Good morning. If you care to
open your Bible to two passages of Scriptures, first, if you
would, find Matthew chapter 8. Kind of mark that. Hold it with your finger and
mark it. And then open to 1 Kings chapter 18. I'm going to talk to you for just a minute
this morning about something that's been on my mind and heart
a great deal this last couple weeks. Matthew chapter 8. and
then 1 Kings chapter 18. I think it's safe for us to say
that we are living in troubling times. This week, Brother Aaron
Simpson was told he has a cancerous mass in his spleen and he's doing
tests this week, quarantining now and doing some tests this
week so they can know how to go about treating him. Brother
Ralph Brown's going through treatments for cancer now. So many others
are sick, they're heartbroken, they're recovering, they're just
in great, great difficulty. Many, many people are. It's heartbreaking
to me to see folks suffering like that. And we see some are
turning political and personal opinions into matters of faith
and making them and making others take their eyes off of faith
in Christ alone. And it's heartbreaking. It's
just so heartbreaking to me. On top of all that, in case anybody's
forgotten, the land is still in the grips of a pandemic that
is making life very difficult. As I think about those things,
as I think about them a lot, my prayer is twofold. Number
one is this. Lord, reveal your glory. Oh, would you show us your glory.
Would you show us your glory in this day? Let it shine forth
in the darkness. Show people there's still a God
in Israel. Number two, my prayer is this, Lord, heal our land.
Heal our loved ones of the land of this sickness, physically
and spiritually. Lord, heal our land. And from
these two scriptures, I'll show you where I get this twofold
prayer. 1 Kings chapter 18, verse 21. Elijah came unto all the people
and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be
God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. It's like Joshua said, Choose
you this day who you're going to serve. Choose. And the people
answered him, not a word. You know the story of the false
prophets of Baal. Look over now at verse 30. Elijah said unto all the people,
Come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. And Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the
tribes of the son of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came,
saying, Israel shall be thy name. With the stones, he built an
altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the
altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he
put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid
him on the wood. and said, fill four barrels with
water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And
he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time.
And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third
time. And the water ran round about
the altar and he filled the trench also with water. And it came
to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that
Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and of Israel, Let it be known this day that thou art
God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and I have done
all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou
hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord
fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and
the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was
in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their
faces, and they said, The Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is
the God. That's a good prayer for us.
Let it be known this day, thou art God in Israel. Now, look
over Matthew chapter eight. Here's the second part of my
twofold prayer. Matthew chapter eight, verse
one. And when he was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there
came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. That's my prayer. Lord, show
us your glory. Show that you are the God in
Israel. And Lord, heal our land, physically
and especially spiritually. Lord, if you will, you can make
us clean. Let's bow together. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Father, we have met here
this morning to hear a word from thee. with a great need to hear
a word from God Almighty and to worship you. Father, I pray
that you would, by your spirit, enable us this morning to hear
a word from thee, to hear and to believe, to rest in our Lord
Jesus Christ, that you give us a heart of true worship, that
we might worship you in spirit and in truth, to worship you
from the heart. that we might praise and worship
your precious name. Father, I thank you that this
is the day appointed that we can meet together and to worship. We thank you for this gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for him. Oh, how
we thank you for your mercy and your grace to sinners. And in
your untold love and mercy, You've given this gospel to us. You've
given it to many here who believe. Oh, how we thank you for your
mercy and your grace. You've given us this gospel to
preach, to tell folks about the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is
and what he's accomplished for his people. Father, make us faithful
stewards, faithful stewards of this glorious gospel that you've
given us to preach and enable us always to believe it, to hear
it, as needy, helpless sinners. And Father, we do pray, as we've
just read, Lord, let it be known this day that Thou art God in
Israel, that You're saving Your people, calling them out, keeping
them, comforting them, encouraging them, carrying them all the way
to glory. And Lord, would You heal our
land, heal our land of this dread plague, and heal our land spiritually. Lord, You're able to cause a
great revival in this land where You show Your glory, call Your
people out of darkness to the glorious light of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, for those who are suffering
trial and hurting, we pray for them. We pray for Aaron. We pray
for Ralph who's going through these treatments for such a horrible
disease So many others, Father, who are suffering. Oh God, be
with your people. Comfort their hearts and heal
them. Heal their bodies, we pray. And
give them a fulfillment of your promise that you give grace sufficient
for the trial. Be with them every moment, we
pray. And Father, I beg of you that you'd forgive me for my
much speaking and that you would see us and hear us only in our
Lord Jesus Christ. There's so much we have to say
that's on our hearts, and whom have we to turn to but Thee?
