Scripture reading in the song.
Such a blessing to me, I feel like we can go ahead and close
down now. That thought that verse 11, for
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, sayeth the Lord,
thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected
end. Isn't that remarkable? And that's what he says to every
believer. We don't much think that way.
We just don't. But we ought to. Turn back to
1 Timothy, chapter 5. Chapter 1, verse 5. I've entitled this message, The
Goal. The Goal. Now that word, commandment,
in verse 5, is the same word that's translated charge in verse
three. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some. But they teach no other doctrine. Look in verse 18. This charge
Same word, commandment, this charge, I committed to thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee, that by them thou mightest war a good warfare, holding faith
and a good conscience. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 6,
verse 13. I give thee charge, 1 Timothy
6, 13, I give thee charge in the sight of God. who quickens
all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate
witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment,
this charge, without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, the charge is that no other
doctrine be preached. That is the charge. Verse 1,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our
Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope, unto Timothy
my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our
Father and Jesus Christ our Lord, as I besought thee to abide still
in Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some, that they teach no other doctrine. Now, the end
of the charge that they preach no other doctrine, the goal of
this charge, the purpose of this charge, the fulfillment of this
charge is threefold. Now, the end of the commandment,
the charge, is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience. and to faith unfeigned or unfaked,
not pretended. That's the threefold goal of
the charge. Now, he said, I want you to charge
them that they preach no other doctrine than the doctrine of
God, the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of the Bible. Now the singular doctrine of
the Bible is one unified whole. And if you leave out any of it,
you no longer have the doctrine of the Bible. If you add something
to it, you no longer have the doctrine of the Bible. What is
necessary for me to believe? Everything God says. Now it really
is that simple. What is necessary for me to believe?
Everything God says. And if God says something and
I don't believe it, what does that make me? An unbeliever. Believers believe what God says. What part of what God says is
it okay to leave out? Is it okay to leave out the authority
of the scripture? Is it okay to leave out creation? Is it OK to leave out man's inability
to save himself, or God's electing mercy, or Christ's effectual
atonement, or the irresistible, invincible grace of God in the
Holy Spirit? Is it OK to just pass over that
and not preach it? Is it OK to leave out the perseverance
and the preservation of the saints? Is it OK to leave out any part
of what God says in his word? No. This is the doctrine of God. And he charges us, preach no
other doctrine. Look in verse six of this passage,
from which, this end of the commandment, from which some, having swerved,
have turned aside unto empty words, vain jangling. They desire to be teachers of
the law. But they understand neither what they say nor whereof
they affirm. They don't understand the implications
of what they're saying. But we know that the law is good
if a man use it lawfully. Now, I love this verse of scripture
because this tells exactly the purpose of the law and the right
use of the law. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man. Now, if you want to be under
the law, you expose yourself. You expose yourself, and it's
not a good exposition. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers
of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whore-mongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers,
for liars, for perjured persons. These are some pretty bad people,
aren't they? I mean, this is some serious bad things. And
if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Now this tells me that all sin
is contrary to sound doctrine. According to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, sound doctrine is always according to the glorious
gospel. the gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. Now you charge them that they
teach no other doctrine. And then he says in verse 4 of
1 Timothy chapter 1, neither give heed to fables. Fables are anything that's not
the doctrine of Christ. It's a fable. It's a man-made
story. Don't give heed to fables and
endless genealogies which minister questions. That's all they do.
Rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. Now the end
of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good
conscience and faith unfeigned. Now here's the goal of this charge. of preaching no other doctrine.
This is what it's to produce. Charity. Real love. God-given love, a supernatural
thing. Charity from a pure heart and
a good conscience. And faith, unpretended, non-hypocritical,
real and genuine. And if I'm a believer, If God
has done a work of grace in my heart, I have these three things. Charity that comes from a pure
heart. And I have a good conscience.
And I have faith unfeigned. Now let's talk first about charity
from a pure heart. What is this thing of a pure
heart? Is your heart pure? Do you feel
that your heart is pure and cleansed? Is your heart clean? In Genesis
chapter six, verse five, here's God's testimony of the human
heart. And this is a testimony of my heart and your heart, naturally.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart Not even talking about the works
right now. Talking about his heart. The thoughts of his heart.
Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's God's testimony. Can
that heart be made pure? What about what Jeremiah said
in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 when he says, The heart is
desperately weak. Deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Can a heart
like that be made pure? No. No, you can just forget it. This pure heart is the new heart
that he gives. David understood this. He said
in Psalm 51 verse 17 or verse 10, I'm sorry, creates in me. a clean heart, O God. My heart's filthy, it's beyond
repair, and the only way I can have a clean heart is if God
creates one and places it in me. Create in me a clean heart,
O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Now, you remember
the promise from Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart also will I give
you? Here it is, the new heart. This
is the pure heart. In 2nd Timothy 2.22, we read
of those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. When you call
upon the Lord, that's the pure heart that he gives. And we read
in 1st Peter 2.22 that we're to love the brethren with a pure
heart fervently. Now, how is this heart pure? Well, the scripture says that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Can God, the Holy Spirit,
give birth to anything that is in any way impure? Is he capable
of doing that? Of course not. He's the Holy
Spirit. And this is the new heart that
he gives. Now, would you turn with me to
Matthew chapter five? Now, as far as our experience
goes, Do you feel like you have a pure heart? When I'm talking
about having a pure heart, you say, well, mine's pure. If you
think that, you're deceived. You've missed it all together.
I mean, I'm going to show you how you can see if you have a
pure heart. Matthew chapter 5, verse 8. Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. Now,
this is the promise. Blessed are the pure in heart. Well, look back up verse three. Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of
God. Am I poor in spirit? Do I understand
that I don't have one thing to recommend me to God? That I am
bankrupt. That I have no entitlement to
God's favor. That I have nothing. That I am nothing but sin and
I don't have one good thing, not one, to recommend me to God. Am I poor in spirit? That's because
I'm pure in heart. It's only the pure in heart that
realizes that. Look in verse 4. Blessed are
they that mourn. For they shall be comforted.
And this is talking about mourning over sin. And what is mourning
used for? Mourning is used for when people
die. When they die, you can't bring them back. There's nothing
you can do. And you mourn in bitterness of soul because there's
nothing you can do about it. As long as they're still alive,
there's still hope. But when they're dead, oh, you
mourn. There's no bringing them back.
You mourn over your sin when in your heart before God you
know there's nothing you can do about it. And you hate it
and you mourn. And the Lord says, Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You see, somebody
that mourns is somebody that's pure in heart. He says next in
verse 5, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Now, what is meekness? Meekness is that attitude toward
God that you believe whatever he brings your way is right because
he brought it and you bow. That's meekness. It's an attitude
toward God. And if you have that attitude,
it's because you're pure in heart. Look what he says next. Verse
6, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Now, when you're hungry and when
you're thirsty, there's one thing that you realize that hunger
and that thirst can't be satisfied by you. It's got to come from
outside of you, doesn't it? You can't satisfy your own hunger.
You've got to be given something from the outside. When you hunger
and thirst after righteousness, you can't be satisfied with some
kind of supposed self-righteousness. The only righteousness you can
be satisfied with is Christ's righteousness being given to
you so that that is your righteousness before God. And you hunger and
you thirst after that righteousness. Now, if you hunger and thirst
after righteousness, his righteousness, that's because you're pure in
heart. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy. If God has been merciful toward
you, you will be merciful toward others. You just will. Someone that's unmerciful, they
never experience God's mercy. It really is that simple. Now,
blessed are the merciful. Oh, have you experienced, has
God been merciful toward Do you see that you're saved by the
sheer mercy of God? Not by your works, but by the
sheer free mercy of God. Well, if you see that, if that's
your hope, it's because you're pure in heart. You see, this
pureness of heart doesn't mean you think, oh boy, I'm really
holy. I'm so pure. I'm pure as the
driven snow. No. When you're pure in heart, you
see you're nothing but sin. It's the new nature that sees
that. Understand this, it's not like I see you this well, I've
got this pure heart. That's not our experience, but it's what
scripture teaches it. And this pure heart lines up
with all these glorious beatitudes in the scripture. Now, blessed
are the pure in heart. You see, the pure heart is the
new birth. And from this pure heart comes
charity. Turn to first John, chapter four.
1 John chapter 4. Verse 7. Beloved, let us love
one another. Let us exercise charity toward
one another. For love or charity is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. This is not talking about the
love between a man and a woman, or a parent and a child, or any
kind of human love. This is talking about this supernatural
love that comes from being born of the Spirit. Anybody who has
this love is born of God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. That's simple enough, isn't it?
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, this new heart is a heart
that loves. Now. I do love God. Now, I don't feel good about
my love. And it seems like if I loved
him the way I ought to, I'd never see him anymore. It does seem
that way, doesn't it? You know how, I mean, it's frustrating
when you see yourself, but I do, I do love God for who he is.
