Christ, and I hated him,
and I hated his people, and I hated everything that related to grace. Because you see this is the point,
right? This is the point where Pharisees and Sadducees, these
Jewish leaders, the reason they hated Christ so much is because
they were the epitome of correctness. They were the epitome of walking
in a manner worthy. of God. They were the ones who
had the theological chops to establish the foundations. They
understood Moses. They understood all of the prophets. They understood these things.
They knew the prophecy. But they had moved out of a place
of humility into a place of humanity and that humanistic thinking
has put them in charge of God. They knew who he was and then
they would teach others what he was and what he would do for
them. And nobody else could say, well, can I ask a question? Because
if you asked a dumb question, they threw you out on your behind.
And then you couldn't buy food. And then you couldn't own a business.
And then you couldn't come to the services, and then you couldn't
do this, and then your family was ostracized, and then you
became a no-bad, and you had to go live with the Gentiles.
Then you were a wicked, evil dog. Goodbye, society. Just for asking a dumb question.
And there is no such thing as a dumb question. Publicly. Ask. That's what happened. That's what's going on. And Paul
was at the center of it. He was the guy who fought against
Rome, obstinately supervising the stoning of Stephen, because
Stephen questioned their understanding of grace. And it all boils down
to this one issue of the righteousness of God, which is the whole point
that creation exists, that God's righteousness is not only viewed
and visible and understood and known, but that it is upheld. And the gospel, the good report,
the good news of Jesus shows us that God is gracious to his
people, no matter who they are. If they're his people, he is
gracious to them. And when he is gracious to them,
they rest in him. Because apologetics in the context
of showing people the facts will never change a heart. Debating will never, ever... Beloved, let me tell you something.
I was going to say something or it might hurt somebody's conscience, but debating will
never cause regeneration. If any of you hope in the gospel
because somebody debated you and won and you lost the debate
and now you see the truth, you have not been born again. Your
hope is in the debate and not in Jesus. And I know that seems
like a subtle thing, but it's not to be taken lightly. Because
you know who could not lose a debate? Paul. You know, even as an apostle
He has all authority to tell, and he does, and he's strong
in his words. And if you read Galatians, you know he's strong.
And he said some things to those people that he probably regretted,
yet it was divinely appointed for him to say them, and God
established it for his purposes. But in Paul's heart, reading
him, I know he's thinking, I was too harsh to these guys. So here
is an example of how elders and pastors must handle things in
the church. This letter is written to Timothy,
an elder, so therefore elders must take this as a prescription. And then you as the church, as
the members, this is not a private instruction, this is a public
instruction. Not only are we as elders supposed to handle
things this way, you are to understand how these things are to be handled
so that you can be a Berean and go, okay, pastor, are you doing
it according to the word of God? If not, ask. questions and there
are no dumb questions, then the Word of God will teach us all
how we ought to handle things appropriately and then we walk
together in joy and we walk together in unity because God has brought
us divinely back to the gospel of grace. And we rejoice. We don't take the gift of God's
unity and reconciliation and go, wait a minute, chop it in
half again and separate until we get our own reconciled consciences. We accept what God has done.
Paul just wants reconciliation. Those who refuse his instruction
of reconciliation are to be refused. You see? And there's something
that I've realized that I don't have as a gift. You know what
it is? Omniscience. I don't have it. And you might think, well, did
you ever think you had it? No, I never admitted it. But as I
start to look back at all the things that I think that I thought
I knew, I really thought I was omniscient. How do you know that?
