Let's open our Bibles this evening
to 1st Timothy, chapter 1. 1st Timothy, chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. 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
at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying
which is in faith, so do. Now the end of the commandment
is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and
of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned
aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law. understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully, 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 mothers, murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was
committed to my trust, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath
enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry. who was before a blasphemer and
a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did
it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am
chief. Albeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. This charge I commit unto
thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went
before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning
faith, have made shipwreck. of whom is Amanias and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. The Lord willing, beginning tonight
and for several Wednesday evenings, I plan to bring us messages from
this first epistle of Timothy. John Calvin began his commentary
on this letter with these words, and I quote, In my view, this
epistle was written more for the sake of others than for Timothy
himself. And those who carefully consider
the whole matter will agree with me. I do not, of course, deny
that Paul intended to teach and advise Timothy also, but my contention
is that the epistle contains many things that there would
have been no need to include had Timothy alone been in view. Now there are many things in
this letter that were needed by the church at Ephesus. The
church at Ephesus needed instruction in several areas and that's one
reason the letter is good even until today because the churches
of the Lord Jesus Christ experienced the same problems, the same difficulties
down through the years. But in this letter, the apostle
gives instructions both for ministers and for churches on subjects
such as the law, prayer, public worship, the offices of pastor
and deacon, our conduct toward certain groups of people, These
groups are divided in this way to different ages, our conduct
toward people of different ages, believers of different ages,
our conduct toward widows, our conduct toward pastors, and then
servants, their conduct toward their masters. But tonight, let's
consider two things from verses one and two. This is referred
to as the salutation of the letter. And I want us to consider and
look at two things. First, Timothy. Timothy. What do we know about
Timothy? What do we know about Timothy? And I have several things I want
to point out to us that we know from the scriptures about Timothy. First, we know that he had a
believing mother and grandmother. Timothy's father was a Greek,
and we know nothing about him. We do know that Timothy was not
circumcised as a child, and that leads us to believe, or at least
it does me to believe that his father was a Greek, but he was
not a Jewish proselyte. There were Greeks who were proselyted
to the Jewish religion, but evidently Timothy's father was not one
of them. Even so, even so, Timothy was
blessed by having a believing mother and grandmother. Turn with me over to 2 Timothy. And children will realize this
if the Lord has mercy on them and saves them. But children
could have no greater blessing than to have a believing mother
and grandmother. A believing father also, that
would be good. but a believing grandmother and
a believing mother. And that's what we see here concerning
Timothy. In 2nd Timothy, chapter 1, verses
4 and 5, Paul said, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of
thy tears, that I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance
the unfeigned faith that is in thee. which dwelt first, that
is a faith, unfeigned faith, it dwelt first in thy grandmother,
Lois, and thy mother, Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee
also. Both his mother and his grandmother,
Paul said, had unfeigned faith residing in them. The word unfeigned
simply means they had sincere faith. They trusted in the Lord
Jesus Christ with unfeigned, with sincere faith, and that
that faith was manifested in their conduct. We know that Men
and women are saved by the grace of God, apart from any works,
any consideration of our works. We recognize that. We're saved
by the grace of God, depending upon the person and work of Jesus
Christ. But at the same time, we recognize
that those who truly believe, those who have unfeigned faith
in Jesus Christ, it will be manifested in our conduct. It will be demonstrated
in our lives. If you look at chapter 3, 2 Timothy
chapter 3, we see one way that the faith
that these two women had, one way that their faith was manifested
is they taught Timothy the Word of God. They taught their children
the Word of God. And as I said, no greater blessing
could a person have than to have a mother and father and grandmother,
grandfather, who would teach them the Word of God. I heard
a man just recently tell me that when they went to their grandfather's
house, they knew it was different. Why? Because he prayed. Because before they ate their
meals, he thanked God for the food. They just knew it was different
there at their grandfather's house than it was at their own
house. So their faith, the faith of Eunice and Lois, it was demonstrated,
it was manifested in them insisting on teaching Timothy the Scriptures. Notice that in chapter 3, verses
14 and 15. Paul's speaking to Timothy, writing
to Timothy, But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them. Well, Timothy, who did you learn
these things from that he is insisting that he continue in? Well, he learned them from Paul.
