Let's pray. Father God, we are
thankful as brother Doug just prayed, Lord, that we had been
washed in the blood of Christ. And now that your spirit dwells
in us, that we are your church, Father. And Lord, we do pray,
Lord, as you always do, Lord, as your church, Lord, that you
would continue working in us for your glory, that we would
live a set-apart lives away from the world, glorifying your great
name, that everything we do would be out of honor, and love for
you, the one true God who came a mere man and got on the cross
for us and rose again. I pray that we'd always be trusting
in Christ alone for salvation, Lord, as we continue to grow
in knowledge and wisdom of your word and continue to do good
works that you predestined us to, Father. I pray we don't trust
in them things, Lord, but we just trust in you alone for salvation,
Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would
use me a weak servant today to glorify your great name through
the preaching of your word. I pray, Lord, you help me not
to depend upon anything else but your word alone and the power
of the Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that you open
up our ears and open up our minds so we might hear your word and
most importantly obey your word and rest in your word and be
faithful to your word through the work of the Spirit. We ask
this in no other name but the King of kings, the Lord of lords,
Jesus Christ. Amen. Now Paul says in verse
11, command and teach these things. Now what is Paul talking about?
He's talking about the very things that we went through last week.
He's talking about command the church, Timothy, to what? To train themselves for godliness. To train themselves for godliness,
not to spend so much time training themselves for a world that spends
so much time seeking the things of the world, but train them
that they might seek Christ every single moment of their life.
Hear that? Every moment. We know that the
world wants us to spend so much time training for things that
are worthless. Do they not? We know that the
most popular thing in our day is, especially as it's taught
to our kids in public school, and then we kind of got the same
mindset as we grow, that we want our kids to what? Live out the
American dream. That we want our kids to be.
We make more money than what we made. We want our kids to
live in a bigger house than what we lived in. We want our kids
to have more stuff than what we had. I mean, it's kind of
like the mindset. We just always want our kids to have more than
what we had, that they might continue to live a worldly life,
pretty much. And who preaches this? I mean, what better way that
Satan would grab that in to the local church, that the local
church might spend all its time seeking after vain things. Now,
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with going to college or
becoming a doctor of some degree or something, but everything
we do, church, is not to earn a periscope reward, but to earn
an imperscope reward. I mean, everything we do, we
do for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord sends
you to college, or the Lord gives you a good paying job, then we
know that the only purpose for that is, is that I would glorify
His name in it. Look at that. But what on purpose
do I have to live? What on purpose do we have to
live for? I mean, athletes, as we talked about last, athletes
would spend their whole life training, sweating, Laboring
for a plaque they can put on the wall that means nothing in
eternity. A trophy they can hold up and
everybody all over and lift them up and esteem them and God could
care less. And we sometimes fall in that
same way of thinking. But it's all vanity. It's all
chasing after the win, brothers, that we have been called to live
a different life. We've been called down this narrow,
hard, long-suffering way, but it brings eternal life. It's
Christ. We're seeking something that
matters in eternity. We're seeking something that
will last forever. We can't even fathom forever,
but it's forever. It's Jesus Christ. Everything we do is for
Christ and for His church and for His glory. And Paul is telling
Timothy to teach these things, Timothy. Teach these things. Labor over these things with
the church, Timothy. Because there's nothing else
that Satan wants us to do, church, than go astray after worthless
things. So what does he want us to do?
He wants to take our eyes off the behold, the treasure that
we've got, which is Jesus Christ, and then put it on this earthly
stuff that matters not. Put our eyes on this earthly
stuff that is going to fade away one day. He wants us to become
like Lot's wife. What she do? She saw, she was
escaping the judgment of God by the grace of God, and she
looked back. She looked back to everything
that she's worked so hard for. She looked back to everything
that she had and turned to a person. Let us not be that church. Let us, as Paul would say, let
us forgive what lies behind us and focus on the upper call,
which is Jesus Christ. We might have sinned yesterday,
but yet we know that if we ask for forgiveness, we're forgiven
because of Jesus Christ. So we can't even dwell on our
sin, but most importantly, we can't dwell on our good deeds
as well. It doesn't matter if we picked up our cross and denied
ourselves and followed Christ last week. It doesn't matter
if we did it 10 minutes ago, church. is are we denying ourselves
and picking up our cross and following this Christ at this
very moment in our minds and our hearts? And of course an
application code. That's a call. That's a call
that not just preachers have got, as Paul writes in Timothy,
but that's a call of all of us. The man teaches that the people
of God might keep their eyes on Christ. We know as we teach and command
these things, for people to strive and train themselves for godliness
and hold true to what the Word of God teaches, we know as we
teach these things, the Spirit of God will supernaturally work
in our lives and cause us to do it. But who is He commanding? Who
is He teaching? the local church whose he's a
pastor. But what happens if these people
are not in the practice of being in fellowship? How can they be
taught? How can they be commanded to
do such things? We know God uses the preaching
of his word and teaching of his word to grow his people, to keep
his people accountable. But it seems in our day that
being part of the local church is not important at all to us. And we wonder why everything
else matters. We wonder why, when we're not
in the practice of being a part of the Word of God, why we suffer
with sin and get entangled in sin. There's three things we
know that God has us to do and commands us to do, and that's
be in prayer, be in the Word, and be in the local fellowship.