Father, give us the grace now to leave these things at Thy
feet, knowing Thou doest all things well. All these things
we ask, and we give thanks, and we praise You in that name which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Guide me, O my Savior, and till
the storm of life is past, safe into the haven guide, O receive
my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is ? All my help from thee I bring
? ? Cover my defenseless head ? ? With the shadow of thy wing
? ? Thou, O Christ, art all I want ? ? More than all in thee I find
? Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead
the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
of art, freely let me take of Thee. Spring now up within my
heart, rise to all eternity. So beautiful, thank you. If you would, now let's open
our Bibles to our text this morning. 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. I've titled
the message this morning, Be Active. Be Active. Let's read our text and then
come back and make some comments on it. Verse 11, 1 Timothy chapter
4. These things command and teach.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the
believers in word and conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith,
in purity. Till I come, give attendance
to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift
that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy and the laying
on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give
thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.
Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this, thou shalt
both save thyself and them that hear thee. Like I said, the title
of my message is Be Active. Now we know and we believe that
we are saved, sinners are saved by grace through faith. And none
of our works contribute to that salvation. either before or after
conversion. That's what we believe. Salvation
is by God's work alone. Salvation is by the free gift
of God's grace alone, so that God gets all of the glory and
the salvation of his people. Salvation is received by faith
that is God-given. God gives it as a free gift.
We don't earn it, we don't deserve it, we don't conjure it up. Salvation
is received as a free gift of God's grace, faith. gift of faith
that God gives to his people. And since we didn't contribute
any of that, we didn't make any of that up, God gets all the
glory and the salvation of his people, doesn't he? We know that,
we believe that. But this is also true. The believer
is to have good works. And those good works are in scripture,
told to us, defined as serving God's people, serving the people
of God, the body of Christ. So every believer is to be active. in the service of our God, in
his kingdom, in the church. Now, first and second Timothy
are what are called pastoral epistles, because Paul wrote
this letter to a young pastor with instructions to him for
the ministry. But now, these epistles are not
just to pastors. If they were, they wouldn't be
in the word of God. They're for every believer. This instruction
is to every believer. So every believer is to be active
in the kingdom of God, serving God. And you might wonder, I'm
not a public person. Most of you have absolutely no
desire to preach or be seen in public, to serve publicly in
that way. And you might wonder, well, how can I be active? What
is it that I can do? Well, I'm going to give you seven
ways from our text that every believer is to be active. Number
one is this, be active in commanding and obeying. Verse 11, these
things command and teach. Now, Paul says here, command,
it's my addition, obey, but command and obey what? Well, not the
law, not the Mosaic law, because righteousness doesn't come by
our obedience to the law, does it? What Paul means here, the
commandment is to command the gospel. When you preach, you
give it as a commandment. The gospel is not an invitation
to sinners, just trying to see how many people might come to
the party. The gospel is a commandment. It's a commandment from God.
You believe on Christ. The gospel is a commandment.
You come to Christ. You repent of your sins and you
repent, not just of your sins, you repent of the very best things
you've ever done. Whatever it is you've done, you think might
make God happy with you, but might make you, you know, appear
better than your neighbor. That's so-called righteousness,
which scripture calls filthy rags. You repent of that. You
turn from that. You turn from trusting in that
and you turn to Christ and trust Him to be your all. Now that's
not just a good idea. That's a commandment. A commandment
from God. And this is what Paul is telling
Timothy. When you preach the gospel, don't preach it begging
men to do something. You preach the gospel as God
has given it to us as a commandment to trust Christ to be your all.
