Transcript

Grab your Bibles and go to 1 Timothy as we continue in our exposition of this what’s called a pastoral epistle. Epistle means letter. It’s a letter from the aged Paul to his younger disciple Timothy, not as young as he used to be. They spent about 20 years together, almost 20 years, and toward the latter part of that, Paul is imprisoned much of the time and his health prevents him from being as active as he used to be, so he begins to commission these younger men to take over the oversight of the church and this is his letter to Timothy whom he has left in Ephesus to oversee the church there, to get some things straightened out and fixed that needed fixing in the church, but we have for us this record for all time, part now of our sacred infallible Scripture of many practical guidelines and insights on the church. But what is the church? The church is the bride of Christ and the glory of all glories will be at the end of time when Christ returns and his bride is brought together, our bodies will have been resurrected and glorified and then we will see the glory of God in ourselves and in our Savior and we will dwell with him forever and ever. However between now and that time, it’s our job to humbly and with great intentionality and purpose to be a part of being the bride God’s called us to be. So I call this beautifying the bride, her fashion, the way she’s ordered and structured, and her function, what she actually is to do. That’s what we’re about. We have this awesome task to follow the Scriptures enabled by the Spirit to beautify the bride, to be what he’s called us to be. Not to be successful necessarily, as a matter of fact, if you follow God’s mandates for the church, sometimes it won’t look like it’s very successful. You and I understand if you’ve been around long that sometimes you decline in numbers if you’re striving to be biblical and sound. That does happen. That happened to the Apostle Paul. It happened to Jesus. It happens to every church I know about that tries to be, go from a a lightly biblical church, I might say, to a thoroughly biblically sound church. And we never arrive. We stay humble and keep repenting and keep learning. So but beautifying the bride is what we’re all about. We care about God’s glory through his church and this book is a great book for that.

Now Paul’s writing to Timothy, as I’ve said, and we’ve already had an introduction and covered so much so many things I’d like to say again but I’m not going to, but we’ll continue with verses 1 and 2 of 1 Timothy 1. Look at it there.

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now I call the exposition of these two first verses “Gleanings from the Greeting.” This is Paul’s salutation or his initial greeting to Timothy in this letter that, again, has now become part of our Scripture, and let’s glean some things out of it that we can learn for ourselves in this day.

First of all, I. let’s note the authority of the letter. The authority of the letter. Now two subpoints here. The first one is Paul writes with authority for Timothy’s inspiration. He’s trying to encourage, edify, overall inspire this young minister in the task he’s given him. And we know that Paul can write with authority, first of all, because Paul’s position as an apostle. An apostle was a temporary office that God gave the church in those very early days that was for the founding of the church, the establishing of the church, and for the writing of the finished canon of Scripture that is the New Testament. He says here very very clearly that he is an apostle, notice, “according to the commandment of God our Savior.” A very strong statement. He wants you to know, “I’m not just coming up with things, I’m not just a Christian leader who has some good ideas you ought to take note of. No, I’m writing and I am an apostle under the commandment of God. I was placed here. I have special authority to do this.”

Now we know that Paul received a divine calling into the office and like we see throughout the Scripture, this was affirmed by the local churches. For example, the church at Antioch was the church that prayed and fasted and laid their hands on Paul and Barnabas and sent them out with their blessing, and that always should be the case. There should be no one going into Gospel ministry as a Lone Ranger. Not only do they need the support and encouragement of a sending church, but they need to be under the authority and the oversight of the church elders in the church.