And if we take one of them three away, we struggle. We struggle. Let's read, I'll always, God
gave me this about two months ago, maybe three months ago,
a little while ago. It's don't assume that we're gonna be together, but to pray that we'll be together. Don't assume. that we're going
to be up under the Word of God and hear it talk to us and command
it and talk to us, but to pray that God would have us here this
day. And don't assume that we're going
to be in the Word of God tomorrow. Don't assume we're going to be
in prayer tomorrow. Because what is Satan going to do to keep
us out of the fellowship? What is Satan going to do to
keep us out of prayer? What is Satan going to do to
keep us out of the Word of God? Anything he has to do. Anything. He has to. He'll do it. Because where does our joy come
from? Where does our comfort come from? Where does peace come
from? God's Word. Being in prayer,
being in fellowship. Because if we're not in the practice
of being up under God's Word, how can we ever expect to be
trained to be Godless? We're not going to practice being
in prayer and laboring, in prayer and laboring in order to go,
how can we ever expect to be trained in godliness? God is, through the work of writing
the letters of Paul and Timothy, Timothy commanded these things
and teach these things to the people who God's given you. And
then he goes on and he says, Timothy, let no one despise you
for your youth. Now, in Timothy's day, it's really
not much different in our day, that most of the time, when young
men are called to preach, they're kind of labeled as not having
a lot of wisdom, not having a lot of knowledge. That most people,
if they could have their way, they'd probably like to have
a pastor about 55, 50, because he's been through life, he's
been through the worldly trials, and he's been a minister for
a while, and he'd probably have more wisdom, he'd probably counsel
you better, he'd probably teach the Word of God better. But we
know that wisdom comes from God. That God could take one of these
little kids in here and give them more wisdom than all of
us could have combined, if He so chose to. Then we know God,
at times, grows men supernaturally in wisdom and understanding of
His Word at a young age, and sometimes He does it at an older
age, and sometimes He'll take a young man and He'll grow him,
and by the time he's 50, he's really wise in the Word of God.
But a lot of times when we think of wisdom, when it comes to the
Word of God, we consider it as worldly. What I mean by that
is, it didn't come out quite as the way I wanted it to, but
basically what I mean is, we feel like in our day that the
older one is, the more wisdom they have. That's kind of how
we view things. But it is not necessarily true
when it comes to the Word of God. Sometimes you can have a 55 year
old who God saves at 55 and he's a baby Christ. Of course, he
probably got tons of worldly wisdom he could give you, but
he's got very few wisdom of God's Word because he's obeyed the
cross. And sometimes God saves young men. And over years of
being in His Word, He grants them a lot of wisdom and they're
able to have more wisdom than others. But we know at the end
of the day, it's God who gives it. It's God who gives it. So
Paul is encouraging Timothy here because Timothy is viewed in
a culture he can be anywhere from 25 to 35. So Paul is encouraging
Timothy. Timothy, let no one despise you
of your youth. Let nobody think you're not qualified,
Timothy, to handle the things of God, which is His Word. Because
we know Timothy, took part in Paul's ministry. Timothy was
a missionary with Paul. That Paul himself, through the
work of the Spirit of God, trained Timothy up that he might know
the truth. And we know even before that,
his grandmother and his mother was training him to worship God.
So at the age of 25 and 35, Timothy probably was one of the most
sound, and had the most wisdom of any preacher in his day, more
or less. We should teach us something. that we might teach our kids
the Word of God, so that God might grant them wisdom at a
young age. And also, we know that Timothy
probably also didn't just take for what his parents had to say
about it. He probably was a study of the
Word. So as well, young children, study God's Word, and you might
learn the truth. He says, let no one despise you
for your youth, but set the believers as an example. I think if Timothy
sets the believers as an example by the way he lives his life,
then it really won't matter how young he is. Because what good
is it if Timothy has a lot of wisdom about the Word of God,
but every time the church saw Timothy, he was in sin. It didn't
matter to him what he said. Because we youth people, as we
see a pastor living in sin, we really can't really sit up on
our knees anymore and we question everything that he does. But
if Kennethy sets the believers as an example, the church will
look at him and not discern how old he is or how young he is.
They'll go by the way he lives his life and by the way he teaches
the Word of God. But most churches, it ain't about how you live your
life for God. It doesn't matter if you meet
the standards of 1 Timothy 3. No, they want to have their own
qualifications. Because you know if you've got
a doctorate degree, then you're a better teacher. If you're a
theologian, then you're a better teacher. Oh, what a great way
for the devil to deceive people. Because who's not going to believe
a theologian? Who's not going to believe a guy who's a doctor?