As a commandment to come to Christ. And I preach this commandment
to you Fully expecting you to obey it. Fully expecting you
to come to Christ. The only reason somebody hasn't
come to Christ is they haven't seen Him. If you see Him, you'll
come to Him. Now this is a sweet commandment
to a guilty sinner, to trust Christ, isn't it? Believe on
Him. Come to Him for forgiveness. Come to Him for cleansing. That's
a sweet commandment, but it's still a commandment from the
King. So preach Christ as He is. And to those of us who are
not preachers, I say this, only listen to a man preaching Christ
as he is. Don't just listen to some man,
you know, with religious jargon. Only listen to a man preaching
Christ as he is. Paul told Titus in chapter two,
verse 15, he said, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with
all authority. Let no man despise you. Now,
how is it that we're going to, we're going to preach with all
authority? Is it just like I've got all
this authority and you've got to listen to me and do what I
say? No, sir. Now that's not the authority
we're talking about. We speak with all authority because our
authority comes from the word of God. If I'm saying what God
says, if I'm saying what God says in his word, I say it with
all authority, with no reservation, with no thought it could be wrong.
We speak with all authority when we say what God says in his word.
So command these things. But I would add this to us as
a very serious warning. Obey this commandment. Obey this
commandment. Don't become gospel-hardened. I think it's the most dangerous
thing in this world that someone would become gospel-hardened.
And when you become gospel-hardened, this is what you think. The preacher
turns to his text and starts to talk, and you think, well,
I already heard that. I already know that. Everybody else hadn't
heard it. Everybody else needs to hear it, but I don't need
to hear that again. I've already heard that. When we start listening to the
gospel like that, we're not obeying the gospel. We've become self-righteous. When we become, I don't need
to hear now, so-and-so needs to hear that. The rest of the
world needs to hear that. I mean, they're not here, so
they ain't gonna hear it. If I'm here, I need to hear it.
We start thinking, oh, I don't need to hear this, somebody else
needs to hear this. You know what we've done? We've taken
the very message that God given to us that declares our sinfulness,
our depravity, our deadness in sin, and we've twisted it into
taking that gospel message to make it ourselves better than
somebody else. Self-righteous is all it is,
to make us a little less dependent than the sinful world out there
that's never heard of Christ. Oh, don't do that. Listen to
obey the gospel, to believe Christ. When we start listening to the
gospel like this, no, I heard that before, I need to hear that
again, we become self-important. We've taken the very message
that declares we are nothing and Christ is all, and turned
it, twisted it into something where we think we're something
else. We're better than the sinners
out there in the world. Don't listen to the gospel like
that. Brother Henry said you're better
off. You who hear the gospel regularly, yeah, by God's grace
you're better off. But you're no better. No better. No. Don't get so busy commanding. Don't get so busy dispelling, disseminating all
your great theological knowledge that you forget to obey the gospel
yourself. And to obey the gospel is to
believe Christ. Now obey, believe him. Don't
put any trust at all in the works of your flesh, what you do, what
you don't do. Listen to the gospel as a needy
sinner who needs Christ, who needs to be forgiven, who needs
to be cleansed, who needs God to hold me. Be active in this
matter of bowing to Christ and constantly putting off the old
man, putting off the flesh and his deeds and trusting Christ. And I'll tell you one good way
to help you do that, regularly listening to the gospel as a
needy sinner. And I'll help you. Now be active
in commanding and obeying. Number two, be active in teaching
and being taught. Paul says, these things command,
verse 11, and teach, teach. Now we're to teach the scriptures.
We're to teach the gospel, to teach Christ. Next Sunday morning,
Lord willing, at 10 o'clock, we're going to begin our Bible
classes again, both for the children and the adults. I'm so looking
forward to that, to teach the word, teach the word, teach Christ,
teach the word for this reason, so that the folks who hear so
their faith is founded on the word of God. I don't know what
you think and what you say, what some famous writer said, teach
the word of God so people's faith is founded on the word of God,
on Christ alone. Teach people to look to Christ. Teach people, constantly remind
them, don't trust your flesh and don't trust anybody else's
flesh, but trust Christ. Teach people to live right. Teach
people to do the right thing. but not to trust in how they
live, but to trust Christ. Now you can do that. Do right,
live right. You all know that. This thing about telling people
how to live. You already know how to live.
