1 Timothy 1:12-20

[0:00] Again, the text is 1 Timothy 1, verses 12-20, on page 963. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

[0:35] And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

[0:50] But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display His perfect patience, as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.

[1:04] To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.

[1:26] By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

[1:38] This is the word of the Lord. Thank you, God. You may be seated. Good afternoon.

[1:51] What a privilege and joy to be with our Holy Trinity Hydebrook family. Shirley's been working in the kitchen for the college students.

[2:03] I've been working in the office for the rest of the folk. And it's a joy to be able to serve you today. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your great kindness to us, your mercy to us through Jesus.

[2:22] Lord, be glorified in our midst today. Thank you for your long arm of grace that has reached us in our desperate estate.

[2:35] You've called us to yourself. And we give thanks to you today. May our souls be refreshed. May our eyes and hearts be opened.

[2:49] May we be better prepared to live for you in this world. It's our prayer in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Well, in the age of all the electronics that we have and the capacity to download books and to load them on Kindles and other devices, this week I added yet another hardback book to my library.

[3:18] An interesting book. I've started it, but, and I look forward to completing it, but the name of the book is Bad Religion.

[3:32] How We Became a Nation of Heretics. The author is one Ross Duford. I think I'm pronouncing his name correctly.

[3:43] If not, you can correct me afterwards. But he is a New York Times columnist. And he critiques the following, that Christianity in America is in decline.

[4:02] Huh? And let me just give you a couple of excerpts from the dust cover that will really help you to see how this fits sort of hand in glove with our text on this afternoon.

[4:18] Duthat writes, In Bad Religion, or the cover says, In Bad Religion, Duthat offers a masterful and hard-hitting account of how American Christianity has gone off the rails and why it threatens to take American society with it.

[4:40] Writing for an era dominated by recession, grit lock, and fears of American decline, Duthat exposes the spiritual roots of the nation's political and economic crises.

[4:56] He argues that America's problem isn't too much religion, as a growing chorus of atheists have argued, nor is it an intolerant secularism, as many on the Christian right believe.

[5:13] Rather, it's bad religion. The slow-motion collapse of traditional faith and the rise of a variety of pseudo-Christianities that stroke our egos, that stroke our egos, indulge our follies, and encourage our worst impulses.

[5:34] These faiths speak from many pulpits, conservative and liberal, political and pop-cultural, traditionally religious and fashionably spiritual, and many of their preachers claim Christian warrant.

[5:50] But they are increasingly offering distortions of traditional Christianity, not the real thing. Christianity's place in American life has increasingly been taken over, not by atheism, Duthat argues, but by heresy.

[6:10] The base versions of Christian faith that breed hubris, greed, and self-absorption. Bad religion.

[6:27] Bad religion, friends, is not new. As a matter of fact, it's quite ancient. Bad religion. Paul's letter, first letter to Timothy, challenged the church in 1st century Ephesus, and it challenges bad religion today in America, and even in Chicago.

[6:54] The letter before us helps us to see that the remedy, the antidote to the poison, of bad religion, is not good religion per se.

[7:09] No. It's good doctrine that's articulated by and lived through godly leaders. Bad religion.

[7:23] Huh? Last week's text contained Paul's initial direction to Timothy. You can see that in chapter 1 and verse 3.

[7:36] As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.

[7:51] That was the directive. Look at verse 18 in our text on this afternoon. It reiterates that same thing. this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you that you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.

[8:18] Huh? Timothy's charge in Ephesus was to challenge those who were teaching a different doctrine.

[8:30] And in doing so, as different doctrines do, they were leading people astray. Rather than their teaching being properly motivated and helping people arrive at Christian maturity as was Paul's desire expressed in chapter 1 verse 5, their teaching was deficient.

[8:55] it was aimless. The teaching was confusing. Huh? That was the nature of it.

[9:07] And there was much at stake. Those kind of matters then, as well as now, need the attention and need the perspective of the very gospel of God.