So a lot of churches want to bring these people in just because
they got a high education in the Word of God. And outside of that, they really
don't even check to see how they live their life, to see if they
are going to be an example to the church the way they call
to live their life. I praise God that our pastor
does have a lot of teaching. But I more praise God that God
has taught us the truth and delivered him from false errors as they
rise in his life over time, but delivered him and continues to
give him truth that we might be fed. But we know true wisdom
comes from God, and as pastors and as teachers of God's Word,
we're called to be an example to the people whom we teach. which puts a lot of light on
our lives. But we know all through a couple
places in Scripture, we know that teachers, pastors, and elders
oversee of the church are what? Supposed to be examples to the
body. That the body ought to be able
to look at their faith and imitate it. Where do we get that? Well, we
know in 1 Corinthians 11, 1, Paul says, Be imitators of me
as I am of Christ. We know in Hebrews 13, 7, the
writer writes, he says, Remember your leaders and those who spoke
to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their
lives and imitate their faith. So we know, As leaders
of a congregation, as God puts us there to oversee people and
counsel people, people should be able to look at our lives
and live by them. But if we step out of the line,
they're still looking at Christ. Because most people are so busy
looking at their pastors and following their way that their
eyes ain't even on Christ. So don't necessarily look at
my life and it should be imitated, but if I step out of line, don't
imitate that. Don't follow that. Keep your
eyes on Christ. The same for Dave and the same
for James. But as well, should we all not
be setting an example for all people? I mean, should we not be an example
to our grandkids? Should we not be an example to
our kids? Should we not be an example to
the people we work with? Should we not be an example to
our brothers and our sisters? We should. I mean, when you read
the qualifications for an elder and deacon, though they must
meet that standard in order to be an elder and deacon, but as
well, that standard is for all Christians. Because if you look
at Galatians, I believe chapter 5 or 6, and you see the fruit
of the Spirit, you pretty much can line it up with 1 Timothy
chapter 3. So we all should be living a
life that people can imitate. That people can follow. Because
we're so focused on Christ. And then Paul gives Timothy five
things. Five things. that he needs to
walk in and do by the grace of God that people can imitate,
that he can be an example to the believers. Here's one. He
says, but set the believers as an example, Timothy, in your
speech. In your speech, Timothy. Timothy, everything you say,
let it be fruitful. Let your words, Timothy, be encouragement. Let your words be the words of
God. You know, in our day, people,
when you question them about the way they talk, and you might
question them about the way they live their life, one of the first
things they always run to is, you don't know my heart. Jesus is in my heart. What does the Scripture say?
Does the Scripture say we can know your heart? Scripture says
we can't do it. How? Well, look over to Matthew
12, 33 real quick. Now keep in mind Jesus is talking to the
religious Pharisees here. They just called him Beelzebub
and blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12, 33. Keep your finger. Timothy, we're not going to be
here long. Just go read it. I just think it's good for us
to see it. He says to these Pharisees, he
said, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the
tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.
And he said, you brutal Bibles, how can you speak good when you
are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his The
good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil
person out of the evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you,
on the day of judgment, people will be able to account for every
careless word they speak, for by the words you will be justified,
and by your words you will be condemned. So Jesus is going
to say there, look, we can see your heart by the fruit that
comes out of your mouth. If you're the price of speaking
rotten fruit, then we know that it could be that you're unbeliever.
It could be it's just not of Christ, but really of the devil.
Then we know our tongues is a world of unrighteousness. Our tongues
is evil. Our tongues is poison. It can
destroy people. How many times has our tongues
destroyed people? How many times has our tongues belittled people
and slandered people and gossiped about people? That was before we were a new
creation of Christ. Now we're being made new. Now we are the branch and Jesus
is divine. And because we are attached to
Him, we can bear fruit for His glory because we know we can
do nothing without Jesus. And we know later on in that
same thing in John 15, Jesus says, you did not choose me,
but I chose you, so you will go therefore and bear much fruit. And we know if we bear fruit
for His glory, the Father is the vinedresser. He comes by
and proves the fruit that it might bear more fruit. So it's
not a maybe if our words, after being regenerated by the power
of the Holy Spirit, it's not a maybe if our speech will be
fruitful. It's not a ban. It's a guarantee. I'm not saying we're going to
be perfect in that, brothers and sisters, but we know when we foul-mouth
someone, or we talk ugly to someone, or we slander someone, or we
gossip about someone, we know the Holy Spirit of God is going
to convict our hearts, and we will have to repent for that.
We will not only ask God for forgiveness, but we will have
to make it right with that person. Because repentance isn't just
telling God you're sorry, though it is, it's also making things
right. Let them try. Timothy, let your speech be fruit. Let your speech, Timothy, be
honoring to Christ. In Ephesians 4.25, it also talks
about our speech. And listen to what it says, it
says, all falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with
his neighbor for our members of one another. That's Ephesians
4, 25. So once we were liars, we once
were liars, a lot of times we would not be honest with people.
But now that God has saved us, now we are true with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. We are true with the people of
the world. People shouldn't have to question us when we tell them
something. I mean, we all know people, they tell us it's raining
outside. We don't put on our water boots and our water jacket
and run outside expecting the rain. No, we go outside and check
to make sure that it's raining. That should be us as believers.