You know right from wrong. You know don't lie. You know
don't steal. You know don't cheat. You already know that. Do right,
but don't trust in that. Trust in Christ. See that? And
if we're taught long enough, eventually, we should be able
to teach a little something to somebody else. I mean, maybe
you don't want to teach in the pulpit. Maybe you don't want
to teach in a class, but you can teach at home, can't you?
Can't you teach your family? Can't you teach your children?
Did somebody ask you a question? Can't you, you know, on the job
or a neighbor or something, can't you teach them something? Look
to Christ. But before we can teach anything,
we've got to be taught. I mean, you teachers, you didn't
just roll out of bed and start teaching. You had to go to school,
didn't you? Had to be taught before you can teach. Well, same
thing's true spiritually. So be able to teach, but always
be teachable. Always be teachable. Always listen
to the gospel as a learner, as a learner. Even teachers of the
word are always learners. You know, I go to other places
to preach, especially to a conference or something. Invariably, you
know who the best listeners are? Other pastors. I'm out there
preaching and thinking, these fellas. I remember the very first
time I preached, Henry sat behind, he didn't go out here. He sat
behind me. There's Cecil Rhodes sitting
there. I'm like, you know who the best listeners were? The best listeners are good teachers.
hungry to hear, hungry to hear of Christ one more time. So be
active in being a good student to be a good learner. You know,
and people, they, they graduate and they're out working in the,
in the, in the job. And, you know, and they go back
to school to get continued education or masters or something, you
know, they're very active in it. They put a lot of effort
into getting this thing done because it'll help them professionally.
You know, when I was in, in college, I like to take night classes
now. I started out taking some night classes so I could sleep
in in the morning and not have to have an 8 o'clock class. But
what I found out taking night classes is this, that class is
filled with people who've got a job, they're working all day,
and then they come to this class, their continuing education to
get their masters or something. It just goes better when the
place is full of serious students. And you've got a group project,
and your group is a bunch of people are serious about this
thing. Oh, it goes so much better, so much nicer. Well, make that
true about us spiritually. Be a good student. Be serious
about being taught Christ for your own benefit. So you can
teach others, but also so that you'll know who Christ is, so
that you believe him and follow him. All right, number three,
be active in reading God's word. Verse 13, Paul says, till I come,
give attendance to reading. Now this phrase, give attendance,
it means to take heed. Now you give attendance to this,
take heed to it, it's important. And secondly, it means to be
addicted to. Be addicted to. Now Paul doesn't mean being addicted
to reading the old writers or reading commentaries. You know
people like that. What he means is, be addicted.
Take heed, pay attention to this, to the reading of the word of
God. Read it, not just so you can
say, I read a chapter today, but read it to be taught. Rather
than read two or three chapters, why don't you try reading one
verse and asking God, show me what that means. Show me Christ
in that so I believe him, so I trust him, so I see his glory
in it. Read the word to be taught in it. It really is amazing how
often that you'll be reading something. You'll be at home
and you'll be reading something and you thought, I don't know
what that means. I wonder what that means. And before you know
it, that very passage is brought up in a message and it's explained
and it's such a blessing to you. Well, all that happened because
you're reading the word of God. That's where it began. Now, I
counsel you, make much, make much of the word of God. It's
so important to the life of a believer. Let me give you just a couple
of things here. Read the scriptures so that you're given life from
the word. The seed that God uses to give
spiritual life is this book. So read it, take heed to it.
James says in chapter one, verse 18, of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. If you would have spiritual life,
avail yourself to the seed. Read the word. Read the scriptures. to be given saving faith in Christ.
Romans 10, 17. So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by what? The word of God. If you'd be
given faith, be in the word. Read the word of God so that
spiritually that you're fed, so that you grow stronger in
grace, and stronger in faith, and stronger in the knowledge
of the Savior. First Peter 2.2. As newborn babes, desire, give
heed to this, be addicted to it, desire the sincere milk of
the word that you may grow thereby. And then read God's word to be
comforted. Anybody here need comfort for
your heart? Read God's word to be comforted. 1 Thessalonians
4, 18, wherefore, comfort one another with these words, these
words. Read the scriptures to be instructed,
to be influenced by the word. Psalm 119 verse nine, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word, the word. Be addicted to the word of God
so that you need to hear it, that you crave to hear the message
of Christ from the word. And when I say that, I mean this,
hear the word, for yourself. Hear the word preached, read
God's word to find out what God says to you. One of my favorite
things Brother Nyberg has said, and there's many of them, but
I love this. He said, the word of God never
tells somebody else how to treat me. It always tells me how to
treat somebody else. This word has instruction for
me, not somebody else. The word is talking to me, somebody
else. And this is what I read in God's
word. that I am to hear it, that I am to believe Christ, that
I am to bow to Christ. I know everybody's supposed to,
but the word tells me to love Christ and to love his people.