[9:20] Huh? And in that particular day, Timothy was God's man for the task. Let me just give you an overview of where we're headed on this afternoon that will help you follow me as I raise those headers along the way.

[9:38] In the text before us, Paul, he lays down this personal sketch of his life. life. And in doing so, this sketch of his life, it both counters as well as corrects what we've seen in chapter 1, verses 3 through 11.

[10:01] Huh? Paul's life. And then we have seen the lives or the perspectives and the kind of teaching of these false teachers that were in Ephesus.

[10:13] in verse 12, we see Paul's gospel commission. In verses 13 through 17, we see Paul's gospel conversion.

[10:30] And then in verses 18 through 20, we see Paul's gospel companion, none other than Timothy himself.

[10:41] First of all, look with me at Paul's gospel commission. Look at verse 12. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

[11:01] Huh? Did you notice that our text begins with Paul's thanksgiving? And his praise is based on the fact of what God had actually entrusted to him.

[11:15] Look at the last part of verse 10 on into verse 11. And whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, and notice, that is in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

[11:34] That takes us on into verse 12. Notice the passive in verse 11. It was something that I have been entrusted. Sound doctrine is teaching that accords with or is in line with the gospel.

[11:49] The gospel is the foundation, and sound teaching emerges from that very, very solid foundation. And this sacred trust had been committed to Paul as something that was to be guarded, something to be held in trust.

[12:08] And it contrasted with the different doctrines that we saw in verse 3. It was as if Paul was a soldier that had been assigned to oppose.

[12:24] I remember it was March in 1968, way back there, a god had been called into the United States Army as a draftee.

[12:36] Went to Fort Sam Houston, and one of the first things that they taught us was what they called the first of the general orders. Those army boot camp years where there was a lot of good things that were stressed, but one of the first ones, they were teaching us about the general orders, and this is what general order number one said.

[12:57] I will guard everything within the limits of my post, and not quit my post until I am properly relieved.

[13:11] And there are those, I'm sure, who have been court marshaled, and perhaps less because they moved from their post that they were assigned in order to watch over, to see over, to guard over the things that had been committed to their trust.

[13:32] Similarly, Paul here, he did that very thing, and notice at the end of his life what he said, I have fought, what?

[13:42] A good fight? I have finished the race? I have kept the faith, huh? Paul had been entrusted with nothing less friends than the very gospel of God.

[14:00] And when Paul gave thought to what had been committed to him, entrusted to him for safekeeping, he gave thanks. Thanks unto God.

[14:13] The one who had been entrusted with the gospel was the same one who initially had violently, terribly, terribly opposed the very gospel that he came to uphold.

[14:27] Notice what Paul said in his own words in Acts chapter 26, verses 9 through 11. I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing Jesus of Nazareth, and I did so in Jerusalem.

[14:41] I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme and in raging fear against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

[15:01] He was a man on the move, he was a man with an agenda, and he was good at it, folks. Oh, but this same man, when he thought about what had been given to him, his commission, thanksgiving, was the heart of the day, because the great God of heaven had deemed him faithful in being able to carry out the mission, and of course, it's clear, isn't it, he was only able to do that because he was the one who had given him strength, as we see in verse 12.

[15:45] Called out for special service, commissioned by God for his very special purposes, strengthened by God for service, counted worthy, just think about what it is, who is it that you would entrust something very, very special to?

[16:08] John Allison has just taken my precious wife home, thank you, John, I trust him to do that, huh? Who would you entrust with your debit card or your checkbook?

[16:22] And all of those things pale, except my wife, as it pertains to the gospel, and even she does in that regard.

[16:36] Through his sovereign grace, the Lord had made his greatest opponent, his greatest advocate, that's what grace and mercy, that's how they function.

[16:52] Notice we move from Paul's commission in verse 12 to Paul's gospel conversion. Huh? What was it that Paul saw when he looked back into the rearview mirror of his life?