So a person receives a call which should be affirmed by the local church and that’s the way Paul went out and that’s the way all ministers should go out. That’s the way Timothy went out. Timothy was chosen by Paul to go to be one of his associates but he had a good standing with the brethren in his community and they prayed over him and sent him out. But anyway, talking about Paul’s authority, let’s get back to that. Galatians 1:1 tells us where Paul writes to the church at Galatia, he says, ” Paul, an apostle,” notice this, “not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” So he says, “I have divine authority in this temporary esteemed office as apostle.” Then 1 Timothy 2:7, “And for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle,” now notice what he says, “(I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” Now why would he say, “I’m telling the truth”? Because everywhere he went, impostors and false teachers would follow and try to undermine the church and gain power and authority for themselves and teach false doctrine. So Paul would basically say, “They’re the false ones. I’m the true one. I’m telling you the truth, God called me as an apostle. These other guys are undermining the true doctrines of grace and the true teachings of God.” So you remember the story, it’s recorded in the book of Acts, Paul is struck down while he’s persecuting the church and Jesus speaks directly to him. As a matter of fact, in Acts 26:15-16, he recounts the experience and Paul says there, “And I said, Who art thou, Lord?” This is when he’s struck down on the ground. “And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but arise and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen but also to the things in which I will appear to you.” So he says, “Paul, I’ve got a special role and a special office for you and that is as an apostle, a messenger from God, and this gives you great authority.”

So first of all as he’s writing this, he says, “I want you to know, Timothy, I’m writing under commandment of God. I’m God’s apostle.” That speaks of great authority. But also his reputation should cause one to view him with great authority. I mean, at this point Paul is approaching the twilight of his ministry. He has proven over and over his love and devotion to Jesus Christ and over and over to the cause of building the church and preaching the Gospel. When he wrote to Philemon, for example, he called himself Paul, the aged, and the reason that he said that because he knew what that meant in this culture. In this culture, young people simply were not allowed to disrespect their elders and especially an elder in the church. So Paul by this time has greatly suffered, he’s endured so many things physically, emotionally, and otherwise, yet he’s maintained a long decades-long record of fidelity to sound doctrine and to sound practice. In every way this man called Paul is above reproach. He called himself Paul, the aged, but I would add another title to this man’s reputation, that is, Paul, the proven. He’s proven.

So he writes with authority as an apostle but simply his reputation should speak to that he’s a man that ought to be listened to and ought to be viewed with authority, but not only that, notice the style here. He has an authoritative style. Notice how he writes it, “Paul, an apostle,” that’s a stately statement, if you will, “according to what the commandment of God our Savior, who is our hope.” So there is, indeed, a formal and official style to this letter.

Now that’s very interesting because this is a personal letter to a dear dear friend, young Timothy, and these two guys go back almost 20 years and they’ve been through so much together yet there is such a formal and official style to it. Now it does have the affectionate and compassionate statements that you would expect in a correspondence between two dear friends but also this strong note of formality and authority. But why is that? Well, that is because, well, let me give you several ideas. First of all, Timothy is now taking over the this awesome responsibility of leading and overseeing this church. He wants to bear upon Timothy’s heart the seriousness and the value of this task. It’s not to be taken lightly. In addition to that, there were many already in the church at Ephesus where Timothy’s ministering that were beginning to undermine Timothy. They were beginning to throw around questions about Timothy, “He’s too young. He’s too this. He doesn’t understand that.” All of these things to undermine his authority and so I think what Paul is seeing is that Timothy is going to need to stand with confidence and be assertive about his own authority because Timothy is just going to follow the authoritative word Paul’s giving him. So it ought to give him a confidence not to be swayed and not to waffle under the pressure that he’s going to experience here in the church at Ephesus. So Timothy needs to keep it in his heart and in his mind that this is an official and authoritative sanction he’s received in this letter from Paul and it was given to him by heaven’s wrought ambassador, an apostle himself, the Apostle Paul.