I just know. You ever said that? I just know. Why? Where do you get that? What
evidence? Well, I just don't trust. Well, I'm just thinking,
well, I bet you if you if you saw, I bet you if you saw flames
and pastors left here, he'd have fire. Well, friends, this is that devoting
ourselves to myths and different doctrines and any genealogies
which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God
that is by faith. You see, the whole gospel experience
is stewardship. Paul was nothing, a heretic,
a blasphemer, but yet he was the pinnacle of religious order. And God made him a steward of
the gospel. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and by, like
the rest of humanity, by nature, objects of wrath. But God made
us stewards of the gospel. He gave us grace. And because
he acted in that way toward us, it is always effectual. We came
to believe the truth. And now we're getting started
to learn that truth more and more. Now what, I've gotten out
of saying this, but I've always said, hear what I'm saying, not
what I'm not saying. People are so quick to be contrary
and we are so quick in our nature to say, oh, but he didn't say
this. It doesn't matter. Paul never
exclusively in any of his writings establishes a gospel presentation
that's holistic. Have you noticed that? Jesus
in his preaching never goes through all the different things at one
time in one preaching sermon. And then what do we do in our
hubris? Yes, but what we know is that they knew what they knew.
And we know what they knew and what they had and what we have
and what they know. And now we're all lost. We don't even have
a clue what we're talking about. So we think we're omniscient.
We're running around acting like we know what somebody else really
knows and what somebody else really doesn't know. And it doesn't
matter. What the question is, is does God know you? Does Christ
know you? Did He know you when He died
on the cross? Did He know you when He raised Himself from the
grave? Has He loved you forever? Before you were, has God loved
you forever? See, that's the gospel. Those whom He loved eternally
foreknew. That's what it means. He predestined,
He decreed, He established a covenant that He would cause them to be
in the likeness of His Son, perfect, divinely glorious, righteous. How is that? Because it's not
ours, it's His. He credits us with His own essence. Righteousness. all the awesomeness therein. So here's Paul, appointed to
the service of Christ as a slave, he has no grounds for what? Boasting. But yet, that's what
we do. We boast for others. Pastor so-and-so, teacher so-and-so,
theologian so-and-so, article so-and-so, this or that or that
and this. And it's obvious. You know why? Because we flit
around. Oh, this is our favorite. Oh,
this is our favorite. Oh, this is our favorite. What about that?
I don't like them anymore. Oh, this is the man of God. No,
he's not a man of God anymore. Oh, this is the truth. No, it's
not the truth anymore. What does that teach our children? That
we're idiots. That's what it teaches our children.
This is the best. I was wrong. This is the best.
I was wrong. We have no wisdom that we jump around from one
thing to another. The question is, is your gospel
constantly changing? Is your esteem for theology constantly
moving? Is your needle back and forth?
James talks about that, doesn't he? It's a lack of wisdom being
tossed like a leaf in the wind or a wave of the sea throwing
a leaf. to and fro with every wind of
doctrine, every iteration, every new distinction constantly adding
and adding and adding until before long you know what John Bunyan
was thinking when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress. You know what was on
the back of Christian? Theological distinctions and
garbage and history. No, we know. I'm joking for those
of you who cherish that writing. When my children are real little,
that's how I put them to sleep. I read them Pilgrim's Prophecy. I don't
think we've ever gotten halfway through the book. We're weighted down. It's just
a new law. Every time we come up with a
new idea or a new opinion that is demanded of others, it is
just a new law because it's not Christ. Paul does not boast in
his place. Paul does not boast in his knowledge. Paul does not boast in his understanding. Paul does not boast in his authority.
Paul does not boast. What does he say? I thank him. How can Paul be so congenial
in the midst of such turmoil? Because Christ is his strength.
Christ is enough. The grace of God is sufficient. You know why
so many people are so wound up so many times when they're younger? Not only is the frontal lobe
not developed and they have no empathy, they also have no understanding.
I'm not saying that to be derogatory. That's a biological fact. They haven't suffered enough
to be humbled. Some people have. For the most
part, when we're younger, we haven't experienced enough pain.
We haven't been taught through the experiences of God's gracious,
awesome gifts of suffering to his people. Everything's great. He said this great outlook. Because
what's the first time that really something goes bad when we're
young? What's the first thing we do? We blame somebody. But
that ain't right. That shouldn't be happening to me. Yes, it should. Welcome to life. Welcome to life. Timothy, the youngest elder in
the Bible, I bet he wasn't 20. And this poor guy set over the
entire city of Ephesus. And not only that, was Paul's
protege. Can you imagine? And here comes
that boy. Here comes that boy. Watch out,
here's the child. What's up, squirt? I bet they
caught him, stuff like that. I mean, you know, if it was today. Messing
up his hair. What's up, you gonna teach yourself
to burn the Bible? I mean, you know, aw, ain't that cute? Real
patronizing, condescending, all at the same time. That's Paul's boy right there,
better listen. I mean, this is the nature of humanity. Nothing's
changed. The words we say have changed, but nothing's changed.