But also before that, notice the next verse, And that from
a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. You know, Paul says the holy
scriptures. I'm sure you've heard this before,
but an old saying, it's still a good saying, sin will keep
you from the book, or the book will keep you from sin. Holy
scriptures. We believe in the inspiration
of the Word of God. The reason they are holy is because
holy men of old wrote them as they were inspired by God the
Holy Spirit. And I believe it's all inspired,
even the cover that says Holy Bible. Holy Bible, the Word of
God. But notice in this verse here,
verse 15, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. Notice these two things from
that verse. There's a wealth of teaching
in that one verse. A wealth of instruction to us. But notice these two things.
Number one, the Old Testament spoke of Christ. When we read
here that his mother and grandmother had taught him the scriptures,
the only scriptures they had is what we call the Old Testament,
part of our Bible. And yet, Paul says they were
able to make him wise unto salvation, which is in Christ Jesus. Salvation is in Christ. So this
reminds us and tells us that The Scriptures, the Old Testament,
spoke and speak to us of Christ. Now, I've said this before, and
I'll say it again, the Lord willing, if a man cannot preach the Gospel
from the Old Testament, he doesn't know the Gospel. And what he
calls the Gospel is not the Gospel. Because Christ is presented to
us all through the Old Testament, all through the Scriptures. Now
he was speaking, the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to some Jews,
and they knew the Scriptures as far as having head knowledge
of knowing the Scripture, probably having much of the Old Testament
committed to their memories. But he said to them one day,
search the Scriptures. Now when he said search the Scriptures,
again remember, the only Scripture they had was the Old Testament. That's all they had. And yet
he said, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. You think just by having the
scriptures, by memorizing the scriptures, by reading the scriptures,
you think that you have eternal life. And they are they that
testify of me, Christ said. Search the Scriptures, for they
are they which testify of me. And listen, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. They would not come to
Christ. The Scriptures speak of Christ.
From Genesis all the way through to Malachi, the Scriptures somehow
point us to Jesus Christ. Search the Scriptures, for in
the Scriptures you will find that they testify of me, Christ
said. They testify that God promised
a Savior, the Messiah. They testify of me, Christ. I
am the Messiah. I am the one that the Scripture
spoke of and testified of. And yet you won't come to me
that you might have everlasting life. And that word will, you
will not come to me. Men love to talk about a free
will, but that's what they would not do. Their will, they would
not come to Christ. The problem has to do with the
will, the whole will. The will is enslaved, why? Because it's subject to our nature. And our nature is a fallen nature. But we see that here in this
verse where Paul said, and that from a child thou hast known
the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. That the Scriptures, the
Old Testament, spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. And number two,
the Holy Spirit uses We see this here, the Holy Spirit uses the
scripture in saving and making men wise unto salvation. He uses the word of God, being
born again of incorruptible seed by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, the scripture says in James. So the gospel is contained in
the scriptures, and God the Holy Spirit, he uses the gospel, the
scripture in saving his people. If you look back to 1 Corinthians,
let me read this passage, very familiar passage to all of us,
where Paul speaks about the gospel being contained in the scriptures.