So we see this note of authority is given for Timothy’s sake to help him, to encourage him, to strengthen him to stand with authority as he deals with things in the church, but also we remind ourselves here that all of Scripture like this letter has timeless authority. That’s our second subpoint, it has timeless authority. The word of God is authoritative for all peoples of all times period. Period. So this letter is of divine inspiration and carries infallible authority both for time and for eternity. Later on in the second letter Paul will write to Timothy and in the second Timothy, that second letter Paul is imprisoned again and he writes there to Timothy and says to him in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God,” it’s breathed by God, “and it’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Then again in Ephesians 2:19-20 in an interesting statement is given. He says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,” he’s writing to these Gentile believers and he says, “You’re not alien to God anymore, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,” now notice verse 20 here, “having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.” Now what does that mean? Why would Paul write to the church at Ephesus and say, “Now as Christians, your faith and what you are as a church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Christ Jesus being the corner stone.” Why wouldn’t he say the foundation is Jesus? Well, you could say that but what he’s pointing out is Jesus has chosen to build his church through these apostles, these men who had apostolic authority and were the men who were used as the human instruments to write the New Testament, we take those writings, what they bore witness to, what they have instructed us, and on those truths we build Christ’s church therefore it’s on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that means on the word of God. That’s why it’s of inestimable importance that the church be wholly devoted to the proper grammatical exposition of the word of God. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing is even a close second to that ministry because that’s the foundation stone.

So that has timeless authority. Now there’s a lot of things we can say about why we trust the canon of Scripture to be God’s inerrant infallible word, for example, if scholars in the university are studying Homer, the great Greek author of 2,000 or so years ago, they’ll say, “We know we have good authentic writings from Homer because we have four or five ancient manuscripts and they all match, they all agree. So we believe these are the real writings of the great Greek writer Homer.” Well, there are 2,000 ancient documents of the New Testament that we can put our hands on literally today, and they all agree almost to the letter on everything and no doctrine in any way is contradicted between them. If you’ve got 2,000 documents, you know you have a reliable copy, but listen, above and beyond all those things and many other things that tell us the word of God is true and God’s final authority is this: the word of God is self-authenticating. Here’s what I mean by that: you open this book, you read this book, you study this book, you listen to the preaching of this book and you hear the voice of your Lord. There is a spiritual communication, there is a spiritual affirmation that comes from the word of God that is beyond human intellect and beyond human understanding. It is self-authenticating. Jesus said when he was ministering on the earth, “My sheep hear My voice,” and I’m telling you, brothers and sisters, when I open the word of God and I bury myself in it in my study through the weeks and I prepare to preach to you, while I’m there I hear my Lord’s voice from this book.

It’s authoritative. It’s self-authenticating. So it is the final word for what we’re about as we make this study happen, and what Paul was about when he was writing to Timothy the first time, and that is we have the authoritative word for the fashion and the function of the bride, his local church. And by the way, the work of the local church, the work of building the local church, the work of building up the local church, the work of sanctifying the local church, everything we do to strengthen and grow together and be stronger in the Lord together is the foremost task of all time and eternity. As he said in Ephesians 3:21, “to Him be the glory in the church,” and then he says, “forever and ever and ever. Amen.” In other words, God’s getting glory for himself through his church now and he’ll get glory for himself through his church for all eternity. It’s the only thing you can tangibly give yourself to that’s guaranteed to be right in the center of God’s purposes and God’s glory for all eternity.

Well, so we see the authority of the letter. It had a special authority to Timothy as Paul was writing to encourage him. We want to understand, we can’t just remove the Bible from it’s historical context, that’s exactly what he was doing, but it also is sealed for us as the canon of Scripture and has timeless authority for all time.

II. As we continue to take get some gleanings from this greeting, notice the mark of mercy. The mark of mercy. In verse 2 he says, “I’m writing to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now if you’re reading Paul’s epistles, it’s very common for Paul in his salutations in his letters to say, “Grace and peace to you,” but here and it is true in the pastoral epistles he adds another word, not just grace and peace but grace, mercy and peace. You know, grace is that word that means God’s special and unmerited favor. God just chooses to cast a unique favor on some. So he says, “I’m invoking God to continue to favor you and bless you in your work, Timothy.” And then peace, of course, is what we get through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The peace we have through the Gospel and because of grace is that peace we have with God that we’re no longer alienated and sinners before him and judged before him because Christ took our judgment on the cross. So we have peace with God and we have peace with ourselves. When we fail and when we struggle and when we’re down and when we’re disappointed and we look at ourselves and we think, “Praise God, Christ took my punishment on the cross, so I can handle myself and have some peace of mind with myself. I have a new capacity to have peace with my fellow man because now that I’m crucified with Christ, I’m not so hung up on my rights and my viewpoint and having my way. There is a built-in deference in my spirit because I know Jesus Christ.” So grace and peace, that was a common thing, but then he adds the word mercy, grace, mercy and peace as he writes to these pastors. Now when you think about mercy, there are so many dynamics to the word mercy like there are so many dynamics to the word grace, but if you had to narrow it down, you might just say that it’s God’s love for the miserable. God chooses to love the miserable and it’s his also his capacity and his commitment, I should say, to withhold from the miserable their justly deserved wrath.

