confidence that you had everything
correct and you were walking in the right direction and you
had all the right understanding and then all of a sudden you
step in a pothole and the pothole was the pothole of correction.
And then you go, wow, okay, I really didn't know. And then you think,
okay, I've grown wiser, I'm going to continue to walk now and then
a couple of seasons down the road, I'm wise now. and you're
walking correctly, and then that pothole again, and then you're
walking correctly in that pothole, and there eventually comes a
time when we think we're just dumb, we're not wise, we don't
know where we're going, so Lord, just show me the way. And beloved,
I think that that is the ultimate end of what the Christian life
is about on earth, is that we give glory to Christ, by resting
in him completely. We give glory to God by stopping
all the nonsense and the foolishness of trying to work all these things
out for ourselves, trying to be the manipulator of God's providence,
trying to figure out all the details of everything. And then
we come to this conclusion going, yes, this is where I want to
stay, but we don't stay there. We weave in and out of the ditches
when the center lane is clearly marked for us. We're always standing
on the cliffs. We're always looking out over
the world and our lives and thinking, if I had just done this, if I
had just said that, if I could have just gone back, if this
could have been, we all have these things. So, but we're not
alone. Now, there may be some of us rare birds that say, I've
never thought that way. That's because you haven't stepped
in a pothole yet. And chances are, if you haven't,
then you're on the wrong track with some things. Now, I'm not
talking about the gospel. We know the gospel, but, beloved,
for anyone to suppose that if you are in Christ that you have
no doubts and you have no theological tragedies is rightly asinine. Can I say that word? It's ridiculous. And it props us up in such a
way, it props that idea up in such a way that it puts a burden
upon the church that is not measurable in the Bible, nor is it even
tangible. It's not something that we can
ever see or touch. We can't see perfection. We can't
see purity. We can't see the epitome of wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. Christ
is our purity. Christ is our obedience. Christ
Jesus, by faith in him alone, are we walking in absolute perfection
before the Father? Are we loving and getting credited
for being the most loving people that walk the face of the earth?
All the while, we're struggling to even like one another sometimes. but yet we get credit for being
lovers. Isn't that ironic? Isn't that a dichotomy that when
we sit down in our philosophical circles, that it makes good coffee
talk, it makes us seem wise, it makes us seem, you know, robust
in the faith, and people that listen, they go, oh wow, those
people, I wish I had faith like that. This running is not faith. This running is just running.
When my mouth speaks, it's not about my faith or the measure
of my faith. It's just me talking. And so anyone can talk the game.
You ever seen a movie? Do you know there is no Iron
Man? You know there is no Dracula? Sorry, I know all of you are
going to have to have therapy now. There's no such thing as, you know, as
Jack Reacher. Sorry guys. Frank Castle doesn't
exist. All those great roles that were
played, all these things that we love to see on the screen,
you know, Luke Scott Walker, not a real person. These people
act. These are real live individuals
who hone their craft and they act out of part, so much so that
some of them in their methods of preparing for a role are embedded
so deeply in that role that some of them have nearly gone mad. and some of them have gone mad.
Some of them have lost so much weight that they have liver damage,
because they wanted to feel the part and live the part, and they
do a 30-second scene, and after two years, they get to watch
a 60-minute movie. Well, beloved, we're all actors. There's a word for that in the
Greek that we have anglicized, and it is hypocrite. Now see,
hypocrite for us is somebody who's not genuine. Somebody who's
a shyster. Somebody who's telling us to
do what they're not doing. But the word literally means
to put on an act. And that's what we do. That's
what we're doing this morning. All of us have a little act.
All of us have a little act. We act a little bit when we get
up. We act a little bit when we get ready. We act a little
bit when we come in. We have an act. Why? Because we're taught
to do that. And I'm not saying that we're not supposed to. Beloved,
we got to do some things that we're not innately taught. I
mean, no child is born with Emily Post in the back of their cerebral.
If you don't know who that is, she's like the grandmother of
etiquette. I was given an Emily Post book
as a boy, probably seven or eight years old, and I read it. And
I took it to heart. So I learned not to smack. I
learned where the forks went on what side of the plate. I
learned not to drink my drink during my meal, wait till I was
finished eating, and then I drink. That's the things that you do.
It's just rude. It's, sir, you know, you eat, then you drink.
Helps digestion. You say, well, who said? Emily
Post. But we're not born with these things. We're not born
to know how to speak properly. We imbibe in our own ears without
even knowing it that which is around us. So most of us sound
and speak like our families. So we're actors. We teach our
children how to act. We teach our children how to
behave. It's not innate. We tell them that this is required.
And they may appear to do it out of instinct after several
paddles or spoons or whatever it might be, tabs, leather belts.
But ultimately, it's just a learned behavior. Well, beloved, when
we read the Bible, why is it written? So we could learn information
about Jesus, the God of glory, the King of Kings, and the Lord
and Savior of His people, and that we can learn how to behave. Did you know that? And when someone
says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do not teach the behaviors
of the New Testament. They are not yet fallen in a
pothole. You see? And we're just gonna
patiently wait for them to break their ankle and say, help! And
we'll get them out and there'll be a little bit of wisdom, just
a little sprinkle of wisdom in that moment that will carry them
to the next hole, to the next hole, to the next hole, to the
next hole. And beloved, I am so sick and tired of falling
in potholes. But as Paul was taught by the
Holy Spirit, there's one thing that I know for sure, suffering
in a prison awaits me. So, little tongue in cheek, There's
one thing I know for sure, suffering and potholes await me. We're
gonna have them. We're gonna have them. And what
we've done by insisting that we know what we know, and see,
this is the context of 1 Timothy, right? These are these people
that know what they know. Beloved, when we are there, we may know
the facts of what we're talking about, but we do not know what
we know, except by the grace of God. The Holy Spirit does
not infuse us with knowledge and understanding. It comes through
trial. Some of us cognitively can grasp
concepts that are complex. Some of us can grasp things that
are simple. Some of us in our minds, we just hear something,
go, yeah, I got that. I see it, yeah, no problem. And
some of us struggle. Some of us fight. And there's
always people on the sidelines watching us trip and fall and
weave and swerve. And there's always people on
the sidelines ready to give their advice. You ever been there?
