Christ, the hope of every sinner.
Paul had been writing to the churches. Writing to them of the grace
of God, the mercy of God. Writing to them of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, you go and read Ephesians. The work of the
Father, the work of the Son, the work of the Holy Spirit. But now he writes this epistle
to a young man. To a young man in the ministry. A wise man writing to a young
man. Solomon said, son give me your
heart. I get that sense when I read
this from Paul writing to Timothy. Instructing him in the ministry. Henry told us in a preacher school
28 years ago, he said, youth is an asset to everything but
the ministry. We're all 20s. There's a few a little bit older
than that, but we're all 22, 23, 24. And after some years have gone
by, I see what he's saying. I know exactly what he's talking
about. So Paul writes here to Timothy. He writes this letter
to Timothy. And he states here in the beginning
of this epistle that he is an apostle by the commandment, by
the appointment, by the decree of God. There's only 12 of them
and he's one of them. This letter carries some weight
with it. It carries authority with it.
I can write a letter and it may not mean a whole lot. When Paul
wrote this letter, it had a lot of weight to it. But he says this, that he's an
apostle, not to let Timothy know that, because Timothy knew that,
but to let others know that this apostle was putting his hands
on this young man's and on this young man's ministry. Some men's
approval means something. You know, I've gotten letters
that I've tossed them in the trash. I've said that means no
more to me than a barking dog. But if Henry had written me one
of those letters, it would carry a lot of weight with it because
there are some men's approval and advice and counsel carries
a lot of weight with it. And that's what Paul's saying
here. He's an apostle and he's letting all those know. And he's
putting his approval, stamp of approval on this man, Timothy. And he says that his apostleship
is by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. And that word, which is, is supplied
by the translators. I like to read it like this.
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Our hope. Who is your hope? A lot of people
have a what? What is your hope? I don't have
a what. You don't have a what. We have a who. Christ our hope. I know that most people have
some kind of hope of being saved when this life is over with. Either the life they've lived
or the church they've attended or a whole buffet of things that
they have as a hope. But the only hope that any sinner
has for being saved is the hope that God has given. And that
hope is Jesus Christ Himself. It's Him. It's Himself. It doesn't take long to tell
the gospel, does it? It really doesn't. You know,
I try to squeeze in 30 minutes. I hate you drive this way for
me to just tell you 10 minutes I'll tell you the gospel in ten
minutes, but it doesn't take long to tell the gospel, because
it's all wrapped up in a person, all wrapped up in one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Paul said in Colossians 127,
when he wrote to the Colossians, he said, To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ is my hope of glory. God has given us, He has given
every one of His children whom He has chosen in Christ, a good
hope in Christ through grace. We did not earn this hope. It was given to us. It was given
to us in Christ before the world began. It was given to us before
we even asked for it. It was given to us before we
even had any knowledge of it. It was given to us before God
created the heavens and the earth. The scripture says, I wish I
wrote that down, that this hope is laid up for you in heaven. It's laid up for you in Him. Well, how is He our hope? And
you've heard this many times. He's our hope in this. The one who came to save us is
God Almighty. God Almighty came into this world. God Almighty left paradise. That's
who Jesus Christ is. He's God. He's God in every way. And He came into this world,
and being God, He cannot fail. It says in Isaiah 42, My servant
shall not fail. He'll not fail. And being God, He cannot lie.
If God has laid this hope for us in Christ, we're going to
have it. We will have it in Christ, who
is our hope. God cannot lie. That's what it
says over here in Titus 1. In verse 2, let me read verse
1 with Titus 1. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect,
and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness
in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. All of this that we are talking
about, that concerns Christ and the gospel, all of it, took place
before the world began. He's called in Romans 15, verse
13, the God of hope. He says, now the God of hope.
He's the God of hope, the God of all comfort, the God of all
grace. He's the God of hope. God of our hope. And then He's
a real man. Jesus Christ, who is the living
God is a real man in every sense of the word. You sit down and
think about that sometimes. You think, well, he's God, therefore
he can do a lot of things. He can suffer hunger and relieve
himself and go through it. Not one time, not one time did
he ever relieve his hunger. Not one time did he, this man,
not one time did he ever make those stones bread. You know
why? Because I can't do it. He's got
to be everything I am. I can't do it. And he never relieved
himself of hunger, of thirst, of suffering, not one time. As a man, he suffered everything
I suffered. Everything. As a man, he kept
the law. This holy man, this righteous
man, he literally kept the law of God absolutely perfect. Perfect. Thought, word and deed. He loved God with all his heart,
soul, mind and body. He loved God He could not love
God anymore. I fall way short in that category. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
man Christ Jesus, loved God perfectly. He satisfied God's justice by
his obedience. This man, this man did this. He did this. He died the death that I deserved.