If you just study the words grace and mercy throughout the New Testament, you have to come to the conclusion that often they’re used interchangeably. They just dovetail together so closely. It might be good to just view them as two sides of the same coin, on one side God has unmerited favor towards some, the other side of the coin is, so therefore he has love for the miserable and withholds the wrath they deserve. But for me, I think it’s wisest at best to view mercy as a component of grace. It’s a part of the whole package, if you will, of grace. Mercy is contained in grace and certainly it’s a a a part of God’s overall Gospel to those who are sinners.

So God’s unmerited favor is a favor that includes God’s mercy, that is, loving these miserable ones. God’s love for us is equal to God’s withholding of deserved wrath from us. I’m convinced Paul’s mercy was put in here because he wanted Timothy to have this concept in his mind as he ministers. “Timothy, as you minister, remember, yeah, we’re all about grace, we’re all about peace, but don’t forget mercy.”

A few subpoints here. The first one, A. Mercy marks our manner. I think that’s part of what he’s getting at here saying this to Timothy. It’s a part of the manner of our lives. Paul has clearly set forth the authority of his instruction and the authority he wants Timothy to have as he instructs and corrects people who are trying to undermine his leadership, however, the man of God must carry himself also in a spirit of mercy knowing that we as God’s ministers are nothing if we had not received mercy. Mercy must be our manner.

Well, let’s not just leave this with the man of God, the minister. Are you a parent? Then you have authority. You’re to be instructing and, of course, loving and affirming and encouraging and correcting, but as a Christian parent, mercy must always be there. They must see that tone in our hearts and in our voice. Mercy must mark our manner. Are you the head of something at the office or at the at the school or in the community? Then there’s a place for authority. Certainly there are folks who ought to honor you, there’s a place for correction and certainly instruction but mercy should mark us. We’re different kind of people. I think he’s saying that to Timothy.

Now, balance. I’m aware that we live in a culture that has warped and twisted and perverted everything the Bible teaches about compassion and about mercy so let’s understand that mercy here does not equate ministerial cowardice. That pastor who never deals with sin, that pastor who never holds anyone accountable, that pastor who would never enforce biblical ordered discipline to those who refuse to repent. That’s not mercy, that’s the fear of man. There’s a real difference. And moms and dads, don’t you be intimidated by your children. Don’t let the concept of mercy bring you to a place where you lose your authority and expect them to obey you and honor you as their parents. Let’s hold these things in balance. You see, you’re not showing true mercy or true love by helping a sinner remain in sin or by giving a handout to a sloth who’s too lazy to work.

So let’s be in balance. Mercy is always in our tone and in our hearts but it must be a mercy that’s carried out according to biblical truth. Now listen, and here’s where our world gets it wrong: all the compassion and all the so-called mercy we see from these from the liberal so-called progressives today is a warped untrue definition of mercy and compassion and it’s going to dig a hole that they can’t get out of and they want to drag us down in there with them.

Well, nevertheless, mercy must mark our manner. Secondly, our second subpoint, mercy, of course, is our message. It’s definitely our message. There is no Gospel ministry without the message of mercy. Listen, it’s a mercy to tell a man that he’s a sinner. That’s a mercy. That’s a gift of mercy. It’s a mercy to tell a man that he deserves divine wrath and judgment for his sin. It’s a mercy to tell a man that God has cast unmerited favor toward sinners even those that are most miserable as sinners. It is a mercy to convince a man that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. Mercy is our message and as we administer the Gospel, are you leading in a small group, are you head of a household or are you a member of society and have friends that you influence? Then make sure your manner is marked by mercy and remember that your message is always full of mercy. It’s a mercy of God that Christ would save us. Mercy is inherent in the Gospel we preach. The Gospel of grace is the Gospel of mercy.