And as a parent, I have so much remembered those days. of moms
and dads and grandmas and granddads and great grandmas and great,
see, I just, I've said that several times, but I had the benefit
of knowing great grandparents and great uncles and aunts. And
I mean, you're talking about being told what to do. It never
stopped. It never stopped. So as a father,
I'm like, okay, when my kids get to a certain age, I'm gonna
back up a little bit, I'm gonna relax a little bit, I'm gonna stop
a little bit. And when they get married, I'm not gonna do this. And you
find it, you go, Lord Jesus, help me. You see,
because we know as parents what our children need to be doing.
We know how they ought to act and what they ought to do with
their money and what they ought to do with their time. We all
know how they ought to set the table and vacuum out the car. We know that we're not responsible
for mowing their grass or paying their bills. That's their job.
But we Because even when we think we know, we don't. So the point
is that we've all been those know-it-alls, and we are surrounded
by know-it-alls, and we all know it, that we're know-it-alls.
And do we really know that yet? Have we gained the wisdom to
know that we might not be know-it-alls at all? You follow? This is Dr. Sue's day, I guess. There's hope
in that. There's hope in that because
the scripture gives instruction and sometimes it's harsh. Sometimes
Paul is upset and he's mad. He's mad in one letter, but he's
not mad with his saints. I want you to think about that
for a second. Paul's mad in another letter,
but he's not mad with the saints. So the New Testament doesn't
reveal a holy anger toward God's people. As a matter of fact,
that's antithetical to the gospel. And according to John, it's antichrist.
God is not angry with His people. Because His anger is quenched. He drunk the full cup of His
justice when Jesus drank the full cup of His wrath. And so
He is satisfied with His people. There is no condemnation. There
is no anger. There is no frustration. God
is not frustrated. God's love is not frustrated.
God's grace is not frustrated. And so one of the most horrible
realities that I have continued to learn is that I am a dogmatic
know-it-all sometimes. And I don't want to say that
I know that. Because when I say that I know that, then I might
not know that. And while I may act appropriately
in front of you, oh, inside I'm a Tasmanian devil. See, some
people don't like to hear that about their pastor. When I say
to you that my inclined flesh is murderous, I am not pretending. I'm really being honest at that
moment. I am a kick butt and take names
kind of guy. And typically, throughout my
lifetime, it's been with this mouth. I can tear someone up. My friends used to say, boy,
Tiffin's will make the devil cry. How? Because I'm just a mean person.
But by the Lord's mercy, by His patience, and by the teaching
that's found in the scripture, He has taught me to not act according
to my inclinations, but to act according to His teaching, not
His puppetry. You see, God is not the puppet
master of me. God is the Father of me. God
is the Lord of me. God is the gracious and merciful
King of me. And He shows me how He laid His
life down for me so that I may be incited to listen to what
He says about how I should lay down my life for others. And
when I do, I'm thankful. And when I do, I feel close to
the Lord. And when I don't, I'm guilty
and I feel far from the Lord. And then he teaches me that it
doesn't matter how I feel, and it doesn't matter what I do,
because nothing can separate me from Him and Christ Jesus. When Jesus buys you with His
blood, let me put that in the right perspective. When Jesus
bought you with His blood, there's no refunds. There's no exchanges. And there are a lot of people
who don't read the scripture, or don't hear the scripture,
or don't understand and comprehend the scripture, and that's all
of us. We may understand certain things,
and we may deal with certain theologies, and we may apprehend
certain truths, but to really understand the scripture means
that we understand what Paul is doing when he writes this
intimate, loving, kind, personal, and pleading letter to Timothy. Paul didn't sit down and pull
off his pastoral frock and say, give
me a pen. God's given me a message. That's
what we think though. Paul is climbing out of a pothole
sometimes. And God puts us there. prison, abandonment, starvation,
snakes, shipwrecks. I mean, let's just put the list
down for Paul. He suffered. And he would say,
please, all I'm trying to do is just to share the love of
God with all the world, to teach the gospel of free and sovereign
grace to everybody who's willing to hear it. And who came after
him? Those people who knew. Those people who knew that they
knew what God was saying. Now the irony behind that is
that Paul then had to continue to defend his apostolic authority.
He had to continue to say, like he says in 1 Timothy chapter
1, an apostle of Christ Jesus, and he's strong here, by the
command of God. I had no choice. I'm not this
guy that knows it all. I did know it all. Now I know
nothing. I knew everything. I was brilliant. I was perfect.
I walked in a manner that every Pharisee wished they could have
walked in. I did it, Paul says. And then
I didn't. And then I realized I wasn't.
And I realized I didn't know anything. But I know what I do
know. I know Christ is merciful. I
know I know that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. We're
getting there in a couple of weeks. You see how that does
us, we who are born of God? You see what that does to us?
No matter how frustrated we are, no matter how right we are, no
matter how aggravated we are, when we're reminded of that truth,
what comes? It's not angst, it's not destruction.
It could be, I as your shepherd, under-shepherd, as your pastor,
as your overseer, who has this platform and you are sort of
like glued to what I have to say, I could take that and really
run it into an unbiblical ditch. I could make you all guilty.