The word says I am to follow Christ. Now that's what you'll
find when you read God's word. Make much of the word of God.
Be addicted to it. Be active in it. All right. Fourthly, be active in exhorting
and being exhorted. Verse 13, Paul says, so I come,
give attendance to reading, to exhortation. That word exhortation,
I think a lot of times somebody hears this word exhortation and
you get the impression of going out to correct somebody, exhort
them to start doing better, and that's not what it means. The
word means to call near. Don't talk down to somebody.
If you're gonna exhort somebody, you call them near. Right near,
we're brothers. We're equal brothers. Call them
near to you. It means to encourage and to
comfort. And it means to give a persuasive
discourse. If you're going to exhort someone,
you're going to call them near. You're going to call them near
to you, and you're going to encourage them and comfort them with something
concrete, with Christ. I hate this thing. Well, it's
all going to be okay. God's got a plan. I don't know if that's
going to be good for my flesh or bad for my flesh. You tell
somebody it's going to be all right, It typically means somebody's
flesh, you know. Do you believe? Let me tell you
this, it's going to be all right. It's going to be all right. The
body's going to die, but it's going to be all right. When we
encourage and we comfort the hearts of God's people, we do
it by showing them the Savior, by showing them Christ. We give
them a persuasive discourse and we appeal to their heart. We
appeal to their heart, to the emotions of their heart. And
I tell you how you do that. You don't do that by being emotionally
sappy. Don't you want to see mama in
heaven? It's being emotionally sappy. Tell you how you give
a persuasive discourse to the hearts of God's people. You know
what will persuade their heart? Preach Christ to them. Tell them
about Christ. Think on Him. Nothing will encourage
and comfort and persuade a believer more than hearing Christ preach. Nothing will encourage me to
believe Him more than to hear Him preach. Nothing will encourage
me to rest in him more. To put trust in my own works
and trust in Christ other than hearing Christ preached. If you
would exhort someone, tell them about Christ. And be active in
that ministry that preaches Christ, that exhorts God's people with
whatever talents God's given you. If it's not preaching, then
find another way. God's given you some talent.
Be active in using his service so that God's people are exhorted. Listen. We must be active in
this matter of calling sinners to Christ. I'm not ambivalent. I just, you
know, I don't, on a Sunday, just go home and not think about y'all
anymore and not care whether or not you believed what I was
trying to tell you, whether or not you believe God. Believe
what I'm telling you, maybe it don't matter, but it matters
a great deal to me. If you believe Christ, it matters
a great deal to me. We must be active in this matter,
calling sinners to Christ. Be active in exhorting one another. Now I know, and you do too, nobody's
gonna be saved by our efforts and our emotions in preaching.
Isn't that right? Nobody, that's not gonna impress
anybody. That's not gonna help anybody.
But I'll tell you this, this is true too. I don't recall ever
being blessed by a message that didn't have a lot of effort and
a lot of emotion going into it. The people I like hearing preach
the most are men where I get the very clear understanding
they care if I believe Christ or not. Nobody can be saved by our efforts,
by our emotions. I've never been blessed by a
message that didn't have effort and emotion put into it, did you?
Somebody gotta study over it and pray over it and care whether
people believe it. So be active in exhorting one
another. And be active in being exhorted,
being exhorted. How do I do that? Well, be here. Be here. You know, this thing
of being sorry is calling near. Well be here so your brothers
and sisters can call you near. Be here so you have Christ preached
to your heart so your heart's persuaded. This persuasive discourse
to rest in Christ. This world's been out there giving
you a persuasive discourse to your flesh all week long, telling
you get busy working and you know, all the things of this
life are the most important thing. Now come here to have your soul
fed. Come here to hear a persuasive discourse to your heart. Put
those things in their proper perspective and trust Christ. Rest in Him. Isn't that good
for us? That's good for us, isn't it?