Paul doesn't boast. He boasts in Christ. He boasts in grace. He says,
I thank Him who has given me strength, our Lord, the Christ
Jesus, because He judged me faithful. Now, is Paul saying there he's
faithful? No. Paul's saying that God declared
him faithful. Was Paul faithful? He was faithfully
wrong, faithfully sinful, faithfully lost, sincerely blind. But then God, in His creative
work, in His grace, said, You are faithful. Did He do it to
Moses? It's a picture. You're faithful. He did it to Abram. You're faithful. And what did these men do? Failed!
were never faithful because their strength was not them, their
strength was Him. So we boast in what God has done. We boast in what Christ has done.
We boast in the grace of God who appoints us to His service.
And the cool thing about it is we're all wondering, this is
in the beginning days of ministry, 22 years ago, you know, when
we first step out to be full-time pastors, you know, We are so arrogant. And we don't even know it. Humble,
brag, piety, oh Lord, thank you so much. But what we're saying
is, thank you, you've equipped me in such a way, I'm gonna go
out here and take this world by storm. With your help, of course. It's
what we think. Jeremy, am I right? I mean, it's
what we do. And we don't realize we're doing
that until God puts us in the ditch two or three times, or
cuts our ears off, or chops our heads off. And then we can go, you appointed
me to your service. You know what that means? You
will drink the cup that Christ drank from. You know what else
it means? There is an order in which I call my servants, and
it's right here, and if it's not here, addressed to you in
your role with your authority, you don't get to do it and say
you're serving me. And as an elder, that's sort
of my job to oversee that kind of nonsense. What are you doing? Let's talk
about what you're trying to accomplish. And it's usually innocent zeal,
right? I just want to stand for truth. Good. I need you to go
over here and clean those bathrooms. And when you get back, I'm going
to give you a list of things to pray for. And then I want you to read the
book of Ephesians every day for the next six days. And then Sunday,
we're going to talk about these things. And then I'm going to
ask some questions related to what you think God has taught
you that you need to be doing. And I promise you, what you were
planning is not in the list. Paul was a blasphemer. Insolent
opponent. You know, when we don't have
love for one another, we're insolent to God. When we're not patient,
we're insolent to God. When we're not willing to lay
aside our own judgments and listen, we're insolent to God. But you
know who wasn't insolent? Jesus Christ. Though he was God in the flesh,
he did not take his divineness, something to be grasped, but
made himself nothing, obedient unto death, death on a cross
as a slave, as a criminal. Therefore God highly exalted
him that he has the name that is above all names, that at the
name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will tell
the truth. that Jesus is the Lord. Today,
yesterday, and forever, He always has been the Lord of everything. But I received mercy, because
I was blind. I was ignorant of righteousness.
I was ignorant of truth. Sometimes I think our culture
would rather cut the heads off of unbelievers than rejoice in
their salvation. And that makes us no better than
the Pharisees who were blind and lost. In verse 14, Paul says, And the
grace of our Lord overflowed from me. That's what the grace
of God does. Anytime God's grace is mentioned
or effective in the scripture, it talks about Him saving somebody,
showing them the truth, establishing with them the promises that He
has fulfilled in Christ Jesus, empowering them to not only believe,
but to rest and to see and to be strength in a time of trouble,
to know that they have an advocate in their time of need, to know
that they can go bold before the throne of their dad, God
the father, and say, father, daddy, because of what Christ
has done. And the grace of the Lord, when
given to his people, It is an overwhelming and irresistible
and overflowing, a powerful and effectual work. Like I said last
week, God doesn't have a pocket full of grace and he sprinkles
it. It's not some magic thing that God has. He is. And when he acts mercifully,
It means he bestows favor, and that favor flows from the cross.