Then I could give you four ways of remedy. I could give things, because
I mean, you know, we're all alike. There's only a half a dozen things
that we could be doing. So we could just roll through
some things that I've thought about doing or that I've seen
happen in the world, and I can pin it on you. Shame on you,
you wicked lot. Look at you. Look in the mirror
of your soul and ask yourself, am I really a child of God? Well,
you want to know? Where is that? That's not in
Paul's writing. Nowhere in Paul's writing, nowhere in John's writing,
nowhere in Peter's writing, nowhere in James' writing do any of the
apostles indict the elect of God to change something in their
life that they may be right with God. Nothing. But yet that is
the culture we live in. We don't do that to our children.
You didn't make your bed this morning, I disown you. You didn't
get a good grade on your English exam. You're no son of mine.
What's wrong with you? You can't brush your teeth? Get
out of my house. Really? But yet we think that's how the
Lord is. And then we say, no, no, no, no. It's not like that.
It's all grace. Everything's good. This is good. God loves me. Yes, I know that.
But deep down we're going, he does not. I've got to change
some things. That's not love. That's not love
that cast away fear. That's not intimacy. That's not
hope. That's not assurance. And that
surely isn't what God gives us when he grants us faith and a
changed mind. Beloved, I don't know how many
more years God will allow me to teach his word, but I can
promise you this. Most Sundays I'm climbing out
of potholes. I used to think that my pastors
and those above me. And you have to understand, I
didn't really have a pastor until I was 17, okay? And that was short-lived. And
I went to college at 18, and then that was sort of the end
of that. And I saw campus ministries, and that was sort of the end
of that. Then I got married, and then we tried to find a biblical congregation,
and there's a lot there. There's a lot of history there.
It doesn't matter. My history's not important. But I can tell you that I used
to look at men who preached and men who stood in pulpits and
men who always had that right theological answer. And then
if they were invested in the languages, it was like, oh man. I remember thinking one day when
I was listening to my pastor in high school preach, I thought,
you know, I wonder if there's a door up there and he just floats
down out of heaven on Sundays. Open your Bibles to John 3. The
Lord giveth all that he hath, giveth. Okay, that's a fortune
cookie. Be careful of people who pray
into King James. Okay. And that's the way I looked at
him. I knew that wasn't right, but I'm saying I looked at him like he just
sort of stepped, you know, he wasn't, he wasn't Jesus, but
he was just sort of hanging out in the waiting room. And he came
down and he preached, he prayed. And then he went away until next
Sunday. And this man was perfect. And
then I started hanging out with him in his office. And he liked
to play pinball. I'm going, that's satanic. You
know? Oh, you actually do speak English. See, we have this false sense
of glory with each other when the glory belongs to Christ.
We have this false sense of glory with people who have taught us
certain doctrinal things that have really settled our soul.
And our emotions are always at work. There's nothing that you've
ever thought, said, or done that wasn't a response or at least
fettered to some type of emotion. Because it's impossible. It's
impossible. Now, we may find it. We may discover
it. But what brought us to this discovery
is being able to listen and see ourselves and test the emotions.
But that's just the things that we see. Imagine what Paul is
going through, knowing that there's trouble in Ephesus with people
who have yet to realize they're in a pothole and they're not
doing what needs to be done and they're swerving from the love
of God because they want to somehow apply a burden to the body of
Christ that the Bible itself does not apply. And how do they
do it? By using the Old Testament. By
using the prophets and the law. And Paul will tell us in Romans
and in Galatians and other places that Jesus Christ is the terminus
of the law. That's what he says. Terminus. The last stop. The fulfillment. The absolute end of it all. The law is over. The law is satisfied. And we're no longer held to its
consequences. But we can learn. We can learn. We can learn what is good and
pleasing. But when we do what is good and pleasing, it doesn't
change our status before our father. And Paul wasn't upset about it.
Paul wasn't mad at Timothy. Paul wasn't mad with these knuckleheads,
Alexander, Hymenaeus. He wasn't mad, upset possibly. But what was his intentions?
What were Paul's intentions here? I mean, let's read this for a
second. Let's just read the first 11 verses and listen to the timbre
in which Paul speaks. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope.
So let's stop there for a second. What's that message? Is that
a message of frustration? Is that a message of anger? Is that a message of power pushing,
power play? Listen to me, by God, I'm the
apostle. No, that's not what he's saying. My goodness. By the command of Christ Jesus. And of God our Savior. And of Christ Jesus our hope. So he's setting the tone already
for this young man. It's a tone of love and affection. It's a
tone of intimacy. Let's continue. My true child in the faith. To
Timothy, the young guy that I hope gets it. To Timothy, the guy
that I wish could grow up quicker. To Timothy, had you just stayed
there, this wouldn't have happened. No, my true child, my beloved
son, my dear protege. It's a term of endearment. It's
an expression of love. It's an expression of love and
hope that what he has in Christ by the command of God, and now
the same love and hope that he knows all the fullness of everything
that the gospel entails and can preach it and write it, yet his
entire intention is to do what? Is to put forth love as not only
the centerpiece of the gospel, but also the aftermath of the
gospel. And I use that term purposefully. Gospel regeneration, the aftermath
of that is unified love. Not in any type of purity except
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. So that's Paul's intentions.