That we once used our tongue to deceive, now we use our tongues
to tell the truth. In love, we tell the truth. Also in Ephesians, he talks about,
let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths, but only such
as good for building up, as it fits the occasion, that it might
give grace to those who hear it. So what he said, Paul's writing
in Ephesians, he said, look, let your speech be encouraging
to people. Let your speech be building people
up, not tearing them down. Because in our nature, what do
we do? What are we so quick to do when
we get mad at somebody? Slap. Cut them up. Cut them up
with our tongues. Slander them. They call somebody
on the phone and slander them some more so the other person
will think evil of them as well as we do. So we can justify ourselves
to look beautiful to everybody. But we know our tongues, by the grace of God, should be
used now to build people up. To encourage people. to give
people grace. I mean, can you imagine if Timothy,
every time he counsels somebody in the local church, he just
destroys them. They're worthless. He ain't going
to mount it up. I mean, what good would he do?
He wouldn't be able to. People wouldn't be able to. They'd
be like, don't go to Timothy. Find another elder in the church
to go to. Don't go to Timothy. He's going
to beat you up. And more importantly, with our words, especially when
it comes to the body, we must be careful how we deal with God's
sheep. I mean, we should never slander a worldly person. We
should never do that. But we must take extra heed when
it comes to God's sheep. What did Jesus tell Peter? Peter,
do you love me? Feed my sheep. And the second
one, he said, Peter, do you love me? Tend to my sheep. So our words, through the teaching
of God's word and through our speech, should be tending and
gracious to the people of God. Also in Ephesians, as well, he
says, but such morality and fruit and covenants must not be even
named among you as the proper among saints. He says, let there
be no more filthiness, nor foolish talk or crude joking, which is
out of place, but instead, let there be thanksgiving. And I
can read it. It's amazing that Paul would
say that. Of course, Paul was a man, so of course he could
say that. Because a lot of times when men get together, they love
to talk about things they shouldn't be talking about. when it comes
to women. I know when I was a lost man
and we were in a conversation and someone told a dirty joke,
I had to say one too. And it didn't matter if it was
a joke, you wanted to have the best joke. So you want to make people laugh
along? Allow us. But now, we should be involved. As such, we can judge no more. Why? What can we just say? We're not of the world anymore.
Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus hung out with sinners, and I
praise God He hung out with sinners. But He didn't take part in their
wicked speech. The only purpose of Jesus hanging
out with lost people and sinners was to teach Him Himself. He
didn't just casually hang around lost people and cut the breeze
with them about worldly jokes and worldly talking. No. He was always about teaching
truth. Because we know that the truth sets us free. But how many
times, as believers, that when we find ourselves in the midst
of lost people, we end up start talking just the way they're
talking. I mean, could you imagine seeing
me around a group of men on the street, and you start coming
up, and you say, well, I know Jesse's giving them the gospel.
And you start, you enter in that conversation, and next thing
you know, I'm just cussing. and saying some other things,
you flop. Man, that boy don't need to be
preaching. I don't even know what he's saying. But is that what we do? We try
to hold preachers to a higher standard than we do ourselves? Matter of fact, I think we try
to hold everybody to a higher standard than we do ourselves. Brothers, this week, we have
been born of God. And by the grace of God, we need
to use our lips to glorify Him. We need to use our lips to bring
thanksgiving to others, to speak peace and blessings to people. And we can. I say, it isn't that
we can't do that. We can't do that. We must be
praying as the psalmists pray. Oh, Lord, guard my lips. Oh Lord,
guard the doors of my lips that I might not sit against you. Brothers and sisters, as we hang
around each other, there's many times that we might use our lips
and our tongues to what? Hurt each other. How many times
does that happen? I mean, we're all people. But we know there's forgiveness
in Christ. And we know that as we're in
Christ, as we say hurtful things, we repent and we're forgiven
in Christ. But we're also forgiven by the
unbelievers as well if they be in Christ. They be in Christ. He says, but set the believers,
as an example, Timothy, as speech. But also, Timothy, set an example
to them and your conduct. Just don't let your speech be
an example to them, but let your whole life be an example to them,
Timothy. Everything that you do, Timothy,
let it be an example to them. Sometimes we think when God says,
Be holy as I am holy, that that was just for the Old Testament
and we're just under grace now. Well, we are in the graves. But
in that graves, we walk holy as the Lord is holy. And we know
that Peter brought that over from the Old Testament. to remind
us not to go back to our ignorant way, not to go back to our old
sin. Let us not be the dog that returned
back to the vomit. Let us not be the swine that
after being cleaned, he returned back to the waterhole. Let us
not be the man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back, beloved,
but let us be a people that when people look at our lives, they
know that we are of Christ. You hear that? They know we're
of Christ. Because it's very easy as we
come together and put on our godly caps at times, and put
on our godly makeup, and put on our godly clothes, to seem
to each other, yeah, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ.