It was there at the cross, it was there at creation, and there
is a people that God has affection for from the foundation of the
world that he will save for himself, and we understand that contextually
and exegetically. That means out of the text, contextually,
same word basically. One has to do with expression
and interpretation. The other is just simple. is that God's grace saves His
people and that's why Paul couples it with overflowing with me with
the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. So I'm resting in the work of
Christ. Paul talks about that same thing
in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says we have security, we
have hope. And in verse 8 of 1 Thessalonians
5, Paul says, but since we belong to the day, let us be sober.
And there's a context there and I read it pre-service. Having
put on the breastplate of faith and love. The grace of God is
God's faithfulness and love toward His people to show them what
He has done in Christ. And this faith and love is then
gifted to his people. We have faith and we have love
for him. And we have love for him, evidence that our love is
for one another. And that is a discipline, not
a feeling. We are able to forgive as a discipline,
not a feeling. Beloved, you will always have
resentment in your heart when you're reminded about the pain. Right? but the discipline of
grace, the gracious discipline that God gives us and strengthens
us with by reminding us over and over again of the gospel
and what Christ accomplished for us and that He and His obedience
alone is our hope. Therefore now, because we have
received mercy, let us walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.
The foundations of that and the only thing that we need to concern
ourselves with at all The life that we live, whether we live
to be 400 years old, is that we are gracious toward others,
our enemies and our brothers, and that we speak the truth in
a context of love for the believers so that we may serve them, thus
serving Christ, and love them through our service, thus loving
Christ, so that we know, because that we know, the love of God
for us. And Paul doesn't say anything
differently than what I just said here in 1 Thessalonians.
Since we belong to the day, let us be silver having put on the
breastplate of faith and love. This is our guard. This is our, our armor. We guard our hearts. I'm going
to go over to Philippians four in a minute. The helmet of the hope of our
salvation, our thinking, our affections, our actions. We are
trusting in the sufficiency of Christ and we are trusting in
the teaching of Christ that we can walk in this way and thus
fulfill the law of Christ. I'm just not good enough. Amen!
Yes! Now you finally tell the truth.
Not only are you not good enough, you're trying to pretend that
you're good enough, and you're hiding because you know that
you're not good enough, and the man that you're living with isn't
your husband, so that's not good enough. You see? These things
that pop out of my mouth are most often times contextual.
John 4. I perceive that you are a prophet. The breastplate of faith and
love and the helmet for your mind, for your thinking, the
hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for
wrath. But to obtain salvation through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us so that whether
we are awake, whether we're alive, whether we're asleep, whether
we're dead, we might live with him. Therefore, see how we want to
stop there and become experts. See how we want to stop there
and then esteem the experts. Why is it that we're esteeming
all these secondary experts anyway? Paul was the expert and he esteemed
himself not. So we're blaspheming Christ. Let's stop doing that. Therefore,
what are we supposed to be doing then, Pastor? Give us something
to do. Here it is. And I bet you I'm
going to be very hyperbolic. There's a million places in the
New Testament where the therefores will give instructions about
love and faith. Therefore, encourage one another. That's for us, beloved. Encourage
one another. And I won't talk about the means
through which I've started to have these thoughts and ideas, but
beloved, I'm not the same person I was 20 years ago. I'm not the
same person I was two years ago. I'm bitter and cynical and suspicious. And you know what you don't do
when those are true? Encourage anybody. because you
don't want anybody to be anything but at arm's length. Why would you say such a thing?
Why am I gonna lie to you? Aren't you? Anxiety? I used to like sympathize in
some sense, you know, anxious. And it's like PTSD? What the
world? How can I have PTSD on something
simple? Because anxiety. is no respecter of persons or
circumstances. Now, I'm not diagnosed with that.
I'm just using that as a reference, please. Therefore, encourage one another.
What does that mean? Encourage. I have a new puppy,
so it's fresh in my mind. The first thing you teach a puppy,
to come to you. If the dog doesn't recall, it's
worthless. It's gonna do what it wants to
do. Come here, come here. What do you do? You lure it.