The next thing we see, starting in verse 3, is Paul's exhortation. When I was going to Macedonia,
remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not
to teach different types of teachings. Not to devote themselves to myths
and genealogies because these promote speculations rather than
the stewardship of God from God that is by faith. The aim of
our charge, so here's another part of his intention. The aim
of our charge is love. Love for who? Love for Alexander. Love for Hymenaeus. Love for
all the people who have fallen in their rut and started to consider
and contemplate their use of the law and what it entailed
for the application of the local church. Paul's intention is that
we need to correct this stuff and get it out of their minds
and get it out of their mouths so that because we love them. Did he condemn them? No. Did he reprobate them? He has
no authority to do such things. Paul never reprobated anybody.
He didn't reprobate. There's no explanation of that
even in Galatians chapter 1. Paul didn't reprobate it. Learn
to listen to genres. Learn to listen to construction
of syntax. And if you need help with that,
I will help you. Paul's intention was love. The
aim of our charge is love, the love that issues from a pure
heart, love that comes from a pure heart, love that comes from a
good conscience, love that comes from a sincere faith. Are these
battle words or are these loving words? And then six, as a way of passion
and compassion and love and care to prove his intention, he says,
there's some folks, Timothy, there are some folks who have
swerved from these truths. There's some folks who have swerved
from the love of God. There's some folks who have gone
away into all this silly discussion and talk, and they ought to be
serving, and they ought to be quiet, and they ought to be intimate. Sometimes we hear people say,
well, I love the Lord. And when we hear people say that,
we should say, yeah, how? How do you love him? Well, I
just do. That's ridiculous. I mean, could I walk up to a
person on the street and say, hey, stranger, I love you. And just
walk away? It might make them feel good,
but have I loved them? No. Have I loved them? They're hungry. Hey, I know you're
starving. I love you. See you later. You're dying of
thirst? I love you. You're naked and
cold? Look at my new jacket. You should
get you one. I love you. No, that's not love. Love is
never any type of affection. Because the difference between
love and idolatry is that idolatry serves us. Love serves. And sometimes we don't really
love one another, we just idolize each other. We love the idea
of one another. We love the presence of each
other because of what it does for us. So if we really love, we do.
We act. And I will stand before God and
know that this is correct because his word teaches it. The Holy
Spirit does not lie. God cannot lie. And so the Bible
teaches us that love is and only and always will be what we do. You might say, well, how am I
supposed to love? I don't know. It depends on who you are, depends
on your gifts, and it depends on the circumstances in which
you're in. It depends on what God has called you to and who
God has called you to serve. At the minimum, I'll just give
you an example, we should be actively praying for one another.
That's the greatest love we could give. And then also, we should
be extremely patient with one another because our Father loves
us and is patient with us. If we could learn those two things
and then put them into practice, we would go a long way. But that's
not what most people think, love. I got to speak the truth in love.
That's code for the contemporary, keep it real. I don't tell it
like it is. That's not love, that's wicked.
When I tell it like it is, I'm being wicked. When I keep it
real, I'm wanting to be heard. I'm not wanting to help. And
there's something in our flesh that when we disallow the instructions
of love found in the New Testament, we really become uber selfish.
We become so myopic in the intention of the gospel to give glory to
the Father that we walk around and say, well, we love the Lord
Jesus. Why? Everybody can answer that. "'Cause he first loved
me, he gave himself for me. I'm an instrument of his mercy.
I'm an object of his grace. I've been loved eternally by
my father. Oh, woe is me, such a sinner. Oh, woe is me, such
a sinner.' Should we sin that grace may abound? No, absolutely
not. And because we don't understand
this, we misunderstand forgiveness all the way around. Forgiveness is granted. that intimacy may be restored.
You open our hands and say, hey, we're right here. Come into my
life and I'll love you. That's what forgiveness does.
It's not an eraser. We can't erase. I can't erase.
I mean, we might have a hard time remembering all the fun
times we had last week, but I promise you we could sit down and just
in a quick second or less give a short list of the things that
bothered us. So when we say we love the Lord,
the question is not why, but the question is how. And the
how is answered this way. We hear that which he instructs
us to do, and it is not a burden. Why is it not a burden? Because
when I fail at it, and I'm going to, I'm not condemned. Why? Because God loves me, and
he will not condemn me. But what about, but what about?
You wanna talk about discipline? It's another subject. But it's
related to love, isn't it? When God disciplines us, when
he lets us walk into the pothole. Well, if God loved me, why did
I fall in this pothole? Because he loves you. He wants to show
you that where you're going leads you to where you are. That's what a parent does. When
your child's out there playing with a propane tank, and a shotgun
and some tannerite. He's turning the gas on and he's
watching it go poof, poof. Ain't that funny? It's the only
son I got. I hope he survives. I mean, no. You say, hey, knucklehead, put
that down. Put that away. That's ridiculous. You protect them because you
love them. And you do so by guiding them to the right place. Showing
them the right way. Teaching them the fact that this
is used for that, and this is used for that. And this is dangerous
when you do that. And sometimes, if necessary,
where did you learn that? I saw it on YouTube. Well, those
people are dumb. Don't do as YouTube does. Do
what's right. You see, and the analogy could
go on for days. The aim in our charge is love. Paul's exhortation is to love
from a pure heart. A pure heart loves purely. So
a pure heart loves the Lord Jesus Christ by loving and serving
the church. So you don't love Jesus by by
just saying you love Jesus. You don't love Jesus by feeling
cool when we sing, all I have is Christ, or come thou found,
or whatever it means. You may feel some cool stuff,
but some of us get that same feeling from a roller coaster.
Some of us get that same feeling just sitting outside and looking
at the sky, solving a word puzzle. It's like crack. Huh, got 40
seconds. Wordle. We get these feelings and we
confuse them with love. Love is an act. It's a willful act. So a heart
that is pure, a pure heart is a heart that loves willfully.