But what does your immediate family think of you? What does your job, people at
your work think of you? Would they consider you as a
godly person? Because if we're all going to
put the preachers on that pedestal that they must be holy as the
Lord is holy, then we brothers and sisters, we've got to put
our own selves up there. Because we're all leading somebody. People are always looking at
Christians to see the way they live their life. Always. And the thing is, we
know that God's grace Just as God saved us from hell, brothers
and sisters in Christ, but God's grace equips us and trains us
and causes us to walk in holiness and godliness in our lives. How? By His grace. Where do you get
that from? Titus 2.11. I love this passage
in the Scriptures. Titus 2.11. It says, For the
grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, many
different types of people, training us to renounce, listen, training
us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, self-control, or to
live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age. So who's training us to live
self-controlled lives? Who is causing us to renounce
worldly passions? Who is causing us to live upright
lives? Who is causing us to walk holy? Who is causing us to live
godly? Is it us? No, it's the grace
of God. Hear that? That it's God's grace
that causes us to be obedient to Him. Hear that? There is no power whatsoever
in the flesh to be obedient. None. But a lot of times, pastors,
and a lot of times the people in the local church, they are
so busy looking at themselves to produce godliness, then they
end up being wicked. They put so much hope in what
they know about Scripture that they can perform obedience in
their own power. But there's no power in us. The same grace that saved us
from God's judgment to come is the same grace we need every
moment of our day to walk as God has called us to walk. And
we know God will cause us to walk with Him. You know such
thing as departing from the Lord and running off for years and
years and years? What kind of father lets his
child do that? Not God. We know God chastises
us. God disciplines us. God corrects
us. Why? Because He loves us, beloved! He's a jealous God! He don't
want to share our affections with another. He doesn't want
us worshiping idols. He doesn't want us laying our
lives down for idols. He don't want us seeking the
things of the world. He doesn't want us walking in the world.
He wants our complete attention. He wants us to chase after Him
each and every day. And He gives us the grace to
do it. We got this grace in our day
where God saves you by your grace and then that grace is so amazing
and so powerful that you can live however you want to. I call that a cheap,
weak grace. That's a cheap, weak grace that has the power to save
nobody. No, God's grace It's powerful,
beloved, to transform our lives. God's grace is powerful to sanctify
us over the days of our life as we walk this earth as His
children. Hear that. What person in the
Bible? Old Testament or new? And what
radical change? What radical change? What person
in the Scripture? Yes, they had mess ups. Yes, they sinned. But God was always there with
His grace to restore them. And what happened when He restored
them? They went right back to obedience. They went right back
to faithful living. They went right back to penance
upon Him. Yes, David slept with Bathsheba.
Yes, David had... I had a brain cramp. Uriah killed. But when you look at the majority
of David's life, he was a man who sought after God. Short season
of his life, he was in sin. Majority of his time, he'd come
to faith and he'd walk with Christ. Why? Because he belonged to Christ.
He belonged to God. God's grace is powerful, beloved,
to transform us. Timothy, be an example to believers
in speech. Timothy, be an example to believers
in righteous living and holy living, that they might imitate
you, Timothy, as though he's imitating Christ. And then he
goes on. He says, set the believers an example of Timothy in the
way you love and love Timothy. It doesn't matter if Timothy
was a good preacher. It doesn't matter if Timothy could speak
in tongues. It doesn't matter if Timothy
had the grace of God to do countless of miracles. If Timothy had no
love, he was worthless. You hear that? It doesn't matter
how much Bible knowledge we know. The Pharisees had Bible knowledge.
Nicodemus was the teacher of all Israel, but he had no love
in his heart. Yet, Timothy showed them By example,
the way we as preachers and as the people of God show them by
the way you love them. By the way you love them. Show
them by the way you love people, Timothy. By the way you lay down
your life for the brothers and sisters in the faith. Because,
beloved, a lot of times when we think we're laying down our
life for Christ, really we're not laying down our life for
Christ at all. Because if Jesus is the head,
and the church is the body, and I'm laying down my life for the
head, I'm automatically laying my life down for the body. That's hard for us, and our culture,
to see each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Because
how many of us would not lay down our life for our kid? How
many of us would not lay down our life for our mother? Or our
father? Beloved, even the Gentiles do
that, Jesus would say. Even the wicked people in the
world do that. But how much more should we do
it not only just for our enemies, but especially for the brotherhood?
Oh, so many people are going to stand before Christ, and they're
going to hear, why didn't you feed me? Lord, when were you
hungry? Why didn't you give me something
to drink? Lord, when were you thirsty? Lord, why didn't you
clothe me? I mean, Lord, why didn't you
clothe me? When were we not clothed? You know, when you didn't do
it to these, you didn't do it to me. Why didn't you visit me in prison? When was you in prison, Lord?