You tempt it. You beg it. You lay on the ground. You scream.
You go, hey, come on. You do anything. You do jumping
jacks. You do stars. You do snow angels in the air.
Whatever it takes to get the dog to come to you. Oh, that's
exciting. Let's go. Encourage. There's no negative connotation
to encouragement. There's no rebuke in the midst of it. Encouragement
is not, hey, come on over here. Boo! Ha, sucker. Now stop acting
like a fool. I mean, that's not encouragement.
That's not what we do. Encouragement is always positive
teaching, positive movement to do something better. You can
do this, church. Why? Because you are in Christ.
I know you're hurt, but work to forgive. I'll walk with you.
Come on. I know you're struggling with
this doctrine. I know these false teachers have gotten in your
head. I know that you have illness in your body. But I want to build
you up. Build one another up just as
you were doing. You notice Paul never taught
the Thessalonians they were doing anything wrong. He actually told
them that their love had spread wide and far. Their life and
the way they lived in the gospel had spread wide and far to the
point that people were talking about them and gossiping about
them and speculating about them. And that when they showed up
in the other places and the other regions and other cities that
people would come and say, y'all are the apostles? What's going
on in Thessalonica? They didn't even have to introduce the purposes
there. They're thinking, if you can
reform these people, man, come on in. Let's hear it. I want
to hear what's going on because there's some great stuff going
on down there. What is the church known for
today? Politics, political division,
theological fodder, isolation, separation, divorce, pride, What's Christ known for? That.
That's the Christ we display. Because we are safe in him, because
our righteousness is not our own, but it is his, because we
are clothed in the blood of Christ, let us encourage one another
and build one another up. This is our business. So when we see the rebuke, correct,
teach, instruct, it's a lifelong journey of patience for the elders
of the church to instruct the church into a rebuke when necessary.
But yet, even then, you can't rebuke an older man. I can't rebuke an older brother.
What does a rebuke look like? It's a swift correction. The
point of rebuke is it's a swift correction. Hey, hey! That's
not okay. Don't talk about that. Don't think that way. Don't put
your finger in your nose. That's nasty. You see, that's
a rebuke. An encouragement would be, man,
you got clean hands, man. Don't mess them up like that.
But the whole point of even rebuke is unto a swift correction. Survey says, ooh, that don't
work. Hey, come on, let's talk about it. Then we go right into
the encouraging and to the building up, which is love. And beloved, we can't teach people
who can't see this truth. Because I believe so many people
who are in grace are arrogantly in grace. I am the recipient of grace.
I have the knowledge of grace. I know what I know. You see? Wow, that sounds like me. Maybe
it does. Maybe it sounds like me too. Isn't that what we are?
These things should not be. So we rejoice. Look down at verse
14. We urge you, brothers, admonish
the idol. First he talks about respecting
the teachers. Because it's a hard job. Be at peace amongst yourself. That's a commandment. Be at peace
amongst yourself. Why? Because we have peace with God through Jesus
Christ. And I urge you brothers, admonish the idol. What does
that mean? Hey guys, admonishment by definition has a flavor of
warning. A little bit of warning. Hey
man, you're sitting still. You gonna fall asleep? Hey man, look
man, we need you. Don't do that. Come over here.
That's not a rebuke. Admonish. Admonish the idol.
Get people busy serving. Get people busy praying. Get
people busy loving. You ain't got to be involved
in everything, but be involved with someone. Encourage the faint hearted. What's that mean? Exactly what
it says. Draw them up. Get them up. Let's
go. Hey, I know it's downtrodden. I know it's hard. I know it's
difficult. But look, Christ is King. We are saved by grace. God has granted us faith. We
are okay. We are going to be okay. How do you know? Because the
Bible shows us person after person after person after person after
person after person, then Jesus himself. Encourage the fainthearted. The preaching is that he'll be
the wind on which we soar. Help the weak. I've been so weak
at times physically that, you know, you ever been so weak you
just couldn't get up out of a chair? It's usually when I'm in the
truck, when I find that time, it's like, gosh, I can't even
open the door. It's a horrifying thing. When you're that weak,
you can't open the door to get out. You need somebody to help you.