1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse one, he's, moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you
are saved. You're saved by the gospel. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that
believeth. Paul told Timothy, your parent,
your mother and grandmother, taught you the scripture which
is able to make you wise unto salvation. The gospel, the Holy
Spirit uses the gospel. He uses the word, His word. He opens up our understandings.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
they're foolishness unto him. But God the Holy Spirit, that's
one reason it's so important to be under the sound of the
gospel. Brother Bill Parker mentioned
something to me before the service that he read today by Robert
Hawker in Jacob's dying moments of his life before he put his
feet up on his couch and departed. He made this statement as he
was going through those 12 tribes, blessing each one of them. I
have waited for thy salvation. And what a blessing that is to
think. Here's an old man right on the verge of eternity. And
he's able to confess, I've waited for thy salvation. I've been
waiting from the very first day that I met you, met the Lord. I've been waiting. I'm still
waiting. I'm still waiting. When God does a work, it's forever,
isn't it? It's not a work that begins today
and after a few months, the person, you know, you don't see them
anymore. No. The gospel is contained in the
Word of God. Paul said, this is the gospel
I preached unto you, which you have also received. Receive the
gospel. Receive the Lord Jesus Christ,
wherein you stand, by which also you're saved. If you keep in
memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain,
And here it is, for I delivered unto you first of all that which
I also received, how that Christ died for our sins. What's the
message? Christ died for our sins. He didn't die to be an example. He is an example. But that was
not the purpose, the main focus of his death. He died for our
sins. He died to satisfy. the justice
of God for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he
was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. The Holy Spirit, he uses his
word, the gospel. He opens the understandings of
men. First of all, he opens our understanding
to know that we need a savior. There's people all around us,
they don't have a clue as to the fact that they need a savior. They don't realize that. Everything's
fine. Everything's good. I'm a good
person. Maybe not as good as I should
be, but all in all, I'm a good person. God, when he opens the
understanding, he makes us to see, I need a savior. I can't
save myself. I need a savior. And then he
points us to the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of
the world. Well, that's the first thing
we know about Timothy. Who is he? Well, we know that
he had a believing mother and grandmother. Second, we know
that he had a good testimony among the brethren. In other
words, among other believers, he had a good testimony. I want you to look in Acts chapter
16. In Acts chapter 16, we read verse
1, Then came he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain
disciple was there, named Timotheus. There he is, Timothy. The son
of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed, his mother
believed, but his father was a Greek, which was, and this
is Timothy, which was well reported of by the brethren that were
at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth
with him and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which
were in those quarters, for they all knew that his father was
a Greek. Paul and Barnabas had come to
Lystra some years before this, preaching the gospel. That was
on Paul's first missionary journey. That's where Paul was stoned,
remember? And they drug him outside town thinking he was dead, and
believers gathered around him, and God raised him up. God raised him up. It was here
that that took place. Now Paul had returned, but this
time he's not returning with Barnabas, he's returning with
Silas, And remember, the reason Barnabas and Paul separated was
over John Mark. So John Mark is not with them.
And now Paul would have Timothy, I assume, to take John Mark's
place and accompany them. Now, when we read here that Paul
took Timothy and had him circumcised, They had just come from the council
in Jerusalem. If you look back in chapter 15,
they had just come from Jerusalem where this was a big issue. If a man had to be circumcised
in order to be saved. Remember the Judaizers, that's
what they were teaching. And so they had a meeting there
in Jerusalem and discussed this matter. If you look in chapter
15, Verses 5 and 6, and there rose
up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying
that it was needful to circumcise them, that is the Gentiles, and
to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and
elders came together for to consider this matter. Now this was the
matter they were considering. Is it necessary for Gentiles
to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses? Is that necessary
in order to be saved? I love the way Peter, you know,
Paul speaks and Peter speaks and James speaks, maybe others
also, but It's recorded what they said, and I love Peter's
word here, don't you? Look here in verse 7. And when
there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made
choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. Put no difference between us
and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why
tempt you God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Now watch this,
but we believe, and this is what I believe. I know if you're saved
tonight, you can say, this is what I believe. We believe it,
but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved, even as they. That's what we believe, Peter
said. That we Jews, we're going to be saved through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as they, even as the Gentiles
are saved. And it's only one way to be saved,
right? Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So when we read now in chapter
16 that he comes back to Lystra and Derby and will take Timothy
with him, he has him circumcised, not because he was teaching or
thought that it was necessary unto salvation, of course not.