We love the Lord Jesus, we love him willfully. How do we do it?
How do we love you, Lord? By unto the least of these you
do. Well, I don't want to serve him because he doesn't understand
things the way he ought to. This guy doesn't even say he's
in the faith. He can't even tell me his testimony. So? So? What's that got to do with
anything? Yes, our first priorities are
our homes, and then our family of faith, and then our world. first to our local communities. But let's not sit here guilty.
No matter how much we're doing, we're not doing what's required
in perfection. So we have to, by faith, live
in love, right? We live, love, and learn, woo-hoo,
there's a book, by faith, because God loves us. And we live by
faith, knowing that Jesus Christ loved perfectly His enemies,
and loved perfectly the Father, and loved perfectly His people.
Well, how does Jesus love His people? He gave His life for
them. He didn't give His life for His enemies. Did you catch
it? We were His enemies by nature. Did He give His life for the
reprobate? No. But until we wake up and become God Himself, that's
none of our business. That there are paragraphs written
on reprobation and its signs expresses a great hubris in the
human mind to know God. Hubris meaning arrogance, haughtiness. Paul's exhortation is that a
pure heart of love does love. And it should love, and when
it doesn't love, it's only pure because Christ is our purity,
see. See, some people don't like, they think, you haven't seen
words. No, I'm expressing the context of the Bible in its entirety. A good conscience. A good conscience
knows and goes to sleep without worrying that its love is in
full effect and that it's correct. Well, I did today what I did
because it was out of love. And I loved by serving someone
who doesn't deserve my love. I loved by desiring that person
to be whole and pure and joyful. I mean, could you imagine waking
up at three o'clock this morning with a bunch of racket going on in
your house, and you think, well, is that a child? Is that an animal?
What's going on? You walk in there, and there's
this slick dude in a mask, and he's rifling through all your
stuff, and he's stealing some things. I mean, what's your first
response? It's like when we walked in this
morning, and the back door was not the back door, but the door
to the staircase was open, and Bob was standing there. You know
Bob. our Wing Chun target. And Jack and I were like, whoa,
there's somebody in here. Oh, nope, it's Bob, you know. We were startled. And then we loved Bob. We left
him alone. But imagine seeing this burglar
in your house and instead of Apprehending him, startling him,
injuring him, calling the authorities, you say, hey, hey, hey, buddy,
put that down, put that down. I'll give you all that stuff, but
first let's sit down and have a meal. What you want 3 o'clock in the
morning? Filet mignon. Well, let me, I don't have any,
but I got hamburger. Well, that'll work. So let's
just start cooking. And I mean, isn't that silly?
That's ridiculous. I mean, man, if somebody told
you that story, you'd be like, you are the biggest fool that
has ever lived. But yet, that's exactly what
the gospel requires of us. Not for burglars. But beloved, I think sometimes
in the body of Christ, we treat burglars better than we do each
other. And then we wanna accuse each other of being burglars
when we're not. You see the point? It's hard.
I know it's hard. Oh my goodness. I stopped journaling
last year just so there wasn't a record of all that. I mean,
I went through some stuff. Some of you did too. COVID's
been crazy. It's brought us to a lot of different
things that we've never experienced emotionally and psychologically.
I've never had over 100 people I know die in 18 months. I've
never lost six relatives in a 12-month period. It doesn't make sense. And then
not only that, those that passed away from code, we've lost a
lot of good friends to the times because we didn't agree with
their politics, didn't agree with their science, didn't agree
with their faith, didn't agree with the temperature of the sun
or the fact that the earth was round or flat. You think I'm
joking. Somebody said something to me about a flat earth and
I just Like the comedian I am said something funny and then
I insulted them and they cut me off. I'm like, well, I'm sorry. No, you're not. Okay, I'm not. And what do you do? And you would
have ever thought that something that seemingly trivial would
be that important, but it is. And so love is careful. It may
be ridiculous. Our children may think that there's
a spaghetti monster in their closet eating their shoes, and
we know that's ridiculous, but to belittle their fears is not
love. To be angry because we had to
get up at three o'clock in the morning, it wasn't a burglar,
it was a child standing there with all the knives and forks
trying to save itself. I'm gonna get those knives, you
see? But what do we do? We don't belittle their fears.
Do you have memories from childhood where someone belittled your
fears? I do. That's just dumb, James. That's
just stupid. Because you know why? That's
what parents do when they're woke up in the middle of the night. My second daughter was good at
just being horrified and standing in an inconspicuous corner with
her hair in front of her face. So I'd know that she was up because
I could feel it, you know? And then I walk out going, what's
going on? because I've watched my fair
share of horror movies and that's a scene right out of it. There's
this child with long black hair standing in front of me. Ah!
Sorry, daddy, I was scared. I mean, you know, you might say
some things about how dumb that child is or something in that
moment. Or fall off the railing of the
stairs and skin your arms up or whatever it might be. There's
no telling what you might do. And so we do that. And a lot of things can change.