Be here so your brothers and sisters can exhort you by calling
you near. Be active in exhorting them and
be active in allowing them to exhort and encourage you. All
right, number five. Be active in giving attendance
to the doctrine Verse 13, till I come, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine. And look at verse 16, we know
what this doctrine is. Take heed unto thyself and to
the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Now
give attendance to the doctrine. Now what is the doctrine? You
know, doctrine singular is the doctrine of Christ. Doctrines
plurally. Plural, every time it's used
in scripture is the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of men
that lead people to self-righteousness and law-keeping. But the doctrine,
the doctrine that saves, the doctrine of God is the doctrine
of Christ. And Paul tells us that you take
heed to it. You be addicted to it. And I know there are many
doctrines, many teachings in scripture, but they all point
to one doctrine, they're all part of one doctrine, all pointing
to one place. There's the doctrine of total
depravity. Well, that tells me to look to
Christ, to trust Christ, to depend on him. The doctrine of unconditional
election and limited atonement. There's a doctrine of the powerful,
irresistible call of the spirit. The doctrine of the perseverance
of the saints. The doctrine of salvation by grace alone, through
faith alone. Salvation by faith without works.
Though many doctrines, different teachings, aren't they? But they're
all teaching one thing, the doctrine of Christ. All those put together
are the doctrine that tells us who Christ is and what he has
accomplished for his people. The doctrine of Christ, you can
preach a whole message on this, but the doctrine of Christ tells
us a couple things. It tells us, first of all, what
Christ did for his father. See, before God could do something
for you and me, he had to do something for himself. Christ
came to do something for his father. He came and he satisfied
his father's holiness by obeying the law as a man, doing it perfectly. Christ came and he satisfied
the justice of God by being made sin for his people and dying
for the sin of his people and putting that sin away by his
precious blood. In doing that, he satisfied God's
justice. Sin is punished. Sin is fully
punished in the person of our substitute. And Christ did all
that to honor His Father. That was His goal, wasn't it?
Father, enable me to glorify Thee. Enable me to glorify and
honor You. Everything Christ did as a man,
as our Savior, He glorified God's character. All the attributes
of His character enabled the Father to be both just and justifier. Because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ has accomplished, the Father can show mercy to His
people, mercy to sinners, Injustice, because Christ has paid for their
sin. That's what Christ, he did that for the Father. Then the
doctrine of Christ tells us what Christ did for sinners. You know
what Christ did for sinners? He saved them from their sin,
completely. See, the Father chose to save
sinful men and women by the doing and dying of Christ. He elected
a people that he would save. And the Father didn't elect those
people because they weren't any good, because they weren't any count,
because they weren't any better than anybody else, because they weren't. You know
why God elected a people to save? Because God is good. Because
God is merciful. He's merciful to the worst. And
if you're not the worst of sinners, let me just tell you this right
now. If you're not the worst of sinners, God didn't choose you. Not until you're the worst of
sinners. The Father chose to save a sinful people. And the
Lord Jesus Christ came and He did what His Father willed. He
saved those people from their sins. Their works didn't do it.
Their works didn't even help save them. Christ saved his people
by himself. Their morality didn't help do
it. Their strength didn't do it. Their courage didn't do it.
Christ saves his people by himself, by his obedience and by his sacrifice. And then the doctrine of Christ
tells us this, that the Holy Spirit comes and he reveals Christ
to the hearts of God's elect. He gives them faith in Christ. He doesn't speak of himself now.
This is the doctrine of Christ. He reveals Christ to these people. He causes that new nature to
be born in them and gives them eternal life so that they believe
Christ and trust him and they can never leave him. Now that's
the doctrine of Christ. That's the gospel that's preached
here every week. Now give attendance to it. Study
it, put some effort into it. Put some effort into the doctrine
of Christ that we preach. Now make sure your doctrine is
true. Make sure your doctrine is according to the word of God.
Because God saves people in truth, with true doctrine. People say,
don't preach doctrine to me. Yeah, I want you to preach doctrine
to me. That's exactly what I want. I want you to preach to me the
doctrine of Christ. Because God saves people with
truth, not with error. So make sure you're preaching Christ.