Titus had gone with them. Titus was a Gentile. And Paul
said, not for a moment did they suffer them. So it, but Paul
realized that for Timothy to speak in a synagogue, for instance,
and Paul, usually when he went to a town, that's the first place
he went. He went to the synagogue and
they would give him an opportunity at least once to speak But an
uncircumcised man, they would not allow to speak. And because
his ministry was to Jews and Gentiles, Paul knew that for
that reason, Timothy should be circumcised. You remember when
he said to the Jews, I became a Jew? That's what this refers
to. So we know that. We know that
he had a good, he had a believing mother and grandmother. who taught
him the scriptures. He had a good testimony among
the brethren there at Lystra and Derby. We see that in verse
two, which was well reported of by the brethren. And third, we know several personal
things about Timothy. Let me just mention a few. We
know that he was a much younger man than Paul. And I mentioned
that simply for this reason, that may be why Paul calls him
my son. The fact that he was younger
in age than Paul. And we know this, too. We know
that he had many sicknesses, many illnesses. Notice that in
1 Timothy chapter 5. Someone said, well, I thought
if you really believed You'll never be sick. Never have any
sickness. Well, I thought that Paul had
the gift of healing. Well, he did have the gift of
healing. He was an apostle. But it was
not always God's will to heal everyone. And we see that Timothy
was a man who, he suffered many illnesses, we're told here in
1st Timothy chapter 5 and verse 23. Paul said, Drink no longer
water. but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities. Let's be medicinal,
the use of wine for thine often infirmities. That scripture alone
should drive a nail in the coffin of those people who say, well,
we believe if you have faith, you won't take medicine. You
won't go to the doctor, you won't take medicine. Well, Paul didn't
believe that, obviously. He said, Timothy, drink a little
wine for your stomach problem. You know, water in those countries
and even today in some countries, that's one of the worst things
you can drink is the water comes out of the well. Drink a little
wine, Paul said. Okay, here's the last thing I
want to point out. We know that Paul had the greatest
esteem for Timothy. I mean the greatest esteem for
Timothy. And you see that in Philippians
chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, beginning
with verse 19. Paul writing to this church said,
But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto
you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state.
For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your
state. For all seek their own, not the
things which are Jesus Christ. But you know the proof of him,
that as a son with a father, he has served with me in the
gospel." We know that Paul had the greatest esteem for Timothy. I'll tell you something else
that the commentators say we know. We know that Timothy was
a man, according to William Hendrickson, of reserve and timidity. Timothy, he was a man of reserve
and timidity. And why, why do they say that? Well, look at these two verses.
First Corinthians chapter 16. And I've got, I want us to see
this because I've got a point to make. First Corinthians, chapter 16,
and verse 10, Paul writing to the
believers in this church at Corinth, he said, now, if Timotheus come,
see that he may be with you without fear. For he worketh the work
of the Lord, as I also do. You see that he be with you without
fear. And then in, In 2 Timothy 1, he told Timothy,
God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of a sound mind. Be not ashamed of me and the
gospel of Jesus Christ, he told Timothy. Now, the reason I wanted
to say that is because the cults, the cults always make everyone
exactly the same. That's part of it. Everybody
becomes like everybody else. But the gospel, when God saves
a person, He doesn't change that person's personality. We've got,
all of us have our own personality. And God uses men of all sorts
of personalities. And one of the worst thing any
believer can ever try to do is to imitate somebody else and
be something that you're not. No, be who you are, who God made
you. Be faithful, be sincere and honest
in the way God made you, but don't try to be someone else.
Don't try to be a very outgoing person if you're more of an introverted
person. I mean, if we were all outgoing,
we'd have fist fights every day. I mean, we've got to be what
we are. But the cults, the point is the
cults, They always try to make everyone exactly the same. But the gospel, yes, we're changed. We're made new creatures in Christ
Jesus, but the personality is not changed. Now, my second point,
I'm just going to read because of the time. Grace, mercy, and
peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. And I
pray the Lord would bless this word to all of us here tonight.
Amen.