I love all of His attributes. I love His sovereignty. I love
His holiness. I love His justice. I love His
wisdom. I love His power. Any attribute
of God, I love because I love Him. And that's why we get so
upset, really, with false doctrine. We take it personal because this
is our Redeemer. This is our God. This is the
one we love. We love Him. I love His gospel. I love His people. This is the
truth. Anybody that loves Jesus Christ,
I do love that individual. I mean, I love him. Anybody that
loves my Redeemer, I love them too. I love his people. And you know what? I love men. I want men. I want everybody
in this room, I want all men to come to know the Lord. I really
do. I want men to know the joy of
resting in Christ. I want to preach the gospel to
everybody. I want everybody to hear the gospel. And I love my
enemies. I love my enemies. I prove that when I pray for
them. When I pray for the Lord's blessing on them and I pray for
the Lord's mercy on them. This is that love that you can,
if you want to know what that love looks like, read first Corinthians
13. That's that love that he's speaking
of. So the goal of the commandment,
the goal of the charge of preaching the gospel, it's going to produce
this charity, true love from a pure heart, that heart that
he gives in the new birth. And the next thing he says in
our text, the second goal is a good conscience. A good conscience. I talked about this, not actually,
I preached the message on this a few weeks ago, so I don't guess
I'm going to say a whole lot about it. But everybody has a conscience,
don't they? Everybody has a conscience. Now,
some people's conscience doesn't work very well because it's been
dulled by continual sinning against the light and they can get to
the place where they sin without remorse and without guilt and
everything's fine and they don't care. But everyone has a conscience. It's also called the work of
the law written in the heart. You know, when people say, we
need to teach people how to live, people already know how to live.
I don't need to teach anybody how to live. Everybody in here
knows you ought to pay your bills. Everybody in here knows that
sexual sin is wrong, that you ought to be thankful to your
spouse. Everybody knows that. Everybody
knows it's wrong to steal. Everybody knows it's wrong to
murder. Everybody knows it's wrong to tell a lie. Somebody
says, you need to teach people how to live. You already know
how to live. When people say that, it just aggravates me.
What are you trying to bring up? People already know how to
live. Now, here is the conscience turned
up. Have you got the Roman still
yet? I haven't got there, but here's what the natural conscience
does. Verse 14. For when the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, they've never been given a copy of the Ten Commandments,
but they know it's wrong to steal. They know it's wrong to lie.
They know it's wrong to murder. They know you ought to be respectful
to your parents. Everybody knows that stuff naturally.
They know you ought to honor authority. These, having not
the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts. And here's what their conscience
does. Their conscience also bearing witness and the thoughts that
meanwhile accusing or else excusing. That's all the natural conscience
does. It either accuses you and makes you feel real guilty and
real bad, or you start looking for an excuse. You start looking
for a cover-up and a reason to make yourself feel better about
yourself. That's what the natural conscience does. It either accuses
or it excuses. And that is it. Well, what's a good conscience? Well, it's not one that doesn't
feel guilty. That's a seared conscience. Somebody says, I
don't feel guilty. Well, there's something wrong
with you because you don't feel guilty. You don't feel guilty.
I'll just assure you, there's plenty you've got to feel guilty
about. And if you don't, it's because your conscience is seared.
What about one that's always doubting itself and always having
a hard time, just always doubting and timid? That's a weak conscience.
One that feels extreme guilt, that's a condemning conscience.
A good conscience is a conscience that has nothing to feel guilty
about. That only is a good conscience. You do not have a reason to feel
guilty. Now that can only be understood
in light of the gospel. My sin, my transgression, my
sin was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And He bore it in His
own body on the tree. And He suffered the wrath of
God for that sin. He was punished for my sin. And
He satisfied the justice of God. Now, with regard to my sin, what
sin? It's been put away. It's been
washed away. And I stand before God without
guilt, without sin. That's what justification is. I'm perfect. I'm righteous. However, righteous Christ is,
that's how righteous I am, because his righteousness is my righteousness
before God. And I have nothing to feel guilty
about. Does Christ have anything to
feel guilty about? No. Neither do I, then. That is a
good conscience. You don't have anything to feel
guilty about. Turn to 1 Peter 3. Verse 21. The like figure, whereunto even
baptism doth also now save us. I know some people look at that
passage of Scripture and say, see, you've got to be baptized
to be saved. Well, Peter says, not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh. It's not the act of going underwater and having
stuff washed away, but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, here's the only
thing that satisfies my conscience, because even when I'm talking
about having this good conscience, I always feel guilty about something.