But the charge is a good conscience. Knowing that even if it seems
dumb to the world around me, when I love, I go to bed knowing
that I did the right thing. I go to bed knowing that I did
the right thing because God's instructions to me were to do
these things and to care about the other person and their intimacy
with the people around them. When you are married and when
your spouse, or when you come to faith and your spouse refuses
the gospel, you do not have warrant to divorce them. You cannot,
under the instructions of the gospel, divorce them. But if
they leave you, Paul says what? Let them go. Let them go, you're free. But
what else does he say? It's in 1 Corinthians 7, I believe. He says that believing spouse
should love them, should serve them, should be kind, should
be gentle, should not pound them and hound them about the gospel,
about the faith, and all this stuff, because God's promises
are greater than our logic and our reason about how we should
deal with these circumstances. And Paul even supposes a hypothetical. Maybe, just maybe, God will use
you in your love and submission to Christ by loving and submitting
to them. He may, through you, bring them
the gospel. And if what is commanded in marriage,
which is temporary, is overly commanded to the church, which
is eternal. And now we all have eight on
our guilty scale. I was feeling pretty cool and
free in the Lord and now I'm guilty. You see? So you have
your fear and greed index for your stock hodlers. You watch
that every day. Free and guilt index. So we are. We need to stay in
the freedom. How do we do it? Listening. Good
conscience. Love and a good conscience. And
then a sincere faith. Sincere faith. We've already
talked about this from a theological point of view. A sincere faith
disavows a false gospel, okay? But sometimes the false gospel can come along in such a way,
according to Paul's second letter, that it creates a little bit
of an interest. Well, that sounds reasonable.
That sounds logical. That's a fairly decent inference
from what I can understand. But when it contradicts the very
fabric of what is clearly taught, then we are to together walk
in love and unity to work it out. You know the safest place
for you to exercise your theological notions amongst God's people? Because the ones who are mature
are able to go, I hear what you're saying. Let's have some meetings
about it. Let's talk about these things.
Let's walk together. That is the heart of Jesus. But
what we do in our flesh is we, just like we can pick out the
negative things, we swerve from these. We can pick out the negative
things in our life. We could make a list. We could
write books about the negative things. We'd have to think about
what was good about yesterday. I know what was good about yesterday.
The negative thing didn't happen. You know? I mean, it's always
negative with our flesh, isn't it? We can come to this thing
and start looking, and beloved, that's what we do. We line up
so many harsh responses to stuff that we swerve away from love
altogether. And we think, well, this is biblical
because, you know what Jesus said in Matthew? You brood of
vipers, you snakes. I'm Batman, I mean, you know,
this kind of stuff. What did he say to the Pharisees
in John chapter four? Moses wrote of me. He did, right? And you couldn't see if it stepped
in your face. This is Jesus' sentiment. You
don't know God, and you don't belong to God. Now how in the
world can Jesus say that stuff? Because He is God. And He knows
who His own are. Yet He indicted the entirety
of the Pharisees, but He saved many of them. He granted many
of them redemption. He granted them faith. Who? Paul. Who else? Nicodemus. Who else? I mean, you look at it. I mean,
they're there, so just because he was a Pharisee, he's reprobate.
That's baloney. You see, that's not the end.
I'm not God, so I can't talk to people that way. I can never
talk to people that way. I can never, ever talk to people
that way. Because when I do, I am being,
I am acting, I am the hypocrite trying to be God. Every single
time. And some of us go, well, I haven't
done that. Yeah, we have. We might not have acted in love,
but we thought it, you know. So let's remember. that it is
only by God's loving mercy and the perfection of Jesus Christ
credited to us before the Father that we even stand without condemnation. Oh, what a loving God. What a
loving God. So we swerve from a pure heart
and a good conscience and a sincere faith while we argue that we
have a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith in our hatred
and unloving actions of separation. I've been thinking about this
for a while, for years and years and years, but more so in the
last three months than I've thought about it in my entire life combined.
Pretty much every few hours it's in my mind. It's that the world looks at
Christianity generally, and I use that term loosely, the world
looks at Christian religion and sees it as a hateful religion
of dissension, separation, and false purity. And that's the way it is. God
has ordained that. But is it true of the true church? Sometimes. But yet the gospel
in Paul's writing, even to the Galatians, is all about reconciling. According to the promises of
God, not according to the proclivities of any particular person, or
to the desire of any particular people groups, or to the passion
of any particular person or people groups. No. Paul's exhortation is that
we are to love from a pure heart. that is pure because of the gospel,
that we are to sit in freedom, not worrying and guilt and fear,
knowing with a good conscience that we are in the love of God
as we are also loving others, and that a sincere faith that
disavows falsehoods but doesn't destroy lives in the process. Beloved, the world is all about
it. Flat Earth, you're not my friend anymore. You see? Really. Oh, you don't like Joe Biden? You're not my friend anymore.
I mean, you know, these are the things that I've been told. Oh, you didn't vote for that
referendum? I hate you. You asked me a question
about what I meant? Get out of my face. That's where
it's at. I'm sorry, what was that? You hate me. No, I just didn't
understand you. Don't lie to me. This is a real
conversation I have with somebody. I didn't understand what they
said. And because I asked them to repeat themselves, they thought
I was being pushy. I better back up from this guy
for he shoots me. And those are extreme examples,
but friends, I'm telling you, this is what's going on. Our
little squirrely heads were triggered. We're upset when we should be
calm. God is not looking for us to be his hero. So if there's
one opportunity every week for us to be at peace, let it be
amongst each other. Even when there is dissension,
our aim and the charge is for unity according to the instructions
of Paul, not the instructions of James Tippins. Don't take
what I say as truth. if you haven't in the context
of the letter I'm speaking from, the testament I'm speaking from,
and the whole of the 66 that I'm speaking from. So Paul's
instruction then says some things, right? He says these people are
swerving from love. And in doing so, they were already
swerving from love by putting burdens on people. in such a
way. Now, what's the difference in
a burden and an instruction? Can an instruction be burdensome?