When you didn't visit me. You know, I think Paul even mentions
one time he's in prison and they leave him hanging. It's going
to cost us something to show love for the brothers and sisters
in Christ. And we're not willing to let it cost us. It's going
to cost us our pocketbook, and it's going to cost us, most importantly,
our time. But we live in a culture where
we work money through Friday, and then we spend Saturday and
most of Sunday doing what we want to do. Why? Because that's what the
culture does, so the churches just fell right into it. Then we ain't
got a program that we can't get people together. But brothers and sisters, if
we're brothers and sisters in Christ, we should always want
to be together. We should always be striving
to lay down our lives for each other, outdoing each other and
laying down our lives for each other. Paul says in Corinthians 13,
verse 4, he says, love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy
or boast, does not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its
own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, believes
all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That's what
love is. So anything we think what love
is that does not come out of Scripture is no love at all. Because we can tell people out
of our mouths that we love them all day, but if we're not patient
with them when they sin against us, then we really have to ask
ourselves, do we love them? If we're not willing to send grace
to people, then we must ask ourselves, do we love them? Because what
does Satan do, beloved? He comes into a local church,
And he stirs up the people against each other. And next of all,
you know, they split in half and some go over here and some
go over there. Why? Because they are not of
God. Scripture's clear. If I say I
love God and I don't see, but I hate my brother when I do see,
then I'm a liar. That I don't love God. Because
the overflow of loving God is loving each other. There's something in each other. And we know that Jesus gave his
commandments, that what? His law, that we love the Lord
our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And we love
our neighbor as ourselves. Love our brothers and sisters
as ourselves. They know how we need God's grace
to be in the practice of doing that. Because it doesn't come
natural to love people. It doesn't come natural. It doesn't come natural to love
people that's not your immediate family. It's hard at times to love people. It's hard at times to love people
who, who, who, in your mind, get on your nerves. It's hard to love people who
might be sinning against you all the time. It's hard to love people at your
job. It might be hard to love your
boss because he's mean all the time. But we're called to love. Doesn't mean it's going to be
easy. We're going to be able to be 100% in that all the time.
But I go back, beloved, and we have forgiveness in Christ. And
we know by the grace of God, He can grant us repentance and
call us to walk in that. Call us to walk in that. Beloved, would people consider you loving? Would people look at your life
and say, That's the way we're called to love. And it'll line
up with Scripture. I pray it does. I said, the same
as I set an example to the flock by God's grace, we love, but
at the same time, as I said earlier, we're all called to be an example
to people. Does your kids know that you love mama? Does your kids know that you
love daddy? Do your kids know that you love them? Because I love you means nothing
if we're not showing it. And he goes on. Set a believer as an example,
Timothy, not just in speech or conduct, but in love and in faith. Set a believer as an example
that you're always faithful to Christ. You're always faithful,
Timothy, to stand on the Word of God. You're faithful to stand on the
Word of God no matter what persecution you will face. Because we know
the early church was going to face persecution. Knew it. And Timothy knew and Paul knew
that they must be faithful to stand on the Word of God even
if it cost them their lives. Even if it cost them their loved
ones, they were willing to stand. As I made a comment last week
when we were talking about godliness, I was willing to stand on the
Word of God as good servants of Christ. Even if it costs us
our fellowship with Grace Truth. We should love Christ to such a degree, beloved, that
we're willing to stand on it. I rock. I rock. Willing to stand on the truth,
no matter what people think about it. Because I know this, that
the people of the world don't want us to be faithful to Christ.
The people of the world don't want to hear truth. The people
of the world doesn't want to see someone standing on truth. Well, the people who looks at
the church, they are, I think, no, they don't understand. They
really hope that we're standing on seeking sand. So when storms
hit our lives, we just wash away. But those who are faithful to
Christ don't wash away when storms come. When trials come, the people
of God don't wash away. Can you imagine the persecution
and the suffering that Timothy was going to have to face with
these people? That God was going to test him
to see if he was faithful, if he was going to be faithful through
the trials and the suffering that Timothy was going to endure
during this time of being a pastor there. In the same way, beloved,
not only are pastors going to suffer, but you're going to suffer.
And the thing is, you must ask yourself, are you willing to
suffer and be faithful through it? Because a lot of times when people
are not faithful is when pain comes. When suffering comes. When all
is not well is when you really see where people's at with Christ. That's the reason I think I know
a lot of you probably don't want to hear this. I think one of
the greatest things that could ever hit America is if we start
getting locked up for Jesus. You know why? Because then we'll
really know who our brothers and sisters in Christ are. We'll really know
who is faithful to the Lord when our lives are involved. I mean,
on everything. And people don't want to hear
that. But I know this, when persecution hits the land, Christ grows. I mean, the body grows. You see people living for Christ. When Stephen was martyred, what
happened? Everybody left Jerusalem, not
being silent, but grabbing their few possessions they could grab
and fleeing to the next town, preaching Christ crucified. Faith, Timothy, set the believer's
example in your faithfulness cross. How hard is it to be faithful
in America? It's very hard to be faithful
in America. Every time we look, there's something trying to pull
our attention away. It would be better if I lived in Africa
in a small little hut. And the only thing I had to do
out of that hut is take a bath in the river, and eat whatever
I could gather up that morning and preach the Word of God all
day. But America is hard. You drive down the road, you
got all kinds of stuff holding you attention. In the pathway
of God in America, you got all kinds of stuff trying to take
you away from Christ. Stuff, luxury, All different types of stuff.