[17:09] He saw a religious zealot who lived and functioned and operated in extreme opposition to the very one who had called him into his service.

[17:22] He had spoken disrespectfully of Jesus, disrespectfully of the Christian way. He had persecuted those who embraced the Christian faith.

[17:32] He was arrogant and haughty, insolent is what the text says. But the great persecutor of the Christian faith, through the very sovereign grace of God, had been marked for God's mercy.

[17:49] His opposition to Christ was due to his ignorance. In spite of having scripture, and listen to this, friend, in spite of having scripture and being a student of it, his understanding was darkened.

[18:02] His heart and mind were darkened by the sin of unbelief. And he acted accordingly. But in the midst of this ugly, the beauty of God's mercy had shined on him.

[18:19] He said, I received mercy because I've acted ignorantly in unbelief. Oh, I love the song, Depth of Mercy.

[18:31] Depth of mercy, can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear me, the chief of sinners spare?

[18:49] I have long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his cause, grieved him by a thousand falls.

[19:00] That's how not only Paul may fit that profile, but perhaps you and me, we're in that same vein.

[19:12] God in his mercy pardons, and mercy clears the way for grace. That's when the Lord gives us what we don't deserve, and grace has a way of following mercy.

[19:28] Notice the text in verse 14. And the grace of our Lord, notice that wonderful, seemingly Pauline word, overflowed for me.

[19:40] What a wonderful picture. It's super abundant. It's waterfall like. It's marvelous, matchless, wondrous.

[19:55] It's more than sufficient, it's greater than all our sin. It's amazing enough, friends, to save a wretch like Paul and me and you.

[20:09] Huh? Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to you.

[20:27] Huh? God's grace. And did you know that grace has some traveling companions? There are many, but prominent among them are faith and love.

[20:39] You see that in the text, huh? Overflow for me with faith and love that are in what? Whom? Christ Jesus.

[20:50] Where there is grace and abundance, you can count on faith and love being close back. Look at verse 15.

[21:00] Huh? Oh, look at this trustworthy saying. This is trust, this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

[21:12] Sometimes in the Pauline epistle, the pastorals, he'll give the saying before saying what he just did, and sometimes it follows, here the saying follows this kind of introduction.

[21:25] As Paul considered his own situation, he pondered the purpose of Jesus coming into the world, and then he presented it as a faithful, trustworthy saying.

[21:40] It was the kind of saying that deserved to be fully embraced. That's the idea here. This is the one of several in the pastorals. What is he saying? Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

[21:56] And notice what all of these things, this very gospel-centered perspective that Paul is giving in this particular part of chapter 1. He was saying that the gospel is trustworthy, worthy of one's full trust.

[22:11] This statement is an unfailing statement, one that you can take to the bank without worry. It's good news. here is the gospel at the very core, the foundational truth for all of Christian teaching, is Christ Jesus coming into the world to save sinners.

[22:38] In Ephesus, that was not the center, at least the sum of the teaching that was going on then, and even in our world, friends, all too often, Christ Jesus is not the foundation, it's not the center of what we're hearing in our world.

[23:01] Let me just give you a quote here from Duthant in the book. He's quoting Joel Osteen here and talking about three books that he had written and how they had remained popular in spite of people keep coming back for more and more of this kind of teaching.

[23:28] And he's quoting Joel here. Right now, God is showering down blessings, healing, promotion, good ideas, Osteen promised his readers. If you're not sharing in his favor, you might want to watch your words.

[23:43] Here's the key. If you don't unleash your words in the right direction, if you don't call in a favor, you will not experience those blessings. Nothing happens unless we speak.

[23:56] Again, these are Osteen's words. Name it and claim it, one might say. Did Osteen's audience turn on him? Did they compare his promises in the book with the promises in the last one and the one before that and decide that there might be some other force at work in their struggles than the simple failure to boldly ask God for his blessings on their lives?

[24:20] Did they contrast his perpetually sunny vision to their own grim financial straits and decide that now might be the time for the sort of Christianity that's willing to tell its faithful things they may not want to hear?