Yes. If you do not love one another like you are supposed to love
one another, I'm going to make it hard for you. That's a burden. If you really love the Lord,
and if you're really born again, then you'll love each other the
way you're supposed to. That's a burden. And the Bible
doesn't give us that. The Bible says, because you are
the beloved of God, love one another. Because you are the
beloved of God, love your enemies. Because you are beloved of God,
please, for your own joy in your conscience and your fruitfulness
in this world, be compassionate. Be patient. Long-suffering and
patience. Why? Because we're stewards of
grace. So we, in our finite wisdom in our potholes are supposed
to be compassionate and patient with everybody. Thank God I'm not going to be
judged by that measure. Thank the Lord for the perfection
of Christ. I cannot even empathize And I've
done it, I've tried, I've put myself in it. I can't sit there
and think about what Christ must have been thinking, because every
time I think about what Christ must have been thinking, I'm
sinful. And I'm also sinful in my theatrical imagination of
how Christ would respond. Because I know if I were in his
shoes, being the sovereign God of the cosmos, how I would respond. And thank God he's not like me
or he wouldn't be God. So Paul's instruction, he says,
we know that the law is good. The law has a purpose. It is
to convict. It is to bring down justice. It is to show sin. It is to show
righteousness. It is to express the truth of
who God is and what He must do against all unrighteousness and
we are all in that number except that some of us eternally have
been purposed to be called out of
that number, you see. Electing grace. Saving grace. And there is no other kind when
it comes from God. So Paul's instruction says, you
know, here are all these people. And actually in verses 9 and
10, he comes with a list of things that literally touch on every
one of the Ten Commandments. Every one of And that's not what we're supposed
to get from that, it's just an expression. He's reminding Timothy
of these things, just like in the rich young ruler and the
discussion he had there. You don't have to give exhaustive discussion
on stuff in order to be referring to something exhaustively. But
he's saying there is people who violate all this stuff. And that's why the law was written,
to make them guilty, to show them death, to bring forth righteousness. Not in their obedience, but in
the justice that's served for the violation of the holiness
of God. And then he says something else.
And whatever else is, listen to this, We're going to have
to go into next week with some of this right here, but whatever
else is contrary. Now what does the word contrary
mean? It means to be against or not going with. A contrary spirit is an anti-Christ
spirit. It's often a spirit that comes
from suspicion and superiority, humbly. You see, that's what
we do, isn't it? We've got a little bit of knowledge,
we know we know what we're talking about, we know we've made the
right judgments, and instead of approaching anything in any
humble way, we are thanking God that we have the truth, and that
we're living the truth, that we're not like Billy Bob back
there with no arms and legs, who can't even get out of the
closet. It's a punching dummy for those
of you who go, what's going on? It's from boxing. And I'm not like that. Thank
you, God. I'm just being humble. Thank you, God, for your grace.
I'd be like that. Those are the examples Jesus
gives of those who are condemned. And so I could logically bring
a charge to say, oh, those are reprobates who said that's not
that some of the means, but that is not in accordance with the
gospel. It's contrary to sound teaching.
So sound teaching can be contrary to the truth of the gospel, the
person of Christ, and what He accomplished for His people.
Who He is and what He did. I've been saying that for 20
years. In that way. I love the number
of people who also say those things. It's not new. It's the
truth. The good news of Jesus Christ
in redemption is who He is and what He accomplished for His
people. in a nutshell. And there's a whole lot of deep
nutshells in that. There's a whole lot of depth
in that small little walnut. We could just glory in it forever
and we will one day face to face. So we look at this stuff now
and we say, well, what is Paul getting to? Whatever else is
contrary, what's the context of this particular two or three
sentences? He's saying that people's actions and lifestyle and choices
and words are contrary to the proper teaching of the gospel.
So no, the instructions of the New Testament are not the gospel
of Christ, but they are the gospel of Christ. You see what I'm saying
there? It is good news, but it is not
the good news in that context. And people like to argue that,
but the Bible calls all the word of God the gospel. The judgment
of God is good news. The instructions of the New Testament
is good news. But we have gotten it in our
way of talking, our vernacular, of saying that gospel only relates
to the death of Jesus. Well, many times in the New Testament,
it's referring to that. But also, here, Paul is saying
what? in accordance with the gospel
of the glory of the blessed God. In accordance with the good report
of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
So we have this good report. This is the gospel of salvation.
And there's also a gospel of instruction. The good news of
instruction. The good news of our joy. The
good news of our good conscience. The good news of loving one another
as God has loved us. And this is what the New Testament
is all about. It's all about correcting error in the truth. theology with right theology,
and false living with right living. And these two are not conflated.
So if we have the truth but we do not have love, what does the
Bible say? We're worthless. If we're defending the truth
against false teaching, but we're not seeking to love these people
and to restore them in the simplicity of them repenting from their
thoughts and words and loving one another through service,
then we're not loving and we're worthless. The same way as if
we're just a bunch of loving servants and we just love everybody
to death and there's not a homeless, naked, hungry person on the block,
Because we've provided for all their needs, but we don't have
the truth of the gospel, we're also worthless. I don't know
about you, but I hate being told that I'm worthless. Another separation. That's not the intention of the
New Testament, is it? The intention of the New Testament is to inspire
us to know that God has loved us in such a way to redeem us
when we don't deserve it, nor could we ever accomplish it on
our own. And in like manner, out of that
flows a desire to live like Christ. And when that desire wanes, what
is the promises of God? Does it wane? Yes, it wanes. Beloved, your faith is gonna
wane. So you gotta have a refresher.
I mean, I picked up 3,000 pounds last Saturday. moving something
I shouldn't have moved by myself when I have many of you strong
brothers who could have helped me. Don't look at me like that.