And make sure you're hearing Christ. hearing him in person. Be in attendance at the public
worship service. Something is seriously, seriously
wrong with a person who willingly absence themselves from public
worship. I'm not talking about people who are sick and who are
weak and they can't come to the service or they can't safely
come out at this time of the pandemic, whatever. I'm not talking
about that. I'm talking about those who choose
to stay away from the public worship service. They say, I've
heard this. They say, I'll be my own pastor.
Or they'll listen to dead pastors online. Well, God's not going
to bless that. I mean, I can just tell you that.
Without fear of contradiction, God's not going to bless that.
I know so because he says so in his word. God blesses his
people where they're met together publicly. And the internet is
great for those people who can't make it out. I'm so thankful
for it. There's people who listen to these messages every week
online because they can't come. I'm thankful for it. But now
you just know it's not the same. So give attendance to the preaching
of the doctrine in person. You be here to hear it for yourself.
Make sure your doctrine is the doctrine. It's Christ alone without
you ever adding anything to it. All right, here's the sixth thing.
Don't be neglectful. Verse 14, Paul says, neglect
not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy
with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Now, Paul reminded
Timothy that God had put a gift in him. It was prophesied that
this man, Timothy, is going to be a preacher. And God put this
gift in him to preach the gospel. And God gives that gift to men,
doesn't he? He gives different gifts. He gives this gift to
preach Christ to all of his preachers. Now what a gift that is. What
an honor it is that God would choose a sinful man to tell other
sinners about Christ. What a blessing, what an honor.
That's a gift. And Paul tells Timothy, don't
you neglect it. Don't you neglect it. You work
hard in the ministry. You work hard in study. You work
hard in prayer. You work hard seeking God's face,
seeking God's message for God's people. Be watchful over them. You've got a gift. Now you better
work at it. I'll give you a good example,
especially our young athletes. You'll remember this example.
I went to school with a fellow. He was a year younger than me.
And I don't know that I'd ever, at that time in my life, ever
seen anybody more athletic than this guy. I mean, he could run
like the wind. He was quick as lightning. He
could jump out of the gym. I mean, every sport. Basketball
was his sport, but every sport. I mean, buddy, he could shoot
a basketball like you would not believe. I mean, he could dunk.
He could shoot the mid-range shot, the long-range shot. He
could defend any. I mean, this guy was just crazy
athletic. He was crazy. And you know what
I learned about this kid? He is 100 times more athletic
than me. And he worked 100 times harder
than I did, too. He could jump out of the gym, and he constantly
worked on being able to jump higher, on lifting weights and
doing these things they did, you know, these boxes and shoes
and stuff to be able to jump higher. He could already jump
higher than anybody I knew, and he worked hard. He was fast,
and he worked hard at getting faster. He could shoot like nobody's
business, and he worked hard at shooting better. That guy
went on a four-year scholarship and started four years at a Division
I school. Now, he had a gift. I mean, no
matter how hard I worked, I never could have done that. He had
a gift, but he didn't neglect it and became really, really
good. Now, that's just an example,
but that's true physically by any gift you have. If God's gifted
you with something, you better work at it. If you neglect it,
it'll decay. I promise you it will. And this
is what Paul's telling preachers. God's given you a gift and don't
neglect it. Don't neglect it by doing other
things when you should be working in the ministry. Don't neglect
that gift by taking other jobs, working the Word, so you preach
the Word. Don't neglect that gift by trying
to correct immorality in our day. Just preach the Word. Don't neglect that gift by what
Brother Henry called over-pastoring. He told me one time, don't ever
over-pastor. I'll tell you what he means by
that. It's trying to control people. Trying to control the
way people live and what they do and what they don't do. Don't
over-pastor. Just preach the word. Don't neglect
the gift God's given you to preach Christ by getting off on a tangent. That tangent may be something
of some value, but it's not as valuable as Christ. So don't
get off that tangent. Just preach the word. Now that's
to preachers, but let me tell it to all of us. God's given
us many gifts, hasn't he? And the one thing God's given
all of his people is a gift of grace, the gift of faith. Don't neglect it. Tend to that
gift by being active in the word, by giving attendance to the doctrine,
by making it your business to be in the services, by exhorting
one another, being exhorted. Don't neglect the gift that God's
given you by spending so much time on earthly things that you
suddenly don't have time for spiritual things. Now I know
if God saved you, you're not going to lose your salvation.