I mean, the list could go on at the stuff in America that
tries to pull us away from Christ. Jobs. But this is where God would have
us. This is where God would have us be born is in America. This
is where God would have us be faithfully. Unless he moves us
across the East. in a hut in Africa. But we know
this, that God will cause us to be faithful. See, this whole thing of the
sermon is, especially, I want you to cling to Christ. I want
you to cling to Christ. Because there's no way, beloved,
that we're going to be faithful in our own power. When things
come up to us in this world, especially living in America,
there's no way we're going to be faithful to standing on the Word of God
unless we have the grace of God. There's no way I'm going to be
faithful. How are you going to be faithful at your job without
the grace of God? There's no way you're going to
be faithful in your household without the grace of God. No way. Senator, there's no power in
our flesh to be faithful. Our flesh is prone to wander.
Our flesh is prone to run away. Our flesh is prone to chase idols. Because there's so many to chase. But we know by God's grace, if
we be His child, we will stay faithful. He goes on with Timothy. It's an example to the believers
in faith, but also in purity. Now why do you think Paul would
tell Timothy, who was a man of God by the grace of God, to set
an example to the believers at Puritan. Well, Timothy was 25
to 35, a single man, a preacher. So you just imagine that a lot
of the single women in the local church probably wanted to be
married to Timothy. And Paul knew that Timothy would
always Unless God called him to be married, but even after
he's married, we'll always be in a position that he would have
to counsel women and teach women. And in that way, it could set
him up to fall. And you think about a lot of
people in there, or a few people in the Old Testament, like David,
Samson, you know, a man in Corinthians, fell away. Why? McCall of the
offices of sex. Coming out. We have lost our minds, beloved,
if we don't think the devil will send us somebody in the offices
of sex to lure us away. Hear that? We have lost our minds
as married men and married women to think That Satan can bring
someone in our lives to lure us away. How many preachers have
we known to fall away from the faith because of such morality? Or get caught up in pornography? Get caught up in adult entertainment?
Why? Because they weren't keeping
a close watch on themselves. They had in their minds, oh,
I would never do that. I would never do that. I would
never do that. Putting all their hope in themselves.
Forgetting that they're men. Forgetting that they're women.
And they automatically have a nature to be attracted to the opposite
sex. And how Satan will use that to
deceive us into thinking that something that is not of God
will make it of God. How many singles? having a natural
desire to be in a relationship with somebody, somebody comes
along, a lukewarm Christian comes along. Or a non-Christian comes
along. Oh, I'll change him. I'll change
him. That's the mindset of a lot of
Christians. They'll get in a relationship with a non-Christian and think
they can change him. But what sense does that make,
beloved, to think we can change somebody? 9 times out of 10,
it's the opposite effect. It's the opposite effect. The
world sucks the life out of the Christian. Not the opposite way around. Keep yourself true to your commitment. Set no provision for the flesh
to know. I think that's why David fell. I don't think David just stumbled
on the roof and saw Bathsheba and called her up right at the
end and had her come over. Now, I think David probably fell
away from being in prayer like he should. But we know he normally
was on the battlefield. And he wasn't on the battlefield,
so we already know that he had a little bit of issue there. So he wasn't
in prayer. He probably had fell away from the Word of God. And
next thing you know, he stumbles on the roof and he sees Bathsheba.
In my mind, he probably looks and he runs back inside. And she's there again. Instead
of running back inside, he looks. But they probably said, I would
never. They didn't say he called her over. He was involved in sin. In what better way, Timothy,
if Timothy is not pure before the people, then what kind of
example would that be to the people? Well, the pastor ain't
pure, so we ain't got to be pure. Or better yet, if he gets called,
and I'm curious how that would ruin his ministry. If word gets out that a man has
committed sexual immorality, then what does that do with the
local church that he's under? They throw him out on his head.