[24:36] Did they turn to their churches and their traditions for a set of Christian stories more applicable to troubled times than Osteen's parade of upbeat parables? The 40 days in the desert, the agony in the garden, the suffering on the cross, that they opened their Bibles and read as if for the first time you cannot serve God and mammon?

[25:03] They did not. The book sold, the ratings rose, the tours continued in March 2009 with employment rate at 8.5% and rising, Osteen sold out Yankee Stadium.

[25:24] The gospel is the foundation. The gospel is the center. And as you think about the things that were flying around in Ephesus and then think about the things that are flying around in America, in Chicago, and even beyond.

[25:46] Notice Paul's personal note following the saying, of whom I am the foremost. Paul viewed himself as the foremost at the head of the class of sinners.

[26:00] Why did Jesus come? He came to save sinners. Matthew 1.21. Paul says, I'm at the head of the class of those so-called I'm chief among them.

[26:12] Again, contextually, it seems like the reason he considered himself the chief of sinners was because of his active opposition to Christ and the gospel that saved.

[26:24] He was at odds with an active opposition to the message and to the messengers and to those who had received the message. how shameful and the apostle never forgot it.

[26:36] He knew, he said this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 9 and 10, for I am the least of apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the very church of God.

[26:50] But by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. The grace of God can overcome the most ugly thing in your life and mine.

[27:08] That thing that nobody else may know. But you know. And God knows. Look at verse 16.

[27:19] Paul returns to the theme of God's mercy, divine pity. But I receive mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

[27:37] His compassion. He remembers our frame that we are but dust. Paul saw himself as a poster child for God's mercy.

[27:51] Paul's exhibit A. for the sufficiency and the power of the gospel. His own gospel commission and his own gospel conversion.

[28:05] He presented them right alongside what we see. Chapter 3 verses 1. Chapter 1 verse 3 through 11. And here alongside of this somewhat of a profile of these false teachers, he gives his own gospel profile.

[28:26] Look at verse 17. Don't you love it? To the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever.

[28:36] Amen. Wow. Think about it as he's pondering these things and God's grace in his life as he's writing it down. An overflow of praise begin to well up in him that demanded expression and thus we see what we do in verse 17.

[28:56] The addressee is God himself. He is described as the king of ages and this speaks of his eternal reign. Guess what friends?

[29:07] No term limits for God. No rivals. He's over all things for all time. He's king. He must be recognized as such.

[29:19] No, not only that. He is immoral. That is, he is incorruptible, imperishable. He is invisible. You can't behold him with the physical eye. He is spirit.

[29:29] He is beyond the range of human examination. He's invisible to the eye, but very much visible, friends, to the eye of faith.

[29:40] Do you see him? Huh? Can you imagine Paul in our own day saying something like the following.

[29:52] When I think about the Lord, how he saved me, how he raised me, how he filled me with the Holy Ghost, how he saved me to the uttermost.

[30:10] when I think about the Lord, how he picked me up, turned me around, placed my feet on solid ground.

[30:23] It makes me want to shout. He gives this doxology, this praise, it makes me want to shout hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

[30:35] Lord, you're worthy of all of the glory, all the honor, and all of the praise. Paul could sing in that vein when he thinks about where he's come from.

[30:50] And none of us has a history like Paul's, but you have a history, don't you? Some more dark and dire than others, but you've got a history.

[31:02] And in view of that, he's worthy of all of the glory, and all the honor, and all of the praise. So his uniqueness finally comes into view.

[31:14] He is the only God, and to him belong the utmost honor, and glory, and praise throughout the ages, ages upon ages.

[31:30] What's the summary of what in these verses that we've looked at so far? against the bad, aberrant religion promoted by some of the teachers in Ephesus, Paul offers the corrective of the gospel, the foundation for all of Christian teaching.

[31:49] He had been entrusted with that gospel that saved. His own life was exhibit A, and his corrective included glimpses of his commission as well as his conversion.