I thought about these things as I sat there today and went
over this. I caused the death of this man.
How would you feel tonight if you caused the death of someone? That would be devastating to
you, wouldn't it? I caused the death of this
man to be hung on a cross, to be nailed to that cross. I know
God's grace and God's mercy was a moving cause of it. But my
sins nailed him to the cross. My wretchedness, my gut-hating
heart nailed him to the cross. And that man suffered by death. He felt every pain, every blow. His deity did not weaken the
pain. did not dull the pain. He felt
every ounce of it, every bit of it. He suffered at the hands
of justice. This man did. This man suffered
at the hands of God's justice, which is strict and knows no
mercy. You think, well, that's his son.
Maybe he'll go a little lighter on him. Maybe he'll go a little
easier on him. This is his son. He dealt with him as the worst
criminal that ever lived. Because he was dealing with me. A real man died on that cross.
A real man was buried in that grave. And a real man rose from
the grave. and led captivity captive. And there is a real man right
now reigning and ruling at God's right hand. The first Adam failed. The first Adam blew it. The second Adam, which is the
Lord from heaven, is reigning. There is a man right now who
is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is reigning over
all things. A real man. A real man. And there is a real man seated
in glory at God's right hand making intercessions for transgressors
like me. There is not a day goes by that
I don't transgress. And there's not a day that goes
by that He doesn't intercede for me. I know there's a lot of days
that go by that a lot of other people don't pray for me and
I don't pray for you. But never a day, never a time,
never a moment goes by that He does not intercede for us. Stand between us and God. This
man whom God is well pleased with. Jesus Christ Himself is all the hope I need and all
the hope I have. Now I could stop right there.
I've said enough really. I've said His righteousness.
But I'll tell you this. His righteousness is not my hope. He is. He who brought out a righteousness
for me. And that righteousness that is
imputed to me and imparted in the new birth, he's still the one. He's the
one. I don't want to be guilty of dissecting the gospel and
say, well, this is, as one man said to Tom Harding, he said,
the imputed righteousness of Christ is my hope. That's not
mine. You can't do without it. It cannot
do without it. But Jesus Christ Himself is our
hope. As David said, God has become
my salvation. He doesn't just give me salvation,
though He does. But God Himself is my salvation
in the person of His Son. Now, Paul said to Timothy, he
said, Christ is our hope. He's all our hope. He's all the
hope we need and all the hope we have. Now, Timothy, I want
you to stay at Ephesus. Paul's asking this young man,
this young minister, to stay at the forefront of the battle. I want you to stay at Ephesus. When he went to Macedonia, he
said, I'm going to leave you there, and I want you to put
a stop. to some who are teaching the keeping of the law along
with faith in Christ in order to be saved. They're teaching that Christ
is not all our hope. And you know what? That has never
gone away, has it? We're going through the book of Acts. And
we saw here last week, week four last, where Paul meets up with
Timothy. And right before that, they were
dealing with this issue of the keeping of the law, circumcision,
Well, this is not that time. This is a different time. This
is some time that's gone by since then. This is another trip Paul's
making to Macedonia. He's going back to Macedonia.
It didn't die down, did it? It didn't quit. It did not leave. As long as there was one lost
Jew around, they was going to have trouble. He was going to
contend that you must keep the law in order to be saved. You've got to keep the law as
a rule of life. No, you don't. Christ is our
rule of life. Paul said, it's the love of Christ
that constrains me. It's not a law. It's not a list
of commandments that constrains me. That helps constrain a bunch
of thieves, but you're going to go to jail and pay the consequences
for it. But the love of Christ constrains every believer. You don't need to give believers
rules and regulations and draw the line and say, you know, you're
not supposed to get over this line. The love of God that's shed abroad
in the heart will constrain you. If not, it's not there. It's
not there. So Paul left Timothy there and
he said, don't you tolerate this for a minute. You charge some
of them to stop this. This is not the gospel. And it's
the wrong use of the law. It's the wrong use of the law.
And you stop it. Grace and works don't mix in
salvation. They don't mix. It is all grace
or it's all of works. But never both. Never both at
any time. Look over in Romans chapter 11. Let's look at this from the Word
of God. In verse 5, even so, then, at
this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. Now, if it's by grace, if our
election, our salvation, if it is by grace, then is it no more
of works? which the Jews thought it was
of works, their law keeping. He said it's not of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
There's no mixing. It's so subtle in our day. You
see, we grew up as a bunch of Gentiles. We didn't grow up under
the law and the ceremonies and all that they grew up under.