They don't want nothing to do with him. Everything that he's taught them
goes out the window. All the suffering that he's went
through for the sake of the gospel goes out the window. Now we know
God can restore us over time, but that's the way people will
view us. We must keep a close watch. You must abstain from movies and TV shows that
can appeal to our sexual nature. Because what it does is it feeds
our mind. When the mind gets fed, the picture's
there. That's where even in America,
and it's strictly conservative, we haven't painted a woman or
a man should look like this. Cock-notch. But we know Scripture
talks about that a woman's beauty, and you can say, a man's beauty
is what? Is how they love the Lord. How
they're faithful to be in the Word of God. Faithful to be in
prayer. But we've changed our mindset on that. They must look
like this. They must act like this. Or we don't want them. We're really... We should be striving. Especially
if we're single, striving to be in a relationship with someone
who loves Christ. That's what's beautiful. I mean, what kind of wife or
husband do we think we're going to get if they're not faithful
to be in prayer, faithful to be in the Word of God? You ever get a wordy person? And two, if you are married to
an unbeliever, married to someone who you don't know if they're
in the faith or not, oh, what kind of temptation is going to
come to you through Satan? You hang out with the body. So
you automatically, when we hang out in the body, we automatically
grow intimate with each other. And in that, our intimacy, if
we're not careful, can turn to something else. That's simple. There's all kind of, you hear
about it all the time in other churches, how the deacon leaves his wife
for someone singing in the choir. Everyone says, oh, we would never
do that. But they do it. Why? Because they're not keeping
a close watch on herself. That purity is of God. It ain't pure blood. Don't defile your minds and your
hearts for things that you shouldn't see. So you might glorify Christ in
purity. Glorify Christ in your faithfulness
to your spouse, your faithfulness to Him. Timothy said an example
to the believers. Speech, conduct, love, faith,
purity. Set an example. Let people see our lives all
around our lives. Not just one area of our lives,
but all around our lives. Let them see our lives and let
them know that we are different. Because we are of Christ. Not
only do we bring glory to ourselves, but we bring glory to God. And
understand that a lot of things I've said and maybe some of the
things I've talked about has put it out of reach. And praise God. I pray that Clint
makes you clean to Christ. Because these five things that
went through, Timothy could not do them just because he was Timothy.
Paul could not do them just because he was Paul. Peter could not
do it just because he was Peter. No, these men were always clean
to Christ that helped them be obedient every area of their
life. In the same way, beloved, we must clean to Christ. that
we might be obedient in every area of our life. I mean, we
must be through such a mindset that even when nobody's around
looking at us, that we still want to be able to sin. We shouldn't have them closet
sins. We shouldn't be waiting to get
along where we can dwell in darkness and live in sin. No, we should
love and have a joy in our heart to obey the Lord. Then we just
don't look, I'm going to obey the Lord on Sunday, Or I'm going
to obey the Lord on Tuesday or Wednesday. No, every day I'm
going to obey the Lord. Why? Because I love Christ. And
the overflow of obeying Christ and loving Christ is I will be
an example to everybody else. I'm so focused on Christ that
as Christ's light shines through me, beloved, everyone sees it.
It isn't that we've got to check it off. Well, am I doing this
today? Am I doing that today? No, that's
religion. Trying to earn your way to salvation. Trying to work
your way to heaven. Even Jehovah's Witnesses and
Mormons can pull some of them things off. No, everything we do, we do because
we love Christ. And when we hear stuff like this,
and we might not add up at the present time, we know that we
repent, we trust in Christ, and we cling to Christ, and we cry
out to the Lord to help us live the way that He has called us
to live. And we know He'll do it because He loves us. He's
our promise in the Word that He will finish the good work that
He begun in us, beloved. It's not a baby! It's a guarantee
that He will bring it to completion because He loves us. That God
will always be sanctifying us and producing righteousness out
of us because the Spirit lives in us. And we know without a shadow of a
doubt that Jesus Christ took on our sin All of our sin, our
evil, vile, wicked sin, Jesus took it. And we know when he
took that, beloved, that he drank the full cup of the wrath of
Almighty God that we deserve. As I like to say, he pretty much
took hell on the cross for us, the chief of sinners. And he
died, he was buried, and three days later he rose again from
the grave to show that he was the Alpha of Omega in the beginning
and that showed that he was the Messiah. And brother, we know
that if we call upon the name of Christ, we will be saved.
If we repent and trust in Christ alone, we will be saved. And
we know the overflow of him saving us is that we will always be
repenting and trusting in Christ and that we will always be calling
on the name of the Lord because he is our salvation. Amen. Let us pray. Father God, I pray Lord that
this word was free of glory. Pray this word glorified in your
great name. Lord, I pray God that you would
give us all the grace to be obedient to you. Give us the grace to
walk holy as you are holy. Father, we confess, Lord, that
we had no power to do the things that which we were just called
to do. Or to be an example, we had no power to do this, Father.
Our flesh is hostile towards you. Our flesh wants nothing
more but the things of the world. Our flesh wants nothing more
but the dwelling sin. Lord, would you lead us by the
power of your Holy Spirit? Would you cause us to bear fruit
for your glory? Lord, would you please, O God,
please, Let us not go astray. And Lord, if we do go astray,
which I hope we don't, and many have been astray, Father, I pray,
Lord, that you would draw us back, that you would be faithful,
Lord, to always keep us and never lose us, Father. For, Father,
we realize that if we could lose our salvation, and if salvation
was the work of us, Father, that we would lose it every day, that
we would be lost forever. So, Lord, we praise you because
it's of you. We praise you that you give grace
to sinners like us, that we might believe upon you, the Christ,
and live for your glory. Lord, let us be pilgrims in this
earth. Lord, we will not look to America
as our home, Lord, but we will look to heaven as our home, where
you dwell, my father, with a heart everyday longing to be in your
presence, longing to see your face. Longing to be with your
people for all eternity. We ask this no other name but
the Alpha, the Omega, beginning and the end.