But thirdly, a third subpoint here, I believe Paul’s writing to this young Timothy and he knows what’s coming. He knows the difficulties, the toils, the snares, the trials that are coming. So we mark out the fact that, thirdly, mercy is our mainstay. It keeps us on course. It holds us up. So Paul is here invoking a blessing on Timothy when he says, “May grace be upon you. May peace be upon you. But also may mercy be upon you.” Paul, again, is in his latter years. He knows what Timothy is going to be facing, the great difficulties that await him. He knows about the battles from within his own heart that Timothy’s going to face.

May I say to you that a minister needs mercy to lift him from despair over his own weaknesses, from despair over his own failings, from the despair over his own struggles. He’s assaulted in his own heart and in his own mind concerning these and he must learn to be a constant repenter and continually cast himself on the God of all mercy. If not, after about six months every pastor would quit.

It was interesting when we had our last elder nominations in the church, all of us who are existing elders reexamined ourselves and every single elder, I can’t say that emphatically but I’m almost certain every single elder at one time said to me, “Pastor, I don’t think I’m qualified.” Because if you take the qualifications in a strict legalistic sense, we all feel disqualified, and for a man to stand and preach about a holy God and the wonders of the Gospel and for a man to lead a church to be true and to honor the Lord and to walk in the kind of disciplines the word of God gives us, and then to know himself that he wrestles himself and he struggles himself, the only way he can make it is throw himself on the God of mercy. I think Paul understands that well and I’m convinced that’s part of what he’s telling Timothy, “You’re going to need to know that the God of mercy called you and commissioned you,” and by the way, are you listening to me? God delights in using weak vessels as his ministers.

Battles from within and, of course, this includes physical infirmities. We know from the text of the Scripture that Paul faced many physical and emotional difficulties. He talks about being downcast and discouraged almost to the point of despair, but he didn’t despair. He talked about his physical struggles and illnesses certainly exasperated by the toil of the ministry, and he’s already going to write to Timothy about the stomach problems Timothy has had. You want stomach problems? Be a Baptist preacher.

Not only battles from without, but within rather, but Paul knows about the battles from without that he will face. 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, Paul writing about his own ministry says, ” Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without me being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” Paul knows what Timothy is about to realize more thoroughly and that is that the pastorate is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week burden. There is no true times off because the care and the concern never leaves a man of God’s heart. Paul knows more than any the toil of the faithful pastoral ministry so here he prays that Timothy will be sustained by a special dose of mercy from God.

th On a personal note, can I say to you that in my 38 year of ministry here, that I feel like my strength and my effectiveness is greatly due to the gracious mercy you’ve shown me. I mean that very genuinely. Um, you’ve loved me, you’ve supported me, you take care of me generously. All these things when there has always been perhaps I have not sinned a ministry disqualifying sin but you’ve seen my shortcomings, you know me in my struggles, and you’ve sensed God’s call and you supported me. And so your gracious mercy is the reason I’m still standing. Do you know why the average pastor stays in a church 18 months? Um, we were, Pam and I were just talking about a dear man of God that that we’ve both known through the years and he’s pastoring in his elder years and Pam was it 25? He’s now pastored 25 different churches and a lot of times, I don’t know the record of men’s hearts but I do know I know pastors and I do know churches. Many many many times a pastor moves from one church to another just to catch a breath, just to get out from under the weight, just to get some relief for a little while. It is a great testimony to your mercy toward me that I’ve made it 38 years here and I thank you for that. You’re to be commended for that because it’s just true.

Alright, so Paul says, “Not only grace and peace like I normally tell the churches but, Timothy, for you I’m invoking grace, peace and a lot of mercy because you’re gonna need it in this task before you.” III. Another gleaning from this greeting is the blessedness of a faithful disciple. The blessedness of a faithful disciple. This just pours out of the text. It bleeds with this blessedness Paul feels because of Timothy’s faithfulness through the years.