I know that. You do too. God saved you, you're not going
to lose your salvation. That ought to make me want to
seek him more, not just be neglectful. Does that make sense? If God
saved me, I know I'm not going to lose my salvation. That makes
me love him more. That makes me so much more thankful. That makes me want to be so much
more active in his service. Not just say, oh, well, I'm not
going to lose my salvation. It doesn't matter what I do. That's being
neglectful. And when somebody neglects something,
you can always tell it. If somebody's got a house and
they neglect it, you can just walk by and tell. The paint's
peeling. The roof is sagging. The weeds are growing up around.
Somebody's neglecting that place. You can tell when a person neglects
their children. Their hair's all. Messed up,
you know, they misbehave because they're neglected. Nobody's teaching
them. Nobody's taking care of them. And you know, that's a
crime. It's a crime to neglect children. How much more of a
crime is it to neglect the gift of God's grace? Oh, God help
us. Let's not let the weeds and the
cares of this life crop up and choke off the word, the spiritual
life that God's given us because we've neglected it. Don't be
neglected. And then last, be active in thinking on these things. Don't hear a message and go home
and forget about it. Just think about it in the 40
minutes that you're here. Be active in thinking on these things.
Verse 15, Paul says, meditate upon these things. Give thyself
wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Now the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. God's not gonna take
back his gift of grace, his gift of salvation. I know that's true,
but that's no excuse to take the gifts that God's given us
for granted. God's given us a great gift to have the gospel preached
in our hometown for many, many, many, many years. Well, think
on these things. Think on the things that you've
heard. Be active in thinking on the gift yourself wholly to
them. Don't approach this thing half-heartedly. but give yourself wholly to them
and meditate on them. Far too often, it's really easy
for us to meditate on you and you just can't stop thinking
about something somebody did wrong. Somebody slighted you,
somebody did something just hurt you or offended you in some way,
but you give yourself wholly to it, you meditate on it, you
can't stop thinking about it, can you? God's given us something so much
better. Meditate on God's grace Meditate on the wonder that Almighty
God would love you. Meditate on this miracle. The
father would send his son to be slaughtered in your place
as your substitute. How many people, was it 330 million
people, something like that in the United States of America?
Was there 70 people here? How many people live in this
area? I don't know a lot. How many people here this morning?
A whole lot less than that. Meditate on this great miracle. God Almighty would call you and
give you faith to believe his son, to believe the gospel. Meditate
on that. Meditate on these things, what
you can do to help your brethren. Meditate on these things. Let
me close looking back at Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four. Verse four, Philippians chapter
four. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your moderation, your gentleness, your kindness be known unto all
men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful,
anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, are worthy, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, Whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any
virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Don't think about the amount
of things somebody's done to offend you or hurt you. Think on these
things. Those things which you have both
learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God
of peace shall be with you. Think on those things. Be active
in those things, and we'll be helpful, won't we? Let's bow
together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this, your word. Oh, how we thank you for the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God that you've preserved
down through the years and given to us to read, have open to us
and preach, given us some understanding and a heart to believe it. Father,
how thankful we are. Father, I pray that you'd make
us, each of us, believe, trust, and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us take this word of instruction and be active in his service,
seeking his glory, his honor, seeking the good and welfare
of his people, seeking the good and welfare of the lost that
do not know him. Cause us to be active in this matter of the
gospel that calls out your people feeds and comforts and edifies,
exhorts your sheep. Cause us, Father, to be an encouragement
one to another, not to be a discouragement, but to encourage and help one
another. And Father, cause us to meditate
on these things. How we beg of you that you don't
let us be the stony ground here where the cares of this world
will so quickly and easily take away the gospel of Christ that
we've heard preached. The Father calls us to meditate
on these things, to take root in our heart, that we might find
our joy and our comfort, our peace, our rest, our assurance
in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in his blessed name we
pray and give thanks.