I know, because my wife's already given me the what for. And then
Sunday, a few of us moved 400 pounds up my stairs. And so Monday,
I could barely move, because I didn't have the energy. I only
ate like 1,600 calories Monday and I was dragging it out. So
Tuesday, I was dragging and dragging. So Thursday, I ate like 7,000
calories. Ah, I feel good now. That's what
it was. I was out of fuel, you see. I eat a lot, 4,000 or 5,000
calories a day sometimes. I eat a lot because I metabolize
things constantly. It's not healthy. Depends on
what I eat. The point I'm making is, is that
our spiritual lives are the same way. We get depleted in our focus. We get depleted in our power. We get depleted and our flesh
begins to rise up and take over. You know what happened to me
on Wednesday? I could barely go. So I'm just like, after lunch
I slept and I woke up and I slept, drank coffee. I'm slept and I
couldn't. I was like, am I dying of cancer all of a sudden? That's
what I did, I start, get on Mayo Clinic. Yeah, I got cancer of
the brain, cancer of the feet, cancer of the toes. Maybe I've
got long COVID, didn't know I even had COVID. I mean, you know,
I just, ah, what's going on? Shut this down and go outside
and take a walk. We are going to become frail
in our spiritual lives unless we eat. And we eat the word by
reading the Bible. We are refreshed by being together.
We are refreshed by helping one another. One of the greatest
remedies of pain and suffering overwhelming us is to try to
go help others who are in pain and suffering. And this cycle
of God's promise is that if we stay together in the word and
we learn and we're kind and tender and patient with one another,
we will all come out more intimate. And we'll all come out worshiping
and thanking God more and more and more. And this is where we'll
be next week. Look at this. He says, the gospel of the glory
of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. And then
what's the very next thing out of this is a segue into this. This is Paul's application. Paul
says, I thank him. I thank him who has given me
strength. That's what it is. We see the
instruction and we're worn down. We see the instruction and we're
going, I just can't. And then what do
we do? We listen to other people trying to find hope, trying to
find courage, trying to find boldness, trying to find energy. trying to find strength, and
if we're not careful, we'll end up with all these different ideas,
or worse, as some of us were talking about this week, we'll
end up in an echo chamber that just continues to give us the
same information that's wrong over and over again, or the same
information that's so slim in the fullness of it, it's so wanting,
that we're starving to death. Beloved, we can't starve to death.
The full counsel of the gospel, the full counsel of the word
of God, the full counsel of God's promises, are ours. Christ is
ours. Christ is ours. Paul is ours. This is for us. It wasn't to
us, but it's for us. So here he says, thank you. I thank him who gives me strength. Why would Paul need strength?
He's the apostle over a thousand churches. In a time where It took months
and months, if not a year, to get a letter out. By the time you heard of bad
things happening, half the people were dead already. You weren't
rescuing anybody, you were just cleaning up. In a time where to be gentle
and to be kind and to be loving to those who weren't exactly
like you was mocked. Or called wicked. And beloved, self-righteous,
when we are in our self-righteous mindset, and we all have them,
don't know what yours is, I know where mine sits sometimes. And
I go, wow, that's really self-righteous of you to think that way, as
if you are anybody. But when we're in that self-righteous
mindset, what we do is we inadvertently find ourselves in weakness, and
we're destroying other people. We're destroying our joy. And Paul, no longer being bold
and self-righteous, no longer saying, I know what I know and
you better listen to me, no longer did he do that. He never even
said that, even when he usurped, even when he came against those
people who usurped his authority as an apostle, he was, he was
thanking God. I'm just a mouth, he'd say. I thank Him who has given me
strength. Christ Jesus, our Lord, the same Christ Jesus who commanded
him as an apostle, the same Christ Jesus who is his hope, the same
Christ Jesus who's given grace, mercy, and peace, the same Christ
Jesus who's loved him before he was, the same Christ Jesus
in whom he trusts, who gave himself for Paul and for you, beloved. The same Christ Jesus that judged
him faithful. Why was Paul faithful? Because
God judged him faithful. And there was morning. And there
was evening. And God said it was good. And
then God said, and then God said it was good. God declared Paul
good. And God declared Paul faithful.
And then God orchestrated, even in the minute details of his
travel and his food and his clothing, his purposes in bringing Paul
to where he needed Paul to be. so that God's purposes would
get the gospel to you and to me. But he never, ever, ever took
credit for any of it. He says he received mercy. Look
at verse, let's just keep reading there and then we'll pray. I
thank Him, verse 12, who has given me strength. Christ Jesus,
our Lord, because He judged me fateful, appointing me to His
service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an
insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I acted ignorantly
in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord overflowed
for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The
saying is trustworthy and deserving of all and full acceptance that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
the foremost. But I received mercy for this
reason. I've already told you. That in me. As the foremost Christ,
Jesus might display his perfect patience. As an example. to those who were to believe
in him for eternal life. This doxology, to the king of
the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for your
amazing grace, for your love that surpasses all the love that
we might think we understand. Lord, help us to be patient and
forgiving and loving. Help us to recognize when we're
being hostile. Help us to recognize when we're
being persuaded by our own fears and insecurities, by our own
prejudices. Father, help us to see these
things that we may trust in Christ. By the faith that you have granted
us, that we are at peace with you no matter how bad or how
good we do. that we might be motivated to
live according to the call. And Father, teach us to be the
voice of truth in the midst of many thoughts, and many ideas,
and many philosophies, and many so-called gospels. But help us
to do it in a way that trust in your sovereignty. Knowing
that nothing we do is going to change anyone, but yet only You
and only You will. Only You can and only You will
change the hearts of Your people. So we trust in You. And Father,
continue to give us this joy as we worship through Your table
to remember what Christ has done for us in His death and in the
shedding of His blood. And Father, keep us as we fellowship
today around a meal. In Christ's name, Amen.