He calls Timothy here in our text, “my true child in the faith,” the first part of verse 2, “To Timothy, my true child in the faith.” Now the word true here is the word that’s that is the opposite of illegitimate. There are illegitimate child children in the faith, people we thought were true but they turned out not to be true, but to Timothy he says, “You’re my true child.”

Now a couple of thoughts here. First of all, he was Paul’s true child by conversion. Our first subpoint, by conversion. He was converted under Paul’s ministry or at least very closely associated with Paul’s preaching as Paul journeyed through his hometown of Derby and the nearby town of Lystra. Then, of course, he came with Paul about a year and a half after he was, um, converted, Paul came back through the region. He goes with Paul and Paul discipled Timothy for the work by having Timothy accompany him in the work.

Let me just say a word or two there. Pastoral ministry is at least 75% caught not taught. The graduate school of theology I attended in the seminaries and graduate schools of theology that men attend, those are good things and those are helpful things but that is a small thing compared to being trained in the work for the work. If you’re going to have a major surgery and the doctor comes in and you talk to him or her for a little while and you say, “Ah, tell me something, doc, are you, um, how long you been doing this?” “Well, I’ve never really done any surgery. Never operated on anybody. I’ll tell you what, I’ve studied, I’ve read, I’ve written doctoral theses, I’ve got documents and articles in the highest medical scientific journals, I’m esteemed as a great man of knowledge in the area of surgery. I’ve studied it intentionally, I’ve just never done any of it.” What are you gonna do? You’re gonna call a great big time-out. I want to make sure, yes, he or she’s been to medical school but they’ve been in the operating room with a master surgeon for years and then on their own for… Amen?

You want to be trained for the work in the work and that’s a lot of what we try to do here at Anchored in Truth missions and Grace Life Church, is to help other brothers by associating them with the work, and that’s why the True Church Conference is so important because and I hear it I hear it so many times and I want to say it to you so many times because you don’t hear it because you’re not out there, I hear so many times from these pastors and their members, “When we mixed it up with your guys at Grace Life Church, when we got to know the members of Grace Life Church, it helped us grasp what we wanted to be as a church,” because it’s caught as much as or more so than it is taught.

Their bond was a very deep. That’s Paul and Timothy. Their connection was very precious. As a matter of fact, he calls Timothy his child. As a matter of fact, the other times in this epistle and in 2 Timothy also, sometimes the translators used the word son, where he says, “Timothy, you’re my son in the faith,” it’s that’s not a good translation. Actually it could go either way but the best translations are not son, it’s child because there’s a tender closeness and affection here, “You’re my true child.” But not only through his conversion and the discipleship, but he’s proven to be a true child of the faith by character. By character. Paul had had many folks through the years as he preached the Gospel profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ, professed to be devoted to Jesus Christ only to be proven over time to be a false professor, to be a counterfeit. For example, in 2 Timothy 4:10, he says, “for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.” Then verse 16 he says, “At my first defense no one supported me.” So Paul knows what it’s like to have men who have committed to serve God and men who said, “I’ll go with you, Paul, and I’ll preach this Gospel with you and I’ll stand with you,” and then things get hard and things get difficult and they see Paul being stoned and left for dead and some of them decide, “Ah, I don’t know that we need to hang around so close with Paul.” Not Timothy. Timothy by all record of Scripture was faithful continually and devoted to the Lord and to Paul. He never one time is it recorded in Scripture that he wavered or that he waffled. He stayed steadfast in his faith. He honored the Apostle Paul to the end. He was a true friend, a true brother, a true co-laborer and a true subordinate to Paul, and they created a deep brotherly love and affection and this so strongly comes out in this narrative, this letter Paul writes to Timothy and I couldn’t help in my study this week thinking on this, think about how so many of us have been together for so long and how there’s a specialness and a preciousness, there is a blessedness to being a true disciple.