But in our day, It's Christ has done His part, now you do your
part. I heard Billy Graham say this. I was watching one of his
vintage sermons the other day that they
were showing on him. He's about ready to kick over,
you know, and so they've been showing some of these vintage
sermons. And he said that. He said Christ
has done His part, now you do your part. And your part is faith
and repentance. That's the gift of God. The Scripture
teaches that faith is the gift of God. It teaches that repentance
is the gift of God. God granted to the Gentiles repentance. Yes, I believe the Gospel. I
believe the Gospel. But I believe it because of His
work and His grace. He gave it to me to believe.
It's the gift of God. If God gives you a gift, it's
yours. But He gave it to you. But it's so subtle. It's so much
more subtle in our day. But it's all of grace. All of
grace. Our election is all of grace.
Unconditional. Our calling is all of grace.
Our birth is all of grace. And our final glory, when we
stand in His presence, it will all be owing to the grace of
God. Not because we were of a better
character and we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior and all
of grace. And that grace was bestowed on
us in Christ, it said, before the world began. If at any time it ceases to be
all of grace, Then we're lost. Because we can't do anything.
Right. We can't do anything to please
God. No. As Paul said in Galatians 5,
he said, You've fallen from grace. You've fallen from grace. And
he says there in verse 4, Don't give in to their endless genealogies
and fables. This is what happens. I won't
be able to go through all of this, but this is what happens. When we leave the gospel, when
someone leaves the gospel, they get into something that just,
like here, endless fables and genealogies. That's what it leads
to. Nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Those Jews
that made so much out of their genealogies, they would argue
with each other whose lineage they was from, some of them from
David, some of them from Abraham, and they would argue, and it
was just endless. And he says, Timothy, listen
to me, don't get caught up with that. Don't get caught up with
fables, things that are useless, vanity, meaningless, endless. Don't get caught up in that mess.
Don't get sidetracked. Satan is a master He is a master
of confusion. He is the master in the art of
war. Or man, sort of. He is a master
at it. And he is a master of diversion. A master of diversion. Paul says, Timothy, stay with
sound doctrine. The doctrine that you have received
from the apostles. The doctrine which concerns the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is set forth in the Scripture.
Stay with it. Sound doctrine. Not something you have to go
out on a limb to prove. I mean sound doctrine. That is taught
throughout the Word of God. For in so doing you'll save yourself.
He says in another place, in so doing you'll save yourself
and those who hear you. Turn back over here to Titus
chapter 1. Let me read something to you. I've already got it marked.
In Titus 1, let me see. In verse 9 through 12, Paul says,
holding fast the faithful word, and he's writing here to Titus,
as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine,
sound, nothing wrong with it, no disease in it, no problems
with it. It's sound because it's of God.
both to exhort and to convince the gamesayers, those genealogers,
for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially
they of the circumcision, especially those Jews, whose mouths must
be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which
they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." Do it up for the money. Paul says, stay with sound doctrine,
Timothy. Stay with it. He says here in
verse 5 that the end, in verse 5 he says, now the end of the
commandment is love. Out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience and of faith unfaithful. The end of the commandment,
he says, is love. Love to God and love to one another.
You know, the end of the law, the moral law. and the gospel
both have the same end. Both do. Love. Love to God. Love to the brethren. Let me
show you that over Matthew 22. Matthew chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22 verse 36.
This young man This man came and asked the Lord,
he said, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Tell me, I'll keep it. Tell me which is the great commandment
in the law. Jesus said unto him, now he's
speaking here about the moral law. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment
of the law, at least love. The end is love. It's to love
God. And the second is like to it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. That's the great commandment.
You do that and you won't need the rest of them. You won't because
it will all be fulfilled in that. The whole law says it's fulfilled
in love. And the law was fulfilled by
Christ who loved God supremely. Who loved God perfectly. And
that belongs to us. That belongs to us. The law was
never given to seek life by. That, Paul said, is a misuse
of the law. That is a misuse of the law.
And he says, some have missed the mark. There in verses 6 through
7. Some have missed the mark. They
have missed the gospel of Christ. You know, they had all those
pictures and types and they still missed him when he came. They
missed him. They missed the mark. And here's one of the reasons
why. They were so desirous of being teachers of the law. They
didn't want to give that law up. They wanted to be called
rabbi. They wanted to be called teacher.