[32:02] But there's one more thing in the remaining verses, and that's Paul's gospel companion, none other than Timothy himself. He turns his attention to Timothy and looking again, there's the charge repeated from verse 3.

[32:15] This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, huh?

[32:32] Timothy had been left a commission for Ephesus to attend to the matters that needed attendant to. He was Paul's representative, and this trust had been given to him.

[32:48] He was his partner in gospel ministry, his child, genuine child in the faith, and he would conduct ways according to how his spiritual father, you might say, would do it.

[33:01] Huh? He was in that same vein, a gospel son. Friends, gospel ministry needs gospel sons and daughters. It's one of the reasons that we have Chicago plan.

[33:14] It's designed to that particular end, that gospel ministry would not only be solid in this generation, but in the generations to come, the people would be rooted and grounded in the gospel.

[33:30] Mentoring relationships are in a similar vein that the gospel message and gospel ministry might continue beyond where we are. This responsibility was right for Timothy.

[33:44] It fit who the Lord had, what the Lord had ordained for him. It was even, had been supported by a prophetic utterance likely at the time of his ordination. Something had been spoken in his past about the future that would inspire confidence in the time of challenge and trouble.

[34:05] Huh? He was told here to hold on to those very things, faith and a good conscience, that the good, that the false teachers, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6, they had swerved from them.

[34:21] They were to hold, he was to hold on to them the truth of the gospel in his teaching and in his living, and he was also, as far as the good conscience is concerned, he was to embrace and to hold on to that.

[34:35] That's a conscience that obeys the dictates of the word as applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit. Those things must not be abandoned then and now.

[34:49] Doing so is like taking a sailboat, a sail away from a sailboat or rudder away from a ship. It leads to wreck and harm and disaster.

[35:04] Notice what, finally, what he does. He proceeds to identify those who had gone astray, likely leaders among the false teaching group, had been excommunicated, likely from the church because of their disrespect and rebellion.

[35:21] it was serious and Paul's corrective here included the accounts of his commission and his conversion as well as his charge to his gospel companion, reminding him of the things that had been entrusted to him.

[35:41] Huh? Let me give you a quick review of the gospel that saves and we're about to wrap it up. Huh? Huh? As Paul gave thanks to God, similarly, you and I are to give thanks to God for the gospel.

[36:01] What about the gospel? According to verse 12, God sovereignly appoints workers for it, even those who oppose the gospel.

[36:12] He brings the most likely, unlikely people to himself through the gospel. gospel. Paul fits that category. And just think about that as it concerns somebody in your life, in your sphere of relationships that may be far from the gospel.

[36:31] God is able to bring them, that relative, that friend, that's far away and seemingly getting further. But God is able, through the gospel, to bring him.

[36:44] Jesus says we must never forget that. The person and the work of Jesus Christ are at the center of it, again as we see in this particular text. And God packages so many good things in the gospel itself.

[36:59] Mercy and grace are part of the gospel. The generation up to come needs to labor for it, for the gospel.

[37:11] Friends, you and I must be thankful for it. That saved us and been given to us as his church and particularly those of us who are Christian leaders.

[37:23] So, what's the antidote for bad religion? The gospel and God's servants in every generation who live it and proclaim it in their teaching and their preaching.

[37:38] God calls us to himself through his son. And we must be ever mindful of this. And as we understand and embrace this, my prayer for you and my prayer for me is that our gospel commitments would be renewed and our gospel praise would be reignited because of the gospel.

[38:07] Let us pray. Father, we love you and we give thanks to you for the gospel. Thank you for the corrective that the gospel brings in every generation, every era.

[38:22] And we would pray that as it goes forth in our world that it would serve to counter Lord teaching that is not gospel based and correct the tendencies that we see in our world and even perhaps some in our own hearts and lives.

[38:43] May we be put, corrected through the gospel and find ourselves living forward and in it for the glory and honor of your name.

[38:55] Amen.