When you're weak, you need somebody to help you. That's our job. Be patient with them all. And do that by not repaying evil
with evil, but seek to do good to one another
and to everyone. Seek to do good then, back to
Timothy, to Alexander, and Hymenaeus, and all the people who were disheveled
on their situation. And if they don't receive that,
let them go. And pray that God will bring
them back. And they'll say, I'm so sorry. I know that I was messing up
the truth. But ultimately, in verse 16 of
1 Thessalonians 5, we see the same reality. Rejoice always,
pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Because I know here at the end
of our service, I know what a lot of us are thinking. We're going,
OK, I hear the instruction. I know and understand the gospel. I know where I am before the
Lord, and I know that this is not a requisite of anything except
that my joy is fuller when I'm walking by faith and serving. So what do I do? What do I do? And next week, we're really going
to hit on the anxiety that Timothy probably had and that Paul has
had and that we are experiencing now as a culture and as a people
and that many of us are probably crippled by sometimes, myself
included. What do we do? We pray. We turn our thoughts and our
self-talk to the Lord. We talk to Him. And most importantly,
We thank Him. I thank you, Paul says. I thank
Him who gives me strength. I thank Him who judged me faithful. God has judged us faithful to
be servants amongst the body for each other. It doesn't matter
if you don't feel gifted or called or directed or sufficient because
we're not. We're not. I'm not sufficient.
You aren't sufficient. We're okay. We're in the same
bowl and that is the bowl of grace. That is the lap of God,
that is the arms of hope that God's grace and love for us has
established us before Him. There is nothing that we can
do well or do poorly that changes our place before the Father.
So we can thank Him. We can thank Him on days where
we just don't care. And we can thank Him on days
when we feel like we're the next best thing to the Apostle Paul. Not that we should, but we can.
And we can rejoice when we're able to say, praise the Lord,
isn't this a great day? And we're able to rejoice when
we can't, when we can say nothing at all. Because God has established
salvation through Jesus Christ. The grace of the Lord overflowed
for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Because that's what he came to
do. And when we entreat others who may be in sin or may be in
error or may even be unconverted with disdain and frustration
and haughtiness, we may very well be blaspheming Christ because
we are treating one of our siblings that has yet to come to the truth
with disdain. That's why everywhere we see
encourage, and build, and love, and serve, there's always the
caveat, actually it'd be an addition, an encouragement, and your enemies,
and those who persecute you, and those, and everyone else. And that's the timbre, that's
the sound, that's the nature of Paul's song in his writing,
to sing it. To sing it and to do the work
that we've been called to because Christ has finished the work
that he was called to and he never complained and he never,
ever disobeyed. And that is how we stand before
our father today, by his obedience. Let's pray. Lord, as you know, our hearts
and minds can only absorb so much, and Father, my mind is
so many places right now, so many things that I want to clarify
and say, but Lord, by your mercy and grace, what has been said
is what you intended. And so we thank you, Father,
that you are sovereign. Lord, bring about the purposes
for all that we experience. for your glory and for your name.
And father, for our good. Lord, we pray for our brothers
and sisters who are suffering in their flesh and dealing with
circumstances beyond their control. Heal their bodies and their minds.
Heal their hearts. Give them joy. Heal their headaches and their
backaches. Heal their heartaches and their
brokenness. Father, restore marriages, give
joy to our children, wipe away the depression. Eliminate the confusion and give
clarity. Father, give us the discipline of love and service.
Help us to grow in forgiveness. Lord, that we might live this
life in peace with others. And Father, continue to arrest
us that when we think we're walking well, to remind us that it doesn't
matter how well we do, that it doesn't change your scale. The
good or the bad deeds all weigh the same. And Father, the weight of the
cross of Christ is the only thing that will take us home. His righteousness
for us. And we thank you, Lord, that
in His body and in His blood we have forgiveness of sins.
Teach us and help us to be patient as you were patient with us.
In Christ's name we pray these things. Amen.