Some of you will remember that when you asked me to be your senior pastor about 30 years ago, I was the associate pastor, became the senior pastor, that I knew there were serious issues in this congregation and I knew to address those biblically would cause lots of difficult difficult days and it did, and I remember saying to a man in our church, “Okay, you want me to be your pastor, you want us to do the things that Scripture says, when it gets real tough are you gonna go run and hide in the tall grass or are you gonna stand with me?” And he stood with me. I know what that feels like, to have good men and good ladies who say, “Pastor, lead us by the Scripture. We’ll be faithful with ya even though you’ll fail at times and even though you’ll struggle at times, you’re a sinner too.” And I can assure you, child of God and friend and church member, I’m a sinner but I’m a repenter. I want to be humble and grow as the Lord deals with my sin, but I know something about this and so many faces came to my mind this week of good men and women who are a blessedness because they’re a blessedness to me because they’ve proven to be faithful disciples through the years. That’s what Paul’s feeling and that’s what he’s expressing.

I go to Psalm 133:1, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!” Can I say something to ya? Do you know that the great majority of congregations, people will go to those congregations, function in those congregations and die and hardly ever experience the blessedness of that verse, but we experience it so much here. It’s such a wonderful thing to experience it. It’s a beautiful thing.

Actually this verse from Psalm 133:1, it’s in the context of the anointing oil being put on the priest and when they put the anointing oil on a priest, it was a special olive oil with four special spices. It had the most beautiful, delightful and pleasing fragrance and so what the writer is saying here when brothers in Christ go on together and march together and war together and bleed together and cry together and uphold each other together and lift each other up together and help each other and just keep going on for Christ, eventually there becomes this blessedness, this delightfulness, this pleasantness that’s beyond description. The only thing the writer of Psalm 133 could come up with, he says, “You know how beautiful and how wonderful it smells when they bring out that special oil?” He said, “That’s what real Christian discipleship feels like when you’re together one with the other.” Grace Life Church, I hope you recognize that though we’re a long long way from perfect but we have been allowed to experience some things together that are far too rare when they ought to be very normal and natural. God has been good to us.

My last one, the last gleaning from this greeting is the supremacy of Jesus Christ. The supremacy of Jesus Christ. Notice how he words it here as he gives this, it’s an affectionate and personal letter but, again, it has a formal and authoritative tone as he says, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment,” and here’s the phrase that’s unique, “of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope.” So wording it like that, God’s our Savior, Christ Jesus is our hope, he’s really saying they’re all one, they’re all equal. This speaks of the supremacy of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is our Savior and he’s God. God is our Savior. Jesus is 100% God as if he were not man at all, and at the same times he’s 100% man as if he were not God at all. John 14:7-9, he’s trying to get this over to his disciples of his deity and of his co-equality to God the Father. He says, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Me.” If you’ve seen me, you know him now. “Philip said to Him, ‘Well, Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you been so long or have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.'” The supremacy, the deity of Jesus Christ.

Now, that’s a glorious doctrine, we could preach on that for hours, but the context here is this: this helps Timothy with a practical problem he’s going to face in the church and that’s the problem of incipient encroaching Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the word gnosis which is the word knowledge and there began to be this teaching that would get into the church that would say, “You know, those of us who have superior knowledge can take the teachings of Christianity and we can mix it with some Judaism,” or if they leaned the other way, “we can mix it with them Greek Roman philosophy and we can find, we can present to you this higher form of living. We have the knowledge.” And so they were elitist that said they had this high knowledge that the regular man could not obtain, and so you would have to go to these elites and learn of them and be their subjects, more or less, to know how to live your life right. What they basically did was reduce Christianity down to a philosophy and knowledge about how to live but here’s what Paul’s pointing out to Timothy, God is our Savior. In other words, you didn’t get this from some man who taught you his so-called elite knowledge, God himself has invaded your life. What man can match that?