They wanted people to look up to them as an instructor, as
a spiritual leader. And when they saw and looked and
heard of Christ, they knew they couldn't do that. They knew they
couldn't do that. Paul said they don't even know
what they're talking about. He says they don't know what
they are talking about or whereof they speak. Void of truth, void
of knowledge, void of understanding. But we know, he says here in
verse 8, we know that the law is good. The moral law he's talking
about. It's good because God gave it.
It's of God. It reveals the character of God.
There's nothing wrong with God's law. It's holy, just, and good,
it says in one scripture. I'm glad we have the law, don't
you? I'm glad we have the law. Keeps people in line, for one
thing. But he says there's nothing wrong with it. It's good for
society to have rules. rules and the things to abide
by. There's nothing wrong with God's
laws, holy, just and good, if a man use it lawfully. If he use it lawfully, as it
was intended for. A good law in bad hands equals
trouble. It does, it equals trouble. He says in verse 9, now we know
that the law was not given, it was not made for a righteous
man. He doesn't need a commandment. He's talking about here the righteous
man is the man who's made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
we know that none of us are righteous by nature. We know that. But
when a man is born of God, he's made righteous in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's given a new heart, a new nature. You don't
have to give him commandments. You do not have to. This is so.
You do not have to put locks on your doors to keep a righteous
man out. He's not going to break into your house. A righteous
man is not going to break in and steal. The law, he says,
was given for the lawless. That's what it was given for.
It was given for the thief. You can trust a righteous man. You can't trust a thief. I'm
telling you this, you can trust a man whom God saved. You can
trust him. Man or woman, you can trust that
person. You don't have to give them rules
and regulations like they do in a lot of these places. They put out all kinds of rules
and regulations. If you're not attending church,
they'll go after you and they're going to check your tithing and
make sure you're paying your tithes. You don't have to do
that to a righteous man. You do have to do it to a lost
man. You have to do it with a bunch of goats, but not sheep. And he says here in verse 10,
I'm going to close. I don't have time to deal with the rest of
this whole chapter. He says here, toward the end
of that verse, after naming all these for whom the law is made for,
these sinners, sinful people, whoremongers, them that defile
themselves with mankind, men-stealers, liars, perjured persons, and
if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. You know that the law is against
anything That's sound doctrine. The law is against it also. The
law and the gospel are in harmony in doctrine. They are in harmony. They are against the same thing.
They are against it. The gospel does not excuse sin.
No more than the law excuses sin, does it? Look what God did
to His Son. He didn't make an excuse for
it. That's what Paul is saying here.
They are in harmony. If used in the right manner,
they're in harmony. They're not opposed to one another. According, he says here in verse
11, to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed
to my trust. Any doctrine or law that is not
in harmony with the gospel is not of God. That's what he's
saying. And here's a solemn thought.
which was committed to my trust." God has committed the gospel
to my trust as I stand here and preach, and to our trust as a
church. The gospel is committed to our
trust. What a charge! He has put this treasure, it
says, in earthen vessels. put them in earthen vessels,
that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."
And we don't need to hedge. We do not need to hedge the gospel
about with laws and rules and regulations, do we? We don't
need to do that. It will stand on its own. The
gospel will stand on its own. As I said in the beginning, the
love of Christ will constrain us. It will constrain us. And Paul says, and I'll just
read these, Paul says, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank
Him for His mercy, His grace. I thank Him that He chose me
and He didn't leave me alone. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord
who hath enabled me that He counted me faithful.
Why did God count him faithful? Because He made him faithful.
That's why. He made him faithful. And then
he counted him faithful. And then he put him in the ministry,
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. This is me. He said, I'm describing
myself. You know, in Philippians 3, he
describes all his achievements, doesn't he? Here, he describes
his true character. He said, I was a blasphemer,
persecutor, injurious, But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and
unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant upon me. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound, which is in Christ Jesus. This
is a faithful saying. This seems to touch the heart
of Paul right here. This is a faithful saying, true saying, and it's worthy
of all acceptation. I don't care what rank in life
you are, rich, poor, black, white, doesn't matter. It's worthy of
all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I'll preach the message today.
It'll be on the radio on this verse. He came to save sinners. Paul says, of whom I'm chief.
Now, I thought today, if he has saved the chief of sinners, he's
not going to have any trouble with us. He's already saved the
chief. He ain't going to have any trouble with us tribesmen.
Not at all. Okay, Mike.