I said this last time, there's never been a time in all my life
when I don't feel guilty about something. It's always there. That being said, I have nothing
to feel guilty about. When Christ was raised from the
dead, my sin was put away. His righteousness is mine, and
I stand before God without guilt. And that's the only thing that
satisfies my conscience. Now, my works, my efforts, my
trying to be, none of that satisfies my conscience. Matter of fact,
it just makes me feel guilty. I never measure up. But what
satisfies my conscience is that what Christ did makes me perfect
before God. And I don't need anything else. The only answer I need is it's
Christ that died. That's it. Do you find satisfaction
in that? Now, even if you say, with regard
to a clear conscience, turn to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1. Verse 8. If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now there,
the word sin is a noun. So there's never a time in my
experience when I can say, I have no sin, I have a clear conscience.
I mean, you know, it's just. Somebody says I've got a clear
conscience, well, their conscience isn't working right, because
you always have this sinful nature. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse 10, if we
say we've not sinned, today the word's a verb. This is talking
about anything that we do. I don't care what it is. If we
say we've not sinned. I've had enough sin in this sermon
to set 10 million worlds into hellfire. And you have to. Whether you
know it or not. That's the truth. If we say we've
not sinned. We make him a liar because he
says we have. And his word is not in us. So
you see, this good conscience isn't from me thinking that I've
done so well that, oh boy, I've got a clear conscience here.
No, no, not at all. Not at all. This good conscience
comes from believing the gospel, believing that who Christ is
and what he did makes me perfect before God. That is a good conscience. And I like what he says next,
back to our text. The goal of the commandment is
first, real charity, real love that comes from the new heart
that he gives, that pure heart, the heart given in the new birth.
Isn't that beautiful? Charity out of a pure heart.
And the goal, the purpose of the commandment for somebody
to have a good conscience, to actually rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ and really believe like we read that verse of Scripture.
I know the thoughts that I have toward the. Thoughts of peace. Peace got satisfied with me,
I don't have anything to worry about, I stand perfect before
his holy law, I do. Oh, that's a wonderful thought.
Believing justification. And the third thing is faith
unfamed. I like that. Faith unfamed. Unfaked, not pretended. Now, you've run across the word
dissimulation in the scripture, haven't you? Dissimulation, you
read about it in Galatians chapter two, but you've read that scripture
several times. It's in there several times. That's the same
word as famed. It simply means hypocritical. It means acting. It means pretending. And there's plenty of vain faith
going around hypocrisy. I've always been amused by people
who say they don't want to come to the church because there's
too many hypocrites there. Man, you ought to feel right at home.
You'd fit right in if that's the case. I mean, it's the place
for you. Next time somebody says that
to you, say that to them. I'm going to. I am. I'm going to.
I'm not going to listen to that anymore. Beloved, I'm not a feigned sinner. And
I say that to my shame. But I'm the real thing. I'm a real sinner, needing to
be saved from my sins right now. I'm a real sinner, not a fake
sinner, not a feigned sinner. I'm the real thing, needing His
mercy and His grace. And I can't look down my nose
upon any son of Adam and look at myself as better than them
in any way. I'm a real sinner. And having
no personal righteousness of my own, I really am relying on
His righteousness as my righteousness before God. This is not fake.
This is not pretend. I really believe that his righteousness
is my only righteousness before God. And I'm hanging on to that.
That's the real thing. This is not pretend. This is
not fake. I really believe that that transaction
that went on on Calvary was not role playing. It was not acting.
It was not pretending. My sin really became his. And his righteousness really
becomes mine. 2 Timothy 1.12, Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. I really believe that he is able
to keep That which I've committed to him against that great day
of judgment. Now, if you believe in works
in any way, to any degree in your salvation, you fail to commit.
This commitment is where you let go of all other hopes and
you trust him alone as all your righteousness before God. And
that's faith unthinged. That's not fake faith. There's
a lot of fake faith around. But that's unfeigned faith. You know, we read of love unfeigned
and that wisdom that is not given hypocrisy and unfeigned faith.
I really do look to Christ as my all in salvation. Right now,
I really do. It's not fake. Now, that is the
end. That is the goal of this charge
of preaching no other doctrine, of preaching the gospel. It's
to produce these three things. Charity out of a pure heart,
and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. May God work those three things
in every one of us. Let's pray together.