You see, that’s the uniqueness of Christianity. It’s not a system of knowledge or teaching, it is God changing us by his Spirit coming into our hearts. Some of you sitting here this morning, Christianity for you is nothing more than jumping through some hoops, dotting a few i’s and crossing a few t’s and trying to be decently moral or ethical. That’s not it. Has God changed your heart? Has God touched your life? God is our Savior he tells to Timothy. You see, every true Christian is in contact with God himself so we do not need the so-called higher learning of some elitist, some Gnostic teacher. What we do need today is just the faithful teaching of God-called pastor/teachers who are not elitists and we all have the Bible, we all can read it and the Holy Spirit can help all of us understand it, and then furthermore, God helps us all understand it by calling men to teach the once- for-all delivered truth that he’s given to the saints in the holy Scripture. There is no need for an elitist group. We’re all on a a a equal plane spiritually.

Now let’s go back to the Old Testament prophecy about the church age. Jeremiah 31:33- 34, “‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD,” notice this, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.” God writes it on your heart, no elitist man. “And I will be their God, and they shall be My people,” notice, “And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” You see, the junior boy who’s 11 years old in the church, the Spirit of God has wrought upon his heart, he’s believed on Jesus Christ, he knows God just like the 80 year old theologian can know God. We don’t have to succumb to some elitist mentality. We’re all learning and growing together and we’ve all been invaded by the same holy God therefore we’re taught of God, and as your pastor/teacher faithfully teaches you, “Not my thoughts, these thoughts,” then God is teaching you, not me.

We’re taught of God, he says. You see, that just completely takes the props out of the arrogant false teaching Gnostics that were coming into the church, but hasn’t, folks look, Satan has come up with nothing new, he just repackages it. What’s the Roman Catholic Church done through the year years? They say, “Here’s the elitist,” the pope and his cardinals, “We’ll get the truth and we’ll tell you want to do.” It’s just Gnosticism. What does the sum parts of the Charismatic Movement do? “I’m the holy anointed man. Come sit under me and I’ll make sure you get the anointing and you get the healing. I’ve got the higher level. The rest of you will submit to me.” This is Gnosticism and by the way, Baptists and Evangelicals can get there too with preacher worship and other things.

So when Paul writes to Timothy and uses the phrase “God is our Savior,” he is asserting the deity of Christ but he’s also pointing out, “There’s no need for you, Timothy, to give one tiny word of attention to these arrogant men who will sneak into the church saying they’ve got the insight and you must submit to their teaching.” Why? Because God is our Savior.

One final word about the supremacy of Christ, not only is he God and not only is he our Savior but notice the last phrase of verse 1, “and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope.” Don’t just skim over that. Paul’s point is he’s our only hope. He’s not one of many hopes, he is our hope. You see, forgiveness of sin we hope for and we get that through him. Knowledge of God is obtained through him. Fellowship with God is known through him not through some elite teacher’s insights but through him. As I preach to you the word of God, he is made real to you and through him you know these things and obtain these things. Strength for the journey. How are you gonna make it in this world where now it’s common thought that anybody that holds to the Bible is is is the scourge of society? How are you gonna make it through the difficult journey? Through Christ. He’s our strength. He’s our all-in-all. How are you gonna find joy beyond temporal things and beyond circumstances that come your way? Through him. Through Christ. How are you gonna have a future eternal home? Through Jesus Christ. How are you gonna know one day, ah, your body resurrected and perfected and glorified and you’ll have eternal blessedness with God forever? How is that gonna happen? It’s through him. It’s all through him.

Jesus Christ is our hope. You see, the connection to our hope is our connection to him so can I charge you this morning, let’s just go to the first one I mentioned, forgiveness of sins, have you obtained forgiveness of sins through him? Have you received it through him? Do you know forgiveness of sins through him? If you don’t, you don’t know it because he’s our hope. Now some of you folks, you’re teenagers here, you’re young people and you’ve put this off and you’ve been toying around with a lot of thoughts. I’m telling you this morning you need to go to Jesus now and say, “Jesus, today I put my hope in You. I place my faith in You today because You’re my only hope.” And I say to you the Bible promises us that whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. He will become your Lord and your Savior and, by the way, he has a God-sized load of mercy for you. A God-sized load of mercy. “I will forgive you. I will save you. I will make you Mine.”